Compare.com Review: 6 Things to Know Before Getting a Quote

Compare.com says it lets you compare quotes from 60+ car insurance carriers to see who offers you the best deal. I decided to put that claim to the test in this Compare.com review.

For this article, I went and got quotes for my vehicle on Compare.com and went through the whole process of shopping online with them. You can see the prices I was quoted here or read about my full shopping adventure below!

Compare.com Review: Here’s What You Need to Know

Money expert Clark Howard has long suggested working with an insurance broker who can shop you around to multiple insurance companies to find the best rate.

While Compare.com isn’t exactly an insurance broker, it does offer an easy option that grants you the flexibility of comparison pricing.

But Clark says you need to understand what you’re getting into before you sign up for a free quote with Compare.com.

“Comparison shopping websites are really just lead generation services,” Clark says. “There’s really no substitute for shopping individually with different insurers by calling them all.”

That said, we’re going to show you how to get quotes from Compare.com without all of the annoying sales calls.

We’ll take a look at how Compare.com works in this review, what companies you can get quotes from, how the price quotes stack up and more.

Table of Contents

1. How Does Compare.com Work?
2. Where Is Compare.com Available?
3. Which Insurance Companies Work With Compare.com?
4. What Kinds of Insurance Can You Get Quotes For?
5. How Does the Quote Process Work on Compare.com?
6. How Are the Prices on Compare.com?

1. How Does Compare.com Work?

Compare.com is a website that lets you enter some basic info about yourself, your vehicle and your driving history to quickly get a variety of quotes.

It only took five minutes to input my info. Once the Compare.com system starts crunching numbers, you get your quotes within 30 seconds.

To get started, here’s the basic info you’ll need to enter:

• Your zip code
• The year, make, model and trim of your vehicle(s)
• Whether you own or lease your vehicle(s)
• How many years you have had the vehicle(s)
• If you have anti-theft features like OnStar, Vehicle Recovery Device or Automatic Disabling

After that, you’ll be asked about the following:

• Your car’s primary use: Commuting, personal, business, farming, etc
• Estimated annual mileage
• If you park this car at your home address

Next up are basic identity questions, questions about your education & employment and your military status, if applicable. You also have to give your street address and info about when you were licensed to drive and your driving history.

Finally, you’ll have to answer questions about your current insurance status, current insurance company, how long you’ve been a customer and what bodily injury limits you have on your current policy.

In order to get my quotes, I was asked for my phone number and email address.

But per Compare.com’s terms of service, “You are not required to provide your phone number to receive a quote or use our services.”

Take advantage of this policy and skip the annoying sales calls.

2. Where Is Compare.com Available?

Compare.com is a licensed insurance agency in all U.S. states and Washington, D.C.

You can find state licensing info here.

3. Which Insurance Companies Work With Compare.com?

Compare.com works with more than five dozen different insurance partners to quote you:

1. 21st Century Insurance
2. Acceptance
3. Acuity
4. American Alliance
5. Amica Mutual Insurance
6. Anchor General
7. Arrowhead General Insurance Agency
8. Aspire General Insurance
9. Auto Agency Plus
10. Auto Insurance America
11. Bristol West Insurance
12. California Casualty
13. Clearcover
14. Commonwealth Casualty
15. Connect
16. Dairyland Insurance
17. Dillo
18. Direct Auto
19. Elephant Auto Insurance
20. Empower
21. Encompass Insurance
22. Esurance
23. First American Insurance
24. First Chicago
25. Freedom National
26. GAINSCO
27. GoAutoInsurance
28. Good2go
29. Hallmark Specialty
30. Home State County Mutual
31. Horace Mann
32. Infinity Auto Insurance
33. Jupiter Auto Insurance
34. Kemper Specialty
35. Liberty Mutual
36. LoneStar MGA
37. MAPFRE
38. Mercury
39. MetLife Auto & Home
40. Metromile
41. National General
42. Nationwide
43. NYCM Insurance
44. Occidental
45. Ohio Mutual Auto
46. Plymouth Rock
47. Pronto Auto Insurance
48. Quincy Mutual
49. SafeAuto
50. Safeco Insurance
51. Say Insurance
52. SECURA
53. State Auto
54. Stillwater
55. Sun Coast
56. The General
57. Topa
58. Tower Hill
59. Travelers
60. TSC Direct
61. United Security
62. USAA
63. Verti
64. Workmen’s

Not every insurer on this list quotes policies in all areas of the country. Some are state-specific. For example, TSC Direct only writes policies in select parts of the New York metro area.

