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Nine minutes. That’s roughly how long an online quote from The General takes if you have your licence number and your current policy within arm’s reach. The part that actually decides whether you save money or burn an afternoon isn’t the quoting tool. It’s what you do before you open it and what you check after you hit “get my price.” This walkthrough covers both.
Step 1: Confirm The General writes policies in your state
The General (thegeneral.com) is a non-standard carrier. That means its rates are built for drivers with an at-fault accident, a couple of tickets, a DUI, a coverage lapse, or an SR-22 requirement. If your record is spotless and you’ve been continuously insured for years, a standard insurer will almost certainly beat the quote you get here.
The company doesn’t operate in every state, so start with your ZIP code rather than assuming. If your state isn’t covered, you’ve saved yourself twenty minutes. If it is, the rest of this applies. For background on how the company prices risk, this breakdown of The General’s approach to high-risk drivers is worth ten minutes before you quote.
Step 2: Gather six things before you start
Quotes stall because people hunt for information mid-form and the session times out. Have all of this on the desk first:
- Driver’s licence number for every household driver, even the one who “never drives it”
- The VIN from the windshield or your registration, not the plate number
- Your current declarations page, if you have one, showing limits and deductibles
- Lienholder or lease company name and address, if the car is financed
- Approximate dates of any tickets, accidents or claims in the last three to five years
- Proof of prior coverage, since continuous-insurance discounts are common and worth asking about
Step 3: Run the online quote, then phone it in anyway
The online tool is fast and it defaults to your state’s minimum liability limits. That default is rarely what you want, particularly if you have assets to protect or a lender on the title. Get the online number for a baseline, then call the sales line and ask an agent to re-run it with the limits you actually want.
A concrete comparison from a quote I sat through last spring: a driver in Arizona, 2021 Civic, one at-fault accident eighteen months back. Online quote came back at $164 a month on state-minimum liability with no collision coverage. A fifteen-minute call adding 100/300/100 limits and a $1,000 collision deductible landed at $209. The agent also caught a good-driver discount the online form had skipped because the accident date had been entered as this year rather than last.
Step 4: Read the line items that actually move the price
Three things drive most of the premium. Fix them in this order.
Your rated record
Violations and accidents are rated by date and severity. Check that the effective dates match reality. A ticket from 2021 shouldn’t still be surcharging you in 2025 in most states.
Deductibles
Moving a collision deductible from $500 to $1,000 typically saves 10 to 15 percent of the collision portion. On a $90-a-month collision line, that’s roughly $11 a month. Do the maths on how long it takes to bank the difference: if you save $130 a year, one $600 repair wipes out four years of savings.
Coverage limits
Liability limits are the cheapest upgrade on the page. Doubling from 25/50 to 50/100 often adds less than $10 a month, because the insurer’s exposure above the minimum rarely gets triggered.
Step 5: Test your limits against a real scenario
Numbers on a page don’t mean much. Try this. You misjudge a gap in traffic and clip a pickup, pushing it into a sedan. Damage comes to $19,000 on the truck and $14,000 on the sedan. Your state minimum property damage limit is $25,000. You’re short by $8,000, and that comes out of your pocket or your home equity.
That’s the case for 100/300/100 limits. It’s also why anyone with a lienholder should keep collision and comprehensive regardless of what the state requires, because the lender will insist on it and will buy force-placed coverage at your expense if you drop it.
Step 6: Sort the SR-22 or proof-of-insurance filing on the same call
If a court or DMV requires an SR-22, the certificate is filed by the insurer, not by you. Ask three questions before you hang up: is there a filing fee, how long must the policy stay in force, and what happens to the filing if the policy cancels for non-payment. Most states require three years of continuous coverage, and a single missed payment can trigger a lapse notice straight to the DMV.
Set autopay on the first payment rather than the second. It’s the single most common reason people end up back in the non-standard market.
Step 7: The first 48 hours after you pay
Once the policy is bound, do five checks. E-sign every document, including the state-required forms. Download or print your ID cards and keep a paper set in the glovebox. Confirm the effective date and time, since coverage on a newly purchased car is often backdated to the purchase. Confirm the down payment amount against the installment schedule so there’s no surprise on the second bill. And if an SR-22 was filed, call the DMV three to five business days later to confirm it landed.
Step 8: Filing a claim, in the right order
Claims are handled through the phone line and the mobile app. The sequence that keeps things moving:
- Report it the same day, even if the damage looks minor
- Write down the claim number and the adjuster’s direct extension
- Photograph all four corners of every vehicle plus the scene, with the other driver’s plate visible
- Ask whether the shop of your choice is allowed or whether you must use a network shop
- Confirm whether rental reimbursement was on the policy before you collect a loaner
A hail claim in Texas last summer went from first call to approved estimate in four days because the driver had photos from the driveway before the storm moved on. The same storm produced a two-week delay for a neighbour who waited until the following Monday to report it.
When to re-shop the policy
The General is a solid fit for a specific phase of a driving record, not a permanent home. Points age off, and pricing should follow. Re-quote at every renewal once twelve months have passed since your last violation, and again when a teen driver joins the household, when you move states, or when you pay off a financed car and can consider dropping collision. Keep your renewal declarations page in a folder. It’s the reference document every future quote gets measured against, and it takes ninety seconds to pull when a cheaper option appears.
