Online Auto Insurance Quotes
Are Online Insurance Shopping Sites Any Good?
Continued from: Online Insurance Quote Websites
Whether or not an insurance comparison website is any good depends on how current and how broad their data is. Not surprisingly, there are some insurance companies that don't play (pay) this game, and so their quotes are often not listed in any comparisons.
Insurance companies that are household names are included anyway to make that less obvious, but there is nothing to stop a site from making sure that the only time a major insurance company makes the list is when its premium is higher.
The truth is that most of the major insurance quote comparison websites will indeed provide you with accurate quotes from many different insurers. It is also true that getting those quotes will mean getting calls from salesmen. If you don't care, then by all means use the tools available.
On the other hand, if you don't want to give out your contact info to salespeople, you can just call the insurance companies directly. They'll still try and collect all of your information, but they aren't generally in the habit of passing that information on. That means the only people calling you will be the ones you talked to originally.
If you are thinking of giving out phony information, don't bother. A lead with bad information is a worthless lead and many times the company doesn't get paid for those, or has to give an equal number of free ones out to make up for it.
So, these websites have gotten very good at making sure you have to give out your real information. The easiest trick is to insist on getting your Social Security Number. While it is true that many insurance companies use your SSN to run a credit report as part of selling you a policy, the truth is that quotes made without your SSN are just as good of a way to comparison shop.
If Insurer A quotes $400 without a credit report or SSN and Insurer B quotes $300, you can be pretty sure that when your credit report comes back that whatever adjustment it makes to your final premium payment, won't change who is cheaper.
Verify The Facts Yourself
If you think you have found a site that is different, or if you just want to check the facts for yourself (always encouraged), look for these tale tell signs. To find them, you have to read the small print on each screen, and also actually look through that big plain text file that is the Terms of Use or sometimes in the Privacy Policy.
Here are actual Terms of Service from some top insurance quote sites.
From time to time, we may contact you about third-party promotions. In addition, prior to purchasing a policy or after canceling your policy, we may contact you to confirm your quote or invite you to come back and get a new quote or to purchase a policy. You will have the ability to unsubscribe from whichever type of communication you received.
By submitting a quote request, you authorize us to provide your information to insurance agents, both local and national. You authorize these agent networks to share your information with their vendors, suppliers, and insurance carriers in order to generate information for your quotes
