Monday, December 2nd
2024 Auto Insurance Plan Reviews
The Zebra
- Free service
- Promises to keep your information private
- Compares quotes with over 100 companies
- Available for all 50 states
- Helpful sales agents
- Fantastic customer reviews
- "A-” Better Business Bureau rating
The Zebra was created as a free tool to simplify insurance shopping for customers in all 50 states. Featuring a zebra in a suit as their mascot, the company was started in 2012 and has already produced millions of quotes for people. They've become one of the nation's leading car and home insurance comparison sites. Their tagline is, "We do the searching. You do the saving.” Their algorithm compares over 100 insurance companies to seek out the best policies that will fit your needs.
Privacy is a priority
As is the case with all other insurance quote comparison sites, you'll need to provide The Zebra with some information that they can use to pull quotes from other companies. They assure you that they take privacy really seriously, so they won't be spreading your information to other companies and drowning you in spam.
Useful company comparison blogs
There's a list of main insurance companies that The Zebra partners with to find quotes for you. These familiar names include USAA, Progressive, Travelers, Geico, Esurance, Erie, Metlife, Nationwide, Metromile, and others. There are some interesting articles written recently by The Zebra's unbiased researchers about the differences among these insurance companies to help you compare which one you really might want to go with. For example, an article titled, "Progressive vs. State Farm: Which company is best for you?” covered the pros and cons of each company and gave a rating to each, letting you see which one might be the better option. Once you receive quotes and want to compare them, these blog posts might really come in handy.
Get started
To get started with The Zebra, you'll first need to provide your zip code. Then you'll answer a series of questions about your current car insurance, if you want to bundle car and home, your vehicle year, make, and model, your name, birthday, address, driving history, your spouse's information (if applicable), and then select your preferred coverage package.
Redirected to a new site
You can choose from a minimum coverage policy where you have the least amount of coverage, a "better” policy that The Zebra recommends, or the best policy where you'll receive maximum protection. There is even a customizable option where you can choose your policy and vehicle coverage yourself and see what it comes out to when you get quotes. We went for "better” coverage and only ended up with options for Progressive and Gainsco. They had a "Get Price” button to the side and The Zebra's site directed us to "View the final price on the insurer's website without having to reenter your information.” This was definitely not the case since both quotes took us to another website where it was asking repeat information as if we had never been on The Zebra's website in the first place.
Wasn't helpful for us
We've noticed that some companies that once produced quotes upfront seem to make you go through the insurance company's website that they link you to. We aren't sure if this is some change that insurance companies have demanded or played a part in, but it seems to completely cut out the need for companies like The Zebra at all. So far, only our highest-rated company has allowed us to quickly scan pricing among different companies as soon as we handed over our information to them.
Praiseworthy agents
Despite our bizarre experience here that left us wondering how in the world this company is helping customers, they do have fantastic reviews. The Better Business Bureau gives The Zebra an "A-” rating and people say they are really pleased with the agents who work there. This may be a company that is much more useful over the phone than online. Others complained that they weren't given price comparisons after they filled all their info out on the website, so we know we aren't the only ones. Almost all positive reviews came from people who worked directly with agents and felt they were listened to and got better deals on their auto insurance.
Get to know the team
At the bottom of The Zebra's "About Us” page, you can see the faces of all their leadership and view their LinkedIn pages. Sometimes it helps to see who is behind a company and learn more about them to make shopping feel more personal and understand better the driving forces behind a service. We like that they're transparent about who runs this company, which even allows you to reach out to them if you feel so inclined.
Saved by reviewers
The Zebra has been featured by Forbes, Consumer Reports, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fortune, and CNBC. They've garnered a lot of attention and have truly benefited many people. In the end, we wouldn't recommend wasting your time trying to get a quote online. Instead, jump on the phone and talk with someone who can do the research for you to get a quote and will leave you with useful results. If you take this route, you're likely to get a good number of quotes you can choose from and hopefully save quite a bit on your car insurance. Because of their good customer feedback, The Zebra has ultimately earned a high rating here.
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Whether you've just turned 16, or you're 99 years old and out driving on the roads, you need auto insurance. This protects you and everyone else by making sure that if an accident happens, it will be paid for and taken care of. Whether you get in a small fender bender or (heaven forbid) a devastating large-scale accident, your insurance will kick in and save you from potentially having to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket.
Besides paying for damage done to your car and anyone else potentially involved in an issue on the road, auto insurance can cover things like theft, weather, keying, or natural disasters. It can help pay for medical bills, lost wages, or even a funeral if anyone is injured or killed. There are a range of other things your insurance can help with depending on the plan like a cracked windshield, which comes in handy since we've all been hit by a flying rock or two on the road.
Auto Insurance Plan FAQ
Continued from above...
There are usually different tiers of auto insurance plans that you can choose from that will determine how much is covered. You're probably familiar with a few big-name auto insurance companies that seem to dominate the marketplace with ads and commercials. But there are actually quite a few companies out there and some could save you a significant amount of money compared to their competitors.
You can usually get a quick online quote within minutes that will help you compare pricing between companies. There are even some services that will take your information and instantly help you compare quotes among a bunch of different companies without you having to visit them one at a time. Depending on your driving history, some of these services give you more accurate quotes than others, but it's always worth a try.
We've done a lot of the deep dive research regarding some of the top online websites that sell auto insurance and recommend keeping the following things in mind when you're shopping:
- Quote turnaround time. It's frustrating to spend time filling out personal information on a website and answering questions about your driving history only to find that instead of providing you with an online quote, you have to wait to talk to a representative on the phone. This can drag out the process and make it hard to easily compare quotes among companies.
- Information required. Most companies ask for basic information like your name and email address before getting started with questions about what you need in an insurance policy. However, some companies require a social security number or other private information before providing an online quote, and we would be wary of this. We like companies that just ask for what they need in order to provide you with pricing rather than try to get as much out of you.
- Reputation. Pay close attention to the Better Business Bureau rating and customer ratings of an insurance company. When you're in a situation where you need your insurance company to step in, it's usually not a fun one and you want to work with someone who will be helpful, responsive, and provide payouts quickly. When you pay for auto insurance, you should expect the company to deliver on their product, but unfortunately a lot of companies make this difficult. Look for a place that people are happy with and trust.
The experts at Top Consumer Reviews have researched and ranked the most popular auto insurance sites you're likely to consider when shopping for coverage. We hope this information helps you have peace of mind as you head out on the road and feel taken care of when the time comes to use your policy!
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