Can you switch car insurance at any time?

Yes. When you change insurers often you have no tenure or relationship with any company and most carriers can and will drop your policy if you have a claim during the first year you have the policy, sometimes longer. Once you have been cancelled, it is difficult to find coverage and when you do, the rates are often substantially higher due to having been cancelled by your prior carrier. In addition, you lose out on substantial discounts you earn when you remain with the same carrier over time like tenure discounts, claim free discounts, and many others. Another drawback to consider is when you are shopping for insurance, the length of time you were with your prior carrier has a fairly significant impact on rates you will receive along with other factors like claims history, driving record, credit and payment history, etc. This is not to say you should never shop rates, and it is wise to shop and consider switching if you are seeing steady increases in premiums when nothing has changed or if you are simply unhappy with your current company, however switching insurance companies often is rarely if ever beneficial. After 20 years in the insurance industry, the fact is rates are going to fluctuate between companies and at any given time, you can likely find a cheaper rate or a short term "welcome" discount if you switch companies, but the savings are often temporary and not worth what you lose by being a "frequent flyer". ... read full answer