The Rise and Fall of the Insurance Aggregators?

The appeal is obvious - rather than spending tedious hours ringing around to find the cheapest motor insurance quote you simply log into a site, input your details once and the quote engine does all the work for you. But is this really best way to ensure you're getting the right cover at the right price - and the best value for money? 'Value for money' is the key - what you're buying of course is intangible - it's the peace of mind to know that should your car be stolen or you have an accident the insurance will pay. Unless you use the 'screen scraper' or aggregator correctly you may end up with a worthless policy even if it was the cheapest!
One of the UK's leading insurers, Direct Line, has commissioned research which reveals that 93% of people who use comparison sites believe they should carry warnings about their accuracy. Norwich Union, the UK's largest insurer was recently in dispute with 'Money Supermarket' over the types of customer it was picking up through their 'screen scraper' engine. The whole industry is keeping a very close eye on the way these businesses develop and in their own way via the fees they charge insurers and brokers they are ironically squeezing margins to potentially damaging levels.
So, good or bad news for the customer? Personally I think these engines are great for either 'sense checking' your insurance quotes or testing the market but I wouldn't personally buy online. This is not a concern about security - its simply a case of is the cover right for me. To give you an example, the classic is your 'occupation.' Believe me this is a major factor in underwriting motor and home insurance and if you don't enter into the site what it 'expects' you may well end up with the wrong cover. When it comes to a claim, the insurer may be entitled to void your claim on the basis they didn't take on the risk you led them to believe it was. Any 'quirks' like part-time occupations etc can also be major factors and how you input these accurately onto a screen scraper is questionable.
My advice - use these engines as a test and the start of your journey then either go to the best insurer or brokers own quote engine or better still ring them.
There are far better ways to ensure the cheapest quote - keep reading and I'll reveal more.