Cheaper Auto Insurance
Unfortunately, auto insurance is a necessity to drive a vehicle although you may never in your driving career require the use of it. You may very well end up pouring countless thousands of dollars in to the pockets of your insurance company by the time you decide to hang up your car keys. Quite a bleak picture huh? Well, the bright side (not really that bright) is that you might end up in an accident and the insurance you have bought may end up saving you from having to pay frightening amounts of money for damages.
Now, insurance may be a necessity, but often similar insurance coverage costs vary immensely between different insurance providers. It is almost a cardinal sin to not get a few different quotes from different insurance providers before signing up with one. I recall the first vehicle I owned all to myself. I bought a used sporty coupe when I was 21. As a male, under 25 years of age, purchasing a sporty coupe was probably the worst choice in terms of hoping for cheap auto insurance. I simply picked up the phone and called 3 large well-known insurance providers that I found in the phone book and received the following quotes for the exact same insurance coverage:
- Insurance Provider A: $5,000
- Insurance Provider B: $3,400
- Insurance Provider C: $2,700
Needless to say which company I went with (I had also tried to call a few more afterwards hoping for a continual downward trend in the quoted price but soon realized that the lowest price I could get had already been found). Had I been too lazy to call around, I would have nearly paid double the amount necessary for the exact same coverage!
Many auto insurance providers will lower their insurance premiums and give you discounts for things such as:
- Increasing your deductibles (the amount you are responsible to pay in an event of an accident).
- Having multiple vehicles under the same insurance plan.
- Combined home and auto insurance under the same plan.
- University/College alumni’s.
- Proof of particular club memberships (ie, AMA, CAA, etc…)
- Driver’s age is over 25 – some allow this discount when you are 24 years of age. Ask to see if your provider does too.
- Driver’s age is over 35 – you can sign an agreement that no one under the age of 35 will drive this vehicle even if there are eligible drivers in your household under the age of 35.
- Claiming to be an occasional driver rather than the principal driver of the vehicle.
- Recreational driving rather than daily commuting as the use of the vehicle. There is less chance of you getting in to an accident if you are not driving every day during rush hour.
- Having a car alarm installed on your vehicle. Do not forget to update your profile with your existing insurance provider after you install a car alarm.
- Low daily mileage. Some providers will ask you how many miles you drive to and from work on a daily basis. Depending on your answer (not that you should lie), you may receive a discount for lower mileage as the likelihood of getting in to an accident in a short daily drive is less than if you were driving long distances daily.
- Loyalty program. Some providers offer long term customers a small discount just for continually being a customer with a good driving record. Basically, a small kick back to you for paying them loads of money for doing nothing…
Always ask what kind of discounts a provider offers. You may qualify for something that you didn’t know about.
Many online websites that help compare insurance quotes from different companies. Make sure you are using an unbiased one.
