The car insurance quote checklist

Before you request quotes

• Your current declarations page — this has your existing coverages and limits
• Year, make, model, and VIN for each vehicle
• Approximate annual mileage per vehicle
• Names, dates of birth, and licence numbers for every driver
• Accidents, claims, and violations in recent years
• Your current deductibles
• The garaging address for each vehicle

Decide these before you're on the phone

If you decide these under sales pressure, you'll decide them badly. Work them out in advance.

• What liability limits you actually want — not just the minimum
• What deductible you could comfortably pay tomorrow
• Whether you need collision and comprehensive on each vehicle
• Whether rental reimbursement matters to your household
• Whether you want uninsured motorist coverage

After the quotes arrive

Line them up and confirm each row matches. If any differ, the price comparison isn't valid yet.

• Identical bodily injury and property damage liability limits
• Collision and comprehensive both present, at matching deductibles
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matching
• Medical payments or PIP matching
• Same optional coverages included or excluded
• Same drivers, same vehicles, same mileage, same address
• Whether any fees for monthly installments are included

Before you switch

• Confirm the new policy's effective date leaves no gap
• Get the new policy in force before cancelling the old one
• Ask whether any cancellation fee applies to the old policy
• Update your lender or lessor if one is listed on the policy

Everything an insurer will ask for

Assembling this first turns a twenty-minute call into a five-minute one and, more usefully, improves the accuracy of what comes back.

• The vehicle identification number for each car, which is more reliable than make and model
• Current mileage and a realistic annual estimate
• Every licensed driver in the household, with dates of birth and licence numbers
• The garaging address - where the car sleeps, not where you receive post
• Any accidents, claims or violations in recent years, with approximate dates
• Your current declarations page, which is the fastest way to quote like for like
• Lienholder or lessor details if the vehicle is financed or leased
• Dates and details of any lapse in previous cover

The four decisions to make before anyone quotes you

A quote is only as useful as the specification behind it. Arriving without one means accepting whatever the seller assumes, which is generally the cheapest-looking option rather than the right one.

• Liability limits, set against what you would stand to lose rather than the state minimum
• Whether to carry collision and comprehensive on each vehicle, and at what deductible
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist limits, which should generally match your liability
• Which add-ons you actually need, having first checked what you already have elsewhere

Why the issued premium differs from the quote

An online quote is generated from what you typed. The issued premium reflects what the insurer verifies afterwards, and the two frequently differ.

Insurers check motor vehicle records, claims history databases and, where permitted, a credit-based insurance score. An incident you had forgotten, a household member you did not list, or a garaging address that does not match will surface and re-rate the policy.

That is verification rather than a bait and switch. The way to avoid a surprise is to disclose accurately at the quote stage, including the driver you were hoping not to mention.

Comparison sites, and what they actually are

Some comparison tools produce real quotes from insurers. Others generate an estimate and sell your details onward, which is why one form can be followed by a great many calls.

Neither is dishonest, but they are different products. Before entering anything, check whether the site says it shares your information with partners, and whether the figure shown is described as a quote or an estimate.

Going direct to two or three insurers, plus one independent agent who can place with several, generally produces better information with less noise.

Reading the quotes when they arrive

Two quotes are comparable only when the coverages, limits and deductibles match. A cheaper quote is frequently a different policy rather than a better price for the same one.

Put them side by side and check the liability limits first, then each deductible separately, then the uninsured motorist limits, then what is present on one and absent on the other. Only after that does the premium tell you anything.

Ask each insurer for the annual figure rather than the monthly one, because installment fees are not always visible in a monthly comparison.

The order that avoids a gap

The mistake that costs most is not picking the wrong insurer. It is creating a gap between policies, even a short one.

Get the new policy issued and confirm the effective date in writing. Only then cancel the old one, effective the same day or later. Never the other way round, and never on a verbal assurance that cover has started.

A lapse in auto cover is recorded and priced against you afterwards, sometimes for years, and in some places it affects your registration as well.

Discounts to raise while you are on the call

The quote conversation is the natural moment to ask, because everything is being rated from scratch anyway. Ask by name rather than asking whether anything applies.

• Bundling with home or renters cover at the same insurer
• Paid in full rather than monthly, which avoids installment fees
• Autopay and paperless, which are small but stack
• Safety and anti-theft equipment on the vehicle, read from the actual specification
• Low annual mileage, or a usage-based programme if your driving genuinely suits one
• Employer, alumni, professional body, credit union or military affiliation
• Defensive driving or a good-student credit where applicable

Timing the exercise

Some moments produce better quotes than others, and shopping at the wrong one wastes the effort.

Quote before a renewal rather than after it, so there is time to switch without a gap. Quote after an incident has aged out of a rating window rather than while it is still counted - and ask your current insurer how long that is, because it differs between companies.

Quote after any change that helps: a shorter commute, a car paid off, a young driver moving out. Shopping every single year rarely repays the effort; every few years, or after a genuine change, is a more useful rhythm.

What to check on the policy you accept

The quote is a proposal and the declarations page is the contract. Reading one against the other takes five minutes and catches most of what goes wrong.

Confirm the liability limits, both deductibles, the uninsured motorist limits, every listed driver and vehicle, the garaging address, the effective date, and any add-on you agreed to. Then confirm anything you asked to be removed is actually absent.

Errors at issue are common and trivially fixable at this stage. The same error discovered at a claim is neither.

Common mistakes at the quoting stage

Most of what goes wrong is avoidable and it is usually one of a short list.

Quoting the state minimum liability because it produces the lowest number, without asking what it would leave exposed. Comparing quotes with different deductibles and concluding something about price. Omitting a household driver in the hope of a better rate, which surfaces at verification or at a claim. Letting the old policy lapse before the new one is in force.

And the quietest: accepting renewals without quoting for years, then discovering the increase was an expired discount rather than a rate change.

If a quote comes back higher than expected

A quote well above what you expected usually has a specific cause rather than a general one, and asking which is more useful than moving on to the next insurer.

The common answers: an incident on record you thought had aged out, a household member the insurer found and you had not listed, a garaging address that rates differently from where you receive post, a lapse in previous cover, or a credit-based insurance score where that is permitted.

Several of those are correctable or temporary. Ask which factor drove it, then ask when that factor stops applying - that tells you whether to accept, correct something, or come back in a year.

Quoting for a household rather than a driver

Auto policies are rated on the household, not on you individually, and that is the source of most of the surprises at verification.

Anyone of driving age who lives at your address generally has to be disclosed, whether or not they drive your car - including an adult child home from university and a partner who moved in recently. Where someone genuinely should not be covered, a formal named-driver exclusion is the mechanism rather than omission.

Getting this right at the quote stage costs a little and getting it wrong costs a claim. Ask each insurer how they want household members who do not drive your vehicles to be handled, because the answer differs.

Keep what you were quoted

Save the accepted quote showing the limits, deductibles and add-ons, then read the issued declarations page against it. Differences are usually explainable, but they should be explained now rather than discovered at a claim, and the quote is the only record of what you actually agreed.

Ask for the annual figure

Comparing monthly premiums between insurers hides installment fees, which vary between companies and are administrative cost rather than cover. Ask what each policy costs paid in full for the year, and compare those numbers instead.

One last thing

Every item on this page is free to do and none of it requires expertise. The work is in doing it before the quote rather than after the claim.