My husband and I have switched car insurance several times in the 25 plus years we have been married. We have mainly used local agents of national companies in the Baton Rouge, LA area. However, we found a much better rate on auto insurance and it was all by accident.
Being a homeowner and owning multiple vehicles and sometimes a motorcycle too, we have always been able to take advantage of multiple discounts when it comes to auto insurance rates. I thought we had a pretty good rate on car insurance because I always compare rates every year before renewing our policies with the current agent. The rate we were paying was a good bit less than quotes from other companies in the area.
A few years ago, my husband and I purchased some additional property with an older home on it in our neighboring state of Mississippi. The home and property had to be insured and I found that most insurance companies in Louisiana were not licensed to write policies in the State of Mississippi.
I did my homework and started getting quotes for a good insurance rate on the new property. I compared rates from several local insurance companies in the area that were both independent companies and those that were part of national chains. I found the best rate at an insurance company that was part of a large company. It turned out this was the same company we had both our home owners and car insurance with in the State of Louisiana. This made me feel better about the choosing this company because we were happy with the service we had received in the years past in Louisiana.
I went to the local insurance office to sign the final paperwork and to set up payments through our escrow account at our mortgage company. Before we started to do the paperwork, the insurance agent asked if we needed to insure our vehicles as well. He mentioned a discount for having both home owners and vehicles covered, which I already knew about from having our polices on our home in Louisiana and our vehicle coverage through the same company.
I told the agent that our vehicles were registered in the State of Louisiana. Since I had been hearing the story over and over again from Louisiana insurance agents saying they could not write policies in Mississippi, I thought this would also be the case for Mississippi companies writing Louisiana policies. Boy, was I wrong! This is of course a choice that agents have and it is an advantage to some and not others depending on the area you live in.
My new insurance agent is fully licensed to write car insurance policies in the State of Louisiana. I decided to let him give us a quote. A quote doesn’t cost anything and I figured it would be good information to have on hand for possible use in the future. Then I was blown away. The quote we received was about half the cost of what we were currently paying in Louisiana. Score!
It only made sense for us to move our vehicle polices over to the new agent. This move ended up giving my family the home/vehicle discount, multiple vehicle discount and also good driver discounts since we do not have any accidents or tickets on record.
If you think you are paying too much for car insurance, I would suggest that you call around to local agents, a neighboring state, and also to a national company to compare the rates and figure out the best rate on auto insurance for you and your family.
Source:
Personal Experience