I'm with GEICO. When I ask for a quote from Allstate or state farm
I ran into a series of agents. Each with different quotes. Each agency
Had different premiums for the same coverage.

How does this system of Insurance agents work.

With GEICO I did not have any agent

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oneill474

I'm with GEICO. when I ask for a quote from Allstate or state farm
I ran into a series of agents. each with different quotes. Each agency
had different premiums for the same coverage.

How does this system of Insurance agents work.

with GEICO I did not have any agent

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Insurance rating is not an exact science such as math or chemisty, therefore, two agents who might be with the same company or quoting with the same insurance company might give you different rates, prices. Keep in mind what goes in is what comes out and in other words, the info you give to one agent would have to be the same info you gave to another agent for the same company for the prices to be exactly the same. You always have an agent and by that I mean some person licnesed by the state of your residence who handles the issuance of the insurance for you. It could be that agent is an employee of the insurance company and not an independent contractor for the insurance company. Regardless you have an agent licensed by the state. Prices do vary from insurance company to insurance company and fixing or conspiring to fix or set insurance rates is illegal. It's a free market system essentially but rates in most cases do have to be filed and usually approved by each state.

[QUOTE=Oneill474]I'm with GEICO. When I ask for a quote from Allstate or state farm
I ran into a series of agents. Each with different quotes. Each agency
Had different premiums for the same coverage.

How does this system of Insurance agents work.do some take different commissions.

With GEICO I did not have any agent .I wanted the same coverage. I gave the allstate agents a copy of my policy I had with GEICO. Which the premium was high. Been with GEICO for 40 years. I wanted the same coverage.

But each allstate agent acted differently. One ask me to name
Everyone in the household whether they drove or not. Even the part time maid. Sounded silly to me.

It is all underwriting,

To proper underwrite a agent must know every driver, his age, driver license number and drivers history.
Also how the car is used, the zip code where the car is parked and used.
Also if the car is parked in or out of a garage.

Also at the best any estimate given by the agent ( even geico over the phone or internet) is still just an estimate until it goes to the main office for official underwriting where they run your drivers record, your credit report and check your record on their systems. Then the actual policy is issues at the final rate.

So unless each agent uses the same data, and the same chart, their rates will vary differently.
The agent that asked the most questions most likely had the rate closest to the final rate.

And the reason they wanted to know everyone in your household, they want to know if there is any 14 or 15 years olds that may be driving next year ( some companies don't want any teen drivers, and don't want to have any coming up in a couple years or you are rated higher if you have them

Next if there are lets say a 18 year old living in the house who lost his licence because of some driving issue, they may assume he could take the car and drive it illegally at some point and time.

And the part time maid may well use the car also.

I would say that agent did the best job. Most give you a "close gues" or some even try and quote low hoping to get your to sign and then figure if and when the price comes back a little higher you will keepit anyway.

The online quotes work the same way.