How to Get Cheap California Car Insurance Quotes without Getting Your Identity Stolen

How to Get Cheap California Car Insurance Quotes without Getting Your Identity Stolen

You can keep your car safe without setting yourself up to be the victim of identity theft.

It is so incredibly cool that you can find California car insurance quotes online instead of having to spend interminable hours on the phone with various insurance agents all the way across the country. Unfortunately, insurance quote shoppers aren't the only ones looking around for a sweet deal on the web. The Internet offers identity thieves a prime opportunity for a front row view of your personal information.

Many of today's online insurance quote finders ask for your social security number or driver's license number before they'll give you a quote. In theory, this is a good idea; it makes it easy for your insurance agent to check up on your driving history and give you as accurate a quote as possible. By the time you've visited five or six sites offering California car insurance quotes, however, you could be starting to get a little bit nervous over exactly how far and wide your personal information is flowing.

The good news is that not all online car insurance quotes require your top secret info. In fact, if you're content with a general quote until you decide what company you're going to be working with you can find perfectly good car insurance quotes from multiple California car insurance providers without ever giving out a single bit of your personal information beyond your name and email address.

How? Simple. Your social security number isn't the only thing that car insurance companies use to figure out how much your car insurance is going to cost. There are lots of things that go into the complex and quite frankly completely incomprehensible formula that car insurance companies use to determine your insurance premiums. Your driving history is only a small part, and it's the only part that actually requires your personal information. Barring that you can still get a fairly accurate car insurance quote based on your:

a) Zip Code: What part of California you live in, how close to the major urban areas you are and how high the crime rate is in your area are all going to get stirred into the mix when determining how much it's going to cost to insure your car.

b) Car Make and Model: Yes, there is a "good car, bad car" list that your insurance company keeps near and dear to its heart, and that list is practically gospel when they're figuring out how much to charge you for your insurance coverage. While the chances of your car being in an accident obviously depend more on your driving skills than on the type of car you're driving around in, there are some cars that just can't seem to keep themselves out of trouble. Check out the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Highway Loss Data Institute to see where your car falls.

c) Your Job: Did you know that what you do has an impact on how much you're going to be paying for your car insurance? Believe it or not, it does! Teachers and engineers have fewer accidents, so they pay less for their insurance coverage. It can only be assumed they have a sliding scale somewhere for career paths. Since no one actually has access to this information that doesn't work for a California car insurance provider, it's enough to know that it's important.

d) Your Age: Yep, it's true. They do actually determine your car insurance premiums based on how old you are-but not in a bad way. Young drivers have more accidents, while older drivers with more experience are more likely to be safe out on the highways. 25 and 55 are the major benchmarks when it comes to saving money on your car insurance.

e) Your Car's Safety Features-California has the highest incidence of auto theft in the country, which means California car insurance providers are being extra careful. Any additional safety features your car has will go a long way toward keeping your car right where you left it while saving you money on your insurance premiums.

All of these things are going to play a part in your car insurance quotes, so don't feel obligated to hand them out like candy at Halloween. There are plenty of ways your insurance provider can give you a perfectly good quote without them.

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• How to Get Cheap California Car Insurance Quotes without Getting Your Identity Stolen - Jun 23, 2009 - 12:00:05 PM