So don’t worry — you won’t be bombarded with 60+ quotes when you shop with Compare.com! In fact, in my independent test I was only served five quotes.

4. What Kinds of Insurance Can You Get Quotes For?

When I began my Compare.com review on the website’s homepage, I immediately thought Compare only quotes for auto policies.

However, if you dig a little deeper in the footer of the page, it turns out you can actually get quotes for five different kinds of policies in total:

• Auto insurance
• Commercial auto insurance*
• Health insurance**
• Home insurance
• Motorcycle insurance

* Only MetLife Auto & Home LinkSM commercial auto policies are available.

** Compare.com works with eHealth Insurance to find you multiple health insurance rates.

5. How Does the Quote Process Work on Compare.com?

After entering basic info about yourself and your vehicle(s), you’ll be asked to select a level of coverage from four choices before you get your quotes:

I got quotes for a 2020 Toyota Corolla in Atlanta, Georgia and was offered the following standardized levels of coverage:

State Minimum

• Bodily Injury/Property Damage: $25,000 / $50,000 / $25,000
• Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury: $25,000 / $50,000
• Medical Payments: No coverage
• Comprehensive: $1,000 deductible
• Collision: $1,000 deductible
• Rental: No coverage
• Towing: No coverage
• Uninsured Motorist Property Damage: $25,000

Basic Coverage

• Bodily Injury/Property Damage: $25,000 / $50,000 / $25,000
• Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury: $25,000 / $50,000
• Medical Payments: No coverage
• Comprehensive: $1,000 deductible
• Collision: $1,000 deductible
• Rental: No coverage
• Towing: No coverage
• Uninsured Motorist Property Damage: $25,000

Plus Coverage

• Bodily Injury/Property Damage: $50,000 / $100,000 / $50,000
• Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury: $50,000 / $100,000
• Medical Payments: $2,000
• Comprehensive: $500 deductible
• Collision: $500 deductible
• Rental: Included
• Towing: Included
• Uninsured Motorist Property Damage: $50,000

Premium Coverage

• Bodily Injury/Property Damage: $100,000 / $300,000 / $100,000
• Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury: $100,000 / $300,000
• Medical Payments: $5,000
• Comprehensive: $500 deductible
• Collision: $500 deductible
• Rental: Included
• Towing: Included
• Uninsured Motorist Property Damage: $100,000

That’s something I didn’t like about Compare.com: If you want to customize your coverage — say, bumping up your deductible from $500 to $1,000 on the Premium Coverage package — you can’t do it in the Compare.com interface.

Instead, if you want to tweak a policy, you must get in touch with the individual insurers that Compare.com quotes you with and get your final quote from each one.

That means Compare.com is good to get a general sense of the price for a cookie cutter policy, but not if you want to customize your policy on a more granular level.

6. How Are the Prices on Compare.com?

Here’s where the rubber really meets the road in my Compare.com review! I pulled Premium Coverage quotes for a 44-year-old male with a master’s degree, excellent credit and one speeding ticket, driving a 2020 Toyota Corolla in Atlanta, Georgia.

* This rate does not include Liberty Mutual’s Online Purchase Discount up to 13%

I like that Amica Mutual — one of Clark Howard’s favorite auto insurers — showed up at the top of the list. They’re a quality company with a great reputation.

But how are the prices Compare.com found for me personally? When you compare their quotes to my current policy, I’m probably better off staying where I am:

• My current insurance company: $1,436 for 12-month policy with paid-in-full discount
• Compare.com’s best quote for me: $2,912 for 12-month policy with paid-in-full discount

I may be an atypical customer because I shop my insurance every year to make sure I have the best deal. But if Compare.com can help you save money — especially with a quality company like Amica — I say go for it!

Final Thought

The results of my Compare.com review reveal that this site is a good basic starting point for you to shop your auto insurance coverage. The website is easy to use and the whole process takes less than 10 minutes.

However, I didn’t like that I couldn’t customize my quote — taking a higher deductible on a Premium Coverage policy, for example.

As I mentioned, I shop my insurance every year and know I have a good deal. In the end, Compare.com may be a tool best suited to people who rarely comparison-shop for insurance and who just want a quick and easy check-up.

Meanwhile, be sure to check out our list of the Best and Worst Auto Insurers before switching companies. It pays to be with an insurance company with a solid reputation so that you know they will be there when the chips are down.

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