Insurance is a legal contract. Would you form a partnership for a business without consulting an attorney? Or buy a home without an inspection? Why would you purchase insurance without consulting an agent?
Insurance agents are educated and licensed. They must complete continuing education including ethics training every three years. Just so they can advise and guide consumers who are not knowledgeable about insurance.
When consumers buy insurance solely online, they often don’t understand the consequences of their answers or choices. And many, many times they miss a check box or forget to click on the final link to finish the process. And, going to a call center for insurance isn’t much better. Some call centers have minimally trained agents or new agents who don’t ask all the questions they should; leaving the consumer underinsured.
Here are some examples of mistakes we have seen:
One client bought a new car. But instead of calling us to add it to her existing account she went online and started a whole new policy. She cost herself time, money and energy that she did not need to. A simple phone call to her agent would have given her the following:
· She didn’t need to pay the first month’s premium on the new car because it would have been added to her existing account and pro-rated over the remaining months.
· She would have one policy and one payment per month instead of two.
· She would have qualified for a multi-car discount on both car rates
· Her coverage would have been matched with her current coverage, leaving no gaps
· An agent would have asked specific questions to ensure she had the coverage she needs instead of a canned, menu driven coverage which may not be adequate.
Another client went online and purchased a policy for three cars in Nevada. On the surface this seems fine. However, one of the cars was not registered or garaged in Nevada. It was registered and kept in Washington. So, coverage for that vehicle may not be valid and a claim could be denied.
Every state has its own unique rules and laws for insurance and vehicles legally must be insured in the state where they are kept and registered in that state as well.
If you move, you have thirty days to change your insurance, drivers license and registration to the state of residence. An exception to this is military members who can keep their state of residence the same throughout their careers regardless of where they are stationed.
Recently I spoke to a lady who went online and purchased her auto insurance but there was an error in her email address. Consequently, she never received the initial application or other legal documents required for her signature. The company did finally contact her by mail to let her know that her policy was in jeopardy of cancellation because they never got her response to the emails for her e-signatures. Now, she is spending time and energy fixing a mistake that her agent could have fixed in less than a day before it became an issue. If the mistake had even occurred at all with the diligence of an agent doing the quote with her.
The bottom line is that agents understand the process, the law and the requirements. No computer program can replace real human interaction. And no computer program can advise you on the best solution for your insurance needs. So, before you fire up your computer to purchase or change your insurance, call us. We are happy to help.
Contributed by Victoria Sutherland, Licensed Insurance Agent