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Our Correspondent
EMIRATES BUSINESS
Souqalmal.com (Souq al Mal is Arabic for ‘money market’) is the leading comparison website in the Middle East and lets you compare financial products before you say ‘I do’.
The company’s vision was to create a highly transparent marketplace, empowering MENA consumers to make the right choice by bringing them all the latest details to compare in one place on more than 2,800 retail banking, telecoms, insurance and education products offered by various providers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
With more than 340 credit cards, 440 bank accounts, 140 personal loans, 80 car loans, 80 mortgages, 220 insurance products (including health, home contents and car insurance), 800 mobile phone plans, 150 broadband plans, 220 schools and 150 nurseries and 100 car deals, plus 70+ SME
financial products, the site
allows customers to do their homework using up-to-date, unbiased information.
Souqalmal has a unique service of online end-to-end car insurance comparison platform across the UAE for both car and car insurance sales are at their peak.
This marks a key milestone in Souqalmal’s history, with the site offering consumers the largest choice of insurance providers in the country.
This latest addition to Souqalmal’s portfolio follows the findings from a survey the team conducted specifically ahead of the launch, where an overwhelming percentage of respondents (90percent) said they would consider an online platform to renew their car insurance.
“Considering the survey findings and our exponential growth in visits in the last year, it is a perfect time to launch our insurance aggregator platform. Consumers are actively asking for the ability to have their policies issued online and we are responding to this request. Insurance companies have welcomed us and have been very progressive in their thinking.” said Ambareen Musa, CEO of Souqalmal.
The survey also revealed that 44.8 percent of respondents chose agency repairs as the most important to them when selecting an insurance policy, whilst only 20 percent chose price and a small 1.5 percent of respondents said they consider off road cover important. “We are quite surprised by the number of respondents considering off-road though given the popularity of off-roading in the country and the chances of an accident taking place.†added Musa.
The new Souqalmal car insurance platform is fully secure and most importantly customer-centric, allowing users to get real time quotes in less than 60 seconds and have their policy issued to them in 60 minutes (time to policy for each provider is actually specified on the site). Beyond convenience, it also gives users the ability to compare the best policy for them based on all critical cover options (not only price) and their individual impact on
premium. Customers also have
access to a UAE based call-centre7 days a week for any questions and support. Users can also download a fully dedicated buyer’s guide to car insurance in UAE, the first of its kind in the country.
“We found that many customers did not realise that their insurance premium is directly correlated with the value of their car, which they actually have the ability to dictate within a certain range. We encourage our users to ensurethat when they compare quotes from different brokers that the same value of the car is being used to compute their premium. It is very easy for a broker to give you what appears to be a cheaper premium just because they used a lower valuation for your car.†added Musa.
