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Spam comments – do they really work?

Saturday, May 28th, 2011

We have been trading as a business insurance broker for nearly 11 years now. We are part of a larger group who have been trading for over 50 years. As a result we have unrivalled knowledge of all things relating to commercial insurance. We try, through or blog, to part with this knowledge and genuinely try and help customers, potential customers or others just looking for advice.

If you are a regular reader, you will know that the topics can be wide-ranging, sometimes bizarre but all the time aimed at provided that one piece of advice or help that is required.

We have learned our lesson though, as far as allowing comments is concerned. When we moved to Wordpress from Blogger, we allowed comments for the first couple of months. We thought, extremely naively, at the time that we would be able to interact, shoot the breeze or just help some people that were stuck with general insurance questions.

We thought that spam comments were no longer used. But how wrong we were. Every blog post that we did had, at times, dozens of spam comments. There was nothing scientific or clever about them, they were just filled with random words and if there were phrases, then it was obviously from someone using very, very poor translation software.

So, in early 2010 we deliberately set the default to block comments. It was with sadness in a way because if people did need help then they were not going to get it from correspondence on our blog. As people can call us, local rate, then it was agreed that having this option was probably better. We offer on our site that we will give commercial insurance advice, for free and we do still find people calling us to check something or just get an honest answer.

But, we are stil getting over a hundred spam comments a day on blog posts over a year old. How can this be beneficial to these people? There must be a financial reason for doing this, as there is a financial cost to send out these comments. I just cannot understand how the big search engines cannot tell that these crap comments are there for one reason and one reason alone.

I know that the spammers like to try and keep one step ahead, but it really is frustrating to have physically delete thousands upon thousands of comments every month. Maybe as time goes on things will get a bit better.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance advice, business insurance broker, business insurance quotes, commercial insurance | No Comments »

Getting a business insurance quote – how many and where from?

Friday, December 10th, 2010

If you are just starting in business, or it is renewal time, you may find yourself looking for a business insurance quote. But, as with most financial services, this can take time. So the questions you will be asking yourself are, firstly how many quotes do I need to get and secondly, where to get the quote from?

I would always advise a customer to get at least 2, if not more quotes. Unless you have something to compare a quote to then potentially, you never know how much extra, or less, the quote is that you have received.

We will come back to this point, but it does lead us neatly into the second one. Where do you get your quotes from? If you are, for example, receiving bank financing then they may “offer” the services of their own insurance division. Or, you may choose to go direct to some of the commercial insurance companies that deal directly with members of the public.

Where this is the case, the issue you will face is that you are only getting one quote. Remember the quote about Henry Ford regarding the choice of colours on the first Ford cars, “you can have any colour, as long as it’s black”.

It is similar with insurance if you go direct. Ask the operator, do I get more than one quote, no. Do you go to more than one insurer, no. And worst of all, if you ask some of them to give you advice, then they cannot even do this.

The only way for you to really get a range of quotes, is to go to a business insurance broker. A broker is an intermediary, they act as your agent to the insurers that they have agencies with. This can be three, four or fifty insurers. This is what you need and this is where you get the choice. A broker will take your details, get the required information from you and then decide which insurer to approach.

They will not go to every single insurer they deal with. The reason is that certain insurers like certain risks. One may be happy to underwrite pubs and takeaways, whereas another may (based on their experience) not want to cover these types of risks.

This is where the broker comes into their own. Within about three or four questions, most brokers will already have an inkling or idea as to where they will go to get the best quote for you.

So, in answer to the question, at leas 2, if not more quotes and always, always from a broker.

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Business insurance quotes

Friday, November 19th, 2010

As an independent business insurance broker, operating in the UK, we have seen a huge dip in new businesses starting up since early 2008. 2007 wil be looked back as the year when everything went crazy. I remember trying to get a first mortgage in the early 1980’s and getting blood out of a stone would have been much easier.

Roll forward to 2007 and it seemed, if you wanted a business loan, that you just needed to turn up at a bank with a business plan (that didn’t need to stack up) and you would get any amount of funding. People were starting businesses up like it was going out of fashion. Particularly, it was the leisure trades that seemed to be on the up, pubs, restaurants, clubs and takeaways were opening up at a massive rate. At times, we could not cope with the amount of new businesses enquiries.

Then, as we know, in latter 2007 it all went a bit pear shaped. The banks realised that they had been more than foolish and lent money to businesses and individuals that they, the banks, had borrowed and there was not much chance of getting it back.

But, in UK plc, we are a resilient bunch. No-one in government will ever talk about green shoots of recovery again, but we are starting to see signs of some growth. The new coalition government is putting its faith in the private sector (at last) to come good and save the UK. People are starting to realise that now is the time to start a business, you will never in the next few years be able to get such good commercial rents, for example.

