Car Insurance Guide, Motor Insurance

Direct: Going direct to the insurer (either on the phone or via the web) can be both the quickest way to obtain insurance, but also the most drawn out: If you like using a specific company then going directly to them can be very quick (and can also gain you a discount on their prices if you hold policies other than car insurance with them already), but you risk paying well over the odds if you simply take the first quote you are given.

This is where the process of going direct can become a long one; if you speak to 5 different providers you have to provide your details 5 times, which can take a very long time - and it's also very easy to get lost under a mountain of paperwork and emails from various different insurers, each offering a different quote.

Price comparison sites: this option offer a quick and easy way to get quotes from a multitude of different insurers with the added benefit of only entering your details one time. Once you have answered all questions relating to you and your car, the comparison site then retrieves quotes from every company on its panel (in our case, over 100 car insurance companies). Shopping for your policy this way gives you a far wider view of the quotes available to you in far less time than it would take to contact each company separately, helping you to save both time and money while searching for cover.Brokers: this option could be ideal if the policy you need is somewhat unusual. For example,
 if you drive a unique, modified or particularly high performance car, or perhaps have a less than perfect driving history, a car insurance broker could be the choice for you. They will research the market based specifically on your needs, and will act on your behalf in the event that you need to make a claim. Brokers have to make money somewhere, however; and this means that you may end up paying over the odds for a car insurance policy, due to the broker's commission fee.

There are also a number of car insurance brokers and intermediaries based online now. These companies will usually have 20 or so insurers on their books, and when you request a quote they search their chosen providers for quotes. You should remember that not all the insurers on a panel will return a decent quote based on your circumstances however, and as such the number of competitive quotes received may be minimal