How Many Auto Insurance Quotes Should I Get?

There are so many factors affecting your vehicle insurance premium like traffic tickets, accidents, claims, your credit score, insurance history, zip code, details of the vehicle and other listed drivers and every one of them has the potential to lower or increase rates applicable to you or qualify you for discounts depending on the company you apply because every company has their own way of assessing risks, applying different weights on each factors and calculating a quote for you.

Therefore, it isn’t practical for you to start chasing discounts and trying to find out which company may offer the largest discounts for a particular reason like having a great credit score. You cannot also try to figure out which company is likely to offer you the best rates based on their advertisements or content of their website.

First of all, it takes far too long a time to figure all out for only one auto insurer and things may not be as they seem. For example, one particular company may appear to be offering the most discounts but they still may not be the cheapest insurer for your circumstances or another company may start with much lower rates that it doesn’t take many discounts to beat the competition.

There is an easy way of bypassing all that and quickly learning for sure which companies will offer you the best rates. All you need to do is fill out your details on a quote form or give it to an agent and get a quote to see how much they will charge to insure you and your car. Usually, this process takes less than 8 minutes online and may take a little longer on the phone.

Remember that every company has its own way of pricing risks and there are many companies operating in your state. For example, there are over 200 automobile insurance companies in Pennsylvania. So, you should start with getting at least 5 car insurance quotes and see if any of them is acceptable.

It is good to be curious in this process. See if the company advertising on the TV can actually save you $500, check with the brand insuring your parents, get a quote from a local company, check with AAA because you are a member and don’t forget GEICO because you like lizards. There you have 5 auto insurance quotes already.

Once they start, often people may want to get more quotes for various reasons. For example, if you are a high-risk driver, have an exotic car or a teenager driver on your policy, you may find that some of the companies you apply to may not either quote or offer very high prices. In such cases, there is no need to be discouraged and give up. There are many other companies you can approach and get independent agents involved as well in your search.

At times, you may have more questions after getting quotes like what if I increase my deductibles or reduce coverage. This is normal and it is good to check all your alternatives. For example, you may really want to keep your car fully insured but the quotes may be coming higher than you can afford.

In such cases, you may need to consider dropping coverage or increasing deductibles to bring the costs to affordable levels. Then, you may want to get a few more quotes with higher deductibles or lower coverage.

And sometimes, prices can be all over the place that you may need more than five vehicle insurance quotes to see if the new quotes lean on the higher or lower end of the price range.

For example, if you get 5 quotes and they are; $3,500, $2,800, $2,200, 1,900, and $1,400, you may actually be confused as to how they can be all over the place like that. If you get another 3 quotes and they come at $1,800, $1,500 and $1,300 you know now that many companies are happy around the $1,600 price range and you aren’t suspicious of the very nice $1,400 quote.

It may take a little longer than you anticipated but this process is very important because there is no going back and buying more coverage after you have an accident. If you haven’t taken the time to arrange the right coverage you won’t be able to make a claim. Simple as that.

First of all, you should always get multiple automobile insurance quotes at least once a year to see if you are paying a fair premium. Secondly, you shouldn’t give up easily after getting one or two quotes and seeing the coverage you need is too expensive. Just check with a few more companies and look at other options to find the best value car insurance coverage for your circumstances.

Getting multiple auto insurance quotes puts things in perspective. You check prices, compare quotes and often save money. And most importantly it doesn’t really take long. If you are busy, you can actually talk to an independent broker and let them search the market for you.

There is no harm in getting a few vehicle insurance quotes. Normally, applying for too many loans or credit cards can be an issue as these are seen by other lenders and raise concerns, as well as affecting your credit score. It gives an impression that the person is having serious money problems and knocking every door for a loan.

Wanting lower auto insurance rates is no way similar to borrowing more and therefore it doesn’t concern anyone who may be interested in your finances. And insurers don’t necessarily pull your credit report to give you a quote. Even if they do, your credit score will not be affected when insurance companies check your credit score as they are considered a soft pull that doesn’t show on your report.