The Rates Guy publishes weekly rate comparisons for 100 California cities, cross-checked against the carrier's current California Department of Insurance public rate filing before anything goes live. Pedro Mendoza, founder and editor, runs the desk; the byline on every story is real and the methodology is published.
We are not a comparison platform
The Rates Guy is editorial. We do not run a quote engine on this site, we do not bind policies, we are not licensed brokers, and we are not paid to move a carrier higher in a list. Readers who want a live quote-comparison platform have options like QuoteMoto and other consumer-facing comparison sites. The Rates Guy is the reading-room next door.
What we publish
Each city guide publishes a rate range, not a single number. The range reflects the spread between the lowest and highest verified monthly rate for a comparable driver profile in that city, separated into clean-record and non-standard (SR-22, recent DUI, non-owner) lanes because the carriers that win each lane are different.
How the rates get verified
Every published rate is traced back to a public source — a carrier's current California Department of Insurance rate filing, a published NerdWallet or Bankrate survey, or data from CHP SWITRS, the U.S. Census ACS, or NICB. If a rate cannot be traced, the rate does not appear on the page.
How we make money
The Rates Guy is run independently. When a reader clicks out to a partner site for a live quote, we may earn a referral fee from that partner. The fee does not change the reader's rate and we do not let it change the ranking on this site — every carrier whose rate verifies appears in the comparison, even when their rate is not the cheapest.
Editorial integrity
Corrections, rate discrepancies, and methodology questions go to editor@theratesguy.com. Verified corrections are addressed within one business day under the corrections policy, who writes for the desk is covered in the diversity statement, and full sourcing rules and what we will never do are published on the methodology page.