Editor’s Note

Don’t believe the ads you might see or hear about consumers buying their homeowners insurance online. Because if they have to try as hard as I did to procure just one quote, they’re probably going bare. Online insurers have created the highway, but have yet to stripe the lanes and put in convenient access ramps and exits. When our real estate agent and mortgage broker started giving us a laundry list of things we needed to do before closing on our new house, homeowners insurance was one of the chores. So, for my first real homeowners policy I thought I’d test out the Internet. Of the 14 online sites I visited, many of which handle multiple companies, I received a big ONE quote back. Granted, it was a fairly decent quote. But ONE? One quote was not what I expected. When I went online to search for homeowners insurance, there was the inherent expectation that I would receive a quote online. Why else would I shop online? I already have a phone book. I can get referrals from my friends. The Internet is for anytime, anywhere. I found something much different. Here are the highlights.

• www.Insurance.com. Why not start off with the most winning web address out there. The site had five different companies to choose from for homeowners: AIG Direct, Nationwide, Amica, American Express and Century National. If you had to guess how many of these five companies could provide me an online quote, would you have guessed zero? AIG Direct, Century National and American Express didn’t do business in Texas. The Nationwide button was a dead link. Amica said I would need to call them. Call them? This is the Internet.

• www.Insweb.com. After much hullabaloo, I read, ÒCurrently there are no participating insurance companies in your state. New companies and states are being added steadily, please check back soon.Ó

• www.Ebix.com. I didn’t even bother with putting in my information. There were 17 requests on the site when I visited, and only one had a response from an agent. With odds like that, I felt I should keep moving.

• www.InsureRate.com. InsureRate.com was the one site that produced results. Though it meandered (and had a default set to ACV), I was able to enter my information and move on. A quote was e-mailed to me from a direct writer within 24 hours. Not quite the speed of light, but quick relative to the competition.

• www.InsuranceOrder.com, www.InsureZone.com. Neither of these had homeowners up and running yet. Coming soon.

• www.Quotesmith.com, www.ReliaQuote.com, www.Esurance.com, www.Insure.com. No homeowners quotes for Texas yet. Big names, big advertising budgets, nothing for me.

• www.Yahoo.com. I’ve always wondered what you would get when you went through a major search engine like Yahoo. Not much. They gave gratuitous quote estimates and then sent you on to Insweb.

• www.InsureMarket.com. All of these sites pretend they can help you up to a point. This site was no different. But after a quick search with my zip code, I was told to Òask a State Farm agent for details.Ó

• www.NationwideInsurance.com. This big referral site told me to contact an agent for information. Brilliant. I would have never figured that out.

• www.4insurance.com. After inputting all of my information, my dreams were dashed. I was given three agent names and numbers to contact. I’m not sure why they chose to waste my time by asking me to input my information.

The last site, www.NetQuote.com, was a dead link. I couldn’t decide if they were having a bad day or were out of business. I haven’t gone back yet to find out. Do I think homeowners insurance will be sold online? Yes. But books of business certainly won’t be rolling out the door. I have no doubt that one of these sites will figure it all out and make the process as easy as it should be. When that will happen, I don’t know.

Topics Agencies Homeowners