Best car insurance comparison

You may be leaving hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on the table if you don’t regularly compare car insurance rates. Many factors affect your car insurance rates, and if any of them changed, it’s possible that the cheapest policy will come from a different insurer.

You should compare car insurance rates at these times, when your rates are likely to change significantly:

• You bought a car
• You added a teen driver to your policy
• You got married or divorced
• Your credit score changed
• You bought a house or moved
• You got cited for a DUI or major violation or caused an accident

Even if your status remains the same, you should do some car insurance shopping every six or 12 months. Insurance companies use different formulas to set your rates, so the price for the same policy can vary significantly even if you don’t have a life-changing event. That means you can wind up overpaying if you don’t compare insurance rates from several companies at least once a year.

Save by comparing car insurance rates

The chart below shows the highest and lowest rates from six insurers for each location. You’ll see that savings of over 50 percent can be had from doing an auto insurance quotes comparison:

* Averages are based on insurance for a single 40-year-old male who commutes 12 miles to work each day, with policy limits of 100/300/50 ($100, 000 for injury liability for one person, $300, 000 for all injuries and $50, 000 for property damage in an accident) and a $500 deductible on collision and comprehensive coverage. Data for CarInsurance.com provided by Quadrant Information Services.

Now that you’re ready to save, we’ll walk you through the process of reviewing your coverage, gathering the personal information you’ll need, comparing rates and vetting potential insurers.

1. Get an idea of what you can expect to pay.

If you’ve moved or if you just want to get a feel for what car insurance costs in your neighborhood or are a new driver, you can get an idea of what people in your area are paying by using our car insurance comparison tool, showing the average car insurance rate in each ZIP code.

2. Review your existing policy and assess coverage.

While you shop around for the price and insurance company that is right for you, you should know what coverages are right for you too. If this is a new policy you need to meet at least your state's minimum liability car insurance requirements. If you simply want to find the cheapest car insurance possible when comparison shopping, you would look for liability coverage only, and in the smallest amount your state will accept. (Legally required minimum liability coverage amounts vary by state.) Bear in mind that some states require so little coverage that an accident might leave any other assets you have, such as a home or savings, vulnerable to lawsuits.

If you’re replacing a policy, review the information on your policy to see if your existing coverage is still the best for you.