When requesting a car insurance quote, you will be asked to provide a few pieces of information. This is a piece of cake if you live alone and have one car, but if there are other drivers and vehicles in the house, you’ll want to do some preparation first.
Sometimes getting an insurance quote can feel like a game of 20-Questions or like the first visit to a new doctor. You’re asked for a ton of personal information before you get a diagnosis, but don’t worry; your weight and cholesterol levels are no concern to us!
What is a concern is making sure we deliver you the most accurate car insurance quote possible. We’d rather give you a price that, if desirable, you can buy, as opposed to a half-cooked one that is subject to change.
Types of Personal Information Required for a Quote
Names of All Licensed Drivers
The legal names of all licensed drivers must be provided. This includes drivers who have separate insurance. It also includes drivers who do not have a vehicle of their own but are still licensed. Make sure you state any “Jr’s” or “III’s,” too. That way, if Thomas Sr. had a speeding ticket, it wouldn’t be wrongly applied to the responsible driving of Thomas Jr.!
Marital Status
Married drivers tend to receive lower rates. But, marital status serves as a check and balance. If married, but living at different addresses, you’ll give extra information about this.
Separated couples, which are not yet divorced, also need disclosing. A separated marital status indicates that there is a spouse who lives elsewhere.
Driver’s License Numbers
If the license is a New York one, then you’ll give the 9-digit driver’s license number for each person. It’s okay if you or someone else has an out-of-state license. You’ll need to have the unique ID number handy and know its state!
The driver’s license numbers are used to find out specific information. That includes the motor vehicle report for each driver, which an agent needs to sell a policy.
Social Security Numbers
The social security numbers are for the one or two individuals who will be the policy owners. Policy owners are also called Named Insureds. The SSN finds information about your financial and insurance claims history.
It’s essential to set the record straight on this part. The financial history is not about your credit score. In fact, it’s not a hard credit pull and this does not show up on your credit report. It’s also not something we see specific information about on our end. The information is used behind the scenes, and the outcome is applied to the final cost.
With all else being equal, our experience has shown that those with less debt tend to pay less.
Dates of Birth
Since age plays a significant role in the rate, the DOB for every driver is mandatory. Be sure to know the exact one for every driver.
Home Address
Be sure to have your current address and any other home addresses within the past 3-years. Your address establishes precisely where your cars are kept. If one or more of your cars are kept elsewhere, you’ll be asked for that address too.
Your mailing address can be different from your street address. Yet, the street address must also be provided because you still can’t fit a car into a PO Box!
Your driving, accident, and insurance history
Ticket and Accidents
Insurance carriers will review the past 5-years of driving history of each driver. Any accidents or tickets should be disclosed. Even if you were not at fault in the accident, you’d still want to mention it. Doing so will help keep you from being negatively rated for an accident you did not cause.
Current Insurance Coverage
Your current insurance coverage provides us with insight into your policy and premium. We’ll ask for the name of your insurance company. That way, if it’s a carrier we also use, we won’t include them in the quoting.
To accurately compare, knowing what your coverage is now is valuable. If you have $250 deductibles, we wouldn’t want to use $500 in your quote. Ideally, we will have matched or improved what you have now. You can email us your policy’s coverage pages to make things easy.
Suppose you are not currently insured or have been uninsured for more than 30-days. In that case, the availability of car insurance carriers will be fewer. However, as an independent insurance agency, we have companies at our fingertips who can help us.
The Details About the Cars or Trucks
What are the vehicles you want to insure?
Were you worried “blood type” was next? Let’s call it O positive and move on to something that isn’t about you. It’s about why you’re here in the first place; your car!
The easiest way for us to find the information about your vehicles is to provide something called the VIN. VIN stands for “vehicle identification number,” and every vehicle in the United States has one. Cars or trucks made after 1980 have a 17-character VIN.
You’ll find the VIN in several places throughout the vehicle. But the most common place is on the lower-left corner of your dashboard in front of the steering wheel.
While the VINs eliminate the likelihood of a change in the quoted rate, we can still help if you don’t have them. The year, make, and model go a long way toward providing an accurate rate. Knowing it’s a 2019 Honda Pilot instead of just a “newer-ish Honda SUV” makes a big difference!
How the Vehicle is Used
How far is your commute to work? Are you a stay-at-home mom? Are you a REALTOR® who uses a car when showing houses? Do you drive for Uber? Those are the types of questions you’ll be asked to answer about how each car is used.
Annual Miles Driven
You will need to know how many miles per year are added to each vehicle. While every carrier has its own threshold, cars with less than 7,500 miles per year usually get lower rates.
What is your preferred way of paying for car insurance?
Payment Plan
The payment plan could end up being the ultimate difference-maker. Insurance companies use their payment plans as an added way to be competitive. Depending on the specific plan, sizeable car insurance discounts can be found or lost.
The most common plans include:
