An incomplete list of reasons that checking the market makes sense:

  • The market is very, very competitive, you can see the real output (taken today). Four carriers within $3/month.

  • If you call a single carrier, they can tell you (and you will be pushed) to execute on THEIR premium. You will not be told about the other premiums available in the market, because the captive agent / call center won’t know and wouldn’t be allowed to tell you.

  • If you are Miss / Mr Perfect, the carriers reset their entire pricing grid, and sometimes, the price differential (the list of actual carriers in the image is over 30 price points long), and your carrier’s premium can be obsolete. You will be able to switch and simply save money. For married couples, the Perfects (you realize this is not really their name, right?), this can be $1000 a year in premium savings, with no change in the coverage.

  • When the prices are THIS CLOSE, there can easily be an “X factor” that would lead me to suggest Carrier Acme instead of Carrier Blahblahblah. We will have a lot more on that later.

  • This list will change, the order will change, and the premiums will change, which means the most-fitting carrier can change. It’s slowwwwwwww moving bond trading (aha, that sounds like someone occupying a “certain” strangely-named Corner, maybe it’s a pure coincidence).