No Policy to Match? Write Your Own Baseline Before Comparing

Matching your current coverage is the usual first step of a fair comparison. Without a current policy, that step disappears, and something else fills the gap: each company's default settings. Defaults differ, so three quotes collected that way are three different products. Ten minutes with a blank sheet prevents it.

Write the baseline sheet

Three questions that set the important lines

1. What could a lawsuit reach? Wages, savings, a home. The more there is, the more your liability limits matter.
2. Could you replace the car from your own money? If yes, comprehensive and collision are a choice. If no, or if a lender is involved, they are close to essential.
3. What deductible could you pay this week? A deductible you cannot pay is not really a saving.

Decide the liability lines before the deductibles. People tend to start with the deductible because it is the number they can feel, and then let the liability limits default to whatever kept the price down. Liability is the coverage that protects everything else you own; settle it first, then set the deductibles you can live with.

If you would rather start from a recommendation, that is fine. Ask an agent for one, then write it down as your target, so every other company quotes the same thing rather than its own idea of the same thing.

What having no prior policy does, and does not, do

In California the absence of prior auto insurance cannot, by itself, be a criterion for rates, premiums or insurability (Insurance Code 1861.02(c)). What counts heavily is your driving record, your mileage and your years of driving experience, the three factors every company must weigh first. A loyalty or persistency credit, where a company offers one, is limited to time with that company or its affiliates, so nobody arrives with one from elsewhere anyway.

Then run the comparison

• Send the same sheet to every company or agent.
• Ask each for one variation as well, such as higher liability limits, because the order of companies can change with coverage.
• Check each returned quote line by line against your sheet before reading the price.
• Note any company that could not match a line exactly, and how it differed.

Keep the sheet

Your first policy's declarations page will become next year's baseline. Until then, the sheet is your reference. Keep it with the quotes, dated, so you can see later whether you changed your mind about coverage or the market moved. If you want a second opinion on the targets themselves, send the sheet through our quote form and we will quote it as written and suggest any line worth reconsidering.