If you’re looking to buy auto insurance, picking a good Kansas car insurance agent takes more work than just driving to the closest agent’s office. Chances are good you want a professional licensed agent, but you also want to find great rates as well.
With American Family, Allstate, State Farm and Farmers having local Topeka offices, consumers have a hard time knowing which one will provide the cheapest rates and the best coverage. To help decide, consumers can get online price quotes in order to build a list of insurance agencies and price estimates.
Agents can help determine the best coverages and give you someone to call. The biggest benefit of price shopping on the web is you can get lower rates but still work with a licensed agent. Buying from small agencies is especially important in Topeka.
To make it easy to find an agent, after completing this short form, your information is immediately sent to agents in your area who will compete to get your business. There is no need to leave your computer since price quotes are sent directly to your email. Now that’s easy! It’s the lowest rates without the usual hassles of price shopping.
When researching a good Topeka insurance agent, you must know there are a couple different agency structures to choose from. Agencies in Topeka are either independent or captive.
Independent insurance agents are not employed by any specific company but instead can place your coverage amongst many companies enabling the ability to shop coverage around. To move your coverage to a new company, your agent can switch companies and you won’t have to switch agencies.
When searching for an agent, it’s a good idea to include price quotes from at a minimum one independent agency to get the best comparison.
The following is a list of independent agents in Topeka that are able to give comparison quotes.
Farm Bureau Insurance – 1130 SW Winding Rd – Topeka, KS 66615 – (785) 273-0904
Dennis Ross Agency Inc – 2930 SW Wanamaker Dr # 5 – Topeka, KS 66614 – (785) 273-1620
R L Smith Agency – 2816 SW Gage Blvd – Topeka, KS 66614 – (785) 271-2002
Roger Smith Agency Inc – 6028 SW 29th St – Topeka, KS 66614 – (785) 271-9611
Salsbery Insurance Svc – 6761 SW Fountaindale Rd – Topeka, KS 66614 – (785) 478-3883
Captive insurance agents can only write with one company and examples are Liberty Mutual, Allstate, Farmers Insurance or State Farm. They are unable to provide prices from multiple companies so they are skilled at selling on more than just price. They are very knowledgeable in insurance sales which helps them compete with independent agents.
Shown below are captive agencies in Topeka that are able to give comparison quotes.
Farm Bureau Agents Assn – 816 SW Tyler St – Topeka, KS 66612 – (785) 234-0462
American Family Insurance – 1215 SW Gage Blvd # A – Topeka, KS 66604 – (785) 271-1006
State Farm Insurance – 1505 SW Fairlawn Rd # D – Topeka, KS 66604 – (785) 272-0038
Farmers Insurance Group – 2708 NW Topeka Blvd – Topeka, KS 66617 – (785) 357-6750
Shelter Insurance – 2701 SW Wanamaker Rd – Topeka, KS 66614 – (785) 272-7181
Allstate Insurance – 2685 Goal Ave – Topeka, KS 66614 – (785) 271-5060
For a complete listing of captive agencies in Topeka, visit this site.
Picking a car insurance agent should depend on more than just the premium amount. Any agent should have no problem answering these questions:
Once you have received satisfactory answers and an acceptable price quote, you may have just found an auto insurance agent that will properly insure your vehicles.
Car insurance agents are a valuable resource, but Kansas car insurance can also be bought direct from companies that only sell online. Certain auto insurance companies, such as State Farm, Allstate and Farmers, who sell through agents in Topeka also allow consumers to buy direct online, and that can save time.
If you’re apprehensive about whether or not you’ll have guidance, don’t sweat it. Online insurance companies that require consumers to choose their own coverages all have client service departments to help you decide which coverages are appropriate. Many online companies also provide the ability to chat online live with a sales rep and online research you can access prior to buying.
Can you find lower rates online? Many people think so, but it’s hard to say for sure because there are a lot of things that influence how your policy is priced. Common sense would say that shopping online for auto insurance saves money by not requiring a commission. In many cases, marketing their products costs a lot of money so rates may not be all that different from traditional agents.
If you’re not set on any one company, the best way to find out if the cheapest policy comes from an agent or online is making fair comparisons of each of their rates. It’s possible to get different rates from insurance agents and online quoting from the same insurance company. But you won’t know whether the best rates are online or from an agent without quoting identical coverages both ways.
Additional auto insurance information can be read on the website for the Kansas Insurance Department found here. Kansas consumers can find out which companies have the most complaints, find a variety of consumer forms, and find out industry alerts.
Additional helpful sites include Auto Insurance 101 and this page where you can also get Topeka auto insurance quotes.
As you restructure your insurance plan, it’s not a good idea to reduce needed coverages to save money. There are a lot of situations where someone dropped collision coverage only to find out that their decision to reduce coverage ended up costing them more. Your aim should be to purchase plenty of coverage at an affordable rate.
Drivers who switch companies do it for many reasons like not issuing a premium refund, poor customer service, lack of trust in their agent or unfair underwriting practices. No matter why you want to switch, switching auto insurance companies is not as hard as you think.