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Tag: Auto Insurance

  • Auto Insurance Now Sold On Wal-Mart’s Website

    Wal-Mart announced Tuesday that the world’s largest retailer is adding a new service to its expanding empire – auto insurance. Wal-Mart is teaming up with AutoInsurance.com as their exclusive retail partner in selling online auto insurance. Users simply login to Wal-Mart’s online site and fill in their name, location, age, and contact info, and are immediately able to compare quotes for top-leading auto insurance companies such as Esurance and Progressive. Customers can also put in their current coverage policy for side-by-side comparison plans. From there, users can purchase their policy directly online, or choose to speak with an agent, or simply save the info for later.

    Wal Mart’s AutoInsurance.com partnership is currently available now in eight states including Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma, and will be available nationwide in a month or so. The new service will be promoted with in-store displays.

    The partnership was created after Wal-Mart realized they had an opportunity to provide a quicker, cheaper auto insurance buying system. Through their site, users see their final price, with no gimmicks or bait-and-switch tactics. Wal-Mart understands that auto insurance can be one of the biggest monthly expenses among their customers and want to provide the best possible deal out there on the market.

    And it’s not all talk from Wal-Mart, either: a trial run of the site ran last April in Pennsylvania, in which customers that bought insurance through the AutoInsurance.com partnered site reported annual savings of $1,168 on their insurance bill. After the trial run, Wal-Mart knew they had a good program and that offering an online, price-comparision service was the way to go.

    “Our customers too often have to settle for auto insurance policies that aren’t the best fit and cost more than they want to spend,” says Daniel Eckert, Wal-Mart’s senior vice-president of services.”We are always looking for ways to reduce complexity, increase transparency, and give everyday low prices to Wal-Mart shoppers.” Eckert also assured the site is not a lead-generated website and won’t bother customers with unwanted calls or emails; in return, AutoInsurance.com simply gets paid a commission for every policy sold on Wal-Mart’s site. “This is the first of its kind auto-insurance comparison service,” says Eckert.

    This move for Wal-Mart is also an attempt to counter a recent slump in sales. In February, Wal-Mart reported a drop in profit and lowered its 2014 outlook plan. They’re hoping the success of the trial run and the user-friendly, low-price website will attract users and, ultimately, money.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Walmart Insurance Now Available In Eight States

    Walmart Insurance Now Available In Eight States

    Love or hate big box stores, they certainly make shopping convenient. Now retail giant Walmart is making your one-stop shopping needs even easier by getting into the auto insurance business.

    Walmart and AutoInsurance.com have joined forces to provide consumers with the opportunity to find and purchase insurance policies online. Eight states already have access to the real time, cost-cutting rates: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. It shouldn’t be long before the plans are available nationwide, most likely in a matter of months.

    The company issued the following press release:

    Attention drivers! Online comparison shopping for auto insurance just got much easier. To help answer the question, “How do I know I’m getting a great deal on auto insurance?” Walmart is working with AutoInsurance.com to bring customers a first-of-its-kind auto insurance comparison service that helps drivers quickly buy and save significantly on policies.

    For Walmart, the foray into the insurance business makes sense. The company has expanded its products and services over the past decade to go beyond groceries and household items to areas like banking and pharmacy. Their marketing strategy of a one-stop shopping palace only brings more customers into their store, where they will of course advertise their new insurance. AutoInsurance.com will earn a commission for every policy sold.

    Additionally, the strategy is to make shopping for car insurance as easy for the consumer as possible. After shoppers log onto the site and provide their basic information, including access to their current car insurance policy if desired, consumers will receive free quotes from several top national insurance providers including Progressive and Esurance. Consumers can then purchase their chosen policy in real time or speak with an agent. They can also save the information for later.

    Consumers in the hunt for car insurance can check out the information on AutoInsurance.com or through Walmart’s website at www.Walmart.com/autoinsurance.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Auto Insurance Rates Rose 2.5% Last Year

    Auto Insurance Rates Rose 2.5% Last Year

    With the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) constantly under debate in congress and throughout the country, the focus of the insurance industry in recent years has been healthcare. While the healthcare industry braced for massive changes, however, the auto insurance and homeowners insurance segments continued apace, complete with annual increases in costs.

    Market research firm Perr & Knight this month released a new report estimating that auto insurance rates, on average, increased 2.5% across the U.S. This rise in auto insurance prices is slightly lower than the 3.7% increase seen during 2012. According to the firm the five-year average trend in auto insurance is a yearly increase of from 2% to 4%, putting 2013’s rate increase well within the long-term average trend.

    Homeowners insurance was estimated by Perr & Knight to have increased an average of 5.1% across the U.S. as a whole last year. This increase also fits neatly into the five-year average trend of 5% to 7% increases in homeowners insurance.

    “Overall, there were moderate rate increases for both auto and homeowners insurance in 2013,” sais Tim Perr, CEO of Perr & Knight. “Our RateWatch product provides visibility into these changes by accumulating the approved rate changes extracted from the public rate filings of companies representing about 80% of the personal insurance premiums written.”

    The auto insurance the trend in every state throughout the U.S. last year was a rate hike. No state in the country saw an overall decrease in auto insurance costs during 2013.

    The largest hikes were seen in Michigan, Georgia, New York, Delaware, and Nevada. Michigan alone saw a huge 8.6% increase in auto insurance costs last year.

    For homeowner’s insurance the story was similar, though California and Hawaii did see slight decreases in homeowners insurance rates (-0.7% and 03.4%, respectively. The states with the largest increases in homeowners insurance included Oklahoma (12.1%), Florida (11%), Kentucky (10.9%), Kansas (10.3%), and North Carolina (10.1%).

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