What does Answer Financial do?
Answer Financial helps customers understand their insurance options and make empowered buying decisions. Agents assist customers most often with purchasing auto insurance and home insurance. However, they can help with pet insurance, health insurance, renters insurance, and RV insurance.
Answer Financial is an insurance agency. For those of you not spending your life in the industry, an insurance agency is a company that writes and binds an insurance policy on behalf of an insurance company. And it typically works with several different companies at a time. The insurance company is what protects you and your property through an agreement called an insurance pol icy.
For good measure, Insurify is an insurance comparison website built to inform and empower consumers wishing to protect themselves and their property. An insurance comparison website can be used in tandem with an agency or company, as it is meant to compile insurance quotes for consumers. However, it does not write nor bind insurance policies.
Bear in mind that bind does not mean issue. Think of binding as the verbal or handshake agreement before the contract’s set in place. Temporary coverage may be issued, but the policy is not officially issued until the insurance company has reviewed the application.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever use an insurance agency. And if you decide an agency is right for you, Answer Financial is a great option. Of course, I would recommend still using a tool like Insurify to verify you’re getting the best insurance for the best rate, no matter where you are in your shopping journey.
How does working with an Answer Financial Agent work?
Because Answer Financial is not an insurance company, it doesn’t service your policy or answer for a claim. You don’t call its customer service line when you have a question about your policy. It’s essential to be clear about how an agent with Answer Financial is different from your agent with your insurance company.
You’ll work with an agent at your insurance company to assist with questions about your policy and claims. Your insurance company may even provide a local agent in your area. But you use your Answer Financial agent to review quotes from different insurance companies, discuss differences in policies and companies, and answer general questions about coverage. If you want to work with your Answer Financial agent in the future, you will need to ask for a direct line. Otherwise, be prepared to answer the same questions every phone call.
You can also use an independent agent. Becoming rarer these days, independent insurance agents build relationships with clients over many years. Typically they’re local, licensed in all personal and property lines, and offer other types of financial services as well. Lastly, they tend to provide more handholding and accountability than an agent in a call center of a software-based company.
Either way, working with agents who are independent of a single company offers advantages by lending you the eyes of an expert. Whether you want the ease of phone-based service or the reassurance of in-person service is up to you. And for those who have more obvious insurance needs, an independent agent of any kind may be overkill.
Answer Financial: One user’s experience
One of the things this reviewer enjoyed about Answer Financial’s website is the Call Now button at the bottom of the screen. I’m nearing the end of my car insurance policy, so now is a great time to review my options. I filled in my contact information and received a phone call within 60 seconds. After my information was verified, I spoke with an agent about my car insurance needs. She was able to give me:
Accurate information
Good advice
Friendly service
But even if I didn’t want to speak with an agent, the process is still straightforward. The online form was short and sweet. It didn’t, however, offer much by way of screening for car insurance discounts, so be sure to do your research or speak with an agent about your eligibility. I received four quotes, and I’m happy to report that I didn’t get an annoying phone call two seconds later.
I did, however, receive a phone call about an hour later to follow up on my experience. Overall, everyone I spoke to was courteous and seemed knowledgeable. And I’m happy to report that my spam-radar didn’t go off once.
Even so, be prepared to be reached out to over the phone. And be ready to receive offers in the mail. If you hate receiving junk mail, you may not want to use this service. But if you view junk mail as couponing opportunities, then this shouldn’t cause much of a stir.
Is there an additional fee?
Information about fee structures or how people get paid was not readily available on the company’s website. I did speak to an agent about fees for using Answer Financial for purchasing insurance. He assured me that Answer Financial would not charge any additional costs to purchase my policy.
This has prompted members of the customer service team to issue a clarifying statement on the matter:
