Comparing car insurance quotes is a great way to see if your current car insurance rates are inline with other company’s rates. car insurance policy terms are usually 6 months, so it’s a good idea to comparison shop your rates every two renewals, or once a year.

Making a fair comparison between different rate quotes can be tricky, and some companies may attempt to lower coverages to make their insurance quote appear more affordable. The rate may be lower, but in reality you may be giving up important coverages such as uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage or liability protection.

When it’s time to shop your auto insurance around, it’s crucially important that each quote you receive uses similar deductibles and coverage limits as your current policy. That’s not to say your current coverages are adequate, but in order to fairly compare rates, you need an apples-to-apples comparison between carriers.

The main coverages on your car insurance policy are physical damage protection such as comprehensive and collision coverage, which will pay to repair or replace your vehicle, and liability coverage which pays to repair someone else’s vehicle or property, or even pay for their medical bills if you are liable for their injuries.

Make sure your comparison quotes use comprehensive and collision deductibles that are as close to what you currently have as possible. Some companies use slightly different deductible amounts.

For liabilty coverage, there are generally three limits used and are stated similar to 100/300/100 or 50/100/50. This is a split limit coverage, with the first number being your bodily injury limit (in thousands) per person, the second being your bodily injury limit (in thousands) per accident, and the last number being your property damage liability limit, again in thousands.

Your policy may use a single number for your liability limit such as 300 CSL. The CSL represents a combined single limit, with 300,000 in coverage for each of per person or per accident bodily injury, and per accident property damage.

Whichever limit your policy uses, make sure your comparison quote use limits as close as possible to your current coverage. If your current policy used 300 CSL, and a prospective insurance company does not offer CSL limits, you can use 250/500/250 or similar split limits. In this situation, you will give up $50,000 in per person bodily injury coverage, but gain $200,000 in per accident coverage.

Another coverage on your policy may be uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage or UM/UIM. This coverage pays your medical bills and expenses when you are injured by an uninsured or underinsured driver. Many people choose a lower UM/UIM limit to save money, but if you don’t have adequate health insurance coverage, this can be a dangerous savings. Again, make sure your comparison quotes have similar limits to your current policy.

Other coverages on your policy may include new car replacement coverage, roadside assistance, towing coverage, rental reimbursement and other company-specific coverages. These coverages usually don’t add a lot of premium to your car insurance policy, but try to add them to your other quotes if the coverages are available.

Again, the key to getting a fair comparison of auto insurance rates is to use identical coverages on each quote. If you are working with an agent and they try to place additional coverages such as membership fees or motorclub fees to your policy, tell them you want an apples-to-apples comparison, and would look at additional coverages on a separate quote.