If you’re looking for car insurance The General says you can get an anonymous free quote, and even have proof of insurance the same day. Their coverage seems most attractive to those with a less than perfect driving record or other problems like a bad credit score. It’s important to have coverage in place at all times, and in many states it’s a requirement. So we looked into this to see if you really can get a quote without coughing up your personal details.
Overview
Most auto insurance companies want you to give a wealth of personal information before they give you a quote. By saying you can get a quote anonymously, The General is trying to appeal to those that don’t like feeling like they’re signing up for something before they even know what it will cost. Of course this is the way these insurance companies secure you as a lead, by getting contact info from you so they can bombard you with emails or phone calls if you don’t sign up with them right away.
The Claim
They say that you’ll get your car covered instantly and completely online, without giving your name and other personal information. They say that it doesn’t matter if you’ve had coverage lapses, or how old you are, or even if you’ve gotten tickets or had accidents in the past.
The Hype
They’ve got their cartoon character, a five star army General, on all of the TV ads, and they run the ad repeatedly in certain markets. This puts them on par with the major insurance companies that run their ads non-stop every day to try to get people to call or go online. They speak right to those that maybe haven’t had insurance on their car but are still driving anyway because they assume they can’t get covered. They present themselves as a way to get insurance same day, by printing the proof of insurance right from home.
The Cost
The cost of insurance through The General is dependent on too many variables, which is why they ask you some qualifying questions to see what it will run you. If you’re worried that you won’t know if you’re getting a good deal or not, they let you compare their quote with other insurance providers so you don’t have to fill out the same data at multiple websites. Even though the ads state that you can get rates as low as $39 a month, this is obviously best case scenario and represents getting the bare minimum on the most eligible car, in certain states.
The Commitment
You’re not obligated to stay on with the coverage once you sign on. They break it all down for you as far as what your down payment is, what your monthly payments will be, and what your total premium is. This way you’ll have a good idea of whether you’ll be able to stay on with it for the foreseeable future. Since it’s all handled online it’s pretty convenient, and you don’t have to wait around for the proof of insurance to come in the mail, or pick it up from some local office.
Evaluation
The General doesn’t ask for your name, which is their way of keeping it anonymous. You’ll still have to enter in a lot of information in order to generate your quote, and there’s not really a way around this, since they can’t give you an accurate quote without knowing what they’re insuring. The overall feedback from those that have gotten policies from The General is that if you own your car and are just trying to meet the minimum requirements of the state you’re in, they are a good deal. Any other situation and the payments have been reported to be higher than other providers.
If you’re not in a market that they are licensed for they basically serve as an affiliate for major insurance companies like Geico, Progressive, and esurance. They will send you to the quote page of whichever service you pick, and you’ll probably end up having to give more information than you would when you go directly with The General.
Final The General Review
It’s not really fair to compare The General to major insurance companies that run nationwide ad campaigns and are after ordinary driving records with pretty much untarnished driving histories. They are going after a different type of driver, those that are labeled more high risk and tend to get taken advantage of when dealing with many of the top providers. Auto insurance quotes should be free, and you shouldn’t be forced to give your email or phone number to get them. In this regard, we’re giving them the Solid Try rating.
Our Recommendation
It only takes a few minutes to get a quote, so it doesn’t hurt to get one, especially if you’ve gotten turned down by other companies, or if your rates are exceedingly high due to your driving record, accidents, or other reasons. Since they don’t require an email address or a phone number to present you with an initial quote, you don’t have to worry about getting hounded by aggressive salespeople if you don’t like the quote they give you. This shows a bit of confidence in their quotes because they figure they’ll be appealing enough so you’ll want to take the next step.
The General not only requires your name, DOB, address and email but you must also agree to phone calls, emails and snail mail from everyone they sell your info too. No thanks!
I went on line to get a anonymous quote. While filling out there form it ask for your first and last name. How is this anonymous if you are revealing who you are. I called C/S and spoke to the call center management on duty. She claims that you are still anonymous until you submit. The end result is the general has misled the consumer in there ad. Now can you trust them?
I wanted to get Quote on Everything General
can you say hell no they don’t give you a anonymous quote…….they basically take your info and give your info to a dozen insurance companies and see which one will give you the lowest premium..and if you give them your info dozens of insuranace agents will call not even a few minutes later directly and basically cold call you to get even more info while trying to sell you a policy on your dime/wasting your time on your phone…they are basically a insurance policy selling service like a call center for insurance they don’t even handle your policy or your claims..the insurance company you decide to go with handles your policy /claims by handing you off to a local agent if one actually lives near you…..and the policies they tried to sell me were almost 100 percent higher than my current policy that I got by actually going to a local agent in person at a brick and mortar location in my township…oh ? and the people calling you are not license+bonded agents or claims adjusters and your giving them personal info they can then do anything with including selling it and they are not legally liable for anything that happens to you when they sell your info to others..in fact you don’t know who is on the phone taking your personal info for your quotes……….its a giant bate and switch scam or at the very least misleading advertising and should be investigated by the senate/congress/ your states attorney general office….
They do NOT give anonymous quotes. They’re just liars at this point.
I filled in all my info (including name, address, phone number…. anonymous?) and then they just linked me to another car insurance place.
I’m not sure if their TV ads still say “anonymous” but a google search for “anonymous quotes” turns up a lot of links to thegeneral.com. Progressive now owns The General Insurance company and clicking for a quote on thegeneral.com takes you immediately to the Progressive Insurance site and their quotes are NOT anonymous. Under the guise of needing to provide you with the most accurate quote possible, you are required to supply all of the personal information that every other company requires. So the answer to your question is a pretty firm NO… you can’t get an anonymous quote from the general or anywhere else that I’ve found.
I wanted to get an anonymous quote from the general like their commercials advertise but it was a lie. I tried several times but each time it continued to ask for name, address, email address, and phone number. I do not want phone calls or emails. All I wanted was an anonymous quote. If they are going to lie about this can I really trust them with my car insurance.
I haven’t had auto insurance in a few years, yet I still keep getting letters in the mail occasionally to “Switch my auto insurance”. I decided I might want to buy a car in the near future, but wanted to see what rates I would get. I went to The General website due to the fact it used to be anonymous, but it seems that if you put in your Zip Code and Insurance Type (Auto, Home, etc) I’d expect to be taken to a page that wants some personal info and vehicle info before given agent choices to get to your quotes.
Tell me if I’m wrong but now (And I have also tried different Zip Codes in different States) Whatever zip code I choose, it takes me directly to the “Xxxxxxxxxxx” website. no other ones. so to use The General, Wouldn’t it be easier just to go to that “Xxxxxxxxxxx” site and get the quote directly?
I saw the commercial on television for The General auto insurance and wanted to see if the rates were lower. The rate that I was given was not lower and the coverage was much less than what I already had so I didn’t change insurance companies. I don’t know if they keep your information anonymous, but I didn’t get spammed in my email so it could be kept private. It doesn’t hurt to see if they offer a lower rate, it just wasn’t low for me.
For someone like me, it’s not like I have a choice to go with any other auto insurance companies anyways. My insurance rate jumped to nearly 7 grand after couple of unfortunate accidents and now I’m left with a choice to either get rid of my car or pay the crazy amount. I don’t know if the general would give me a better rate, but based on their business model I might just get a much better rate.