Value Penguin vs. Coverage Cat

The first text on the Value Penguin communicates its intended values: “Find Clarity in Your Financial Decisions.” The buttons immediately below it show the categories where they’re ready to help “Auto Insurance”, “Home Insurance”, “Health Insurance”, “Credit Cards.”

There are small parts of the Value Penguin insurance shopping that deliver on the promise of financial clarity. The initial chart comparing minimum coverage from different carriers in a best-guess ZIP code share the promise of price transparency that we see in the Coverage Cat price calculator. Value Penguin’s bold, all-inclusive, promise of financial optimization is something we can get behind at Coverage Cat.

Do we feel they deliver on their promise? No.

What happens when you click on the large button titled “Auto Insurance”?

You are taken to a page that start with an informative and deceptively non-interactive chart to compare minimum coverage insurance across carriers. Below, inputs and a button serve as a call-to-action for insurance bundle types, a zip code, and a currently insured status.

Once you press “Find Insurers” and start to fill out this form Value Penguin becomes a time-sink designed to extract the most information in exchange for third party quotes.

You are launched into a long form, after a pair of hard redirects affiliated providers’ pages, at the end of which — after you’ve sold your marketing soul via large buttons that compete you are promised an insurance quote by multiple large buttons, but no quote or real tangible promise is provided than an agreement to be called by a high-pressure sales-person on the phone.

Coverage Cat tells you upfront what the expectations are. - You’ll go through a 10-30 minute form

• You’ll get a quote as fast as our team of human insurance brokers can produce it
• You’ll get estimates via our ** price calculator.

With few exceptions: - We make no phone calls to our customers

• We conduct business via email
• We do our best to help you predict prices before you give us your information.
• We do all of this as quickly as possible.