Along with starting your business, you will need to give consideration to getting some business insurance quotes. Not much has changed, price wise, since 2007. Insurers are still keen to get business on the books and if it looks an attractive business proposition, then you have a good chance of getting a competitive quote. The best way to stand yourself in a good chance of getting this, is to use a business insurance broker. Do not go direct to an insurer as you only get one price, a broker will be able to look at a range of insurers and give you the best price and cover they can find.

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Business insurance quotes – how many?

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

When you are looking for business insurance quotes, either for the first time or at renewal, the question you will ask yourself is, how many quotes should I get?

The answer depends on a number of factors, the main one being, exactly how much time do you have to spare? You have a couple of options when looking. You can either choose to go direct to an insurer, an appointed representative broker that only provides quotes from one insurer. Or, you can go direct to an independent business insurance broker who will search the market for you. When we put it like that, it seems obvious that you should always search out the broker.

And of course this is true. Direct insurers spend an absolute fortune on advertising, their aim being to make you think that you only need to make one visit, to them, to get the best price and the best cover. However, in reality, this is not really giving you the best view of the market at any one time.

What you need to do, is whoever you speak to, ask them whether they are independent and have the ability to source quotes from more than one insurer or underwriter. If the answer is one, then your choice is limited. A broker may say that they have the option, for example, with restaurant insurance, to go to half a dozen different companies. This helps you because although you are going to only one company, you are effectively getting the best choice from a number of companies.

Brokers will not charge you for looking, they will take time to get from you, your demands and needs, as far as insurance is concerned. They will then use this information to trawl the market. Depending on what you do, this does not necessarily mean that it is going to be a lengthy task. Speak to most brokers at 9am and by lunchtime, you could have a quote emailed through to you. This is longer than it usually takes, if you need something quick, most brokers can get the quote, email it, go on cover and then send you the policy documents all within half an hour.

You can if you wish, go to more than one broker. Don’t always accept that what broker A can provide you is the best, but think carefully about the very cheap quote, usually they are only cheap for one reason and that is because there are gaps in the cover.

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Business and commercial insurance – getting an instant quote.

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

If you are looking for business or commercial insurance, one of your first ports of call will more than likely be the Internet. You may have read one of our previous entries, got all of the required information together and set aside 15 minutes to phone a few companies to get quotes.

The problem you will face is trying to find a company where you can speak directly to a human being. Believe it or not, this is not as easy as it seems.

Whatever your search term of phrase that you put in, you will get a list of literally thousands of websites. How do you know which one to choose? You will have a choice between putting information into boxes and then either waiting for hours for someone to call you back, or to receive an email.

We do our usual monthly test of the competition and now, you have a new breed of website. This is one where you put the information into a site, usually three or four pages worth, and then, they pass your details on to a whole range of other sites.

All you want is a business insurance quote, you do not want to spend hours and hours filling in forms and waiting for responses. There is one way that you can get what you want, when you want – speak to Businessinsure. 90% of people look for their quotes, from us, during business hours. Therefore, if you want a quote between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday, all you have to do is call. If we can do an instant quote, you will have this emailed, posted or faxed within minutes. Anything more complex and it may take a few hours for us to do this. But, whilst we do not offer guarantees, we are fairly certain that bu phoning us and speaking to a human being you will not only get a better, more personable, service you’ll also get a competitive quote.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance UK, business insurance broker, business insurance cost, business insurance quote, business insurance quotes, commercial insurance | No Comments »

Getting business insurance quotes online – how long will this take?

Monday, July 26th, 2010

When you are running your own business, time is money. You want to spend as little time as possible doing administrative tasks, such as getting business insurance quotes.

So what can you do to make this task easier and quicker? Those of us that have been in business for years can well remember the almost frustrating delays in getting a quote in the past. Insurers have been, and in some cases still are, notorious for taking their time in proving not only the terms and premiums, but also the policy documentation once you have chosen to proceed.

The last 5 or 6 years have seen a massive change in the speed with which the insurers operate. The reason for this change is the internet. Back in the dot.com boom days, the internet was put forward as the answer to buying everything from dog food to second hand aircraft. The two problems that existed then, not enough people having internet access and slow servers, have now been eliminated.

For a few hundred pounds you can get a PC that is 40 times more powerful than one that would have cost you thousands 10 years ago and broadband or fast mobile streaming is now available to the masses.

Insurers have grasped this opportunity and have made available to us, the business insurance brokers, systems that we can go into, input details and get quotes within minutes. Not only that, once we have the quote we can get policy documents in even less time.

To answer the question, you can get an online quote yourself, from the few restrictive direct insurers, within a few hours. It takes hours because you will need to visit each and every site and input all of the same details. Go to a broker though, and you only give the information once. We will then go the sites that we know want your business and we can save you the precious time and money. A basic insurance package, say for a shop or pub, will entail us asking you five minutes of questions.

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