When you think of buying insurance, the first thing that comes to mind is a well known company, one that is widely advertised, playing a television commercial every five minutes. While widely known can be a good place to find insurance, sometimes they are the best place to go, but there are other options. There are two types of agents in the insurance business, independent and captive. Agents that are captive are those who work for the well known insurance company’s, and independent agents are those who have multiple companys they can sell for. either agent can provide you with insurance, but the independent agent often times has more options for and your situation.

Exclusive agents are basically what their name implies; they sell insurance for just one specific company. They can only sell what the company offers. For instance; you may be looking for car insurance but you have a ticket on your record. Your captive insurance agent has to give you a higher premium because that is what his company offers. He does not have the option to shop around for you, to get the best rate possible because be cause he is a captive agent for that company. Your options are to take what he is offering, or do alot of research yourself hoping you can find a cheaper premium, which will result in your changing companies and agents. This is a lot of work and headache for you, and there is no promise of a better result.

Independent agents take care of business a little differently than captive agents. Like a captive agent, they provide good insurance and coverage. Unlike a captive agent, however, they have many different companies to quote every situation. Often times this is a huge benefit to, the customer. In the same situation as above, You are in need of car insurance but you have a ticket on record. Instead of giving you the best quote available for a specific provider, an independent agent does the shopping around for you. They sell for and are familiar with multiple insurance companies and know which ones will have the lowest premiums for your imperfect record, or which ones will forgive the ticket altogether. His job is to find you the best rate he can while still giving you the best coverage available, and he will. This benefit is just part of his job, cost you nothing and you never have to switch agents again. He does the work, you reap the benefits.

For the most part you will get good insurance coverage, regardless of the type of agent you choose to work with . What you are looking for, though, is to lower your monthly premiums and increase your coverage. If you choose to completely forego working with an independent agent, you may end up paying more for insurance than you need to. You would be wise to shop both captive and independent agents, then choose the quote,coverage and customer service that will work for you.