How I Found $546 in Car Insurance Savings in Under 10 Minutes

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I’ve been doing consumer news for nearly 30 years. While much has changed in the personal finance world during that time, shopping for one financial product — car insurance — has remained a pain.

Until recently, that is.

Today, there are a handful of new companies making the car insurance shopping process faster and easier. I recently took one of these — Gabi.com — for a test drive.

If you’ve tried to shop for car insurance online, you know the drill. Getting quotes requires you to input reams of information about yourself and your car. When you’ve completed the process, your inbox fills up with come-ons from insurance companies. Even worse, you often start getting phone calls from insurance salesmen!

No thanks. As comedian Woody Allen said, “There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?”

Gabi changes the game

Gabi is a San Francisco-based car insurance broker licensed in every state. As with other online services offering car insurance, Gabi represents a bunch of major insurance companies.

Unlike other services, however, Gabi requires much less information from you, and no salesman will call. Best of all, unlike other insurance search engines that I’ve tried, this one actually saved me serious money.

How it works

Here’s the entire process for using Gabi, step by step:

  • Select your current car insurance provider from a drop-down list.
  • Provide your first and last name.
  • Provide your date of birth.
  • Provide your home address.
  • Provide your email address.
  • Provide your mobile phone number. (This isn’t so a salesperson can call. It’s so you can get a text message with a verification code to set up your account.)
  • Enter the verification code that they text you.
  • Upload a PDF of your insurance policy.

That’s it. The entire process took me a little under two minutes.

Uploading my existing policy was simple, since I keep a digital copy as a back-up in case of disaster. (You do that too, right?) If you don’t have a digital copy of your policy, however, you can simply give Gabi the username and password to your insurer’s site, and Gabi will get what it needs.

The results

I’m currently insuring two cars with USAA at a combined cost of about $2,400. Gabi Gabi was able to find me the same coverage with another provider for 22% less, saving me $546. All I had to do is give Gabi the go-ahead and my driver’s license number. Then, Gabi would confirm the rate and even do the switching for me.

Pretty sweet!

As I write this, I haven’t made the switch yet, but I hope to get it done soon.

I also may check with other companies: Although Gabi deals with most major insurers, nobody represents them all. Finally, I may call USAA to see if it can beat the deal.

All and all, however, I’m liking what I’m seeing. I spoke to the CEO, Hanno Fichtner, and he assured me that my personal information wouldn’t be sold or even shared with any of the companies they work with.

Bottom line? What used to be a pain is now a lot easier. Take two minutes, try it yourself and see if you agree. Then share your results on our Facebook page. And if you’ve had experiences, good or bad, with similar sites, let me know. We’re always on the lookout for companies that can save you money and make your life a little easier!

Money Talks News has been looking at other new players disrupting the insurance game — and Gabi is not alone.

Check out: “New Ways to Save Money on Insurance of Every Kind.”

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