Paying less for cheap car insurance is sometimes not because you found a great deal, but more because you don’t have enough coverage.

Cheap insurance may actually be a case of too little coverage, leading to denied insurance claims.

Finding cheap car insurance can make anyone happy. The less we have to pay out of pocket for something that we cannot touch the easier it is to make the payments on it.

But, getting cheap car insurance may not always be the best thing for you later down the road.

Not Enough Coverage

Even though you think that you have just got a good deal on cheap car insurance from your agent or insurance company, you may be wrong.

The actual situation may be that you just purchased a low amount of insurance coverage. If you purchased too low of an amount, you may not have enough to cover an accident. Which means you will have to pay what your insurance company didn’t out of your own pocket.

As an example, you purchased the minimum amount of insurance that your state requires just so that you can drive. Your liability limits on your policy could look something like this: 15/20/15.  This means that the most your insurance company will pay out to the other person if you cause an accident is $15,000 per person for medical bills, $20,000 total for all medical bills for the other party and $15,000 total for all property damage.

With the information that you know about how ridiculously high medical bills are do you think that this amount of insurance will cover all of the bills and other charges if the accident was serious? If you don’t have enough insurance to cover all the bills and you are at fault for the accident you are legally responsible for paying the rest.

Was the money you saved on the cheap car insurance worth what you are going to have to pay out of pocket?

Too High of a Deductible

The amount that you choose for your deductible on your comprehensive and collision coverage is the amount that you will be paying out of your pocket in the case of an accident.

For example, if you have a $1000 deductible and you are in an accident where the repairs to your vehicle end up costing $2500; you are responsible for paying the first $1000 and your insurance company will pay the remaining balance of $1500.  If you cannot pay the amount of your deductible you will have to work something out with the body shop or you will have to forego getting your vehicle repaired.

So many times people raise their deductible on their insurance policy just to get cheap car insurance.  They then find themselves with a damaged vehicle that cannot be fixed because they cannot afford to pay their deductible.

Farmers Insurance uses its University of Farmers students as human thumbtacks to show that they are progressing east.

Summary

Commercial opens on the outside of the University of Farmers campus.

Screen changes to people in a classroom in blue jumpsuits and blue helmets jumping up and down. We find out that the people that are jumping up and down are agents and they are going through an exercise.

The instructor is sitting on a ladder and asks what the purpose of the exercise is.

Screen changes to a full shot of the classroom where we see 3 of the agents stuck on a United States map and three more jumping on two large trampolines.

The instructors question is answered by one of the agents with, “Expansion, Sir. Farmers is heading east.”

Agents continue to bounce on the trampolines and then throw themselves on the map where they are sticking from west to east.

In response to the instructor’s questions, the jumping agents explain that Farmers has the rest of the country covered already and that people should care because Farmers has the “sharpest agents out there” that can save people “hundreds”.

Commercial ends with Farmers logo and “Now in Pennsylvania” on the screen under the logo.

Point of the Commercial

Farmers is announcing that they are going to start writing in more states in the eastern part of the United States. I would be surprised if they don’t continue to recycle this commercial for each of the new states that they start writing in and just have a different “Now in …….” on the last screen of the commercial for each state.

What They Want You to Do

For those that already live in states that write Farmers, they are emphasizing that a Farmers agent could save you money on your car insurance (Yawn).

For those that live in states that Farmers is now starting to write in, they are letting you know that there is a new player in town. They want you to call and get a quote from one of their new agents in your state. New company means that you have never called this insurance company for an insurance quote before and they could be cheaper than your current insurance company.

My Opinion

The commercial got its point across, but it’s nothing memorable. I feel that the commercial is leaning to the dumb side and not in a good way. Thumbs Down.

Getting car insurance quotes is the first step to purchase a policy, regardless if it is for a brand new driver or someone looking for a better company.

Car insurance quotes from multiple companies will help you find the best premium.

The reasons for needing car insurance quotes are as different as the drivers that need the insurance. It may be because you are getting terrible customer service at your current insurance agency or it could be because it is time to start shopping around for better insurance rates. No matter the reason, here are some tips on how to begin that search for new car insurance quotes.

Where to Get Car Insurance Quotes

There are three main avenues to go down to get the car insurance quotes that you need.

One, find an independent, insurance agent in your area. A local agent will be able to give you quotes for the handful of insurance companies that they write for. This will give you an idea of the prices that you will be looking at and will give you a chance to compare a number of companies all at once.

Two, contact an insurance company directly. You can contact an insurance company directly for car insurance quotes either by phone or through their internet site.

