Save Money On Auto and Homeowners Insurance with Premium Comparison Surveys
[Updated on July 7, 2009: Added links for Maryland and New Jersey.]
I spent more than 15 minutes and I saved more than 15% on my auto and homeowners insurance. For the same coverage, I saved 25% on my auto insurance and I saved 38% on my homeowners insurance.
A typical "how to save money on insurance" article will tell you to drop collision and comprehensive coverage on older cars, get your good driver, good student, and alumni association discounts, increase your deductibles, insure your car and home with the same company for the multi-policy discount, etc. etc.
I’m not going to repeat those. I assume you already know what coverage you want and what deductibles you are comfortable with, and you already pursued all the discounts. If not, you can search for those articles on the Internet. There are a ton of them.
This post focuses on shopping for a lower rate for the same coverage. Those other articles usually leave you with "shop around" or "get 3 quotes." But whom do you get quotes from?
There are perhaps more than 30 insurance companies in each market. If you get quotes from 3 expensive companies, that won’t help you because you don’t even know lower rates exist. On the other hand, unless you don’t have better things to do, it’s impractical to get quotes from all companies. You have to narrow down your target list to the companies that can potentially save you money.
When you shop for term life insurance, you can go to a single web site and get the premiums from practically all the companies. When you shop for auto and homeowners insurance, there isn’t a central place to go. Although there are a few web sites that let you obtain quotes from multiple companies, they only include the companies that pay them for the lead.
I tested several of those sites with fictitious personal info. After I filled out lengthy forms, instead of giving me quotes, some of them just say the companies will contact me. Well, if they can’t beat what I already have, I don’t want a bunch of sales calls!
There are also independent insurance agents. These agents also only work with insurance companies that pay them. They are not able to give you quotes from companies who sell only through their own ("captive") agents, like State Farm, Allstate, or Farmers, or those who only sell directly to consumers, like GEICO, Amica, or Esurance.
Fortunately there is a great resource from a place you least expect: your state government. Insurance is regulated by the states. All insurance companies selling in a state must file their rates with the Department of Insurance in that state. Using those rate filings, some state Departments of Insurance publish a premium comparison survey or guide that shows the rates by company and by geographical area.
Because people drive different cars and have different driving records, or have different homes, these surveys typically use a few driver/homeowner profiles and show the insurance premium from each company for these profiles. You have to pick a profile that’s most similar to you.
It’s far from perfect. The rates used can be a year old. But it’s still very useful for weeding out the expensive companies and narrowing down the list of companies that can potentially offer a premium lower than what you have now. For example I noticed a company offering good rates called Wawanesa. I bet not many people have ever heard of Wawanesa and most would never think of getting a quote from them.
It’s a shame that these premium comparison surveys or guides are not advertised well. You never hear about them on TV, on radio or online. On some state Department of Insurance web sites, these surveys are buried deeply in the end of a "Consumer’s Guide to Auto Insurance" publication with otherwise generic information on coverage and insurance terms.
The cynics will say it’s intentional. The insurance companies don’t want you to compare rates so easily. They learned the lessons from airlines. When people can go to one web site and see all the fares, the airlines are forced to compete on price. Imagine how much more people will pay if they have to call each and every airline for fares. That’s the world we are in for insurance quotes.
Using the premium comparison survey for my state, I called a company that I would otherwise never call for my homeowners insurance. Although this company is well known nationally, it doesn’t give homeowners insurance quotes online. The savings are huge. I saved a whopping 38% on my homeowners insurance.
For my auto insurance, I contacted three companies that had lower rates on the premium comparison survey than the company I had before. They all gave me a lower rate. I saved 25% on my auto insurance for the same coverage. The premium comparison survey was spot on, not in the premium amount, because that depends on the actual coverage, but on how the companies rank relatively.
I went through the trouble of visiting the Department of Insurance web site for each and every state plus Washington DC. I gathered all the links to auto and homeowners insurance premium comparison surveys in the table below. You can imagine how long that took me.
I couldn’t find the surveys for some states. Maybe they don’t publish one. Maybe I missed them because they buried them so deeply. If you find the missing links, let me know so I can add to the table. If some links become broken because they moved things around, you will have to find the surveys on your own. This map of State Department of Insurance web sites will help.
Let me know how much you are able to save on your auto and homeowners insurance with these premium comparison surveys. If you are able to save money, may I suggest that you give me 10% of your savings in the first year as a tip? 
State Department of Insurance Premium Comparison Surveys
Software picked, likely related posts:
Comments
9 Comments on Save Money On Auto and Homeowners Insurance with Premium Comparison Surveys
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Geoff on July 6, 2009
Thanks TFB!
