Pricey car insurance can deplete your savings account and force you to cut corners elsewhere. Shopping your coverage around is free, only takes a few minutes, and is a good way to make ends meet.
There are many car insurance companies to purchase coverage from, and although it’s a good thing to be able to choose, it makes it harder to adequately compare rates.
It’s a great practice to compare rates as often as possible because car insurance prices tend to go up over time. Just because you had the lowest price for H2 SUT insurance a few years ago other companies may now be cheaper. Block out anything you think you know about car insurance because you’re about to learn one of the easiest ways to save money, get proper deductibles and limits, all at the lowest rate.
The cheapest car insurance quotes
There are multiple methods to compare car insurance prices but some are more efficient than others. You can spend countless hours talking to local insurance agents in your area, or you could use the internet to get pricing more quickly.
All the larger companies take part in a program that allows shoppers to submit one quote, and each participating company returns a rated price based on that data. This prevents consumers from doing quote requests for each company. To participate in this free quote system, click to open in new window.
One minor caviat to using this type of system is buyers cannot specifically choose the insurers you will receive quotes from. So if you want to select individual companies to receive pricing from, we have assembled a list of low cost car insurance companies in your area. Click here to view list.
You can choose any of those ways to find more affodable coverage, but try to keep exactly the same coverage data with every price quote. If you use different limits and deductibles on each one it’s impossible to decipher which rate is best.
Insurance agencies near you
Certain consumers still prefer to talk to an insurance agent and doing so can bring peace of mind Agents are trained risk managers and help submit paperwork. A nice benefit of getting online price quotes is that drivers can save money and get the lowest rates and still have an agent to talk to. Buying from and supporting local insurance agents is important especially if you live in a smaller city or town.
To find an agent, once you fill out this form (opens in new window), the coverage information is submitted to local insurance agents who will give competitive quotes to get your business. It’s much easier because you don’t need to search for any insurance agencies since price quotes are sent immediately to your email address. If you need to compare rates from a specific company, feel free to search and find their rate quote page to submit a rate quote request.
What types of car insurance agents are there?
If you want a reputable agency, it’s important to understand the different agency structures that you can select. Car insurance policy providers may be either independent agents or captive agents. Both can sell affordable car insurance policies, but it is important to understand the differences because it can factor into which agent you choose.
Independent Car Insurance Agents (or Brokers)
These type of agents do not work for one specific company so they have the ability to put coverage through many companies and get you the best rates possible. If premiums increase, they simply move the coverage in-house and you don’t have to find a new agent. If you are comparing car insurance prices, you need to get some free quotes from a few independent agents so that you have a good selection of quotes to compare.
Captive Car Insurance Agents
Captive agencies can only provide one company’s prices and some examples include State Farm, AAA, and Liberty Mutual. They generally cannot place coverage with different providers so if the price isn’t competitive there isn’t much they can do. They are trained well on what they offer which helps offset the inability to provide other markets.
To select from insurance agents near you, please visit this directory of insurance agencies in your state.
Choosing an insurance agency requires you to look at more than just the price. Get answers to these questions too.
- Does the agency have a positive business rating?
- How much can you save by raising your physical damage deductibles?
- Is vehicle damage repaired with OEM or aftermarket parts?
- Can you choose the body shop in case repairs are needed?
- Does their agency support local causes?
- Do they get extra compensation for selling add-on coverages?
- Is insurance their full-time profession?
