Press & data studies

Featured study: the shopping-channel price gap

The finding: at least one insurer files different car-insurance rates depending on how you found it — the same driver, the same car, the same coverage, priced differently based on the sales channel you came through. It is written into the company's own regulator-approved rate manual.

Reading Clearcover Insurance Company's Arizona private-passenger auto filing (on file with the Arizona Department of Insurance through SERFF, tracking CLEA-134142856, effective July 15, 2024), we found a filed distribution-channel factor applied to the bodily-injury premium that varies by acquisition channel:

• Lead channel: 2.0441 — the highest.
• Price-comparison channel: 1.9916.
• Direct channel: 1.8044 — the lowest.

In plain terms: a driver routed to this insurer through a lead channel carries a bodily-injury factor about 13% higher than an otherwise-identical driver who arrives direct (2.0441 versus 1.8044). Nothing about the driver changed — only the path they took to the quote. It is a legal, filed rating variable, and most shoppers have no idea it exists.

Why it matters for drivers: the cheapest way to reach an insurer is not always the most convenient one, and "compare everywhere" advice can quietly route you through a pricier channel. The practical takeaway from this filing is that it can pay to also get a price directly from an insurer, not only through an aggregator or lead form, and to compare the two.

The caveats we always state: this is one insurer's filed factor in one state (Arizona) and one filing edition; it is not a market-wide rule, and other carriers file channel factors differently or not at all. What is not in doubt is that this specific, striking practice is real and documented — because we read the filing, not a summary of it.

Source: Clearcover Insurance Company, Arizona private-passenger auto Rate/Rule filing, Arizona DOI via SERFF Filing Access, tracking CLEA-134142856, effective 2024-07-15. Values transcribed by hand and verified against the filed rate pages. See also how Clearcover rates auto insurance.

More data studies

• Filed auto rate changes ran from a −30% cut to a +24% hike — and insurtechs swung hardest

  An analysis of carriers' filed SERFF rate-change filings: overall changes spanned a wide band in the same window, with the biggest moves concentrated among insurtech carriers.

• Shopping early can cut car insurance up to 16% — and other "invisible" discounts drivers miss

  An analysis of filed rate manuals quantifying the timing and administrative discounts most drivers never claim — from advance-quote breaks to paperless and autopay.

• Single drivers pay 20–35% more than married drivers for the same car

  An analysis of GEICO, Nationwide, and Mercury filed rate manuals quantifying the marital-status penalty — with a licensed agent's commentary.

• Your credit tier can swing a car-insurance rate 2.4× — and some insurers refuse to use it

  Clearcover's filed credit-based factors run from 1.00 to 0.42; CURE and three states reject credit scoring entirely.

• 35 states cap the minimum injury coverage at $25,000 — and Florida requires none at all

  An analysis of minimum liability law across all 50 states + DC — how far the legal floor sits below the real cost of a serious injury.

How our data is produced

Every figure in our studies comes from a primary regulator filing, is transcribed by hand (never scraped or estimated), is verified against the source, and carries its filing tracking number and capture date. Our full process is described in our methodology, and every claim on our rate pages is reviewed by a licensed P&C agent per our editorial policy.

For journalists and researchers

You are welcome to cite these findings with attribution to FastAutoQuote and a link to the study. We can point you to the exact public filing behind any figure so you can verify it independently. For a data request or to discuss a finding, reach us through the site; we respond to press and research inquiries directly.