I need renew my auto insurance at the end of the month, so this will be a perfect time to shop around. I’ll report back on my discount percentage.
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dawn on July 6, 2009
Thanks for this reminder. I never think to shop around until i get the insurance renewal form in the mail, and by that time, i don’t feel i have enough time to shop around, so i usually end up renewing for another year.
My homeowners insurance is way too high, in my opinion, so that’s what i hope to tackle this weekend.
thanks again.
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Bill L on July 7, 2009
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Massey on July 7, 2009
Incredible research. This is value added material that can help people save money without sacrificing service. Well done.
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serbeer on July 7, 2009
Great idea TBF, but as you discovered, there is no such thing for IL.
When I was about to go through my bi-annual insurance re-pricing process last year, I built a nearly complete list of 70 insurance companies that offer home AND auto policies in IL based on list in http://insurance.freeadvice.com/reviews/state/home/Illinois/
in Excel, and used additional 3 sites
http://www.ambest.com/
http://www.jdpower.com/insurance
http://www.badfaithinsurance.org/indexdetaillist.html
for research to narrow it down to ~30 that I could consider getting quotes from and then further to 7 that were my first pick based on ratings and reviews. I got quotes from all 7 and picked the cheapest one (which also happened to be rated #1 of all I considered, luckily).Only companies with AMBest rating of A and higher were considered. And no companies with predominantly bad customer reviews (I did keep a version of survivorship bias in mind though while judging it).
One thing to understand, you don’t want want to have to go to court to enforce the contract if there is serious claim. So one should not simply find the cheapest company–both financial strength AND history of paying claims should be considered before making decision. This is even more important if one shops for umbrella insurance in addition to the two you’ve been discussing.
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Samples on July 9, 2009
Great post and thanks for doing the leg work. I emailed my Florida Commissioner about some improvements they can make to the site to make it more informative. Hopefully they listen.
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Nish Balaji on July 9, 2009
Thanks for the Insurance premium comparison link. I don’t have home insurance for my condo, since the structure is covered by HOA fees, but I have been thinking about getting an additional plan. I will definitely use this comparison for my condo insurance. I am happy that the Insurance Industry is tightly regulated by the state and the companies have to publish their premiums to the regulator.
BTW, I already use Wawanesa for Auto Insurance in California and they have been great and incredibly cheap. My understanding is that they keep their premiums low by being very selective about the drivers they cover. So if you are a good driver, Wawanesa will definitely save you a lot of money.
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Shaun on June 6, 2010
@serbeer
Excellent list! I have collected a bunch myself. I actually have compiled a list of a bunch of insurance agencies across the country. I believe I have nearly 2000 agencies right now.
You’re welcomed to add any on my list to your database if you wish, they’re located here:
http://www.insurance-comparisons.net/insurance-agencies/Have a great day,
Shaun -
Anna Heaslet on May 1, 2011
Wawanesa is able to offer discounted rates because they avoid paying claims by any means possible. I have been given partial denial for repairs on my vehicle that are the result of indirect damage from a car accident on 3/29/11. The damaged part on my car is the engine control module, which in Mitsubishis, is not a part that usually ever has to be replaced. I have spoken to all 12 Southern california Mitsubishi dealerships from San Diego all the way up to Long Beach, and not one had sold one of these parts in more than two years, if ever. They also all say that this is a very reliable part in an eclipse, but that the violent jolt of the impact can cause serious damage in computer parts like these, and that there is no way that the damage was a coincidence. The adjuster is saying that it is a coincidence that the control module was damaged at the time of the accident, and that it was just mechanical failure. He actually told me on the phone that, “we shouldn’t have to pay for that, its expensive!” It took me 25 days from the first and last time that I spoke to my first adjuster John Hearst to get ahold of anyone at Wawanesa regarding my claim, no one would even return my messages. My car has been sitting in the shop in pieces for 20 days.. in pieces just sitting there. It took 13 days of the car sitting in pieces to even get the first partial denial. The manager of the collision center that my car is at has taken over handling my claim on their end, and completely backs me up. The adjuster says that he is denying this repair “based on my opinion, and my opinion is final unless you decide to take it to the next level.” Well, I am a licensed insurance agent working for Farmers Insurance, and I know my rights, and have proceeded to take this matter to the next level because this has definitely reached bad faith claim status. All that I asked was to be treated fairly and have my car restored to the same condition it was before the accident, which is my right as stated in my Wawanesa Policy. Neither has happened with this company, and I am very sorry I hadn’t switched to Farmers before this accident, because none of this would be happening right now.
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