The Best Way to Buy Auto Insurance Online

 
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Video Blog: Basics of an Auto Insurance Policy

Transcription
 
Slide 1:
 
Hello! I’m Dan Lyles with Lyles Insurance. In this video, we’re going to go over the best way to buy auto insurance online.
 
Slide 2:
 
Searching online for auto insurance really sucks! The vast majority of the search results you will get are the websites that you don’t want. So in this video, I want to help you learn what you need to know, and see if we can save you some money.
 
Slide 3:
 
So here’s what you will see typically when you search for auto insurance online. And it falls into five basic categories, four of the five I would not recommend you use. But we’ll go through each one. First, the websites of individual auto insurance companies. The only problem with that is it’s not time efficient to quote with one company at a time since there’s so many companies out there. And another reason is, most of those companies tend to avoid agents and use customer service reps, who aren’t good at explain coverages to you. They’re not looking into your best interest, they’re looking into the company’s best interest.
 Number two: Lead generation sites. Watch out for these! Basically what they do is they try to fool you, and appear to look like a company’s or agent’s website. But when in fact they don’t sell auto insurance at all. What they do, they take your quote information and sell it to other agents. And when you do this, your phone is just going to blow up! And the best way to spot these type of sites is they look anonymous. So what I tell people, “look for NAP” (name, address and phone number). Any agent’s or company’s website worth their salt is going to have a name, address and phone number prominently displayed on their website. If you don’t see that, run!
Number three: Captive agent websites. Now there’s nothing wrong with being a captive agent. The vast majority of them are very reputable, very helpful, and looking out for you. The problem is, they only sell insurance with one company. They’re a direct employee of that company. And thus if they can’t find you a good rate, their hands are tied.
 
Number four: Independent agent websites. This is where I recommend you look. Now I am biased, of course, because I’m an independent agent myself. But the facts are, it’s the most time efficient of any other way of getting a quote. Because you give your quote information once, and the agent will do the shopping around for you, and then find a company with the best rate.
 
Number five: And then finally, you’ve got ads, which is a combination of the first four categories. The problem is, the vast majority of those fall in to the first two categories I mentioned (auto insurance companies and lead generation sites), just for the fact that they pour so much money into it. So keep that in mind when you’re searching online.
 
Slide 4:
 
Before we finish up, I want to give to give you some pointers that will help you out with both the search process and the actual getting an online quote. Let’s start with the search process. Number one, avoid very short search inquiries. Longer and more descriptive terms work much better. And the reason is, they will help you weed out a lot of those companies you don’t want. It won’t eliminate them, but it will at least cut the numbers down. Number two: Don’t be afraid to scroll down to further pages in the search results. That’s going to be your best chance at finding a smaller agent/agency who can help you. The only thing you’re going to find mostly on the first page is very large companies and we’ve done went over the negatives of both of those. And number three: Local search results can be very helpful. So keep that in mind.
 
Slide 5:
 
And finally, the process of getting an online quote. Only fill out a quote form if you have a good understanding of the basic coverages of auto insurance. There are five of them: Liability coverage, Uninsured motorist coverage, Medical payments coverage (also known as “PIP” or “Medical Benefits” in other states), and four and five kind of go together: Comprehensive and Collision coverage (that’s actual physical damage coverage on your vehicle known as “full coverage”). So make sure you know all five of those. If you don’t, call someone and ask. Or if you like to do the research yourself, there’s plenty of websites that will explain those five coverages to you. Also, I have several of those in my blog. And I’ve listed the number one video blog I have on this subject. And I will post that at the bottom of the video to make it easy for you to click on.
 
Slide 6:
 
Number two: Be as accurate as you can when listing what’s on your driving record. I can’t stress this enough because if you don’t know what’s on your driving record, then any quote you’re going to get is not going to be accurate with prices. If you don’t know what’s on your driving record, go to your state’s BMV/DMV or maybe you can get it online. Either way, you’ve got to be accurate on your driving record to get an accurately priced quote. And number three: (and this is another very important one) Be sure to list all drivers in your household. Anyone of driving age needs to be on there. And the reason I say that is, I’ve seen a lot of people run into trouble where someone has had an accident, and they weren’t listed on the policy. And sometimes a claim has been denied because of it. So make sure you list all drivers in your household of driving age.
 
Slide 7:
 
For those of you who live in OH, IN, MI, PA, VA or WV, if you would like for me to personally run you an auto insurance quote, I’ll be very happy to do so. I’ve posted a link for my website where you can get an auto insurance quote. And I’ll post that link below the video to make it easy for you to click on. Or, if you’d rather just call me for a quote, I’ve also posted my phone number. Thank you for watching and have a great day!