When shopping for car insurance, picking a good Texas insurance agent is not as easy as just randomly choosing from the yellow pages. For this article’s sake, it’s assumed you want a good professional insurance agent, but you also want affordable coverage.
With American Family, Allstate, State Farm and Farmers having offices in Southlake, it’s difficult to determine which one will provide you with the lowest rates and best service. Thankfully, you can use insurance quotes online to assemble a group of agencies and price estimates.
How to find Southlake insurance agents online
Licensed agents can point out coverage gaps and give you peace of mind. One of the best bonuses of price shopping on the web is that you can obtain the lowest rates and still have an agent to talk to. Buying from local insurance agencies is especially important in Southlake.
After filling out this simple form, the quote information is instantly submitted to agents in your area who will return price quotes to get your business. There is no reason to leave your house since price quotes are sent straight to your inbox. How’s that for easy! You can find the lowest rates and work with a local agent.
Do you need an independent or captive insurance agent?
When finding local Southlake agents, you must know there are a couple types of insurance agents that differ in how they can insure your vehicles. Agencies in Southlake are classified as either captive or independent (non-captive).
Independent Agents (or Brokers)
Independent agents are not employed by any specific company but instead can place your coverage amongst many companies depending on which coverage is best. To move your coverage to a new company, an independent agent can move your coverage without you having to go to a different agency.
When shopping rates, it’s recommended you contact several independent insurance agents for the best price selection.
Shown below are Southlake independent agencies that may be able to provide pricing information.
Brad Cavnar Agency – 181 Grand Ave # 200 – Southlake, TX 76092 – (817) 251-2226
Kevin B Brett Agency – 1211 S White Chapel Blvd – Southlake, TX 76092 – (817) 749-0112
Dennis Lagow Insurance Agency – 325 Miron Dr # 140 – Southlake, TX 76092 – (817) 329-1663
Balboa Insurance – 1205 S White Chapel Blvd – Southlake, TX 76092 – (817) 748-3454
Boley-Featherston Insurance – 1256 Main St – Southlake, TX 76092 – (817) 481-7110
Captive Insurance Agents
These agents have only one company to place business with and examples are American Family, Liberty Mutual and AAA. These agents are unable to give you multiple price quotes so they have no alternatives for high prices. They are very knowledgeable on their products and sales techniques which helps them compete with independent agents.
The following are captive agencies in Southlake who can help you get comparison quotes.
Allstate Insurance – 1723 E Southlake Blvd # 100 – Southlake, TX 76092 – (817) 421-8727
State Farm Insurance – 1101 E Northwest Pkwy # 108 – Southlake, TX 76092 – (817) 481-3911
To view a complete directory of captive insurance agencies in Southlake, please go to this site.
Picking a car insurance agent requires more thought than just the premium amount. These are valid questions to ask:
- Do they feel the quoted coverages are adequate?
- How are they compensated?
- Will vehicle repairs be made with aftermarket parts or OEM replacement parts?
- Are they full-time agents?
- Does the agency support the community they serve?
- How often do they review policy coverages?
Once you have positive feedback and an affordable coverage quote, chances are good that you have found an auto insurance agent that is a good match to insure your vehicles.
Online car insurance providers
Local insurance agents are important to many people, but Texas drivers can also buy direct from companies that only sell online. Even companies that are more known for using agents, also give you the ability to buy online. This is something to consider if you want to do it yourself.
If you’re concerned about not having an insurance agent’s advice when shopping online, this is normal but is quickly overcome. Car insurance companies provide options to walk you through the process.
Is it cheaper to buy car insurance online? Many people swear by it, but it’s difficult to answer because there are many components which can adversely affect your policy premium. Some people think that shopping online for auto insurance saves money by not requiring a commission. But that assumption is generally incorrect because the cost of constant advertising is expensive so the lack of a commission may be a wash.
The best approach to find out if the best rates are online or from local agents is to make apples-to-apples comparisons of both. It’s even possible to receive different pricing when using both online and agent quotes for the exact same company. You won’t know which has the best rates until after you compare the same coverages from both ways.
More quotes mean more savings
Drivers leave their current company for many reasons like high prices, lack of trust in their agent, extreme rates for teen drivers or even delays in responding to claim requests. It doesn’t matter what your reason, choosing a new company is less work than it seems.
When buying insurance coverage, it’s very important that you do not sacrifice coverage to reduce premiums. There are a lot of situations where consumers will sacrifice liability coverage limits only to regret at claim time that the small savings ended up costing them much more. Your goal should be to buy enough coverage at a price you can afford.
Additional resources for Texas consumers
More information is available on the website for the Texas Department of Insurance through this link. Visitors are able to view a list of available companies, find out industry alerts, read enforcement actions against agents and companies, and read industry bulletins.