Be careful when switching insurance providers.

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Go inside the switching stations of service providers like Bell Atlantic, and you'll see a hybrid of boxes, some meant for clear and reliable voice traffic and some for uncertain but superfast data flows.

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Consider the above-mentioned fact that nearly nine in ten consumers believe their providers could have prevented them from switching.

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Switching rose by 4 points for wireline phone and Internet providers.

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Some providers will charge an initial fee, some will not, and others charge for switching investments.

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But switching banks must also be made much easier and people will need to see real benefits from new providers to encourage them to move.

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