Shopping for insurance becomes easier in South Africa

Online, April 25, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Cape Town, South Africa - Apr 12, 2010: South African insurance quote aggregator, InsuranceHound.co.za, have officially launched their online insurance quote comparison system. The system allows users to compare real-time online insurance quotes from a number of insurers and insurance brokers. This is the first independent system of its kind in South Africa as other similar systems are operated by individual insurance groups or brokerages or are independent, but do not provide online quotes.
Insurance Hound's new system allows users to supply personal and vehicle information which is used to retrieve accurate real-time insurance quotes from the direct insurers and insurance brokers on the system. This sets the company far apart from the majority of supposed aggregators in South Africa who only capture users' contact details and then pass this on to various insurers. Insurance Hound's General Manager, Gareth Daniell, states "Our competitors, who proudly state that they save consumers the time and effort of having to call multiple insurers to get quotes, don't mention that it will effectively take just as long via their systems. This is because the consumer still needs to speak to each individual insurer before getting quotes from them. The only service they are providing is saving the consumer the cost of the phone calls, which is laughable since most insurance companies have toll-free numbers anyway".

Gareth further states "Our system helps consumers find insurance that suits their lifestyles and their pockets. We are committed to providing our users with the widest number of choices. Our system does a lot to promote healthy competition between insurers which is unfortunately lacking in the financial sector in South Africa." Insurance comparison websites like www.InsuranceHound.co.za have been credited with keeping insurance premiums down in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States.

Currently the Insurance Hound system retrieves insurance quotes from a number of insurers either directly or via brokers, including MiWay, Hollard, Sanlam, Old Mutual, Saxum, Lloyd's, Liberty, Discovery, Momentum and Altrisk. The system also provides quotes from various medical aid schemes and brokers like Discovery, Momentum, Fedhealth and Medihelp. Unlike other insurance aggregators, Insurance Hound does not believe in making misleading marketing statements about the number of quotes they can supply. "This is due to ethical reasons, but also because we are continually adding insurance products and suppliers to our system" states John Daines, Insurance Hound's Marketing Manager.

Although Insurance Hound's new system has just been officially launched, a beta version has been live for several months. Based on the feedback received from users, Insurance Hound aims to develop its system further. The company believes that getting the existing insurers on the system to provide a greater amount of information on their quotes will help users make more informed decisions. The company also aims to add quotes on niche products to the system.
Based on user feedback and the ever increasing number of users on their system, Insurance Hound believe that South African consumers are becoming far pickier about who they choose as their insurer. They also predict an exponential growth in consumer websites that allow people to compare services and products from various companies.