Shopping for car insurance
can be one of life’s more frustrating experiences. Auto insurance
comparison sites are designed to reduce some of this frustration.
Different car insurance companies
often produce very different quotes for the same person, even if the
policies being compared are identical. This makes comparison shopping a
crucial part of buying auto insurance; wise shoppers will compare at
least four or five different insurance providers to make sure they are
getting a good deal.
Auto insurance comparison sites, which let
you instantly compare quotes from multiple insurance providers, can be a
huge help in your quest for affordable car insurance. They provide
accurate, personalized rates, discounts, and coverage options all on one
site—much like your favorite travel comparison site that gives you
airline ticket or hotel room options all on a single page.
In
order to provide an accurate list of options, auto insurance comparison
sites ask you for basic information such as your zip code, occupation,
vehicle make and model, and driving history. These details allow the
site to provide an accurate list of different insurance policies,
options and rates.
However, not all sites that claim to provide insurance quotes are the real thing
How Auto Insurance Comparison Sites Work
There
are two types of insurance comparison websites: quote comparison sites
and lead generation sites. Auto insurance comparison sites present users
with rates based on information submitted during the shopping
experience. You can then decide which quote to pursue, and the data you
entered is transferred to the agent or company website, greatly
shortening the purchasing process. These sites do not sell your
information to insurance carriers or agencies.
Unlike auto
insurance comparison sites, lead generation sites simply sell your
information to their advertising partners—typically insurance companies.
These sites are not built to provide you with personalized quotes and
are not much help when trying to compare car insurance rates. Avoid
these sites unless you’re eager to receive tons of cold calls from
insurance phone banks and desperate agents.
Insurance comparison
websites can be further broken down into sites that provide real-time
insurance quotes versus those that provide estimated ones. Estimated
quotes are derived from historic data and are often out of date; to get
the most accurate information you should use a site that provides
real-time quotes generated by the insurance companies.
Car Insurance Comparison Sites with Real Quotes
The following comparison sites offer real-time, accurate insurance quotes.
Insurify
Insurify is
a free insurance comparison website that provides real-time, accurate
quotes from top insurance companies in the U.S. It is rated 4.8 out of 5
on ShopperApproved, where it has 735 user reviews.
The site
offers a wide variety of carriers to choose from, an easy-to-use
interface, and can effectively service drivers in all segments of the
market. To-date it has delivered over 4 million insurance quotes from
top providers such as The General, MetLife, and Liberty Mutual.
Insurify
has been featured on Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and CNET and is
considered one of the top auto insurance comparison sites.
How it works: Insurify
asks shoppers to answer a series of questions that it uses to produce
real-time, accurate quotes. In addition to its mobile and desktop sites,
the site also offers the ability to receive quotes and buy insurance
via Facebook Messenger.
The questions were easy to answer and the
process was straightforward—I was able to submit my information and get
personalized quotes in under five minutes.
Results: Insurify
produced nine quotes, starting at $78/month, each with the option to
contact the insurance company immediately or schedule a phone call for a
later time. Some of the quotes included helpful information about the
policy or the insurance company offering it. The site allowed me to
change the coverage from the left hand sidebar, and it was easy to click
on the different coverages and see the prices change in real time.
Clicking
on the button to the right of each quote brought up a pop-up window
with more details about the policy, payment information, and options to
buy a policy via phone or Internet.
The site also included ads for
certain insurance companies, and clicking the “check rate” button for
the ad connected me directly to the insurance provider’s website. It’s
easy to tell the ads from the quotes; the ads all say “ad” next to the
company name and the button says “check rates” rather than “view deal.”
Insurify’s
quote comparison tool was a great help in shopping for car insurance. I
particularly liked how easy it was to compare rates based on a custom
coverage level; with a few clicks, I could alter the parameters (say, by
changing the liability coverage maximum or adding roadside assistance)
and get a whole new basket of quotes instantly. Every year, Insurify
also publishes a Best Car Insurance Companies list.
Compare
Compare.com is
another online car insurance comparison tool that generates real-time
quotes from multiple insurance providers. In addition to car insurance,
Compare provides quotes for home, health, and small business insurance,
as well as tools to help you choose car loans and mobile phone plans.
The site is rated 4.5 out of 5 on eKomi, based 640 user reviews.
How it works: Compare’s
shopping process asked me to enter the same general information that
other auto comparison websites did. Entering the information was fairly
straightforward. Most of the fields were drop-down menus or pre-filled
based on information I had submitted on previous pages. The questions
were detailed, including some about my current policy limits that
required retrieving my insurance documents to answer. I did like that
Compare asked if I was willing to accept paperless documents and/or
e-signing
Results: Compare produced seven quotes
ranging from $148 per month to $329 per month. The quotes were all from
fairly obscure companies; I didn’t see any of the big-name providers.
The site allowed me to customize coverage, but only by going back to the
coverage selection part of the process—meaning that I had to wait for
the quotes to re-load each time. It also didn’t allow as many
customization options as Insurify. Only one of the quotes permitted
online checkout; all the others required speaking on the phone with an
agent. I did like that the quotes all let you choose between a
pay-as-you-go policy (with a down payment) or a pay upfront policy (at a
slight discount).
