When shopping for auto insurance, you have many choices and picking a good New Hampshire car insurance agent takes more work than just randomly choosing from the yellow pages. It’s likely you’re looking for a good agent, but you also want to find the lowest possible price.
With State Farm, Allstate, Farmers and independent agents having local Exeter offices, consumers have a hard time knowing which one will provide the best rates, service and coverage. Fortunately, consumers can use online price quotes to assemble a group of insurance agencies and price estimates.
Quote online but still have a local agent
Licensed agents can help determine the best coverages and help you file claims. One of the best bonuses of price shopping on the web is you can get the best rates but still work with a licensed agent. And providing support for local businesses is important particularly in Exeter.
By using this quick form, your information is emailed to participating agents in Exeter who will give you bids for your insurance coverage. You won’t need to leave your house as quotes are delivered immediately to your email address. How’s that for easy! You can find better rates and work with a local agent.
How to choose the best insurance agency in Exeter
If you’re trying to find local Exeter agents, you need to know there are two different types of agents that you can select. Insurance agencies in Exeter are either captive or independent.
Independent Agencies or Brokers
Independent insurance agents do not work for one specific company so they can insure your vehicles amongst many companies and potentially find a lower price. If you are not satisfied with one company, the agent simply finds a different carrier and you won’t have to switch agencies.
When shopping rates, we recommend you contact at least one independent agent to ensure the widest selection of prices.Many can place coverage with smaller regional carriers who may have lower rates.
Listed below is a list of independent agencies in Exeter who may be able to give you pricing information.
- Foy Insurance Group – 64 Portsmouth Ave – Exeter, NH 03833 – (603) 772-4781
- Liberty Mutual Insurance – 92 Portsmouth Ave – Exeter, NH 03833 – (603) 772-1027
- Buttine Underwriters Agency – 19 Elliot St – Exeter, NH 03833 – (603) 772-5005
- De Meritt Agency Inc – 6 Center St – Exeter, NH 03833 – (603) 778-7304
Captive Agents
This type of agents work for only one company and examples are AAA, Allstate and State Farm. They generally cannot shop your coverage around so they have to upsell other benefits. Captives are usually quite knowledgeable in insurance sales and that can be a competitive advantage. Consumers often choose to use a captive agent primarily because of the brand legacy and the convenience of having a single billing for all their coverages.
Shown below are Exeter captive agencies that are able to give price quotes.
- Liberty Mutual Insurance – 92 Portsmouth Ave – Exeter, NH 03833 – (603) 772-1027
- Allstate Insurance – 1 Portsmouth Ave # 6 – Exeter, NH 03833 – (603) 772-2220
For a complete listing of captive agents in Exeter, view this link.
Deciding on a car insurance agent shouldn’t rely on just the bottom line cost. Any agent should be forthright in answering these questions:
- Do they carry Errors and Omissions coverage?
- Are glass claims handled on-site or do you have to take your vehicle to a repair shop?
- What is the agency’s Better Business Bureau rating?
- Are you getting all the discounts the company offers?
- Do they specialize in personal lines coverage?
- Is vehicle damage repaired with OEM or aftermarket parts?
- Do they feel the quoted coverages are adequate?
- Which insurance companies are they affiliated with?
After getting positive responses to any questions you have and a low price estimate, you may have just found an auto insurance agent that is a good match to insure your vehicles.
Include online companies when price shopping
Professional insurance agents are important, but you also have the option of buying direct from companies that only sell online. Certain auto insurance companies, such as Farmers Insurance and State Farm, who employ agents also allow consumers to get quotes and purchase online, and that can save time if you want to do it yourself.
If you’re uncomfortable with whether or not you’ll have guidance when shopping online, this is a normal reaction for first-time shoppers. Online companies provide access to licensed agents for getting the best coverage. Consumers also can use extensive coverage information and 24/7 assistance to help you answer questions.
If the lowest price is important, the best way to know if local insurance agents or online providers are cheaper is making fair comparisons of each of their rates. Lots of times people will get different prices when quoting both agents prices and online prices for the identical company. It’s not possible to know whether the best rates are online or from an agent without quoting identical coverages from both ways.
Will you save money buying auto insurance online? It’s hard to say exactly since there are many things which can raise or lower premium rates. Common logic is that a customer who purchases direcly from an online company saves money because there is no commission. For the majority of companies, however, advertising and marketing take a lot of money so there may not be significant savings.
Buy online or local, you save
People leave their current company for many reasons like unfair underwriting practices, denial of a claim, being labeled a high risk driver or even an unsatisfactory settlement offer. Regardless of your reason for switching companies, choosing a new company is easier than you think.
As you go through the steps to switch your coverage, make sure you don’t buy less coverage just to save a little money. There are too many instances where an insured dropped liability limits or collision coverage only to discover later that the few dollars in savings costed them thousands. The proper strategy is to buy enough coverage at a price you can afford.
To learn more about auto insurance in New Hampshire
Much more information about auto insurance in New Hampshire can be found on the New Hampshire Insurance Department website. Click here for link. Visitors are able to find disaster information, file complaints about a company, find a variety of consumer forms, and report car insurance fraud.
The articles below may also help you learn more about auto insurance in Exeter
