An overwhelming majority of auto insurance buyers who switchcarriers make the change based on price, but not many are activelyshopping around, according to a survey fromInsuranceQuotes.com.

In a national telephone survey of 1,000 adults conducted inearly November by Princeton Data Source for InsuranceQuotes.com,within the past 12 months only 21 percent of those surveyed saythey shopped for car insurance. Of those shoppers, 43 percentswitched carriers. The vast majority who switched, 81 percent, madethe change because of price.

“This suggests that many people who shopped around liked whatthey found,” says John Egan, managing editor of InsuranceQuotes.comin a statement. “Consumers don't care as much about customerservice or reputation—they want to know who's going to save themthe most money. Everyone should take an hour or two to compare afew different carriers. It can't hurt, and you might be amazed byhow much money you can save.”

The survey found that when it comes to how people shopped, mostwere most comfortable speaking with a live human being.

The most popular way to shop for car insurance was by telephone(54 percent of respondents). Online shopping was second at 48percent, followed by 39 percent speaking to someone in person ordealing with an agent.

In an interview, Egan says this result surprised him because ofthe popularity of online services. However, the result underscoresthe fact that people are comfortable using multiple forms ofcommunication, and insurers need to be conscious of that, hesays.

“With the telephone, people just want some sort of interaction;it's human nature,” says Egan. But the overlap of percentageresults also indicates the popularity of multiple shoppingavenues.

As far as the extent of their shopping, 59 percent of carinsurance shoppers obtained three or more quotes. Thirty-threepercent of shoppers obtained three price quotes, while 26 percentobtained four or more quotes.

When asked why more people aren't shopping for insurance, Egannotes that buying auto insurance is something people don't want togive a lot of thought to and many find policy language confusing.But he says a car is a major purchase, and consumers need to knowwhat insurance they are buying. This is something agents can helptheir clients with by educating them on their policy andre-examining insurance needs each year.

For carriers, the lesson from the survey, says Egan, is that onesize does not fit all.

“Customers want to interact in different ways,” says Egan.“Price is definitely what consumers keep in mind, but it's not thesame with all consumers.”