Compare Car Insurance Quotes
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Comparing car insurance quotes allows you to consider multiple providers and insurance coverage options to find the best fit for your personal finances. Here are some things you should know when you compare car insurance quotes.
Common Types of Auto Insurance Coverage
A significant factor in the price of your car insurance is what types of coverage you choose. Every state except New Hampshire requires a driver to purchase auto insurance. The minimum requirements for car insurance vary by state, but all require liability insurance. These are the most common coverages that a state may require you to purchase:
- Liability: Liability insurance covers the damage you may do to others, including vehicle damage and bodily injuries. If you're at fault for an accident and lack liability insurance, you'll be stuck with the rest of the bill.
- Uninsured and underinsured motorists: This pays for injuries to you and your passengers if someone with no insurance or insufficient insurance hits you.
- MedPay: Medical payments (MedPay) insurance covers your medical costs regardless of who's at fault.
- Personal injury protection (PIP): PIP coverage pays for injuries to you and your passengers, no matter who caused the accident. Unlike MedPay, PIP may also cover lost wages due to injury. Some policies refer to PIP coverage as "no-fault coverage."
Purchasing the state minimum required auto insurance will allow you to drive legally. However, other types of insurance can add extra protection to your policy. Many drivers add comprehensive and collision coverage to their plans, but other coverages can be equally beneficial, such as:
- Comprehensive: Comprehensive coverage protects you against non-collision damage to your vehicle. It pays for specific problems like car theft and damage from hail, floods, fire, vandalism, and hitting animals.
- Collision: Collision coverage pays for damage to your vehicle if you get in an accident with another car or an object like a pole. Collision coverage will pay for the damage up to the actual cash value of your vehicle as long as you pay your deductible.
- Gap: Gap coverage pays the difference between your car's value and what's left on your original loan if your vehicle gets totaled or stolen.
- 24-hour roadside assistance: This extra coverage ensures that if you run into an unexpected problem, like a flat tire or locking your key in the car, your insurance provider will send someone out to help you no matter the time of day.
A term that some confuse for a type of coverage is full coverage car insurance. Full coverage isn't a single type of auto insurance coverage, but rather a combination of your state's required coverages with the addition of comprehensive and collision coverage.
Why Auto Insurance Rates Differ
The reason you're checking comparison car insurance options is because they vary and some rates will be better than others. It's a good idea to understand why quotes may differ before comparing car insurance quotes. Here are some of the main differentiators:
- Age and gender: Car insurance rates are usually at their highest until age 25. You may get the best rates in your 40s and 50s, assuming you don't have other factors that push rates up, like speeding tickets. Auto insurance rates often start to rise again in your 60s. Some insurers also use gender as a predictor of claims.
- Location: The area where you live and where you park your car will affect the price of your coverage. Premiums will typically be higher if you live in an urban area with high crime rates and the potential for accidents as opposed to a rural one.
- Other personal information: Marital status, home ownership, and a college degree can all affect your chances of getting cheap car insurance. The use of these factors varies by insurer.
- Vehicle: Insurers look at the claims history of the vehicle model and how new it is. If other people who own a vehicle like yours crash a lot, it affects the rates for other owners.
- Past claims, at-fault accidents, and moving violations: To auto insurers, past problems are a predictor of future problems, including claims and tickets. They'll price the policy with an eye toward the future.
- Credit: Many auto insurers see a correlation between your credit score and the chance you'll make a claim. In most states, they can charge more to folks with poor credit. (This practice is banned in California, Utah, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Michigan, and Massachusetts.) Insurers typically use a special credit-based insurance score for this.
- Usage: This includes whether you drive for business and daily commuting distance. If you are driving for a business, you might need a commercial auto policy.
- Coverage choices: Each type and amount of coverage on your policy will affect the cost. If you're buying comprehensive and collision insurance, for example, choosing a higher deductible will lower your car insurance quote.
- Discounts: Insurance providers typically offer a wide variety of discounts. Discounts can depend on the driver, like a military discount; your driving, like a claims-free discount; and your policy, like a multi-car discount.
How To Find Cheap Car Insurance Through EverQuote
At EverQuote, we help you compare car insurance quotes so that you can easily find the best rates in your area. First, visit our website to find the best auto insurance providers that you're already prequalified for. In order to provide you with the most accurate quotes, you'll need the following information:
- Your driver's license
- The dates of any past accidents, auto insurance claims, and moving violations, such as speeding tickets, for the past three years
- The car's VIN or the year, make, model, and body style of your vehicle
- Your current vehicle's mileage
- The address where you park your vehicle
- Your current insurance carrier and policy expiration date, or your past insurer if you don't currently have insurance
- Who else you'll list on the policy, such as a spouse or teen driver
- Your policy declarations page, which is the page that lists your current coverage (if you want to get car insurance quotes for the same coverage you have now)
Once you've filled in the necessary information, you'll have the option to receive quotes online, via email, or through a call with a licensed agent. EverQuote will recommend the best providers for you based on their rates. When you're ready, you can pick the policy that is the right price and coverage for you.
Alternatively, you can fill out some basic information below to see what options are typically available in your area:
Tips for Comparing Auto Insurance Quotes
Decide on the coverage you want. Choose the coverage you want before you start online car insurance shopping so that you can get quotes for the exact same insurance levels. You'll want to make a car insurance comparison that reflects the same levels of liability insurance and other options, such as comprehensive, collision, and rental reimbursement. If you're buying comprehensive and collision coverage, choose a deductible, such as $500 or $1,000, for all your quotes. If you change your mind later about coverage levels, you can always get new quotes.
Don't be distracted by long lists of discounts. Every auto insurer offers discounts, and these vary among providers. Don't assume that an insurer with a long list of available discounts will offer the best final price. It's also common for insurers to cap the total possible discount. It's best to compare the bottom line price you get among companies.
Don't wait until the last minute to start comparing: Getting car insurance quotes is free and easy, but last-minute shopping could lead you to make an impulse decision. Give yourself at least a few days to shop.
Why Use EverQuote To Compare Auto Insurance Quotes?
The EverQuote team strives to bring you the most efficient and practical process for gathering information about auto insurance providers and their rates. Currently, EverQuote is the leading insurance marketplace in the U.S. and has the largest agent network.
We connect millions of shoppers with experts every day using our state-of-the-art data model. Hit continue below to receive the best rates from a wide variety of insurance providers.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Premiums are sourced from over 30,000 zip codes across 200 insurance companies. We estimate premiums based on public filings for policies seeking 50/100 in liability with $500 deductibles for collision and comprehensive coverage. Estimated rates are based on a 35-year-old single female with a good credit score and no history of accidents or violations driving a 2023 Toyota RAV4 LE. We partner with Quadrant Information Services to source our data and assume no unique benefits or discounts are applied for these rates (unless otherwise stated). Your own rates may be different.