Trying to find lower-priced auto insurance rates in San Francisco, CA? San Francisco shoppers have options when shopping for the best price on Pontiac Sunfire insurance. You can either spend your time driving around to compare prices or leverage the internet to get rate quotes.
There are both good and bad ways to compare auto insurance rates and we’ll show you the absolute fastest way to price shop coverage for a Pontiac and get the lowest possible price either online or from San Francisco insurance agents.
If you are insured now or are shopping for new coverage, you can follow these tips to buy cheaper insurance while maintaining coverages. Our goal in writing this article teach you how car insurance works and how you can save the most money. Shoppers just need to learn the proper methods to get comparison quotes from many different companies.
Companies offering low-cost Pontiac Sunfire price quotes in San Francisco, CA
The providers in the list below are our best choices to provide free quotes in San Francisco, CA. If multiple providers are shown, we recommend you compare several of them to get the best price comparison.
Do you qualify for discounts on Pontiac Sunfire insurance in San Francisco?
Companies that sell car insurance don’t always publicize the complete list of policy discounts very clearly, so below is a list some of the more common and the more hidden insurance savings.
- Data Collection Discounts – Drivers that enable their insurance company to spy on driving manner through the use of a telematics system such as Snapshot from Progressive or Drivewise from Allstate might get better premium rates if they show good driving skills.
- Drivers Education – Have your child successfully take a driver’s education course if offered at their school.
- Discounts for Cautious Drivers – Drivers who avoid accidents could pay up to 40% less than drivers with accidents.
- Sign Online – Many insurance companies will give you a small discount for buying a policy and signing up digitally online.
- Safety Course Discount – Passing a defensive driver course is a good idea and can lower rates and easily pay for the cost of the class.
- First Accident Forgiveness – Not necessarily a discount, but some companies like Progressive, Allstate, and GEICO will turn a blind eye to one accident before they charge you more for coverage so long as you are claim-free prior to being involved in the accident.
- Early Renewal Discounts – A few companies offer discounts for switching policies before your current Sunfire insurance policy expires. This discount can save up to 10%.
- Pay Now and Pay Less – By paying your policy upfront as opposed to paying monthly you may reduce your total bill.
- Multiple Policy Discount – When you have multiple policies with one insurance company you will save up to 20% off your total Sunfire insurance premium.
Policy discounts save money, but most discount credits are not given to the overall cost of the policy. Some only apply to individual premiums such as medical payments or collision. Just because you may think adding up those discounts means a free policy, it doesn’t quite work that way.
A list of companies and the discounts they provide can be found below.
- Progressive includes discounts for online signing, homeowner, continuous coverage, online quote discount, and multi-vehicle.
- AAA may include discounts for good student, anti-theft, pay-in-full, multi-policy, good driver, and multi-car.
- Farmers Insurance may have discounts that include business and professional, youthful driver, early shopping, switch companies, good student, mature driver, and homeowner.
- GEICO has discounts for air bags, federal employee, multi-vehicle, membership and employees, and defensive driver.
- Esurance offers discounts for paid-in-full, good student, Switch & Save, defensive driver, anti-theft, emergency road assistance, and safety device.
- SAFECO offers discounts including bundle discounts, teen safety rewards, accident prevention training, anti-lock brakes, homeowner, and drive less.
- State Farm discounts include defensive driving training, anti-theft, driver’s education, accident-free, good student, and multiple autos.
Check with all the companies which discounts can lower your rates. Some of the earlier mentioned discounts might not be available to policyholders in your area. For a list of insurers who offer cheap Pontiac Sunfire insurance quotes in California, follow this link.
How Insurance Companies Calculate Pontiac Sunfire Insurance Costs
An important part of buying insurance is that you know some of the things that come into play when calculating the price you pay for auto insurance. If you know what influences your rates, this allows you to make good choices that could help you find big savings.
The items below are a partial list of the pieces used by companies to determine your prices.
- Insurance rates and vehicle performance – The make and model of the vehicle you are buying insurance for makes a big difference in your car insurance bill. Lower cost passenger cars usually have the lowest rates, but the final cost of insurance is determined by many other factors.
- Policy add-ons may be wasting money – Insurance companies have many optional add-on coverages that may not really be needed if you don’t pay attention. Insurance for things like vanishing deductibles, accident forgiveness, and term life insurance may not be needed and are just wasting money. These coverages may sound good initially, but your money might be better spent on other coverage so remove them and pocket the money.
- Traffic violations mean higher costs – Attentive drivers pay lower auto insurance prices as compared to careless drivers. Having just one moving violation may cause rates to rise substantially. Drivers who have gotten multiple citations such as DUI or reckless driving are required to prove financial responsibility with their state’s licensing department in order to prevent a license revocation.
- Younger drivers pay high costs – Mature drivers are more cautious drivers, are lower risk to insure, and receive fewer citations. Inexperience drivers tend to be careless and easily distracted with other occupants in the car so auto insurance rates are higher.
Compare rates but buy from a local San Francisco insurance agent
Some people would rather have an agent’s advice and that can be a smart move Professional agents are trained risk managers and help in the event of a claim. One of the benefits of comparing car insurance online is the fact that you can find cheap rate quotes but also keep your business local. And buying from local agencies is still important in San Francisco.
