Cheap Insurance Tips
These days everyone is crazy about savings. Millions of people are looking for ways to cut their costs because of the bad economy that is still haunting the US. And one of the most common objects of such cost-cutting tendencies is auto insurance. Because it's mandatory in all states and can be rather costly people often feel that they don't really need it. Some car owners even choose to drop it and then face serious financial and law problems when having an accident without any kind of coverage. You, on the other hand, can be smarter and simply employ the following cost-cutting methods to save some money on insurance:
Cut your coverage
If you have financed your car through a loan and have already paid it off you can consider dropping some coverage types to make your policy cheaper. First of all you can exclude gap coverage that is only useful during the loan pay out period. If there's no significant market value to your car then consider dropping collision coverage as well. Uninsured motorist coverage can be particularly useful but if you're driving mostly in areas with no uninsured drivers then there's no sense in paying for this type of coverage. It's really important that you review your policy every year and adjust it to your current insurance needs that will definitely change over time.
Raise the deductible
The deductible, as you may already know, is the amount of money you have to pay from own pocket before the coverage kicks in. In other words, it's the amount of damage you can pay for without using auto insurance coverage. And the higher is the amount the lower are your rates, because there's a lower risk of filing a claim for the insurance company. So make sure to avoid keeping the deductible low because it will raise your rates. By increasing the deductible from the standard $250 to $500 you can actually get up to 15% off your premium. But keep in mind that raising the deductible too high doesn't make much sense because you should actually afford paying it when an accident happens in order to trigger coverage.
Get your discounts
Your insurance provider may not advertize their discounts but this doesn't mean that there aren't any. All insurance providers have different types of discounts to encourage their customers. And here are some of the most common discounts you can find with most insurance companies to get cheap car insurance: low yearly mileage, multiple cars, multiple policies, good driver, good student, defensive driving course certificate, improved car security and many others. So it really makes sense to ask around your insurance provider in order to get all the possible discounts.
Shopping around is a must
If you have never been shopping around for cheap car insurance in the first place then you've done a big mistake. You can be really surprised to learn how much money you can save my just shopping around a bit and comparing insurance quotes from different providers. Every company has it's own methods of calculating rates and this results in different rates for the same coverage bundle. So make sure to exploit this feature and get cheap car insurance policy right from the start!
Cut your coverage
If you have financed your car through a loan and have already paid it off you can consider dropping some coverage types to make your policy cheaper. First of all you can exclude gap coverage that is only useful during the loan pay out period. If there's no significant market value to your car then consider dropping collision coverage as well. Uninsured motorist coverage can be particularly useful but if you're driving mostly in areas with no uninsured drivers then there's no sense in paying for this type of coverage. It's really important that you review your policy every year and adjust it to your current insurance needs that will definitely change over time.
Raise the deductible
The deductible, as you may already know, is the amount of money you have to pay from own pocket before the coverage kicks in. In other words, it's the amount of damage you can pay for without using auto insurance coverage. And the higher is the amount the lower are your rates, because there's a lower risk of filing a claim for the insurance company. So make sure to avoid keeping the deductible low because it will raise your rates. By increasing the deductible from the standard $250 to $500 you can actually get up to 15% off your premium. But keep in mind that raising the deductible too high doesn't make much sense because you should actually afford paying it when an accident happens in order to trigger coverage.
Get your discounts
Your insurance provider may not advertize their discounts but this doesn't mean that there aren't any. All insurance providers have different types of discounts to encourage their customers. And here are some of the most common discounts you can find with most insurance companies to get cheap car insurance: low yearly mileage, multiple cars, multiple policies, good driver, good student, defensive driving course certificate, improved car security and many others. So it really makes sense to ask around your insurance provider in order to get all the possible discounts.
Shopping around is a must
If you have never been shopping around for cheap car insurance in the first place then you've done a big mistake. You can be really surprised to learn how much money you can save my just shopping around a bit and comparing insurance quotes from different providers. Every company has it's own methods of calculating rates and this results in different rates for the same coverage bundle. So make sure to exploit this feature and get cheap car insurance policy right from the start!