Get that car accident reported as soon as possible.

Better to have a plan, than hope for the best after a car accident.

If you drive a car, you are most likely going to be in a car accident at one point or another. This isn’t to say that you are going to cause a car accident at some point in your life, only that you will be an involved party.

So when the time comes that you are in a car accident, keep these 6 steps in mind to make the initial stages of the claims process with your insurance company go as smooth as possible.

Car Accident Step 1: Call the Police

Before you even get out of the car to talk to the other person call 911 and report the accident, especially if the accident is not your fault. It is best to do it before talking to the other person so that they can’t talk you out of getting the police involved.

If there are any injuries this will also get help there faster than if you waited.

Car Accident Step 2: Get Information

Write down the license plate number, the make of the vehicle, and the model of the vehicle of the other person first. After you get that information, then talk to the other person for their name, number, and insurance company information.

You want to get the license plate first, just in case the other person decides to leave the scene of the accident.

Car Accident Step 3: Keep Quiet

Never ever admit that you were at fault for an accident to the other person or the police at the scene.

Car Accident Step 4: Make Detailed Notes

Write down everything you remember from the car accident as soon as you can.  This includes the time, the weather conditions, anything in the road, what you did, and what you saw.

Car Accident Step 5: Police Information

When the police take your statement, don’t forget to get their information also. You are going to want the name and badge number of the police officer, as well as how you can get a copy of the police report.

Car Accident Step 6: Call Your Insurance Company

If at all possible call your insurance company from the scene of the accident. Getting it done and out of the way will get your claim on track to be processed faster. It is also best to give your claim statement while the accident is still fresh in your mind and hasn’t had a chance to fade in your memory yet.

Most car insurance companies have claims departments that are open 24 hours a day so you should be able to get a hold of them to file your claim, regardless of when your accident happens.

J.D. Power says that price alone may not keep you happy with your new car insurance company.

A study done by J.D. Power and Associates in 2014 found that consumers are actually more likely to be happy with their car insurance company if they are treated well, not just if they are saving money. So while you may not like that price hike that you just got from your current insurance company, you are more likely to still be happy with them if they treat you well, compared to a new insurance company that may be cheaper but treats you badly or indifferently.

Key Car Insurance Satisfaction Findings

Directly from J.D. Power and Associates, these are their key findings:

1) On average, customers saved $300 when switching insurers in the past 12 months. The longer customers had been with their previous insurer, the greater the savings when they switched carriers, likely because they had been experiencing rate increases. Customers who were with their prior insurer for 11 years or longer before switching save an average of $426 per year on their premiums, compared with $291 among those who had been with their previous insurer less than two years before switching. Moreover, satisfaction among customers who had been with their insurer 11 years or longer prior to switching is higher than among those who were with their insurer fewer than two years (855 vs. 820, respectively, on a 1,000 point scale).

2) Insurers that achieve high satisfaction scores by providing an outstanding onboarding experience also retain a higher percentage of those customers and have fewer new customers shopping. Among customers who are highly satisfied in their first year with their insurer (overall satisfaction scores of 850 or higher), 81 percent remain with that insurer and only 41 percent shop other insurers. Among customers with lower satisfaction in the first year (809 or lower), only 61 percent remain with that insurer and 61 percent shop.

3) Rate increases do not drive customers to shop as much as poor service does, as customers are tolerant of a certain level of rate increases. However, rate hikes of more than $200 can triple the rate of customers who switch insurers.

Car Insurance Companies That Satisfy

If you are just fed up with how your insurance company treats you and need a new one, try one of these 5 insurance companies that ranked the highest in the J.D. Power and Associates annual Insurance Shopping Study:

• Erie Insurance
• MetLife
• State Farm
• American Family
• Ameriprise

Per the results of the study, one of these 5 will make you a lot happier than the car insurance company that can quote you the lowest rate.

Car insurance reviews are a great way to find the truth about a car insurance company.

Car insurance reviews give you a chance to measure and assess what an insurance company is really like.

Relying on an insurance company’s advertising to tell you what they are really like is like asking the cooks at a chili cook off who has the best chili. You never ask the source!

If you want to truth about how something is, you ask someone that has no vested interest and who has tried a product or company. This is exactly what most car insurance reviews are.

Negative Car Insurance Reviews

Most car insurance reviews will give you a pretty good idea as to what a car insurance company is like. However, the other ones are from people that have written their car insurance review with an agenda. They are the ones that have a vested interest in the car insurance company, not in its success, but in its failure.

These car insurance reviews are pretty easy to spot as they are extremely negative and have no information to back up why the reviewer is giving a negative review. It could be because their claim was denied, but they fail to tell you that the police report stated that they were at fault. It could be because their rates went up and they claim to not know why, leaving out the fact that they added their teen driver to their policy.

