The innovative service will enable people to get an instant quote when they are away from their computer, for instance if they are comparing cars at a second- hand-car-dealer or filling time whilst travelling.
Until now, the only way of accessing an online quote has been via a PC or a PDA (personal digital assistant), which is not always convenient or possible. swiftcover.com has changed all that by providing an accurate quote, based on the driver's claims history and the car registration, whilst consumers are on the move.
The service is easy to use and available 24 hours a day. Customers access the mobile site either by texting “Swift” to 80231 or by clicking on a special link from their phone provider's mobile home page. They will get through to a simple form which asks them for their name, postcode, car registration, date of birth, occupation and years of no claims. By filling this in, they will get a
no-obligation quote in less than 60 seconds.
The new service is just the latest in a line of innovations from swiftcover.com, which was voted the cheapest car insurer in the UK by www.moneysupermarket.com last year. Launched in 2005, swiftcover.com is still the UK's only 100 per cent online car insurer, negating the need for costly call centres and endless paperwork. In 2006, it was also the first general insurer to introduce a text message quotation service.
Links to the new service will be available on the mobile home pages for Yahoo, O2 and Vodafone, and will be promoted throughout the UK with a national advertising campaign.
Tina Shortle, marketing director at swiftcover.com, said, “When you're considering spending thousands of pounds on a new car, you want all the facts at your disposal – and that includes how much it costs to insure. All too often, people end up losing out on a bargain because they don't have enough information to make a decision.
“Our aim is to make car insurance as easy, simple and convenient as possible. By harnessing the next generation of mobile internet technology, we're enabling people to get the facts at their finger-tips and shortening the time and hassle of car insurance quotations.”
Case study
Bill Martin (25) of Harrow was recently looking for a second hand car. He narrowed his search to two – a Fiat Punto and a Ford Focus - at a local dealer. In the past, Bill would have had to go home, put the details of the two cars into online car insurance websites, and then go back to the dealer. In this case, he put the details of the two cars into the swiftcover.com mobile site, and within a few minutes found that the insurance on the Focus was cheaper than the Punto, enabling him to make a decision.
ENDS
For press information, please contact:
Victoria Roe or Joshua Van Raalte
Brazil (PR agency for swiftcover.com)
01865 556 000
swiftcover@agencybrazil.com
About Swiftcover.com:
Based in Send, near Guildford and employing approximately 200 people,
www.swiftcover.com was born out of a desire to revolutionise the general insurance market. swiftcover.com started trading in June 2005, jointly owned by the founding management team and international insurer Primary Group.
swiftcover.com offers car, travel and pet insurance online, and is Britain's only insurance company without call centres, which means that the cost savings can be passed directly onto the customer and premiums are kept low. As a result, swiftcover.com was voted cheapest car insurance, on average, by moneysupermarket.com in 2007.
This powerful operating model combined with successful marketing and competitive pricing has proven to be a tremendous success. Last year swiftcover.com sold more than 312,000 policies and is considered to be the fastest growing insurer in the UK.
In 2007, AXA UK acquired swiftcover.com. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of AXA Insurance UK PLC which forms part of AXA Group.
About AXA:
AXA UK is a part of the AXA Group. AXA is a world leader in financial protection. AXA's operations are diverse with major operations in Western Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. AXA employs 120,000 staff and tied agents and, as of June 30 2006, had €1,091 billion in assets under management. AXA reported total IFRS revenues of €72 billion and IFRS underlying earnings of €3,258 million for the full year 2005. Our previous company performance is not a guide to how we may perform in the future.