When Instant Term Life Insurance Quotes aren’t so Instant

I received an advertisement email yesterday offering Instant Term Life Insurance Quotes. Being that our company, LifeInsure.com, is in the business of marketing and selling life insurance online, I thought I’d take a look at how one of our competitors was doing it.

 I clicked the link on the email that said “Get Instant Quote” and was sent into the company’s website, where it boldly states that “Rates are Ready for you Right Away with no Wait.” I enter my zip code, as requested, and away we go.

I am greeted by a typical web form, asking me how much life insurance I want, for what term, date of birth, height and weight, tobacco use and gender – information that is needed in order to provide a life insurance quote. However, now comes the part when the “Instant” part of “Instant Term Life Insurance Quotes” begins to feel not quite so instant – the next part of the form asks for my name, address, home and work phone numbers, email address and what major illnesses I have had.

And the Fishing Begins!

Not only does entering this information extend the definition of “Instant,” personal contact information is not needed for an instant quote. Why are they asking me for all this information? More on that later.

Okay, I finally finish entering my personal information and click “Get Instant Quotes Now.”. I’m ready to see my quotes and voila…wait, what’s this? These aren’t instant quotes – this is a page with advertisements for other online life insurance agencies, some nationally known and a few I haven’t heard of.

I click on one of the nationally known companies, thinking that now I am going to view my quotes offered by this reputable company.

Get Quotes Doesn’t Always Mean Get Quotes?

After all, the button says “Get Quotes.” wait…there’s another form to fill out, similar to the one I filled out originally. Where are my Instant Term Life Insurance Quotes?

I was told they would be instant! Okay, so I complete another form and finally get my quotes.

Maybe one of the other nationally-known companies will give me an instant quote too, so I click on their button and yet another form pops up. I fill it out (4 pages worth) and now, I would think, with all the information I just entered, I would get my instant quotes. No such luck – I am now looking at a page with more advertisements for yet more life insurance agencies.

I can click on any one of the buttons and be taken into another form, but I can’t take it anymore. I was only doing a test and I am ready to throw my laptop against the wall. This was an extremely frustrating experience. What if I was a real consumer looking for Instant Term Life Insurance Quotes? Would I have stuck around long enough to get quotes? Probably not.

Instant Should Mean Instant!

Now, what happens to the contact information you provide on one of these types of websites? It is sold to other life insurance agencies (sometimes as many as eight of them) so they can call and email you to try to earn your business. And, if you completed other forms that popped up during this frustrating process, another company would be selling your information to yet more agencies.

Did you know this was going to happen when you clicked “Get Instant Quotes?” I would venture to guess that the answer is no. How would you know? After all, nowhere on this website did it say your information was going to be sold.

The Bottom Line

I’m glad I went through this exercise. I knew how these types of websites operate but had no idea how frustrating a process this can be for a consumer. The good news is there are websites that give instant life insurance quotes online. Even better yet, there are a few (LifeInsure.com included) that don’t ask for your personal information in order to give you a quote.

Save yourself a lot of hassle and get a real Instant Life Insurance Quote at LifeInsure.com.