How much do you pay for:car insurance? Home insurance? Furnishing your first apartment?

It varies too much from market to Market. I reside in a city of 5 million people, most of them indians and chinese who do not know how to drive in winter conditions. I pay too much to insure my one car. My inlaws in a small remote town, population 10,000 pay less than me to insure 2 cars, 2 snowmobiles, 1 motorcycle, and a boat.

Totally irrelevant. What I pay for my insurance has NO bearing on what anyone else might pay.

But I can tell you, I furnished my first apartment, dead broke right out of college, for about $200, with yard sales and dumpster dives. Ah, those were the days . . .

Typically, insurance rates will vary from State to State and can even vary by ZIPCODE! It also will depend on the type of car/truck, coverages, limits of liability, and driving record. SOme companies run credit scorees and MOST run a motor vehicel report and CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) report to see about undisclosed accident involvement.

The best thing to do is call a LOCAL independent agent. Don't go across town, or to some other city - look for someone CLOSE. Just look in the phone book for the PIA or Big I (Trusted Choice) logos and you will find a professional licensed agent that will be able to help you solve your insurance problems, and give you rate comparisons of several different companies.

An independent insurance agent will normally have a dozen different companies and if he cannot help you, he should be networked with other local agents that can.

Most of the replies on this site say "go to this on-line carrier or that on-line carrier or that 1-800 number" but I'm sure that when you do, you will find some impersonal computer user with a script to work from and you won't be able to talk with the same person every time you have a problem!

Good luck, drive RESPONSIBLY and I hope this helps