Percentage of Consumers Shopping for Personal Auto Insurance Reaches Four-Year Low

CHICAGO, May 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The percentage of consumers shopping for personal auto insurance declined to its lowest mark in four years, likely driven by reduced advertising spend by many insurers. The newly released TransUnion Auto Insurance Shopping Index found that the percentage of consumers shopping for personal auto insurance declined in each of the past two years to conclude 2017 at 20.0%, the lowest level since a 20.4% reading in 2013. The findings were released today during the 2018 TransUnion Insurance Summit, attended by more than 150 insurance executives.

Percentage of Consumers Shopping for Personal Auto Insurance

“The auto insurance marketplace is highly competitive, and this is likely concerning to carriers that fewer consumers are shopping for such policies,” said Mark McElroy, executive vice president of TransUnion’s insurance business unit. “With fewer consumers shopping for auto insurance, carriers must be equipped to provide them with the right offer at the right time; one that provides benefits to the policyholder without adding too much risk to the insurer.”

The TransUnion Auto Insurance Shopping Index includes more than 500 million auto insurance shopping transactions since 2012 from nearly every state in the United States.

The drop in auto insurance shopping may be due to reduced advertising spending by insurance carriers. A 2017 report by SNL Financial found that insurers reduced their advertising spend by 1.6% the year prior. “We believe that rising accident frequency in recent years, due in part to distracted driving, has led carriers to reduce their advertising spend as they adjust rates to account for their increases in loss,” said David Drotos, vice president of insurance solutions at TransUnion.

The resulting decline in insurance shopping was observed throughout 2017. The percentage of consumers shopping for personal auto insurance in 2017 was below those percentages observed in the same month in both 2016 and 2015.

Percent of Market Shopping for Auto Insurance (Monthly)

TransUnion helps insurance carriers access credit-based and risk-management solutions to help make better decisions about the consumers they insure. For instance, there are three TransUnion solutions that help carriers better target the right consumers and ease the verification and quote process:

• Acquisition Triggers leverage shopping intent signals present on the consumer credit database to provide carriers a way to actively market to consumers who are in, or soon to be in, market for auto insurance. The solution can be customized to fit a carrier’s credit-based risk profile to ensure maximum conversion and lifetime value from their marketing efforts.

• Re-underwriting Triggers leverage shopping intent signals present on the consumer credit database to provide carriers with an effective way to actively monitor insurance shopping activity and take action to preserve their existing book of business. The solution can be customized to fit a carrier’s specific retention target profiles and help to inform a multi-tiered retention strategy.

• Lead Scoring enables carriers to qualify clicks, calls and leads to align in-market insurance shoppers with insurance carriers. With TransUnion lead scoring solutions, carriers can gain greater insight about consumers seeking insurance quotes, enrich customer-provided information, improving the ability to match the right consumer with the right carrier to increase sales, and help carriers further customize campaigns and optimize marketing spend

For the complete study about the TransUnion Auto Insurance Shopping Index, please click here.

About the TransUnion Auto Insurance Shopping Index

This study is based entirely on TransUnion data assets. The auto insurance shopping trends reported are based on TransUnion’s internal Auto Insurance Shopping Index which is derived from TransUnion’s extensive database of credit data. It includes information on more than 500 million auto insurance shopping transactions from January 2012 to March 2018. The Index focuses on the credit population, highlighting TransUnion’s data. It also explores a subset of the total insurance shopping population. The Index excludes data from auto insurance customers in California and Massachusetts, where credit-based insurance scoring information is not used for auto insurance rating or underwriting.

About TransUnion (NYSE:TRU)

Information is a powerful thing. At TransUnion, we realize that. We are dedicated to finding innovative ways information can be used to help individuals make better and smarter decisions. We help uncover unique stories, trends and insights behind each data point, using historical information as well as alternative data sources. This allows a variety of markets and businesses to better manage risk and consumers to better manage their credit, personal information and identity. Today, TransUnion has a global presence in more than 30 countries and a leading presence in several international markets across North America, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Through the power of information, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies and families and safer communities worldwide.

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