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Car insurance companies determine how much they charge you based on your driver profile. Factors that can impact your rates include: 

• Demographics -  your age, home ownership, credit score, and more 
• Your driving history - how long you’ve been driving, traffic violations, and more 
• Your car -  make, model, and year 
• Where you live -  state and zip code 
• How much coverage you want 

Read more about the factors that impact your car insurance rate 

Switching your car insurance is easy, even if you are in the middle of your current policy.
Here are some helpful tips to consider to switch your car insurance:

1. Decide what coverage you want with your next policy 
2. Check if your current provider charges cancellation penalties or fees 
3. Compare prices from at least 3-5 insurance companies (Rate Retriever makes this easy, giving you personalized rates from the top companies near you)
4. Get a final quote from at least one of your choices
5. Cancel your current policy once your new one begins

Read more about how to switch your car insurance 

The biggest difference between Rate Retriever and other comparison sites is that we are a free and impartial research tool NOT an insurance marketplace.​ This means you can’t purchase a policy directly through RateRetriever.com, but you can use our tool to independently research your options and seamlessly connect with the provider you choose.

Unlike other insurance comparison sites, we:

• Use third-party data to give you more accurate rate estimates instead of inaccurate, suspiciously low quotes to get you in the door
• Do not limit your list of results to paid advertisers
• Do not collect your email or phone number before we let you see your results
• Give you results after just five questions (however, your results will be more accurate if you complete your profile)

We like to think that Rate Retriever is your insurance companion, not just another insurance comparison site. Our values guide everything we do, which is why we strive to offer transparent, trustworthy insurance tools.

Read more about Rate Retriever

Rate Retriever works with national and local insurance providers to provide our users with a seamless insurance shopping experience. We may earn a commission from our insurance provider partners when you click on a link, call, or purchase a policy from one of the providers listed on our site. That said, we’re committed to providing you with accurate, bias-free information, and we do not allow our partnerships to limit the results or influence the information we share with you.  

We do not sell your personal information, charge you for using our tools, or sell you insurance policies. Additionally, should you choose to purchase a policy from one of our partners, the price you pay will not be adversely affected. 

Read our full earnings disclosure

At Rate Retriever, we want to help you compare as many companies as we can. However, to keep our comparison tools free to our users, we do have to limit the amount of data we display on each search. The list of companies you see represent top carriers in your geographic area based on the total premiums written. We are exploring ways to expand our search results in the future.

There are many ways you can try to get cheaper car insurance. The first is simply to get quotes from multiple providers. This will help you determine if you’re currently receiving the cheapest rates based on your needs and driver profile. Rate Retriever makes the comparison process easy.

Sometimes, the reason your car insurance is so expensive is due to your driver profile. For example, drivers under 20 years old usually pay more for insurance than more experienced drivers, and drivers with a recent at-fault accident or traffic violation typically pay more.

There are ways to lower the cost of your insurance such as taking a defensive driving course. Check with your provider to see if there are any discounts you qualify for or can reasonably earn.

Read more about getting cheap car insurance 

Theanswer to this question depends on where you live and what you would like to cover.  

Each state has its own minimum requirements on the type and amount of insurance needed. When you’re trying to determine what and how much car insurance you need, you can start by reviewing your state’s requirements.

Find out what’s required in your state 

Once you review your state’s minimum requirements, you may find that you want additional coverage. For example, sometimes owners of new cars want comprehensive coverage to insure their car from natural disasters and vandalism, even though comprehensive coverage isn’t required by their state. To figure out what insurance you want, you can review the different types of insurance to decide what makes the most sense for your situation.  

Learn about the different types of car insurance