Especially when it comes to car insurance. I insured my cars with State Farm from 1989 till last year when we purchased a second car. I decided to shop around when State Farm quoted a much higher rate than I was expecting. I was paying around $85/month for our 2000 Honda Odyssey, but adding a 2000 VW Passat would have raised the premium to nearly $170/month. That didn’t seem right so I called my rep at State Farm and she confirmed the quote was correct. That still seemed high so I made a few calls, researched several companies and gathered a number of quotes based on the same coverage I was quoted from State Farm.
I eventually decided to switch to GMAC Insurance last year mainly because doing so would save me just over $600/year. I don’t understand all the intricacies of how policy premiums are established but a $600 difference was too much to pass up. Under State Farm I had three or four windshields replaced over a 15 year period, but that’s it. No accidents or moving violations.
This past month we got rid of the Passat (long story) and purchased a 2002 BMW 325i. I called my rep at GMAC and was happy to find out that my premium wouldn’t change much. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to shop around again given the previous savings still fresh in my mind. As I was reading one of the many BMW forums, someone mentioned the excellent service and price they had received at Response Car Insurance. I’d never heard of them before but several other contributors to this message board chimed in with similar positive experiences with them so I figured it was worth requesting a quote.
I didn’t save the $600/year like I did when I left State Farm but I’ll save nearly $500/year by switching from GMAC to Response! It’s definitely taken some time to make this happen. I’ve spent maybe 30 minutes on the phone and another 30 minutes gathering information and filling out forms. But it’s time well spent given the savings. It certainly pays to shop around when the internet makes it so easy to compare quotes from multiple companies.
Nordquist Blog 