The Internet has changed the auto insurance business so extensively that it no longer resembles what it was prior to the creation of the World Wide Web in 1992. Back then, when car insurance renewal time came around, an estimated sixty-three per cent of car owners ended up remaining with their insurer, according to the Insurance Institute of America. Today that figure is down to less than twenty-three per cent due to the abilitiy to obtain auto insurance quotes online.

As a group, insurance companies, brokers and agents combined to form a distinct group of what the marketing whizzes call “early adopters.” Now, a sub-group called skimmers has formed with Grey Power and the American Association of Retired Persons in the lead. These groups negotiate bulk rates for group members and in so doing skim off the cream of the car insurance crop. With the ease of obtaining auto insurance quotes online, competition for business is fierce.

A consequence of this, however, is that it has meant that certain insurers are skimming off low-risk drivers, leaving those willing to insure the typical new driver, male, with significantly lower ability to allocate risk. This is why insurance rates for new drivers have increased so dramatically that it has increased the number of males under 25 driving illegally, with no insurance at all. There are on-going debates in actuarial theory about the problem.

But higher rates for young drivers aside, shopping for car insurance online is an eye-opening experience. Before the internet, consumers had to spend hours going through the phone book, punching their way through a voice menu only to wind up most times leaving their name and number on some agent or broker’s answering machine. And of course there was the time spent handling the call backs, keeping track of the quotes, doing call backs, and on and on and on.

When asked why they would shop online for car insurance in a 2001 Wharton School of Business survey, the most often response was the advantage of getting an instant quote. After all, who needs to seek advice from an agent? Many people don’t even know what questions they should be asking, and agents aren’t about to volunteer the questions they really don’t want to deal with.

For many, playing with the answers to the yes – no question you have to answer to get the quote is an eye opener. In these tight economic times, being able to see how your insurance rate will change if you buy the Honda Accord as compared to if you go for the Echo, may well be the differentiator in more than one buyer’s mind.

Playing with the answers is a fine way of learning what other factors are taken into account when determining your rate. Who knew that where you live is a significant issue? And what about that speeding ticket? How much is that costing you? For this reason, using the internet to obtain auto insurance quotes online has skyrocketed.