By purchasing your insurance from the insurance company directly, you usually are going to see a lower price than if you got the same quote from an agent. This is because the quote you are getting directly from the insurance company is not going to include the commission that is paid to the agent for selling you the policy. At the same time though, you are not going to have an insurance agent there to help you if you have any problems with the insurance company.

Progressive and Geico are good places to start to get direct insurance quotes.

Three, use a quote aggregator like the available here on Car Insurance Guidebook. It is the easiest of the three ways to get a car insurance quote. You simply answer the questions that are presented to you and enter your information as directed. Once the system has all of the information that it needs, it will present you with quotes of multiple insurance companies to compare.

How to Start Getting Car Insurance Quotes

To get started, have the declarations page from your current or most current insurance policy in front of you. You will need the limits and coverages from this page so that you can get quotes on the same insurance coverage. This will allow you to know for certain if you are really getting a better price or if you are getting a lower price because the quote is for less coverage.

Also have your driver’s license, VIN number for your vehicle and also your social security number handy before you start your quest for car insurance quotes.

Finding out about insurance companies takes a combination of their own advertising, but also reading reviews of the company.

An insurance company is always trying to make themselves stand out from the competition.

Insurance companies get most of their business by making you familiar with their name and what they sell. They do this through unending advertising, name recognition and more advertising (refer back to unending).

But, even with all of their efforts to make us well known with their name how do we know if an insurance company is really worth our time and money?

We can find out by using both the information from the insurance company and also seeking out information from other consumers.

From the Insurance Company

Insurance is an extremely competitive industry. Each company has to compete with another company to try and sell you something that you have to have and also don’t want to buy.

To do this the insurance companies are going to put their best foot forward. They are going to tell you “we have better customer satisfaction” or “you can save xx%” to get you to purchase a policy with them. This is the advertising that you can ignore or just enjoy for the entertainment without paying attention to what is being sold (i.e. Geico’s woodchuck commercial).

What you do need to pay attention to are the advertisements that introduce an insurance company’s latest and greatest new program for the insurance that they sell. Products like Nationwide’s Vanishing Deductible or Allstate’s Accident Forgiveness.

Listen when an insurance company offers a new program that none of the other companies offer. It may be something that could save you money or make it worth your while to call the company for a quote.

From the Consumer

You can find out how an insurance company treats its clients by talking to people that have been insured with them.  First, ask people you know who they are insured with. These are the people you will get the most honest response from. If they are happy they will tell you about it and vice versa.

Find insurance company reviews on websites that write about insurance or business. These reviews are written from the point of view of a person that usually has experience in the area of insurance, but is not affiliated with the insurance company that they are reviewing. These reviews offer a professional and even a consumer point of view about a company.

Look for insurance consumer reviews on the internet. Consumer reviews are the rawest of all information that you can find about an insurance company. They are not professionally edited nor is the person writing it restricted in what they say.

Don’t forget to add “contact insurance company” when you are making your moving to do list or you may find yourself without the insurance coverage you have paid for.

Don't forget to update your insurance company on your new location after you have jumped to a different state.

Unknown to most is the fact that insurance is actually a state regulated industry. The individual states make their own insurance rules and regulations and each insurance company that wants to write in a particular state must adhere to these rules and also be granted permission to write in a state.

So if you move to a different state, you are left with an insurance policy that may not be in compliance with your new state’s rules and regulations.

This may cause problems for you in the future if you do not update your insurance company of your new location. This is why it is important for you to go through the steps of getting auto insurance when moving to a new state.

Contact Your Insurance Company

As soon as you know that you are going to be moving or soon after you have moved, you need to contact your insurance company to let them know you are in a new state. Because insurance is issued according to the state that you live in, your insurance company will have to know that you have moved to a new state so that they can adjust your policy accordingly.

Also not letting your insurance company know that you have moved to a new state could nullify your coverage and if you have a claim, your insurance company may not have to pay for it even though you have paid the premium on your insurance.

Change in Rates

Insurance rates are based on the statistical likelihood that you will have an accident. These statistics are based not only on information about you as a person, but also the location that you live in. Some states run a higher chance of an accident happening because of a higher population, natural disasters or crime rates. (This is also true of different cities.) All of which can cause you to see a decrease or increase in your insurance premium when you move from one state to another.

May Have to Find New Company

Because insurance is regulated state by state, some insurance companies are either not large enough to have a presence in every single state or they choose not to write in a state for a number of different reasons.

First, they may chose not to write in a state because the insurance laws may be ridiculous and they can’t or do not wish to comply with them. This saves the company additional manpower and money to make sure that they are in compliance with the state laws and also from having to pay fines if they cannot comply.

Second, insurance companies are in business to make money, with this being said if a particular state poses such a high risk in what an insurance company will end up paying out in claims, they can opt to just not provide insurance in that state.