Of course you should contact as many companies as possible as you shop around and a broker may find you the best deal. Can't hurt! Also, not sure about your state, but mine has a listing on the Insurance Commissioner's website that shows which companies writing policies here have the best records for paying claims - maybe reported via complaint records. Some of those companies may only write policies through brokers, but you might get a good idea of some others to contact and which companies to avoid.

I don't know if you belong to Costco, but they have auto insurance available through them. Might be worth checking on - maybe even worth the price of a membership if the rates are great.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of Costco. I was dreading contacting any insurance company to get started, I was afraid they were going to say I had to come in to their office...But the lady I spoke with at this particular State Farm office was very helpful. I have gave her my current coverage for both home and auto and she worked up different scenarios and quotes and got them to me later that day.

As I mentioned in your other thread, we tried a broker this year. Better rate and coverage, no hassle. Oh how I wish I had thought of it sooner.

Try Wawanesa. They have gone up since I started with them years ago, but they are still the cheapest. I just had to renew, and decided to call around. I called a lot of places, Wawanesa still won out.

Oh, and they offer house insurance too.

We've used a broker for all of our insurance (homeowners, car, umbrella) for years and have saved thousands of dollars. Fortunately our kids are now on their own so we don't have to include them but our broker did a great job of finding better options for us.

When you add a young driver it is best if possible not to add a car as well. If there's two cars and two operators each operator has to be rated on a car and therefore the rates will be higher because your young operator is rated alone on a car. While on the other hand if you have 2 operators to 1 car, the young operator shares the usage and generally the rates are better. However, that will depend on the type of car(s) involved. If you have to have a car for the young operator, definitely go with something that you can get by with liability only. Pay attention to your discounts and make sure your getting all you can. Anyone quoting you will include every single discount they can just to get your business, however once you've signed on those discounts and what's involved in the discounts may not be attractive to you. Example: paperless policies and bills, automatic withdrawals from a checking or savings account, pay in full, new car discounts - they go away when a car is no longer new. Early sign on discounts, some companies keep them, so get rid of them upon your first renewal. Have the agent or producer go through each discount and see if your really interested in having it applied. Good grades and any teen driver programs will help tremendously, ask about them. I've been doing this for 20 years, keep in mind most new drivers will have an incident in the first year. I've never seen a fatality it's mostly minor fender benders or snow related incidents. Ask how an at fault accident will affect the policy. Don't accept anyone telling you it wont affect the policy at all, it will unless your in an accident forgiveness type of policy and if you are then you are paying more for it. State Farm took its biggest hit in years. A 7 billion dollar loss recently in the auto lines, rates will be affected. They are not the only ones though so you do have to shop. A captive agent is just as good as a broker and vice versa. Take your time with it and ask how claims are handled. Have a list of questions and make sure your satisfied with the answer. Don't assume you know everything. I hope that helps.

I'm with State Farm. We get some breaks for having multiple thnigs insured by them: 3 cars, home, personal property, and an umbrella policy. I believe that if I shopped around I could find a little lower rate for some of these items, but at the expense of not having a local office and having to deal with 3rd party people in case of claims. We've dealt with our local insurance office for a number of years and have built a relationship with them. The agency recently passed from mother to son.

Yes. it may be a little more expensive, but when you need to file a claim, it is very good to have help and guidance. Over a year ago, a driver ran a stop sign and t-boned my SUV. He hit it hard enough to roll it over. After the accident, everything went smoothly for me as my agent went after the other driver and his insurance. The settlement was fair, but before arbitration was settled with the opposing insurance, my insurance covered the cost right away. The arbitration process with the other company dragged out for a year.

Over a lifetime of driving, I have had a couple of fender bender claims against a parties that had low cost, out of state insurance by mail, and that was a pain. For example, they wanted me to take time off my job to look up their independent claim adjuster, chase around and schedule meeting places. I felt that I could not take the time away from a critical project i was working on. After a few phone calls, I finally told them I will tell you where the car is parked and your guy can see it any time by contacting me. I am no longer going to do your job!. The claim adjuster came to my company's parking lot and examined the car. This one sample of what one might face with a fly-by-night operation. I had to become resistant else I would have been running all over town getting 3 estimates on my time. The fender did get repaired by a guy working out of his private garage at his residence and the paint job was less than spectacular, but acceptable for an every day driver. While it was being repaired, I had to use my other car - A loaner was not offered. Maybe a loaner was available, but again, one had to agitate to get it. In this case, it was not worth the hassle, but it led me to think about what it would have been like if that had been a major event with personal injury.

Yes, standard insurance through a company's insurance agent and office may cost more, but in my opinion, the service provided by a local professional agent is worth it.

"IF" they'll quote you over the phone....great! "IF" they make you come into their office, try leaving without signing up and feel the pressure....the anger. Been there.

Also, when I get quotes I know what I've got and what coverages they need to match, then the price they need to beat. I want high Med pay and high liability limits then I want low rates. Umbrella policies are always suggested instead of the above and it's not the same coverage....know when they side step you.

Umbrellas are actually broader than auto policies, and if you are wanting higher limits on a homeowners policy as well as auto, they can definitely be a less expensive way of doing that. But if you only want to increase your auto limits, they're probably not what you want.

I'm not trying to increase my limits on my auto or homeowners. I do have higher limits than what is "required" by law on my auto. I'm just trying to find the best affordable way to get DD insured. I contacted Allstate Friday afternoon, this lady like the State Farm lady was very nice, took all my info over the phone and called back within the hour with quotes. Very painless LOL. A coworkers friend works for a insurance brokers office, when they are back to work, I will have them see what they come up with for me. I just need to know there is an affordable way to insure DD before we actually buy a car.

two25acres- do people actually do that? Just add a teen driver to their policy but not get a vehicle for them to ever be able to drive?

I understand what you are saying and it makes sense, I just don't think I've ever known anyone who just let their teen take their vehicle.

I have known some who have one vehicle for their teens to share.

I think it just means that the teens share the parents' car(s), so they have to wait until a parent isn't using it in order to drive it.

Texas_Gem, absolutely. Most kids today are not prepared for the responsibility of owning a car and lets face it, it's the parents that will end up doing most everything. It's always a good idea to get a years driving experience under a new drivers belt before the addition of a car.