Customers are feeling the benefits of increased competition within the Portuguese car insurance sector as companies slash prices in a bid to attract and keep clients.
Researchers from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa interviewed more than 4,000 insurance customers who were with 12 different insurance companies in a survey that was carried out in partnership with the Portuguese Institute for Quality and the Portuguese Association for Quality (IPQ and APQ).
“There has been a strong trend in falling car insurance prices over the past six or seven years with premiums dropping by an average of 30 per cent,” said Pedro Seixas Vale, president of the Portuguese Association of Insurers (APS).
“This data has helped to shatter the perception of clients about the industry and shows that we are providing value for money.”
Data showed that although prices for car insurance are falling, customers remain loyal to the company that they use with more than 80 per cent of insurance customers saying that they would only change companies if the price difference was more than 20 per cent.
However, Pedro Seixas Vale does not believe that this is the case and said: “I think that people are behaving differently from the results shown and that more people are choosing to change insurers in favour of lower prices.”
The results of the survey showed that, for the second consecutive year, Generali insurers came out as the best rated company, however the names of the bottom two companies have not been revealed by the researchers as “the difference between the ratings of several of the companies was very small.”
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