A car policy is quiet for most of the year. Then, inside a short window, it wants decisions from you: when you buy or switch, when something in your life changes, when the renewal arrives, and in the hour after an incident.
Those four moments settle most outcomes, so this site is organised around them rather than around topics. For each one, a playbook sets out what happens, what you have to do, and what tends to go wrong when it is left until late.
Who reads the playbooks
Drivers in the US who already hold a policy and want the next decision on it handled properly: a renewal notice higher than last year’s, a new address, a teenager close to getting a license, a small accident that has to be reported. No background in insurance is assumed.
Three sections
- Buying and Switching: lining quotes up by coverage instead of by price, what to have ready before you request one, and moving between insurers without a gap.
- Mid-Term and Renewal: a move, an added driver, a car bought partway through a term, and your renewal letter read line by line.
- After an Incident: what to record and photograph in the first hour, and how to report it to your insurer correctly.
The full list lives on the Playbooks page.
Method
One moment per playbook, laid out as steps in the order you would take them. State rules and individual insurers’ prices differ by reader and shift over time, so the playbooks stick to how cover usually works and point you to a state regulator’s or industry body’s own page whenever it already explains a step well.
When rules or common practice move, the playbooks are revised. Found something stale or confusing? Let us know and we will look into it.
Lines we don’t cross
- No selling insurance, no quoting premiums, and no acting as anyone’s agent or broker.
- No ranking or recommending of particular insurers.
- No legal advice on claims, disputes or fault.
Money
Some of what you see here and in our emails is a partner offer, such as a free quote comparison, and we may earn money when a reader takes one up. They have no say over what a playbook contains. Your details reach a partner only if you choose to fill in that partner’s form.
New playbooks by email
We send new playbooks out as they are published; there is no set timetable. Join the list to get them. Questions about the site go through the contact page.
A final word on scope: the playbooks describe American car insurance in broad terms. They cannot advise on the specifics of your cover, a claim you are making or your wider situation. Insurers and states each set their own cover terms, program rules and legal requirements, which also get revised, so before relying on a playbook for anything important, put the question to your insurer or the relevant regulator.