“Guesstimate” is one of my favorite words. Why? Because of everything it implies. It suggests a guess and an estimate rolled into one for the perfect multi-purpose tool-and really, who doesn’t love a multi-purpose tool? But what does it really mean? More importantly, what does it mean for you when the time comes to go hunting for free insurance quotes?

Guesstimate (n): A blend of guess and estimate; an estimate, usually made without adequate information.

Wait. Insurance companies are handing out free insurance quotes without adequate information? Of course they are.

Think about it for a minute. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of tiny little components that come into play when you’re trying to calculate an insurance quote. For example, let’s look at auto insurance. Before an insurance company can give you an accurate quote, they have to know:

· Your age.

· Your social security number.

· Your credit history.

· Your driving history.

· How many points you have on your license.

· What make and model you drive.

· What safety features that make and model has.

· What safety features you’ve added since you bought it.

The list goes on…and on…and on. There’s a ton of background work and information checking that goes into establishing your insurance rates. To be perfectly frank, no insurance company is going to dedicate that kind of manpower to free insurance quotes without any guarantee of an ROI.

In other words, why pay someone to do all that extra work when they don’t know if you’re going to buy a policy or not?

They’re not going to hang you out to dry, however. It does them no good to offer free insurance quotes only to make them so inaccurate that you end up paying almost twice what they quoted you in the first place. It does happen, but it’s the exception rather than the rule! Hence, they guesstimate, taking the key components of your driving history, your car and where you live and using them to make a best-odds guess as to how much it’s going to cost you to remain insured.

That estimate lets you enjoy the privilege of continued free insurance quotes without leaving insurance companies so tight for money they can’t offer the very thing they promised-cheap insurance.