Three in Four Drivers Have Abandoned or Delayed a Car Insurance Search, New Survey Finds

Shopping for car insurance is supposed to save drivers money, but for most Americans it’s become a chore they’d rather put off. A new national survey finds that more than three-quarters of U.S. adults have walked away from or stalled a car insurance search out of frustration. Many of them never came back. The findings land at a moment when insurers are competing harder for drivers who are willing to switch, and when switching can move thousands of dollars in premium.

The data points to a gap between what drivers want and what the shopping process actually delivers. Consumers say they want to compare their options, yet getting there is fragmented, repetitive, and time-consuming. That friction is also pushing a growing share of shoppers toward AI chat tools, though they’re clear about what those tools need to get right before they’ll trust them.

Most Shoppers Have Quit a Search at Least Once

A new BestMoney survey of 1,031 U.S. adults found that 76.6% have abandoned or delayed a car insurance search because they were frustrated with the process. Roughly 40% walked away entirely and never returned, while another 37% paused and finished later. That split matters for insurers and shoppers alike, since friction is delaying nearly as many purchases as it’s killing outright. A delayed search can mean months more on a policy that’s priced higher than it needs to be.

The survey also shows how much legwork a typical search takes. Nearly 70% of shoppers visit between two and five websites just to get a baseline sense of their options. Almost half (49.9%) spend anywhere from one hour to more than five hours deciding on a policy. For a product most drivers renew every six or twelve months, that’s a significant recurring time cost.

The Pain Points Are Nearly Universal

Frustration isn’t limited to a small group of unlucky shoppers. Ninety-five percent of respondents in the BestMoney survey said they’d run into at least one pain point while shopping for car insurance. The most common was uncertainty, with 59% saying they didn’t know whether they were getting the best deal. Another 52% were frustrated by entering the same personal information on site after site, and 47% complained about unwanted sales outreach after requesting quotes.

Comparison itself is a sticking point, too. Forty-three percent said they struggled to compare quotes side by side, a problem that’s hard to solve when every site formats coverage and pricing its own way. Thirty percent said they worried about overpaying for coverage. Those concerns overlap, since a shopper who can’t line quotes up cleanly also can’t tell whether a lower price means thinner protection.

Fewer People Are Shopping, but Switchers Are Moving Big Money

The survey arrives as the broader market shifts. Data from LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ Insurance Demand Meter shows that 47.3% of auto policies in force had been shopped at least once in the 12 months ending in the first quarter of 2026, the highest share since the index began tracking in 2020. At the same time, year-over-year shopping growth slowed to 3.2%, down from 6.9% the quarter before. LexisNexis tied part of that slowdown to carriers cutting rates, and noted that rate decreases are less likely to prompt shopping than rate increases.

Second-quarter figures from JD Power and TransUnion point in the same direction. Their quarterly insurance report put the auto shopping rate at 12.6%, down a full point from the first quarter, while the switching rate rose to 4.5%. Among drivers who switched, the median premium moving between carriers topped $3,200. Fewer people are shopping, but the ones who finish the process are acting on real savings.

Drivers Want AI Help, on Their Terms

That gap between intent and follow-through is where AI tools are gaining ground. In the BestMoney survey, 83% of consumers said they’d consider using a free AI tool, such as a ChatGPT app, to compare car insurance options. That’s a large share for a category where many drivers say they don’t fully understand what they’re buying. Independent research shows both the demand and its limits.

JD Power’s 2026 U.S. Auto Insurance Study found that only 58% of customers say they completely understand their auto policy, down four points from 2025. JD Power data cited in the same release shows that 32% of auto insurance shoppers used AI tools during their search, and those shoppers were more than 1.3 times as likely to switch insurers. Yet a similar share, 33%, found the AI content they got unhelpful. The appetite is clearly there, but generic chatbots aren’t consistently giving shoppers answers they can act on.

The BestMoney survey spells out what would change that. Asked what would make them trust an AI tool for insurance shopping, 59.6% pointed to knowing it pulls real, up-to-date data instead of AI guesses. Another 54.5% wanted to see options clearly compared side by side, and 51.8% wanted assurance that their personal data is secure. Half of respondents said being able to ask follow-up questions in plain language would raise their trust as well.

Pairing Chat With Verified Comparison Data

BestMoney has built its answer to those findings directly into ChatGPT. The company’s car insurance app pairs a conversational interface with the structured comparison data it already uses on its own site, so shoppers can ask questions and get a shortlist of providers in one place. Users enter their details once, and the app lays out the pros and cons of matching providers visually alongside the conversation. When a shopper’s ready to move forward, the app hands them off to the provider’s site to confirm final pricing.

“We recognize that decision-making is increasingly happening within chat platforms,” said Maayan Gal, a product manager at BestMoney. “Our goal is to eliminate the endless tab-hopping between using chat for research and bouncing across individual brand pages,” Gal said. The team also wants to spare users from typing the same information again and again, and to help them close the gap between researching options and completing a purchase. The company plans to add interactive financial calculators and expand support for existing policyholders who want to optimize their current coverage.

What Drivers Can Do Before Their Next Renewal

Whatever tool they use, shoppers can cut down on the friction the survey describes with a little preparation. Gathering the current declarations page, vehicle identification numbers, and driver details before starting makes it easier to request matching quotes. Comparing the same liability limits, deductibles, and optional coverages across carriers keeps a cheaper quote from hiding a thinner policy. Starting a few weeks ahead of renewal also leaves time to finish a search that gets interrupted.

Drivers using AI tools should hold them to the same standard survey respondents set. That means checking whether quotes and provider details come from current data, confirming the final price on the insurer’s own site, and reading how the tool handles personal information. With switchers moving a median of more than $3,200 in premium, finishing the search is usually worth the effort. A search abandoned halfway through can leave that money on the table.