Subscribe via email 
Become a fan
Subscribe via RSS
Follow meWho has the best, most affordable car (auto) insurance? Information on getting a free quote.
Written by SamThe latest issue of Money magazine has serveral useful tidbits. Kate Ashford mentions that auto insurance rates are expected to decrease for the first time in eight years. However the decrease is so modest that rates will almost stay flat.
Shop for the best auto insurance rates
That doesn’t mean you can’t save money on car insurance. By doing a little bit of shopping around you can sometimes save litterally hundreds of dollars. If you haven’t shopped rates for a couple of years, now would be a good time.
Save an emergency fund and increase your deductible
One thing Kate mentions is that increasing your deductibles from $300 to $500, for example, can save you up to 30% on your premiums. If you were paying $850 a year on auto insurance a 30% savings would mean $255. In other words, even if you ended up paying your entire $500 deductible, you’d still end up $55 ahead.
One reason a short-term emergency fund is so nice to have is that you can increase your deductible and feel totally comfortable that you’ll have the money to cover the higher deductible if you need it.
Where to shop for auto insurance quotes
Here are a few website to start shopping for auto insurance rates:
- Allstate auto insurance quotes – I recently saw a commercial mentioning that you can get a ballpark quote without having to enter personal information like many sites. Good idea.
- Progressive
- Geico
- insweb.com – Mentioned in the Money magazine article. I wasn’t familiar with them previously.
- State Farm
- MetLife
- Farmers’
- AIG
- Nationwide
- Amica
Please post in the comments if you know of any others or if you’ve had particularly positive or negative experiences with particular providers. I’ll llet everyone know if I have any success finding a lower rate. I’m off to quote land.
Posted in Insurance | 18 Comments »
April 20th, 2007 at 4:16 am
The last time I shopped around, my best quotes were from Amica and Nationwide.
For homeowners, having auto and home policies with the same Insurance company often leads to steep discounts on both. Sometimes a company with a higher base rate will end up being cheapest because of these discounts.
April 20th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Good point. I forgot to mention that. We have our auto and homeowners insurance through the same company and did save a fair amount by doing so. That makes the issue of getting a quote a little more complicated — but if you’re willing to take a little extra time it could pay a nice return.
April 21st, 2007 at 5:05 pm
As someone who has recently gone through this process, let me offer this additional advice. Consider also sites like insweb.com that give you quotes from multiple companies, including independent agents. I did this and got a quote from an independent agent, which led me to a small, regional insurance company that I am in the process of switching to (from Allstate).
The challenge is that these smaller companies are more difficult to research – particularly in the area of customer satisfaction – but in my case, assuming no surprises as I finalize things, the switch will save me about 70% on auto insurance and nearly 50% on homeowners.
On some level it is a leap of faith as I know nowhere near as much about this company as I could learn about a big company like Allstate, but for savings of $7-800 per year, it’s worth a shot.
April 21st, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Thanks for the info on insweb. Money magazine mentioned the site but didn’t give an explanation as to why they were recommended.
Sam
April 22nd, 2007 at 10:35 am
Whoops…I made a math error in my previous comment. My insurance switch will save us about 40% on auto and 35% on homeowners. But it is still worth $7-800 per year.
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:14 pm
I used insweb.com about a year ago. It was via that site I was made aware of AIG’s entrance into the auto insurance market.
I got fantastic rates w/ AIG (30% less than I was paying as a long-time Progressive customer).
In fact, the discounts were so significant that even the savings when quoted w/ our homeowners last month wasn’t sufficient enough to convince us to switch.
AIG plans include roadside assistance too, so I was able to drop my membership w/ AAA… resulting in even greater savings.
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 pm
The USDA food stamp department has the best deal on auto insurance (you have to be eligible for food stamps but not participating-around 20 million in the U.S.)
If you are using 200$ per month for food (out of your meager 700$ per month budget), simply use that 200$ for auto insurance and then go on food stamps and get 200$ of food stamps. (that way the insurance is free). Of course it takes severe action to cause this (state forces the indigent household to buy the 200$ of insurance), the indigent looks in his bank account and sees no money for food, so he goes and gets 200$ of food stammps (for several months to satisfy the 500$ of auto insurance)..
A food stamp survey done in Billings, MT by my request (thru the Montana DPHHS) indicates 12 of the 96 food stamp applicants listed auto insurance as a reason for needing food stamps (that would equal 30,000 over the last 20 years in Montana). I myself collected 3,000$ of food stamps due to Montana’s auto insurance law.
Since these auto insurance laws are increasing the expenses of the DPHHS, they are required to note an increase in DPHHS expenses in the fiscal notes of these auto insurance laws. So, the proponents of these laws are not following the law.
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Jeffrey, I like the idea of getting roadside assistance as part of your auto insurance. I’m going to check that out myself.
Don, very interesting points about the USDA food stamps. I’m not quite sure I understood how it works. Do you know of a site that explains it in more detail for GFD readers?
Sam
May 10th, 2007 at 8:26 am
The last time i tried looking for some of the best quotes, i failed to get what i needed for my blog post.
But with this post of yours, i understood that when you want to save on premiums you must increase your deductible. Thanks…
May 21st, 2007 at 8:35 am
So you’re looking at a car in the dealer’s lot and a slick, grinning salesperson comes up to and instantly becomes your best friend.
But look out…hidden inside that smiling row of pearly whites is a row of razor-sharp teeth that will rip you–and your bank account–to shreds before you can blink an eye.
carinsuranceshopping.blogspot.com
May 31st, 2007 at 8:21 pm
My friend got a great rate with eSurance.com
May 31st, 2007 at 9:06 pm
My experience has been that Nationwide is the most affordable on both home and car insurance. That said, they are not known for being the most generous when it comes time to pay a claim. However, it seems to me anyway, that the insurance companies are competing a little more aggressively on price now, and possibly even on settlements.
Caveat Emptor!
July 25th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
[…] Posted by as Uncategorized Shop for the best auto insurance rates. That doesn’t mean you can’t save money on car insurance. By doing a little bit of shopping around you can sometimes save litterally hundreds of dollars. If you haven’t shopped rates for a couple … article continues at sjpeer brought to you by insurance and conSalsita […]
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:32 am
Thanks for the info on insweb. Money magazine mentioned the site but didn’t give an explanation as to why they were recommended.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:00 am
Long Term Insurance
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting
November 13th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
The Billings food stamp survey (in response nr 7) can be found at http://www.foodstampstudy.com
January 25th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
As an agent, I recommend getting quotes from online carriers AND local agents. This California car insurance website offers exactly that. You can get quotes from multiple online companies as well as from local agents. Even if you’re not from California, just input your zip code and you can quote your own state coverages.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:33 am
thanks.