Plenty of companies, from Progressive to Geico now have websites where you can see their insurance rates. Many of them will even show you their competitor's rates. This sounds like a great way to save time, but just think about it a minute. How much incentive does any insurance company have to show you their competitors better rates. No matter what you see on the website, you'd better check the competitor yourself, just to be safe.

If you decide to check with an insurance agent, you'll probably be using the Internet anyway. After all, who uses the Yellow Pages anymore? When you look up a new insurance agent on the Internet, you are probably going to be required to fill out a form with a lot of personal information to try to give them a head start in finding what you need. It may turn out that this doesn't save you much time at all.

Many insurance agents will ask you the same information. You might have to repeat yourself many times. If you try to get an auto insurance policy online, they may be asking you the same questions; the difference is that you will have to type the answers. This could take more time if you can not type well. In either case, if you have your information handy, this can save a lot of time. For auto insurance quotes you will need your vehicle identification number, your license, your registration and information about all the drivers. It will also help if you know how many miles it takes you to commute.

At least getting started online is a pretty good idea. You can usually get a ballpark figure for your auto insurance quote. But if you want to bundle things together, like insuring several cars and your house, you need to talk to an agent. That may be an agent to you found on the Internet, but it's pretty hard for most of us to sort out all the variables without professional help, when you move beyond pure auto insurance. Many people want automobile insurance, homeowners insurance, and an umbrella policy over everything. When you get to that stage, you need to be talking to one company, and probably one agent.

No matter how you do it, it pays to be an educated consumer. If you have simple auto insurance needs, you can easily handle it online by yourself. But if your situation is more complex, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches by finding yourself a good agent, who can handle everything together.