The Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA) Find an Insurer consumer referral service recorded a spike in enquiries in the second half of last year.

Enquiry rates doubled, with more than 3000 “category views” each day. At year’s end, the service had fielded 480,413 enquiries.

The Find an Insurer call centre, set up 18 months ago, also grew rapidly, averaging 800 calls a week.

“Staff responded to 40,334 calls during [the year], many of which related to more complex general insurance products,” ICA’s annual review says.

“The high online and telephone traffic levels, along with the growing recognition of the service, reveal Australians are taking an active interest in competitive insurance markets and their purchasing decisions.”

The three most popular categories are home, travel and comprehensive car cover.

ICA took over Find an Insurer from the Financial Ombudsman Service in July 2012. Since then it has “exceeded industry expectations”, ICA says.