Two Agents, One Insurance Company: Shopping Without the Tangles

Using more than one agent is a perfectly reasonable way to shop. It only becomes messy when two agencies quote the same insurer for the same driver, or when each was told a slightly different story. A little organisation at the start avoids both.

Why more than one agent can help

The Department of Insurance's glossary describes an agent as licensed to sell and service insurance for an insurance company, a broker as acting on your behalf, and a broker-agent as able to do both. In practice each agency holds appointments with its own set of companies. Two agencies with different sets cover more of the market than either does alone.

The duplicate problem

When two agencies both run the same company for you, three things tend to happen. You see the same insurer at two different prices, which is confusing rather than useful. The company may run its checks twice. And it may ask which agency you want to work with, because how a company handles a second agency's request for the same driver varies by insurance company. None of this is harmful; it just wastes the extra effort that was meant to widen the search.

How to shop cleanly

1. Ask each agency which companies it will quote for your situation, before it starts.
2. Map the companies so each one is quoted by one route only.
3. Give every agent the same information, ideally from the same written list: drivers, cars, garaging address, mileage, history and the coverage to match.
4. Ask for the same coverage and the same versions from everyone.
5. Compare the confirmed quotes, not the first figures mentioned.

When the same company comes back twice anyway

If two quotes from the same insurer differ, something in the inputs differs: a driver, a car's trim, the garaging address, the mileage, a ticket, the coverage, the term or the start date. Each company's rates are filed and apply the same way to the same facts, using the factors California allows (10 CCR 2632.5). Lay the two quotes side by side, find the line that differs, and correct whichever one was wrong. The corrected figure is the real one.

The one-page brief that keeps everyone consistent

Write your details once and send the same page to every agent: each driver with date of birth, license number and any tickets or claims with approximate dates; each car with its VIN, where it is kept overnight and its yearly mileage; the coverage you want matched, ideally as your current declarations page; and the start date and time. When every agent works from the same brief, any remaining price difference is a real difference between companies rather than a difference in what each agent was told.

Deciding whom to buy through

If two routes can offer the same company at the same price, choose on service: who will answer when you add a car, change an address or need help with a claim. Ask each agency how it handles those requests. People often ask us whether it is awkward to tell an agent you are shopping elsewhere; it is not, and saying so up front usually gets you a cleaner comparison.

When you request quotes through our quote form, tell us which companies you have already been quoted with, and we will concentrate on the ones you have not seen.