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What is the Best Car Insurance Company?

It seems like every time you turn the TV on there is an advertisement for car insurance, and each company claims they’re the best car insurance company.

Who do you believe? Is it better to buy online from companies like GEICO or Progressive?  Or should you talk to a local agent from a company like State Farm or Allstate?

Every company seems to claim they can save you $400 to $500 on your car insurance rates, but surely not EVERY company can save you money when you switch!

How EVERY Company can claim to be the Best Car Insurance Company

The big auto insurers such as those named above pump a LOT of money into advertising.  Millions and millions of dollars go into their fancy ad campaigns trying to convince you to switch your coverage over to their company.

Is it deceptive advertising?

They all claim to be able to save you a ton of money, or fifteen percent in fifteen minutes, or whatever their marketing claim is.  But they surely aren’t just making these numbers up are they?

No, they’re not.  Insurance companies cannot advertise false information when trying to get your to switch. But they can slant the figures in their favor without misleading the public.

State Farm, Allstate, Progressive… They all do it!

For example, on State Farm’s website, they currently claim you will save $489 if you switch to State Farm (this number will probably adjust occassionally). But if you notice the asterisk next to the $489 number, the disclaimer states, “*Average annual per household savings based on a national 2008 survey of new policyholders who reported savings by switching to State Farm.”

So what does this mean exactly? Despite the fact that the information is 3 years out-of-date, it means that the ONLY people polled in the survey were NEW policyholders.  But new to what company?  STATE FARM of course!  So the poll only reports how much NEW State Farm customers saved by switching from a different company.

Let’s think about this for a second shall we?  Why would someone switch to State Farm (or any other insurance company) if they WEREN’T going to save money by switching?  So the poll is not going to report anyone who PAID MORE by switching to State Farm!

Does this poll mean that EVERYONE who quoted State Farm will save $489?  Not even close.  Many times rates may actually be higher than what they are currently paying.  But those consumers wouldn’t switch, so they aren’t part of the survey.

This example is not meant to pick on State Farm.  In fact, Allstate has an identical notice on their site, but they are currently advertising a savings of only $348 as of the date of this article.  And again, there is an asterisk next to Allstate’s claim, but instead of using 2008 data, they are using 2009 data for again, NEW policyholders.

Progressive currently states that their customers ‘could save over $500 on car insurance”. Again the asterisk points out that that figure is derived from the “National annual average savings by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive March – May 2010.”

So you see, you really need to take the car insurance company’s claims of savings with a grain of salt. They don’t mean what you think they mean.  After all, if EVERY car insurance company could save you $500 when you switched, then eventually they would be paying YOU to insure your cars with them!

How to Find the Best Car Insurance Company

The only way to find the best car insurance company for you is to quote your coverage around with as many companies as you can.

Click here to begin a quick online car insurance quote

Quote through agents and quote online too. Progressive sells both online AND through agents, but the price will be a bit different for the same coverage (oddly, many times the price through an agent will actually be LESS than the online price).

Every consumer has different insurance requirements and will be rated as a different risk than their neighbor.  If you have teen drivers, poor credit or a lousy driving record, you’re going to pay more.

If you are middle-aged, have no youthful drivers, excellent credit and a spotless driving record, you’re going to pay very competitive rates for car insurance.

Each car insurance company has a different “appetite” for what type of consumer they want to insure.  Some companies may prefer to write higher risk drivers than others, and therefore they will file rates that are more competitive compared to other insurance companies in the same state.

The lower rates will attract more policies that meet their risk tolerance, and they can build their business by targeting a specific driver criteria.

Quote, Quote, Quote!

We don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but multiple insurance quotes are the basis of savings.  The more you quote, the more you can possibly save on your car insurance.  It’s not a lot of fun filling out quote forms, but that 10 minutes or so it takes you to fill out a quote form could potentially save you hundreds of dollars a year on car insurance.

Click here to begin a quick online car insurance quote

Quotes are free and you are not obligated to accept any of the quotes you receive.  Even if you’re not necessarily ready to switch but you’re just curious if your current rates are competitive, go ahead and submit a quote form.  It doesn’t hurt to do this once or twice a year just to ensure you still have low rates.

One Form, Multiple Car Insurance Quotes

Enter your Zip Code at the top of this page and click the ‘Go’ button to start a car insurance quote. You’ll be asked a series of short questions and you can enter the coverages you wish to quote.  You enter the information once, but you can actually receive multiple quotes back from companies that write coverage in your area.

Click here to begin a quick online car insurance quote

It saves time, gets you several quotes at once, and it could save you money on your insurance.

Our forms work for most insurance lines such as homeowners, renters, life and health, so can potentially save on those policies as well.