If you don’t have a particularly good ad blocker like me, you’ll likely have become aware of a bunch of insurance comparison websites coming online over the past few years. Each marketing team has come up with their own attempt at insurance comedy including the dopey clown voice-over of Choosi, the yelling immigrant wife of iSelect and that weird Russian meerkat thing of Compare the Market.
Like the ads or not, these services do a great job in allowing Aussies the ease of going to their website and comparing all that the market has to offer in terms of insurance. Or so one would think.
Turns out though, these websites don’t do as much comparing as they spruik.
I recently jumped on Compare the Market (the meerkat one) to see if I could get a comparison on home insurance. A couple clicks in and I found the list of products that the site compares. There were eight at the time which initially seemed quite reasonable. Until of course you see that five of these are issued by Auto & General and are largely the same, two are from Hollard (also the site owner) and are largely the same, and a final one no-one has ever heard of!
Now I’m not agnostic to the fact that most policies end up with the major insurers/reinsurers but it’s hard to entertain this ridiculously low number of policies being ‘compared’. Particularly considering that there are 140+ home insurance policies available on the market!
So why wouldn’t they compare all 140?
Because truth be told, they’re not really a comparison service. They’re a general advice broker with a very limited number of insurer relationships. Their revenue model revolves around receiving commission from insurers and in a market where most insurers sell direct and don’t pay a cent in commission, no insurer seems to be willing to partner with them.
But worry not, there is indeed a comparison site that actually compares insurance products - Canstar. Fortunately, Canstar doesn't utilise this flawed revenue model which interferes with the job of comparing products. And they’re not shy about telling us how they actually make their money.
Canstar does have a downfall however. They neglect to offer a comparison service for strata insurance products – a market that is growing fast and in desperate need of a ratings system.
Well, I introduce to you - StrataRatings - the strata industry's insurance evaluator.
We are completely independent and are committed to rating strata policies in a fair and transparent manner - free for all. And no, we do not take commissions so will not try to sway your opinion on which product to buy.
Our team is currently working hard to get all strata policies rated and in December our ratings will be live on our website.
In the meantime, give us a follow on our LinkedIn page and we'll keep you up to date with our posts about all that is strata insurance!
Simples.