Choosing your car insurance is not an easy task. Where do you begin? Do you ask your friends for recommendations? Family? Do you go directly to the most well known company according to recent TV ads? There are a plethora of options, all of which sound appealing in their own way. But with hindsight being 20/20, you won’t truly find out how well your car insurance works (or doesn’t) until you have your first accident.

Luckily, a recent article featured on Usnews.com takes an in-depth look at exactly this situation and shares advice on how to tackle the dilemma.

To start, Jeanne Salvatore, an industry group spokeswoman for the Insurance Information states that”It always makes sense to first ask people who you respect who they have auto insurance with, and if they were happy when they had a claim.”

Another helpful approach is to take to social media. People tend to be brutally honest when it comes to reviewing companies online, so search for posts on Twitter or Facebook using the applicable hashtag for the company in question.

The article goes on to recommend comparing similar policies in an effort to find out what factors may be causing higher insurance rates; policies can vary by level of service, add-ons, as well as length of time. In the same vein, there’s no need to become obsessive and look for the best deal out there. When asked what percentage of magazine readers were able to get a better deal, Jeff Blyskal, senior writer at Consumer Reports, says that only 12 percent of the respondents were able to do so.

Once you have settled on an insurance provider, you are tasked with choosing the various details of your policy. There are numerous add-ons to review but at the end of the day, the more you pay upfront, the greater your coverage will be. So make sure that you have considered all hypotheticals and are comfortable with the coverage your insurance policy will offer in each possible event. For example, if you think of yourself as a careful driver, you may opt for a higher deductible in order to minimize your monthly rate.

Lastly, remember that insurance policies do not fall under the one-size-fits-all umbrella; so whatever policy you end up choosing, make sure it meets all criteria that are paramount to your needs.