Car Insurance Comparison Sites with Estimated Quotes
Unlike
Insurify and Compare, some comparison sites only provide estimated
quotes, based on aggregate information from your local division of
insurance. Rates from these websites are based on what other drivers in
your zip code with similar histories are paying for insurance, rather
than real-time quotes from insurance companies.
The following sites fall into the estimated quotes category.
NerdWallet
Nerdwallet.com is
a well-known personal finance website that offers free comparison tools
for car, health, and life insurance quotes. The site also has reviews
of different insurance providers and numerous tips for picking the best
policy. It is rated 4.5 out of 5, with 1,601 user reviews on
ShopperApproved.
How it works: To get quotes,
you’re required to sign up for a free Nerdwallet account. This includes
signing a disclaimer giving Nerdwallet permission to pull reports from
the credit reporting agencies and share your credit score and other
information with its partner companies.
During the quoting
process, Nerdwallet asked questions about my vehicle, driving, and
insurance history. One question that stood out was the one asking how
much I currently paid for auto insurance; I couldn’t see how that helped
Nerdwallet come up with rates (although it no doubt helped the company
with its future marketing efforts).
Results: Nerdwallet
returned three quotes ranging from $154 per month to $315 per month and
six “estimated rates” ranging from $153 per month to $330 per month,
from mostly name-brand insurance carriers. Each quote/rate included a
little information about the company, a company rating, and a summary of
Nerdwallet’s review (accessed by clicking on the “view details” link).
The quotes had a button to click in order to buy the policy over the
phone, but only one quote offering the option to purchase online. The
estimated rates included a button to click to access the company’s
website and get an actual quote from them.
Nowhere in the process
did Nerdwallet allow me to customize coverage options—I could only
choose one of four pre-assembled packages. The selection process also
made no mention of discounts—either how to qualify for them or which
companies offered them.
The Zebra
The
Zebra is another free auto insurance comparison website. The site’s name
refers to its founders’ goal of presenting “insurance in black and
white.” The Zebra has a few articles about choosing car insurance, a car
insurance calculator, and some basic information about other types of
insurance in addition to its quoting tool. It is rated 4.7 out of 5, and
has 565 user reviews on ShopperApproved.
How it works: The
quoting process was similar to that of other comparison websites,
although it offered me the option of connecting my Google or Facebook
account to speed up the process. After I entered the requested
information, the Zebra announced that it had matched me up with nine
possible discounts, although it warned that not every insurance company
offered all of these discounts.
Results: The
final page offered five quotes ranging from $141 per month to $215 per
month, and three links to other websites that I could use to get
additional quotes. Unlike the other comparison websites, the quotes
weren’t in any order (the others sorted their results from smallest to
largest). Each quote included a company rating, policy features and a
button that would either take you to the company’s website or allow you
to compare it with another company. A list of options on the left side
of the page allowed me to check off the features that I wanted to
include, and eliminated companies not offering those features.
The
Zebra didn’t allow me to customize coverage preferences, forcing me to
choose one of four pre-assembled packages. It also didn’t list which
companies allowed which discounts, making their earlier list of
pre-qualified discounts less useful. On the right side of the page, the
site provided an “Insurability Score” listing the factors that insurance
companies use to set rates and grading the information I’d provided
during the quoting process, which could help drivers looking to improve
their rates in the future.
Lead Generation Sites
Unlike
quote comparison sites, lead generation sites are paid when they send
customers’ personal information to external agencies.
These sites
often attract your interest with competitive rates, but then transfer
you to a different site to continue shopping and complete your
transaction, often at a far less attractive rate. This is because lead
generations sites are paid to sell your information to an agency or
insurance company, not to present you with the rates on car insurance.
You
can sometimes get auto insurance quotes on lead generation sites, but
expect them to be far less reliable than quotes from comparison sites.
Using lead generation sites most likely means that you’ll end up
wandering from one auto insurance website to another in pursuit of the
best rate, which rather defeats the purpose of using a quote-generating
site at all.
DMV.org
DMV.org is a
privately-owned site that helps drivers interact with their local
Department of Motor Vehicles. This site is not an official government
agency, but acts as a middleman between you and your local DMV; for
example, a visitor may renew their vehicle registration or driver’s
license on the site for an additional fee. The website is rated 4 out of
5, and has 5,830 user reviews on Trustpilot.
How it works: Each
state page on the site offers information on required coverage,
optional coverage, proof of insurance, vehicle registration, insurance
plans, rates, and discounts. They also have an insurance quoting engine
that works similarly to those on other lead generation sites.
Results: After
working my way through the DMV.org quoting process, I discovered that
they don’t actually provide car insurance quotes. Instead, they just
provide you with links to other websites where you can get a quote. In
my case, it gave me exactly two links: to Esurance and Allstate.
Clicking a link to go to one of these websites required me to start all
over with the quoting process, leaving me wondering why I’d bothered
with DMV.org in the first place.
