Car insurance quote forms are regularly updated to include all necessary questions for insurers to assess and price risks precisely. They are also designed to be user-friendly and quick to prevent abandonments halfway. They focus on offering choices for answers like clickable boxes, dropdown menus, and alternative questions for personally identifying information, to cater to the diverse sensitivities of motorists.
Motorists can speed up the process by getting ready to answer the questions as best as they can to make sure they get reliable results. It is a good idea to start with getting out your current policy declaration page and deciding on the adjustments you need to make on the information and coverage levels before you start getting alternative quotes. This way, you enter current and consistent details and you know what you are shopping for.
Preparing a timeline for tickets and accidents in your and other included drivers’ driving records would be very helpful, as well as having the driver licenses in hand. Knowing or finding out your credit score is a good idea because there will be a question about it in a large majority of states. Although it may not be essential at this stage, your Social Security Number may be asked by some insurers. This allows the insurers to carry out the checks and offer a firm quote. But nearly all companies give automobile insurance quotes without SSN.
Key Questions on Car Insurance Quote Forms
Here are the commonly seen questions in these forms and quick guidance as to how to answer them.
1. Zip Code: This indicates the primary location where the vehicle is parked. Your zip code ensures that comparison websites display only available offers within your state. When visiting an insurer’s website, it confirms that the company sells policies in your state. Vehicle insurance rates can vary considerably based on your location, with the state being the most significant factor. Additionally, whether you live in an urban or rural area can also have a substantial impact on your insurance rates.
2. Your Contact Details: Name, contact details are the usual requirements
3. Vehicle Information: This section typically includes questions about the make, model, year, trim, and estimated value of the vehicle. While providing the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) can enhance the accuracy of the quote, insurers can often provide quotes without it. The type of vehicle being insured is a crucial factor in determining premium costs. Generally, insurance rates are lower for modest and common vehicles, while high-value, intricate, and expensive-to-repair cars tend to result in higher insurance premiums.
4. Primary Use: There is a question about for what purpose you use your automobile such as commute, leisure only, commercial and farm. Many insurers take the commute distance into account and there may be questions about it. Leisure use often attracts lower rates. And you may need to either add business use to your personal auto insurance or buy commercial policy depending on business use.
5. Mileage Driven: Again, many insurers consider the yearly mileage in their premium calculations, although it may only slightly affect your rates. Some insurers may not even consider it at all and use their own formulas to determine the frequency of usage.
6. Anti-theft Devices: There may be a question about anti-theft devices for obvious reasons.
7. A Loan or Lease on the Car: Lenders and lessors typically require certain coverages like Collision and Comprehensive and their interest on the vehicle is noted on the policy.
8. Driver Licenses: There will be a series of questions about yourself and the drivers in your household as they are normally rated and included in the vehicle insurance coverage. How long everyone holds their licenses, what is the current status and were there any suspensions are some of the questions. Having a clean driving license for a long time will result in low rates. They ask driver license numbers for each driver included but they can still offer car insurance quotes without them. You have to provide this information before you can buy a policy.
9. Age and Gender: Age of all listed drivers is a very significant factor. For example, a well-established couple with clean driving records may experience their vehicle insurance going up as much as twice the moment they add their teenage child to their policy. Gender may affect your rates as well. Several states don’t allow gender to be taken into account.
10. Accidents: You will need to provide details of the accidents you or any of the listed drivers are involved in. Whether you were at fault, date, size and circumstances of the accidents are needed.
11. Claims: You need to mention any other claims you made on your vehicle insurance policy in the last 3 or 5 years depending on the company. For example, it may be a weather related claim or simply a windshield replacement. These claims may not be as influential as at-fault accident claims but they still count.
12. Traffic Violations: Any traffic violations on your and other listed drivers’ records are needed. Again, the date, violation and points on license are required information.
13. Defensive Driving Courses: If you have taken an approved course this may save you some money.
14. Insurance History: Companies take comfort in seeing an applicant has a long, unbroken and verifiable insurance history and this may qualify you for a large discount. Lack of history or lapses can result in higher rates. They like to know the name of the current insurer, how long you have been with them and renewal date.
15. Credit Score: Nearly all states (except California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Michigan) allow auto insurance companies to consider credit history in their premium calculations. Where applicable, there will be a question asking if your credit score is excellent, good, average or poor. Depending on the state and company your answer may significantly affect your vehicle insurance rates.
16. Your Marital Status: You may need to tick the relevant box for single, married, divorced or widowed. Generally, married people get better rates in comparison to all the other groups.
17. Own or Rent: Owning your home is considered a positive attribute by insurers showing signs of a committed person with stable living and often result in better car insurance rates. This may also open up bundling opportunities.
18. Occupation: Often you are required to choose an occupation that most closely describes your job. Some jobs are considered lower risk like doctors and nurses and may get you a discount.
19. Education: Again, it may be a dropdown list and you need to choose. If you have a bachelor degree and above you may save a little on vehicle insurance.
20. Coverage: This is self-explanatory since they cannot give you a quote without knowing what car insurance coverage you want. You need to choose if you want a liability-only policy or add Collision and Comprehensive coverage to your policy to protect your automobile as well. You also need to choose liability coverage limits, deductibles and any other add-ons you like. Obviously, the cheapest auto insurance option would be the minimum state required coverage and your premium would go up as you start increasing limits and add more coverage.
The above questions would be asked in nearly all automobile insurance quote forms. There may be a few more questions depending on the company and what they consider important. Generally, the questions are asked because the answers are relevant in premium calculations. For example, most companies don’t ask about having a private garage or not. If a company is asking the question, it may mean that they consider it as a factor in their calculations.
Motorists should try their best to answer the questions as best as they can and provide as much information as possible or they are comfortable with. First of all, if you decide to accept one of the vehicle insurance quotes you received, your answers become part of the insurance contract you enter with your new insurer as they based their rates on those answers.
Secondly, often insurers check and verify the information you provided. If you said you had no accident in the last 3 years and they find that you had, they are likely to adjust your premium upwards. And finally, the accuracy of your quote depends on the information you provide. Not only you should provide the most accurate and up to date information but also you should provide consistent details to each company so that you can have a fair comparison of quotes and choose the most affordable insurer at the end.