The best thing that you can do for your California auto insurance premium is to shop around. If you stick with one company, you might get some long time customer perks such as a renewal discount and/or an accident free discount. However, normally these perks are pretty small, and you can do so much better by looking around for good California auto insurance quote.
There are three basic ways to get a California auto insurance quote: through your agent/broker, by yourself on California auto insurance quote comparison websites, or from the California auto insurance company itself. Which is the best way to go? Let’s see.
- Agents.
If you are looking for a California auto insurance quote, then the kind of agent you want will be an independent agent. They’re name is slightly misleading, considering they aren’t entirely independent. However, unlike captive agents, who only give you a California auto insurance quote from one company, they work for several companies and can get you quotes from all of them.
The catch is that agents come with a fee. Normally, you can negotiate this fee, so if you know what you’re doing it might not be too expensive.
- Comparison sites.
This is my favorite way to go. California auto insurance quote comparison websites are everywhere. There are probably a few on this page. Just click on one and fill out the information, and you can get quotes from several different companies with no bias. I find this the best way to start out, because you only have to fill out the information once to get a California auto insurance quote ten different times. Start from here, and write down the companies with the best quotes, and then continue your research.
- Direct company website.
Direct company websites are kind of like captive agents. They are only interested in selling you one California auto insurance quote, so if you’re trying to decide, it’s best to avoid them. You can get the same quotes from the comparison websites. On top of that, there are a few sites that claim to give you the competitor’s rates as well, but normally these aren’t all that they are cracked up to be. I find that the comparison sites are more accurate, and they give you more quotes.