A lot of us have a sort of dislike for all things related to insurance. Because it seems like it is difficult or time consuming to check out rates or get a new quote, we put it off until it is too late and end up renewing the same policy with the same company year after year. That was very common in the past. But today with so much of the insurance industry changing over to new technologies, it is much easier to get a new quote and takes a lot less time.

If you prefer to deal with a ‘real’ local agent, use the internet to save yourself a lot of time. The old days of spending a half hour on the phone being asked about all your personal information is long gone. Pick the local agents you want to contact and give them a quick call (some of the smarter ones have their email address right in their phone book listing).

Ask them to email you the information they need in order to give you a quote. More and more agents are getting set up this way. They send a pre-made form or list of items that they need to quote your insurance. Wait until you get at least a few of these back before you start replying because here is how you can save yourself hours of time and a lot of money in the future.

Rather than filling out the information on the email or list they send you, start your own master list which lists all the information they are asking for. The idea is that you can make up a one or two page list with your name, address and all the other information that is asked for that will cover all the questions from all the insurance agencies you have contacted.

If one company asks a questions that the others don’t, just include it on your master list anyway.

When your master list is done and has all the questions answered that you were asked from the various emails, attach your master list to their emails and send it back to the insurance agents.

The real time saving factor here is that once you have this master list you can use it again next year with very little modification. Plus it gives you a list all in one place of the important details that you are getting insurance for. Once you set up a system like this, you can easily do you shopping each year by just making a few modifications to your master list, and then sending it out a again for a quick quote to make sure you are getting the best possible rate.

Also, if you have time, check out my page with info on Cheap Contents Insurance for some other ideas on lowering your insurance costs.