Where To Find The Lowest Auto Insurance Rates In The US
In the United States, auto insurance is regulated by each state. Accordingly, auto insurance rates will vary between the states, sometimes dramatically. Because a car must be insured in the state where it is registered, most of us do not have the luxury of shopping for the state with the lowest auto insurance rates. How many of us can pick up and move our homes and families to another state, just to get the lowest possible auto insurance rate? Still, even within a state, auto insurance rates can vary quite a lot. Many factors can influence these rate variations, such as regions within a state (urban versus rural, for example) and the driver's age and driving record. So, how can you approach requesting an auto insurance quote and know that you are getting the lowest possible price available?
Finding the lowest auto insurance rate is an art, not a science. You can get 10 auto insurance quotes and choose the one with the lowest monthly premium. But what if you had requested an eleventh, twelfth, or twentieth quote? Would an even lower quote have come in? You may never know, but there are some things to consider that will make your search more effective, and more likely to find the type of auto insurance rate you want.
Generally, there are three sources for getting an auto insurance quote: a traditional broker, an online broker, and an agent. A traditional broker may represent several different insurance companies and will provide you a quote from one or more of these companies. If you purchase insurance through a traditional broker, however, you will also be paying a brokerage fee and a down payment, not just the first month's premium. An online broker is similar to a traditional broker, but the fees are usually lower. An agent is associated with one insurance company, and while the agent will get a commission from the sale, there usually is no additional fee when you purchase through the agent. By these basic descriptions, you would think that the lowest cost would always be through an agent because traditional and online brokers come along with additional fees. This is not always the case, however. Brokers have the ability to comparison shop for you among the various companies they represent. Depending on the companies providing an auto insurance quote, discounts for such things as good driving records may actually make a broker's offering the best deal for you.
The real answer to finding the lowest auto insurance rates in your state is to get an auto insurance quote from a variety of sources-traditional brokers, online brokers, and agents.
