If all you want is an insurance card, then buy it on-line.
Just don't have it totalled (almost anything they will total) and get about 75% of what your car is worth. If they cancel you just try getting back in!

All insurers love the perfume of the premiums and loathe the stench of the claims.

Thus Step No. 1 in having a happy relationship with any insurer is the avoidance of claims. Claims stink!

Once a claim arises, matters become more delicate for the insured. If the insured is merely being sued by someone else for damage he allegedly caused to someone else, then he hands over the lawsuit to the insurance company and lets the company fight it out. Fighting it out could mean resistance to the death in the form of a verdict, or settling. In any event, with adequate limits the insured is at peace and does not care a whole lot.

When the insured is also the claimant, as with damage to his own car which is not due to some other guy’s fault, or for uninsured motorist coverage, the relationship can get strained because the insured is not merely a customer to be protected. The company does not want to get ripped off by its own customers any more than by strangers.

An insured who is unhappy with the way his own company treats him might first try a little diplomacy going up the company’s chain of command. Then he can take the easy and free step of contacting his state insurance department. Insurance departments have helped many people in difficult situations. Complaints to insurance departments become part of an insurance company’s official record, and most companies would rather avoid going even that far.

Then there’s the good old American lawsuit. An insurance policy is a contract, and you can always sue for breach of contract.

Some bloggers’ comments suggest they might be a little short on diplomacy. All these insurance companies are staffed by people with different personalities, and diplomacy works better with some people than with others. One unhappy customer is no proof that a company is bad. That one unhappy customer could be unhappy with a whole bunch of companies and perhaps all of them. It doesn't matter whether the insurance was bought on-line or not, as most companies sell both ways.

Agreed -that buys a lot of bagels with jam as the lizard says.

I have noticed that you need to compare groups of insurance. Last time I checked, having it all with a Safe Co mpany. Gave enough of a group discount to make it competitive.