Old Memories: Shopping for Auto Insurance

In my junior year of college my dad loaned me the family car. It was an old school, sky blue Toyota Camry station wagon similar to the one pictured below. I moved off campus that year and started an internship in Annapolis that couldn’t be reached through public transportation.

Everyone made fun of that vehicle, but I loved it. It was big enough to transport my belongings back and forth, (at the time everything I owned other than my bed could fit in the back of it), and it was already old and rusted so I wasn’t worried or bothered by the fact that I never washed or took care of it.

When I graduated my dad let me keep the car for another year and when I moved to DC he told me I needed to attain my own policy to insure it. These days with computers at the ready and the Internet always handy I could search for auto insurance on a million different websites and find comparable rates in a matter of seconds.

Back then my dad called individual agents and asked them about their rates and policies. As strange as it now seems my dad and I drove out to an agent’s house, (he worked out of his home), to meet with him in person. It’s funny, but I have a very vivid memory of my dad and I driving through the city to meet this man. When we arrived he walked outside, looked at my vehicle and talked with my dad and I for an hour about insurance.

He was an older pudgy gentlemen with white hair and a big grin. He became my insurance agent and continued in that capacity for the next twelve years.

Although we’ve been with the same agent for over a decade, I still want to make certain we are getting the best price and policy for our needs. Once a year I log onto various websites to check out auto insurance rates at other companies. There are lots of sites available to help you compare free quotes.

It’s funny to think about how much the Internet has changed our lives. I can receive free quotes on auto insurance in a matter of seconds at any time of day or night without every speaking with a human being.

These days I doubt any parent will drag their kid around the city to meet face-to-face with an insurance agent, but I must admit that the memory of driving around DC with my father is a good one. It definitely leaves me smiling.

1 thought on “Old Memories: Shopping for Auto Insurance”

  1. We lived in Massachusetts and we paid quite a bit for our car insurance but once we moved up to Maine are premiums went down. Each state is different and if yours allows for competition then it’s worth your time to shop around as it almost always leads to savings.

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