When you’re shopping for car insurance online, comparing auto insurance quotes can help you choose the cheapest and best policies for you. Understanding how insurance companies arrive at the rates they quote to you can help you provide the right information to ensure that you get every possible discount. If you’re about to request a round of car insurance quotes, take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the way that the insurance companies come up with their quotes. Comparing multiple auto insurance quotes can save you hundreds of dollars.
Requesting a Quote
When you request a quote, you fill out an application that asks specific questions about your situation. While these applications ask a lot of the same questions, they’re not exactly the same. Each insurance company has specific questions that are part of company policy when assigning auto insurance quotes. Other question may fulfill legal requirements. Sometimes, the questions asked on the quote request form may seem to have nothing to do with your driving, but insurance companies use them to determine your risk factor as a driver.
Why Do They Want My Marital Status for a Quote?
Auto insurance companies are experts at assigning risk, which determines your insurance rate, based on data that they collect from their customers. In fact, the law requires that each insurance company determine its rates based on its own data, not through any “industry norms.” That’s why you may get wildly different quotes from two different insurance carriers even though you’ve entered the same information. If an insurance company asks for your marital status on their quote request application, it’s because they have data that shows how marital status effects the risk of being involved in an accident.
Other questions on the quote request make more sense. The neighborhood in which you live affects the likelihood of your car being damaged or stolen. If you regularly drive your car to work on the highway, there are more opportunities for your auto to be involved in an accident. If you park your car in a secured parking garage each day at work, it reduces the likelihood that your parked car will be broadsided by a passing driver. Answer all of the questions in the application honestly and completely to get the most accurate car insurance quote.
What Happens to the Information I Put in My Quote Request?
Auto insurance comparison sites that ask for more specific information can give you more accurate insurance quotes. When you provide your social security number, the VIN number of the autos in your household and your driver’s license number, the data is securely passed through to several insurance companies for quotes. Those companies can return an accurate, specific quote that is actually the price that you will pay if you choose that insurance company. Other auto insurance sites give you the opportunity to run generic car insurance quote checks without personally identifying details. These quote request checks are a good preliminary step that can help you narrow your search to the companies that are most likely to offer you the cheapest, best car insurance policy. Either way, take the time to compare auto insurance quotes online before settling on one particular company in order to get the best possible rates on your car insurance.