Car insurance agents

Reader question:

Where do I go to get car insurance quotes?

Lizzie

Excellent question, Lizzie.

There are several places that you can go to get cheap auto insurance quotes, many of them right here on the internet. The first thing you might want to do is either look around this page at the ads–one of them is likely to lead you to a free instant online auto insurance quote site–or, failing that, do a google search for free auto insurance quotes. The sites that will come up often have several companies from which they glean their information, so once you have finished getting your quotes you will have many options. The truth is that you should never look at one car insurance company, because while a certain company may have the best auto insurance rates for you at one point, when your situation changes so does your relationship with your insurer. You always need to shop around.

Also on the internet are the business sites of many an auto insurance company today. These sites usually contain details about policies as well as car insurance quotes for new and current customers. Many, like Progressive, claim to give quotes of the competitors as well. It is true that they do this, but you can usually get more and more specific quotes from sites that are not connected with a certain company. The upside of these sites, though, is that once you have your quote you can normally also buy your car insurance policy online.

For those who don’t feel comfortable looking on the internet for auto insurance quotes, you can get an expert to do it for you. Car insurance agents are a big help when it comes to finding the auto insurance company that is the best choice for you. There are two kinds of auto insurance agents.

• Captive car insurance agents.

These are agents who give quotes from and sell policies only for the one company that they are connected to. In this case, you might as well just go straight to the company’s website. Captive car insurance agents are a good choice sometimes, but normally only after you have already decided by other means to do business with the car insurance company that they are affiliated with. Even if you do end up choosing to do all of your car insurance business with a captive auto insurance agent, you should at least do yourself the favor of doing a web search on free car insurance quotes or asking an independent car insurance agent for some brief assistance. A little research can go a long way.

There are certain companies who deal with captive car insurance agents only. These include AA, State Farm, Liberty Mutual, and AllState, as well as more.

• Independent car insurance agents.

These car insurance agents tend to work for around five or more car insurance companies. They are like the free quote website of the physical world, in that you can call them up and get quotes for several different plans and policies. They are a good option for everybody, both those undecided on a car insurance company and those settled, but who might seek options at a later point.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.