About Insurance Quotes Online

With the economy in a recession, many of us are looking for ways to save money. We cancel our cable or satellite, buy generic brands at the grocery store, combine car trips, take shorter or local vacations. However, many of us look over our insurance costs. Here are some helpful tips and guidelines to lower insurance costs when shopping online.

Start by going online and just do a search for “insurance quotes online” and you’ll see several sites come up. For auto insurance, type “auto insurance quotes online”. For home insurance, type “home insurance quotes online”…and so on. Many sites specialize in auto and home insurance. Some sites will cover a full range of insurance types including home, life, and health.

You don’t need to visit and get quotes from every site that comes up. Simply review the top three or four sites that come up and select the one you feel most comfortable with. At first, avoid company sites that will only give you quotes from their company. Look for insurance broker type sites that say something like “get multiple quotes” or “insurance companies compete for your business”. Once you’ve decided which website to use, simply enter basic information and you’ll have the top four or five insurance providers competing for your business. If you want quotes from the large insurance providers (gieco, progressive, metlife, etc…), go to their site directly to compare prices with the quotes you received from the broker site.

Typically you’ll get your quotes via email, and if you provided a phone number, local agents may call you. The first few days you’ll probably get five or six calls per day. Then after about the third day, most of the calls will stop. I know we all hate getting calls, but this is actually the best way to get the best quotes. You’ll also be getting a local agent where you can visit their office and discuss your unique insurance needs. This is a good opportunity to screen out agents who don’t know what they are doing. Ask the agent how long they have been in business and what their expertise is.

My personal experience from using valuesweb.com, I was able to find a very competent local agent who showed me ways to get better coverage by splitting up the health and dental, combining the home and auto, and changing the life insurance coverage, all at a much lower total cost. I saved over $300 per month! Once you’ve found your agent of choice, just tell anyone else who may call that you have chosen your agent and that there is no longer a need to call you. By law, the agents must honor your do not call request.

Make sure the agent picks a solid insurer. A solid insurer can be verified through national ratings services such as A.M. Best and Standard & Poor. Companies that have at least a BBB rating are the only ones that should be considered. BBB is higher than B, and AAA is higher than A. Your insurance agent should be able to show you the insurance company’s ratings and explain what they mean.

Another way to reduce cost is to raise the deductible or the amount one pays when filing a claim. For example, instead of paying a $250 deductible when filing a claim, raise it to $1000. You can save 20% or more per month. In many cases, the savings are made up wihin the first year. For example, my premium was $375 per month with a $30 deductible. With a $1200 deductible, my premium was only $117 per month. I’m saving $258 per month ! Divide $1100 (the difference between the $1200 and $100 deductibles), and that equals 4.26. This means it will take less than 5 months for me to break even should I have a claim. After that, I’m keeping all that money in my bank account. If I never file a claim, then I’m saving over $3000 per year!

Over time, another way to keep insurance costs low is to avoid filing minor claims. The dichotomy of insurance coverage is that we need it but don’t want to use it. By the same token, insurance companies don’t want to regularly write checks. If they do so often, they will raise your premiums. Avoid this by filing only major claims you can’t afford to pay out of pocket. The exceptions is an auto accident involving another driver due to liability issues.

Planning on buying a new car? Buy a model car that doesn’t command high rates. Insurance companies view a sports car differently from a minivan. In some cases, a vehicle that is cheaper in cost may have a radically higher insurance cost simply because more claims are made for that particular model.

One surprising example of this is with hybrid cars. The insurance premiums on these cars can be several hundred dollars more every six months than it’s non hybrid counterpart. This is because they are very expensive to fix. Make sure you get quotes on cars you are thinking of buying so you can build the insurance cost into the monthly budget. You may not be saving any money by switching to a higher gas mileage car.

I hope I’ve given you some tips on how to save on your insurance needs and what to expect when getting quotes online. Just remember never to give personal financial information online such as your social security number, drivers license number, and other things like your bank account and credit card numbers. Do this only at a local insurance provider’s office, or by certified mail to a verifiable insurance company address.

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