North Dakota Insurance

Even if the insurance sites are not sold many measures on the Web, and so far they have not, they seem to have one thing: insurance agent as well done.

Very few people have opportunities to purchase insurance on the Internet, analysts say, and even less to buy wind, because it is too difficult. In addition, analysts say many people are afraid that personal information than usual for insurance protection will not remain private, after a Web site.

The result is that insurance is one area of Internet commerce, which are not booming.

”Some people use the Internet to research prices,’’said Michael Riley, an e-commerce specialist at Mercer Management Consulting in New York. ”But the vast majority of the time, until the end of purchases via the phone or see an officer.”

Lawrence A. Ponemon, advises businesses on privacy issues with the firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers, said que”beaucoup consumer confidence are simply not the process.”

”You are rather to provide information on the phone, he said”,” rather than on the Internet.”

The impersonal nature of the Internet is also a problem for some insurance buyers. ”If I wreck my car or my house niederbrennt, perhaps, I am not so sure of wanting to feel a website to help,’’said Riley Mercer. ”If I buy from the insurance agent of the road, I can him in the eye and think: ‘I bought you and I expect that you help me.”

To address these concerns, many companies have tried to combine Internet sales through agents. Thus, although not yet proved to be a great. Indeed, the double-barreled approach is what frustrates a lot of shopping. They want speed and convenience, they say that if she wanted to talk to an agent, they picked up a telephone conversation.

”The insurance companies are not fulfilled the expectations of consumers of the Internet,’’said Charles Brinkley, a provider of financial services specialist at Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Indeed, while almost all insurers have websites, many have been paralyzed by the challenges of the Internet, skeptical than ever to catch and fears that this sub-anger and their representatives.

Some are, however, go beyond the use of a set of superficial presence on the Internet to simplify and accelerate the sales process.

Allstate, the second insurer of automobiles and houses the USA, spending $ 1 billion to streamline its sales activities in line with and without agents, and on the phone. In the spring, State Farm, the largest of the automobile and home insurers, plans to start its first Internet sales, without agents, California and Illinois, and finally develop across the country.

The two companies, which account for about one third of all auto and homeowners insurance sold to the USA, a future in e-commerce. ”We know that people are more comfortable at a given time with insurance purchases on the Internet,’’said Sharon Cooper, a spokesman for Allstate,”and we want to be there. We do not want to leave then.”

For now, buying insurance on the global Internet needs a lot of perseverance and determination. Go to a search engine like Yahoo, for example, and type the Wort”Versicherung.”References to 1592 categories and 8613 pages. Most sites are just billboards, basic information on individual companies and perhaps agent phone numbers.

The sites that sell insurance in fact, there are two varieties: one is an online marketplace - and AccuQuote.com Quotesmith.com are examples - the comparison of prices of dozens of insurers’ other offers coverage by a single insurance company that rule, without reference to what others loading process. The sites of the Progressive Insurance Company and Esurance a newcomer was born in the Internet age, are unique because they compare prices of three other companies.

The majority of Web sites require a customer to answer dozens of questions before learning that instead actually obtain insurance, is the next step is to wait for an e-mail or a call from an agent.

On some sites, which are self-insurance, such as the execution of Allstate, American International Group, Progressive, Esurance and another newcomer, E-commerce Customers can indeed rely on their computers and wind d ‘ a policy. Payment is made with a credit card number. (Congress has approved electronic signatures, but the public insurance regulatory authorities or to develop rules for their use.)

But where transactions can be conducted are far from easy to use. The online application is long and often clogged with technical and legal jargon. And not everyone knows how much coverage is enough responsibility, and if the coverage is more affected by an uninsured motorist is necessary. (Answer: In North Dakota, probably not, in southern Florida, certainly.)

In a national survey, Mercer found that nearly half of his sample has bought the Internet for computers, equipment, books, airline tickets, hotel rooms and recorded music. But it shows that only 5 percent, he saw for insurance, and only two-tenths of a percent actually bought coverage.

(Although perhaps one third of all camps have crafts on the Internet, bankers have also been less successful than insurers in the use of new technologies. Qu’environ 3 percent of those who ’s send to the survey indicated that led the banking business on the Internet.)

Web sites offer the broadest and comparisons are easy to use concept to sell life insurance. But Todd Eyler, a provider of financial services analyst at Forrester Research, an Internet consulting business in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said that the sale of life insurance policies concept functioned far behind those of self - insurance. According to Forrester, $ 265 million will be spent on Internet purchases of insurance in 1999, $ 150 million for passenger cars policy, $ 90 million for life insurance and $ 25 million for owners and tenants Cover.

The demographics of the Internet, “said Eyler, against the turnover of life insurance. Many Web surfers are young and not on the market for such insurance. In contrast, auto insurance is required in almost every country for all drivers.

In some cases, it is timeworn practices of insurance companies are still on the path to success of Internet operations. Some insurers - those who insist that politics must be reading League incomprehensible, because it is a treaty - that most insurers is too complicated for customers to buy on their own.

Many are even reluctant to reduce face-to-face transactions because, even though discrimination is illegal, they believe, an agent can reach the size of humans - as they dress, how they go and talk - and therefore to determine, as it would ensure risky. Many insurance, the leaders are also members of the advantages of the Internet and somewhat doubtful generations serious Web surfing.

They believe”, “What kind of person obtains the website and buys 1 hour car insurance?” ”A says Brinkley of Price Waterhouse Coopers. ”It may be that nature, but you can not see his tattoos. Can we really on the screen?”

A promise of the Internet lies in the fact that, because of low overhead, it can provide cheaper products. But most insurance on the Web is not cheaper, mainly because most companies have been more if not angry that their representatives attract customers.

But at least two companies, eCoverage and Esurance, which are not agents with the exception of those at work, including mobile phones, which allows customers to browse the company’s website, began offering the automobile insurance, they say, up to 6 percent cheaper than its lowest price competitors.

Among the sales of life insurance policies on the Internet, John Hancock Financial Services, is characterized by a passbook savings offering up to 20 per cent of the notion of life. John Hancock has perhaps the easiest website. Answer five questions and an offer to cover returns. But, as in other sell life insurance in the network, the operation was not done until the company takes blood and urine, check your weight and blood pressure, then a few weeks later, approved - or rejects - coverage.

Even in the absence of falling prices, purchases on the Internet can save money. It is a quick way to compare the prices that call or visit agents. It is a good idea of what is the best, many customers can then see an agent for details.

”It’s good for the customer,’’said Riley Mercer,”but not so well for Internet insurer. You find a way to close more sales.