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Slideshare - Fire your car insurance agent today!

Short presentation on how agents hurt and help us.

Notes:

There are many ways to fire your car insurance agent.

There are def. some bad greedy agents out there. You should talk to your agent for awhile, preferably on different days so you can get a better idea of their service.

Car insurance agents are professional shoppers. They know the auto insurance market. Car insurance is a highly serviced market, so why go it on your own? The agents expect to service you. And during, you can exchange ideas.

Car insurance agents (for the most part) only get paid if you buy something. So if you don't like their suggestions, their dress, manner, or whatever, find another one!

My greatest savings have come from Independent Agents. I have never had luck with captive or direct writers of insurance, but your mileage may vary. I am a fan of the small mom and pop companies. In the car insurance world, that means regional insurers and agencies.

Smaller carriers don't pay for ratings and have low overhead. They are not $800 million per year into advertising (like Geico). And that's why chances are excellent they'll have lower prices than Geico.

Direct writers def. have a place in the car insurance market. Because of their size advantage (aka economies of scale) the theory is they can save customers money. However, I have never been able to get low rates from them. In fact the more expensive Captive carriers have costs around the same as the direct writers (maybe they just don't like me!).

Some people prefer are comfortable enough to do business without an insurance salesman. And there's more and more of them everyday! If you don't want to deal with a personality, and know what you want and "here's my order," then go direct. I can't promise you the savings you might assume you would get. After all, they put millions into advertising. But direct writers do offer you speed, simplicity and accessibility.

You have to do what's most comfortable for you, but what I will promise you, since it's an ongoing expense, the more you explore with different companies, the better pricing, service, and terms you should get. Do you want 1 or 5 agents competing for your business?

I hope you liked the short slideshow, check out my other car insurance slides.

Written by Craig J. Casey

Financial Writer helping people with their insurance problems on the net since 1998.

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