Progressive Shows Auto Insurance Rates From Other Companies
Q: If Progressive gives me quotes from other insurance companies, does that mean they will only show quotes from companies that have a higher rate than them? Where do they get this information?
AIS Answer: Great questions. Progressive and any other company that directly sells (writes) insurance policies that also provides quotes from other insurance companies are doing this to show that they are both “fair” in providing competitive quotes and “low priced” by showing their rates stacked up with others.
You’ll notice if you get a quote from Progressive (progressive.com) there will be I think up to 3 different competitors quotes if applicable. There are a lot of scenarios where Progressive isn’t the lowest rate, and plenty of scenarios where you may not qualify for a rate from another company. Look at it this way, if you’re a low risk (preferred) driver, you can find low auto insurance rates from many companies and if you’re a higher risk driver (inexperience, poor driving record, age) you may find it difficult to find inexpensive auto insurance anywhere. However, Progresive tends to be very well priced and stacks up well when compared to other major insurance companies.
I have my thoughts on this practice because while Progressive may be pitting their insurance rates against the rates of other companies it’s not telling you the whole story. First, the rates given from other companies are estimated and not binding, as-in, you can’t just buy from State Farm if they’re shown to give a lower rate. You’re going to have to run through State Farm’s insurance quote service or talk to a State Farm agent directly before being given a binding insurance policy quote you can actually purchase. The main reason Progressive provides this service is for comparison and while the metrics they use (most recent insurance data) can be a little outdated, it’s still fairly accurate.
Now, my biggest issue with offering competitive rates of other companies is the actual companies that Progresive chooses - mostly captive carriers. What does this mean? Well, it means that if a company like Progressive that doesn’t have a network of insurance agents will have lower overhead, whereas companies like State Farm, Nationwide, and others that have a network of agents will have a higher overhead. This is already a huge advantage. Secondly. Companies like State Farm and Nationwide tend to be a lot more picky with those they insure, again, big bonus for Progressive because they will insure high risk and low risk drivers where other companies pick and choose.
All in all, it’s a great service and Progressive is an outstanding insurance provider. I’m not sure if you can call 1-800-PROGRESSIVE and get the comparison quotes over the phone, you may want to give that a try. From what I’ve seen it’s only online.
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I tried Progressive last year and I got 2 other rates, one from Farmers and one from State Farm. Progressive was BY FAR the cheapest rate. I don’t know if that means they weren’t going to show me rates from other companies just the higher ones, or if that was all that would quote me in the area…but either way Progressive was cheapest.