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Cape Town - Prime Meridian and Outsurance have jointly raced off with the coveted title for offering the best car insurance in South Africa for 2014, a study first published on Fin24 has found.
The duo has overtaken Momentum and Auto and General in the flagship twelve-month study by Carinfo.co.za, which provides quality information about the car industry, including car reviews, free online car insurance quotes and reviews about insurance companies.
The study is the only one of its kind and is now in its second year. Carinfo.co.za collected information throughout the year from customer reports filed on the popular consumer website hellopeter.com.
The research by Carinfo.co.za is the views of ordinary people based on the service they received from the various insurance companies.
"Although the results may not be 100% scientific, they definitely serve as a good indication of which insurance companies are giving good service, and which still need to improve. Additionally, we strongly believe that studies such as these encourage the insurance companies to do their best at improving customer service and have already seen changes since our report from last year."
How the study was conducted
The study included the review of the 22 insurance companies, and begun by looking at the total number of reports they each received over the past 12 months and the number and percentages of compliments/complaints.
From this list, MiWay led the pack with the most compliments (84%), while Hollard (13%), AIG Insurance (12%) and Regent (11%) recorded the least compliments.
The 22 companies were then divided into two groups based on the number of reports they received on Hellopeter in order to make sure that the comparison between them was more accurate. Those with more than 500 reports were labelled the 'bigger' companies, while those with less than 500 reports were called the 'smaller' companies.
The study then drilled down into the nature of the complaints before allocating points to the best five companies in each category. The five categories were:
- Feedback/response
- Repairs/servicing
- Billing/accounts
- Call centre and
- Breach of contract
A look at the findings
From the small companies group:
Virgin Money Insurance scooped the top spot in the feedback/response category with the least (16%) complaints filed.
With no (0%) complaints, AA Insurance and Sanlam were ranked the best in the repairs/servicing category.
Prime Meridian was number one in the billing/accounts category, receiving 4% of complaints.
Prime Meridian also recorded the least complaints (2%) in the call centre category.
The breach of contract category saw Mutual & Federal and PPS shine with 3% of complaints.
From the big companies group:
In the winning seat for the feedback/response category was 1st for Women, receiving the lowest (15%) complaints.
Old Mutual claimed the top spot in the repairs/servicing category with the least complaints (0%).
In the billing/accounts category, Outsurance was the top firm with 10% of complaints.
1st for Women was also the winner in the call centre category, recording the least (4%) complaints.
The breach of contract category saw MiWay and Dial Direct tied in the top spot with the least (5%) complaints.
The final results were based on each company's overall rating in each of the 5 categories and points allocated to the top 10 companies with the highest percentage of compliments.
Advice for motorists
A car is most often your most loved and crowned asset and as such you want the best vehicle insurance, but searching for it can prove to be a bumpy road, especially with consultants sweet talking you into making a sale rather than offering you valuable advice.
The best you can do is shop around, compare packages and speak to family and friends about their experiences.
"We strongly advise that before you choose an insurance company you check all the relevant information for yourself and get a few online quotes and compare," suggested Carinfo.co.za.
The firm, which describes itself as an online authority on car related issues, also assured that it does not support or endorse the insurance companies mentioned in the study. In fair disclosure, they stated that some of the insurance companies have or will advertise on their website at some time or other but that either way they do not encourage people to use any particular company.
For more interesting facts, see the full survey.
