You *MUST* choose the right insurance company for your car. Why? Because they are the ones who will -supposedly- be helping you in every problem you might have with your car.

But the insurance industry, as in every profitable market, has grown over-populated and there are millions of insurance firms out there to "Help You Out". Some of them are good, some of them are bad and some of them are pure EVIL. I will try to help you find the good ones.

All the car-insurance companies provide the same basic benefits to their policy holders. The only difference between the companies is the premiums they ask. Some companies offer inexplicably high insurance premiums while others offer more affordable, low-rate premiums. So... How will you know what's best for you?

Before starting to check on companies, you must know what you need. Every state has different sets of insurance laws and rules, and they require different things. Moreover, these rules are different for every type of car and almost every "person". So the first thing to do is, ask your state's insurance department (or better, check out their web site - as every single one of them has one nowadays) to find out the requirements. Voila! You have the first criteria to rule some insurance companies out --the ones which do not provide the requirements of your state.

Now, on to company selection.

First things first: "What do others think about this company?"

A good insurance company will settle your claims in very short time and pay you just the right amount. To make sure your company is one that keeps its promises and works well, just go to your state's insurance department's web site and check on that company's records. Yes, your state has one of those too and on this web site you will find "consumer complaint ratios" about every insurance company that operates in your region. These ratios will show you the number of complaints per 1000 claims.

This is one of the good systems to check on your insurance company. You can use the same list to find the company that offers the minimum quotes. What you need to do is to find a balance between the least complaint ratios and lowest quotes. Mind you, it's not very easy to do!

Next, find out the recommended car shops of your insurance company. If you'll need to cross the country for every little need, they won't be much help to you. Even if they have a recommended shop near you, be sure to check the shop to see if they have every part and equipment you might need for your car.

After you check on them and ask them what they think about the insurance company you're about to agree with, they will give you positive or negative information about the company. This is important: Nobody knows insurance companies better than the mechanics!

Just to be sure, check the company on google, J.D. Power & Associates (an organization collecting data from policy holders and measures their satisfaction with their insurance companies.) and user forums around the internet.

After you complete all these steps, you hopefully will have found an insurance company worth your dime and cheerfully crash your car into a wall!