Instant Auto Insurance: How to Choose Your Company Fast

Sometimes drivers are looking for auto insurance coverage as quickly as possible. Many providers offer instant auto insurance coverage when you buy over the phone or on their website. If you know the correct steps to take, then you can choose your insurance company fast.

Start the instant car insurance process immediately once you place your ZIP code right here in the FREE box now!

There are many times when you might require instant auto insurance coverage. You might have just purchased a car and you need insurance to drive it home from the dealership, or you may just prefer the speed of instant auto insurance.

Step 1: Know Your Coverage

The first step in getting instant coverage is to know the coverage amounts you want to buy.

First, you need to start with your state’s mandatory amounts of liability insurance.

Liability insurance pays for injuries and damages that you cause to others.

Each state has minimum amounts of liability insurance that you must purchase in order to legally drive in that state. Utilize the map offered by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to link to your state department of insurance to find your state minimums.

Most experts recommend that you get more than your state’s minimum in order to have enough coverage in the event of a serious accident. The experts at the Insurance Information Institute advise that every driver should have no less than $100,000 for each person and $300,000 for the entire accident in liability coverage.

Next, you need to determine how much optional coverage you need.

Optional coverage includes collision, comprehensive, towing, and rental car reimbursement. Optional coverage is vastly important, especially if your vehicle is still worth a considerable amount of money.

Collision pays for damages to your vehicle from an accident, and comprehensive pays for damages from just about everything else. If you don’t have collision or comprehensive coverage then the damages to your vehicle from an accident, theft, or vandalism, or damage from a storm will have to be paid out of your pocket.

Both collision and comprehensive include a deductible amount that you specify; a deductible is the amount that is your responsibility to pay. A higher deductible will lower the cost of optional insurance, but it will also mean that you will pay more in the event you need to enter a claim for an at-fault accident or other loss.

Other optional insurance coverage types such as towing and rental car reimbursement are often overlooked. However, they are usually relatively inexpensive, but they will save you a lot of money if you ever need to use the coverage.

Your state might also require that you get uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage or personal injury protection. Along with collision coverage, these coverage types are meant to protect you if you are hit by a driver who is without insurance coverage.

It is important to know your coverage limits so that you can find quotes for the same amount of coverage. This will allow you to compare quotes side-by-side so that you can quickly see which company has the best deal. Once you know how much insurance coverage you want, then you are ready to move onto the next step.

Step 2: Get Multiple Quotes

Next, you need to compare prices.

The next step is shopping around and getting multiple quotes to compare.

There are many places to get quotes, and you can utilize whichever places you would like. You can get quotes from an agent, over the phone, and on an insurer’s website. However, the fastest and easiest way to get multiple quotes is by using a quote comparison website.

Quote comparison websites allow you to fill out one application but receive many quotes for car insurance coverage. Since you specify the coverage amounts beforehand, you will know that each quote will be for exactly the same amount of coverage.

There are no other processes for getting quotes for car insurance coverage that are as fast as quote comparison websites. Such websites allow you to easily search for the same amount of coverage from multiple providers. You can also get quotes from providers that you didn’t think to query.

Find a quote comparison site like this one, fill out your driver information, and then sit back and wait for the quotes to come rolling in. Once you’ve received an array of quotes, choose a handful to check out further.

Step 3: Check with Your State

Then, you want to research the companies that supplied you with quotes.

Your next step is to verify the credibility of each one of the providers that you chose.

The best place to do this is at your state’s department of insurance website. Utilize the same map from above to research the providers that you have chosen.

Most states’ insurance departments allow you to search the background of all of the insurance companies licensed to do business in the state. This background might include their history, financial information, and any complaints that have been lodged against them.

If you come across a company with a large amount of customer complaints or even fines from the state, then you should probably cross that one off your list. If there’s one on your list that you can’t find, then that company is very likely a scam. Report the fraudulent activity on your state’s department of insurance website, and cross that bogus provider off your list.

Step 4: Check Financial Ratings

You will also want to ensure that the companies you are vetting have a solid financial network. Financial ratings are important to ensure that your provider has the economic chops to stay in business in the foreseeable future.

Next, you will take all of the insurance companies that made it through the research with your state’s department of insurance, and you will check their financial ratings.

Even though you are looking for instant auto insurance as quickly as possible, you can head off future catastrophe by ensuring that all the companies you are looking at have good financial standings. The last thing you want to find out when you are filing a claim is that your insurer is in the process of bankruptcy and can’t pay.

Ratings organizations such as Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings will tell you if the insurers that you are considering have strong financial footing. It’s a very quick process. You just go to their website, search for the company, and view the ratings.

Each ratings organization uses an alphabetical rating scale. With all of them, ratings that are high, such as A+ and AAA, denote strong financial standing. That means that your insurer will be there in the future to pay your claims. This step hardly takes any time at all, so don’t skip it!

Step 5: Check Consumer Ratings

Another set of ratings that you should check out when you are searching for an auto insurance company is consumer ratings. These ratings relate to the customer service reputation of an insurance company. Again, while you are looking for insurance as quickly as possible, you don’t want to regret a hasty choice down the road when you have to deal with an unhelpful insurer.

Your last step is to research the insurer’s reputation for customer service.

JD Power and Associates offers consumer-based ratings that deal with issues such as communication, pricing, and helpfulness during the claims process. These ratings are important to know so that you don’t get stuck with an insurance company that has rude employees, poor communication, and shifty adjusters.

Your Rights and Responsibilities

While you are looking for an insurance company to serve you, you also have responsibilities. One responsibility that you have is to provide truthful information on your application. Honest information will allow your application process to go much faster and smoother, and it will ensure that your quotes are accurate.

Car insurance companies consider lies on an application to be fraud, and they will either deny you coverage or cancel your policy if they find out about the misinformation. It is up to you to provide accurate information.

You also have rights as a car insurance consumer. One right that you have is the right to cancel your policy at any time. If you feel that another provider will serve you better, then you can cancel your current policy at any point in the policy period and switch to that other provider.

Keep in mind that some insurers will charge a cancellation fee if you have only had your insurance for a short time. Usually, the fee is around 10% of your premium. The company had employees working to figure out and assign your policy, so they want something to pay for that time if you are not going to remain a customer.

Usually, it is not a lot of money. For instance, if your insurance premium was $1,000, then they would charge you a $100 fee.

When you bought your insurance, you might have needed to pay in installments. Most providers require at least 30% of the premium for the first payment. So you would have paid $300 to start your policy, and the company would take the $100 fee from the installment payment that they would return to you.

You also need to ensure that you have another insurance company lined up to pick up where your old insurer will leave off. A lapse of insurance for even one day will raise your car insurance rates with other providers and put you at risk of driving without insurance. Since you are finding instant insurance as quickly as possible, a lapse in coverage shouldn’t be a problem!

Start you quest for instant car insurance right here by inserting your ZIP code in the FREE box immediately!