InsuranceQuotes
InsuranceQuotes is
a free, online comparison tool that offers quoting processes for auto,
life, health, homeowners, and other types of insurance. The site also
has articles on insurance-related subjects and provides information on
auto insurance by state, including average rates. It is is rated 1 out
of 10, and has 9 user reviews on Resellerratings.
How it works: The
quoting process asked me for the usual information, however. clicking
the “get quotes” button required me to consent to a somewhat unnerving
declaration that I would be called by up to eight insurance or partner
companies, potentially including robocalls.
Results: I
was led to a “quotes page” informing me that I had been matched with
three insurance agents who would be contacting me shortly. The page
listed the three companies (Nationwide, Allstate and Apliant) but
provided no information about them, not even contact information.
NetQuote
NetQuote is a free, online insurance comparison tool that provides leads to insurance agents.
In
addition to auto insurance, Netquote also offers quotes for health,
home, renters, business, and life insurance. The site is rated 1 out of
5, and has 38 user reviews on ConsumerAffairs.
How it works: Once
I entered my zip code the site launched its quoting process, which was
completely identical to InsuranceQuote’s – leading me to suspect that
the two sites belong to the same company.
NetQuote even asked me
to agree to the same fine print agreement as InsuranceQuotes, which
allowed eight or more insurance companies to contact me with offers and
information.
Results: I was delivered to a
results page that also looked identical to InsuranceQuote’s, although
the agents who would be calling this time were from Nationwide, Allstate
and Esurance.
QuoteWizard
QuoteWizard is
another insurance lead generation site that sells leads to insurance
agents and carriers. In addition to auto insurance, they also offer
quotes for home, renters, health, and life insurance. The site also has a
blog with articles about various insurance-related topics. QuoteWizard
is rated 3.68 out of 5, and has 36 user reviews on BBB.org.
How it works: The
auto insurance quote process opened by advertising “Cheapest rates from
only $19/mo!” After answering the usual questions, I clicked the “Get
My Quotes” button, thereby consenting to telemarketing calls, emails and
other sales contacts, both human and robot.
Results: QuoteWizard
dropped me on a page with a link to Geico’s website, announcing that it
was my best match for an online quote. The link led to the start of
Geico’s own quote generation tool. Needless to say, using QuoteWizard is
a waste of time.
SmartFinancial
SmartFinancial’s home
page boasts that it can get you rates from top-rated carriers in less
than 3 minutes. The quote processing tool provides quotes for auto,
home, health, and life insurance, among others. The site is rated 5 out
of 5, with 1 user review on BBB.org
How it works: The
quoting process did indeed move very quickly with the help of drop-down
menus. After asking the usual questions, the tool asked for my email
address while claiming, “no spam, ever.”
But before I clicked to
view my quotes I noticed the fine print asking me to agree to allow,
“marketing partners to contact you for marketing/telemarketing purposes
at the number and address provided above…” So much for no spam.
Results: After
a short wait, the quoting tool produced two quotes, for $299 per month
and $971 per month, plus links to two other insurance sites.
SmartFinancial allows you to narrow down the results further by
selecting desired features such as local agents and low down payment,
but given how limited the results were in the first place, that
particular option isn’t much help.
ValuePenguin
Like
Nerdwallet, ValuePenguin is a personal finance site dedicated to
helping consumers make informed decisions about their credit cards,
banking, investments, and insurance. The site offers quoting tools,
in-depth financial product reviews, and analyses of industry trends.
How it works: ValuePenguin’s quoting tool is essentially nonexistent. The only thing it asked me for was my zip code.
Results: Once
I typed in the requested zip code I was immediately taken to a page
with links to four actual insurance quote comparison websites. Rather
than create a quoting tool of its own, ValuePenguin has apparently
chosen to guide visitors to other comparison websites. All in all, you’d
be better off just skipping ValuePenguin and going straight to a site
that will produce quotes for you.
Everquote
Everquote
actually has two websites. One is a typical lead generation insurance
site with quoting tools for auto, home and life insurance. The other,
Everquote Pro, is for insurance agents—it provides a way for agents to
sign up to receive information about visitors to the site who use the
quoting tools. Everquote is rated 1.5 out of 5, and has 80 user reviews
on BBB.org.
How it works: Once I launched the
quoting tool for auto insurance, I was greeted by a large-print brag
that “Drivers Pay As Low As $29.32/Month for Car Insurance.” When I
began filling in my vehicle information, the site offered to save me
time by looking up the information for me—a frightening reminder of how
much of our personal information is available online. The contact
information fields were accompanied by text stating that “we respect
your privacy” and “NO SPAM, privacy guaranteed.”
Everquote also
provided checkboxes to opt out of receiving calls and emails from
agents. However, under the “Show My Quotes” button, the usual legal
boilerplate informed me that by clicking the above button I was
providing express written consent to be contacted by Everquote and a
whole laundry list of insurance companies and partners, whether or not
my phone number was on the Do Not Call list.
Results: Once
I submitted my information, the site produced one quote, along with six
links to other insurance companies. “View my quote” buttons next to
each quote took me to the beginning of the insurance website’s own
quoting tool, making it clear that these were strictly hypothetical
rates. Everquote provided a blurb of marketing text about two of the
companies and no helpful information whatsoever to guide my decision.
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