Once you complete this quick form, your information is emailed to local insurance agents who will give you quotes and help you find cheaper coverage. There is no need to find an agent on your own since rate quotes are delivered straight to your inbox. If you have a need to get a comparison quote for a specific company, just search and find their rate quote page and submit a quote form there.
Pick the best car insurance agent in San Francisco for you
If you prefer to buy car insurance from an insurance agent, you should know the different types of agents that you can choose from. Car insurance agencies may be either exclusive or independent (non-exclusive). Both types of agents can write policy coverage, but it’s important to know why they differ because it may have an impact on your agent selection.
Independent Agents
These agents are not employed by one company and that enables them to quote your coverage through lots of different companies and help determine which has the cheapest rates. If they quote lower rates, your agent can switch companies which is easy for the insured.
If you are comparing car insurance prices, you definitely need to get rate quotes from multiple independent agents so that you can do a thorough price comparison. Most also write with additional companies that you may not be familiar with who may have lower rates.
Shown below are San Francisco independent agencies that may be able to give free rate quotes.
- Robert E. Kennedy Insurance Agency
Flood Building, 870 Market St #740 – San Francisco, CA 94102 – (415) 951-0738 – View Map - Basic West Insurance Agency
1641 Taraval St – San Francisco, CA 94116 – (415) 665-7400 – View Map - Nationwide Insurance: Nathan Douglas Gleason Agency
101 California St #2710 – San Francisco, CA 94111 – (415) 870-6999 – View Map
Exclusive Insurance Agents
These type of agents can only provide one company’s prices like Allstate and State Farm. They generally cannot provide rate quotes from other companies so they really need to provide good service. These agents receive extensive training on their products and sales techniques and that allows them to sell at a higher price point. A lot of people buy insurance from these agents mostly because of the prominent brand name and solid financial strength.
The following is a short list of exclusive insurance agencies in San Francisco willing to provide comparison quotes.
- Darlene Chow – State Farm Insurance Agent
206 Spear St – San Francisco, CA 94105 – (415) 441-1119 – View Map - Rich Machado – State Farm Insurance Agent
5108 Geary Blvd – San Francisco, CA 94118 – (415) 292-3380 – View Map - Farmers Insurance – Elbert Taylor
386 29th St – San Francisco, CA 94131 – (415) 285-4800 – View Map
Picking the best auto insurance agent requires you to look at more than just the price. The following questions are important to ask.
- Will the company cover a rental car if your car is getting fixed?
- Can you use your own choice of collision repair facility?
- Do they specialize in personal lines auto insurance in San Francisco?
- Can you get a list of referrals?
- By raising physical damage deductibles, how much would you save?
- Do they have 24-hour customer assistance?
- Does the agency have a positive business rating?
Keep this in mind when shopping around
Insureds leave their current company for a variety of reasons including being labeled a high risk driver, questionable increases in premium, high rates after DUI convictions and even extreme rates for teen drivers. Regardless of your reason, finding a great new company is not as difficult as it may seem.
When buying insurance coverage, do not sacrifice coverage to reduce premiums. There are many occasions where consumers will sacrifice collision coverage and learned later that they should have had better coverage. The ultimate goal is to get the best coverage possible for the lowest price but still have enough coverage for asset protection.
Throughout this article, we presented many ideas to find cheaper Pontiac Sunfire insurance in San Francisco. The key concept to understand is the more you quote San Francisco car insurance, the better your comparison will be. You may even be surprised to find that the most savings is with some of the lesser-known companies.
Steps to buying discount Pontiac Sunfire insurance in San Francisco
The recommended way to find lower priced auto insurance rates in San Francisco is to regularly compare quotes from insurance carriers that insure vehicles in California. You can compare prices by following these steps.
- Try to understand how insurance works and the factors you can control to keep rates in check. Many factors that increase rates like high-risk driving behaviors and a bad credit rating can be improved by being financially responsible and driving safely.
- Obtain price quotes from direct, independent, and exclusive agents. Exclusive and direct companies can provide rates from a single company like GEICO or Farmers Insurance, while independent agents can quote prices for many different companies.
- Compare the new quotes to your existing coverage and see if there is a cheaper rate in San Francisco. If you find a better price and switch companies, make sure the effective date of the new policy is the same as the expiration date of the old one.
- Give notification to your agent or company to cancel the current policy. Submit the signed application along with the required initial payment to the newly selected company. As soon as you can, put the proof of insurance certificate in your vehicle’s glove compartment or console.
The most important part of this process is that you use identical limits and deductibles on each price quote and and to get rate quotes from every company you can. Doing this helps ensure a fair price comparison and plenty of rates choose from.
More tips and info about auto insurance can be read in the articles below:
- Child Safety FAQ (iihs.org)
- What Auto Insurance is Cheapest for a Chevrolet Equinox in San Francisco? (FAQ)
- Who Has Cheap Car Insurance Quotes for a Jeep Wrangler in San Francisco? (FAQ)
- What Insurance is Cheapest for Young Drivers in San Francisco? (FAQ)
- Who Has Cheap San Francisco Car Insurance Rates for Government Employees? (FAQ)
- Who Has Affordable Auto Insurance Rates for State Employees in San Francisco? (FAQ)
- Safety Belts FAQ (iihs.org)
- How Much Auto Coverage do I Need? (Insurance Information Institute)
- Think You’re a Safe Driver? (State Farm)