The quickest way to get a car insurance quote is online, and it isalso the best if you want to find the cheapest price available for thetype of insuring agreement that you are looking for. However, onlineis not the only way to get a quote, and people were buying carinsurances long before computers came on the scene.
The snail's pace equivalent of an online quote was the telephonequote, whereby you would telephone auto insurance companies and requesta quotation. Either they would post you a form by snail mail, or theywould take your details and provide you with a quote over the phone:no toll free numbers then, so the quote was anything but free. In factin many cases you had to pay for the quote, on the pretext that it costthe insurance company time and money to provide you with a quotation.No mention of what it cost you in telephone charges!
If you wanted to compare prices you literally had to walk thestreets from office to office (you couldn't drive your uninsured motorvehicle!) and it was not easy to negotiate for discounts. Now,however, it is much simpler with the internet and most auto insurancecompanies offer automobile insurance policies online. You can get thequote online and accept it online. It is also a lot easier to negotiatethe best auto insurance rates possible by comparing the prices of alarge number of companies from the comfort of your home. You needn'tdeal only with insurers that have branches in your home town, butnationwide - even international!
Before applying for online quotes you are advised to decide inadvance what level of cover you want in your automobile insurancepolicy. If you want to carry out real comparisons, each insurer shouldbe given the same information. If want to see the difference in pricewith and without collision coverage, for example, you can do thatlater. Right now you should be checking out the cheapest for the basictype of insurance most relevant to your needs. Collision and physicaldamage coverage can be added later once you have a short-list.
Your initial insurance quote should be for the state minimumliability cover, and you can include collision here, but only if you doso for all insurers and only if your car warrants it. Collisioncoverage is a waste of money if your car is going to be totalled aftera small bump! Comprehensive fits into the same category. However, youmight want personal injury coverage to pay for your medical expenses ifyou are injured, but again state it for each quote and also state thesame amount for each motor insurance company.
Where at all possible keep all the information you provide exactlythe same across the board. Each form will be different, so it might notbe possible to keep them exactly the same, but it should be as near asyou can, otherwise your comparisons will not be valid and you won'tnecessarily get the cheapest quotes. The idea is to get a car insurance quotefromeach auto insurance company that is based upon the same information,and then to decide which are the cheapest: i.e. which provide the samelevel of cover for less money.
These will form your final list from which you are going to selectyour choice of motor insurer. The final choice will be based upon byhow much you can beat them down using the various factors that can beused to get discounts. Factors such as your deductible - never includeyour maximum deductible in the initial quotation form. Keep some upyour sleeve for future negotiation.
The general idea is to get a final three or four, and then to getfurther discounts from each of these. That's when you tell them aboutthe driving courses you have taken, or the extra safety features onyour car. Tell them about your car being garaged and locked up everynight and anything else you can think of that might get you adiscount. They won't offer you one, but if you ask then you can getreductions if they are warranted.
Your objective is to get a car insurance quotethat is as cheap as possible while not sacrificing any of the coverthat you feel you need. You can achieve that much easier by comparing anumber of different insurers online.
