Shopping for car insurance can be a real pain, let's admit it. With all the commercials on TV lately from companies promising to save you hundreds of dollars on your policy, everyone and his brother in on the phone to every company in the phone book and online asking for a car insurance quote.
Getting a quote is one thing, but a getting a quote that is close to what you are actually going to pay, is another. Rule number one when getting car insurance quotes is to be honest! Otherwise, the policy you end up with ultimately will have premiums much higher than any quote you received. You're only kidding yourself!
Many insurance agencies won't even give you a "ball park" quote – they want your personal information up front so that they aren't wasting their time doing rate checks only to find out you lied about your driving record and now you really can 't afford a policy from them.
These companies now want your social security number immediately. This way they can pull your driving record and credit history right away. This is the information that is necessary to give you a quote that will be very close to your actual premiums.
Lying on an application – in person or online – won't help you. If you say your credit is good and you've never had a ticket, your quote will be based on that information. If you like what you get back and tell them to write up the policy, you could be very disappointed a few days later when you find out your premium is going from $ 239 a month to $ 415 a month because you have tons of tickets and a repossessed car on your credit report.
Of course, the problem with handing out your social security number each time you ask for a quote is because the company is indeed going to check your credit report. Too many inquiries isn't good. It may not be fair, but if you keep asking for quotes, your FICO score is going to be affected to the point that when you finally find a company you want to do business with, and they pull one final credit check, your FICO score may have dropped so many points that the quote you got last month isn't good any more.
So, before going crazy and asking for a quote from every company you can find a phone number or web address for, just decide on a few you want to focus on.