by Michele Wilmonen

Created on: November 07, 2008   Last Updated: January 13, 2009

You change your oil every 3 months, you rotate your tires and you have your mechanic do a complete service of your car every 15,000 miles. You make sure everything on your car is well maintained and up to date. With all of this care that you put into your car, why have you had the same insurance policy for the last ten years?

You need to maintain your insurance policy just like you would a car. You need to make sure that you have adequate coverage and are getting the best price available to you. If you have had your policy for more than three years or have never had insurance before, it is time to go shopping.

-First Step-

Just like when you go shopping for anything else you need to know what you are looking for and what you want. When you are shopping for insurance you need to know what coverage you already have. In order to do that you will need to find your insurance declarations page. It is the first page of your car insurance policy that is probably still in the envelope that you never opened and just filed away. Or if it made its way to the shredder instead of the filing cabinet, it is time to call your agent for another copy.

Once you have your declarations page in front of you read it over quickly and familiarize yourself with it. I am not suggesting this as a little light reading to make your day go by, but as an education. You need to know your coverage so when you do call another company, you can make sure that they are giving you a quote for the identical coverage that you have now. In other words you need to make sure that you are comparing the prices of apples to apples, instead of apples to oranges. Most people have no idea what coverage they have on their policy. So when they start calling around to get quotes on new policy's they end up with a better price, but less coverage..

- Getting Started-

This may sound contrary to what you may think, but get your first quote with your current agent. Have them sit down and quote you the rates of the different limits that are available and the extras that you can add or take off your policy (for example car rental). Make sure that they have your driving record correct and that your insurance score is up to date. Once they give you the new quotes, have them print out the quotes for you.

Printing out the quote will work to your advantage in two ways. First, you will have additional policy limits and rates already in front of you when you call other companies to get other quotes. Second, insurance quotes are good

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