These reviews are written by people that are upset and are striking out at the insurance company, because there is nothing else they can do. The best thing that you can do though, is to skip over these reviews and don’t take them into account when you are making a decision about an insurance company.

Positive Car Insurance Reviews

When it comes to positive car insurance reviews, they are usually written by people that are genuinely happy about their car insurance company. When it comes to car insurance reviews, you can usually trust a positive review more than a negative review.

The Perfect Car Insurance Reviews

The perfect car insurance reviews give information to backup why they are happy or not happy with their insurance company.

For example:

“XYZ car insurance is great because my agent went over my policy with me and found some extra discounts I qualified for that decreased my premium”.

Not

“XYZ car insurance is awesome!”

These are the reviews that you want to pay the most attention to as they are the most valuable and the most informative.

To find car insurance reviews for companies you are curious about, click here.

Price isn’t the only thing to look for in the best insurance company.

Quality, not price, will show you who the best car insurance company is.

Everyone wants to end up with the best car insurance company in the industry. But how exactly do you know who that is?

Is it the insurance company with the best advertising? Nope.

Is it the insurance company with just the best price? Nope.

Finding the best car insurance company is going to take research and you asking a lot of questions of the person you are getting a quote from. Here’s what you should be looking for to find the best car insurance company.

Coverage

The amount of coverage you can get from an insurance company and the coverage counseling that you get from the insurance company or one of their agents is extremely important. We don’t just have insurance because it’s required; we have insurance to protect us and our financial assets.

The best car insurance companies are the ones that will sit down and talk to you in depth about your financial situation and suggest coverage that is best suited to prevent a financial disaster in the event of a major car accident. The best insurance companies will also offer limits that are high enough to prevent you from maxing out your coverage on a car accident. Because once the coverage is maxed out, you are personally responsible for paying for everything after that out of your own pocket.

Repair Experience

The true test of who the best car insurance company is happens when there is a claim. The best car insurance companies will offer you the following:

• An option to use their repair shops or choose your own
• Offer repair shops that are reputable
• The assurance that if your repairs break or are not done correctly that they will make it right

What’s Not Covered

The best car insurance companies out there offer insurance coverage for everything and anything that can damage you or your vehicle.

Thought that all insurance companies did that already? Unfortunately, there are still insurance companies out there that don’t pay for damages that are caused by uninsured motorists, cars that are stolen, damage caused by animals, or damage caused by natural disasters.

So before you agree to purchase coverage from an insurance company, make sure that there are no coverage gaps in their policies.

Customer Reviews

An easy way to see who the best insurance companies are is to read customer reviews. While there are no perfect insurance companies out there, the best car insurance companies will have more positive reviews than negative reviews.

Check out our huge collection of customer reviews on almost every car insurance company in America here and find out just who is the best car insurance company.

A good car insurance comparison will take longer than 15 minutes.

A good car insurance comparison will halo you find the best price for the coverage you need.

Whether you are looking for a new insurance company or not, it is good to do a car insurance comparison between insurance companies at least once a year. By doing this once a year it will help you see how much you are paying for insurance compared to other companies, so then you can decide if you want to keep paying what you are to your current insurance company or if there is another company you can get the same coverage with for less.

At the same time you are doing your car insurance comparison take a look at the coverages that you are paying for on your current car insurance policy. The coverages that you have may no longer offer you the best protection or you may be paying for coverage that you don’t really need anymore.

So before you start contacting other insurance companies to compare rates, contact your own insurance company to see if you need to change up your current coverages to be completely protected.

Have Your Information Ready

Before you start contacting other insurance companies make sure you have your most current declarations page in front of you. This is the information you get each time your car insurance policy renews or you make a change. It will have all of your coverages broken down by price, which is what you need to know before you start comparing what other insurance companies charge for the same coverages.

If you and your insurance agent or insurance company have decided that you need to update your coverages, have a breakdown of all the new coverages and their prices available then.

Track The Different Offers

Remember as you are contacting different companies during your car insurance comparison to keep track of the information you get. You need to track:

• Specific coverages and their prices
• Any odd requirements or exclusions
• Monthly payment fees
• Cancellation penalties
• Length of coverage period (6 months or 1 year)

Find Sources with Multiple Car Insurance Comparisons

To save yourself a whole lot of time and trouble, try to get as many quotes from one source as possible. For example, contact an independent agent rather than an exclusive agent. With an exclusive agent you will only be able to get a quote from the one insurance company that they represent. With an independent agent, you will be able to get quotes from multiple insurance companies all at once.

If you prefer to do things online, use our quote aggregator on the home page. Enter your information once and you will get multiple quotes for your car insurance comparison with minimal work.