Two More Simple Ways to Lower Your Auto Insurance Rates

October 3rd, 2008

An average vehicle owner pays over a thousand dollars every year in insurance costs just for the privilege of driving their vehicle. If there was a way to save a few hundred bucks, wouldn’t you take it? Well, it might be easier than you think. In this article, I’m going to cover two simple ways to lower your car insurance costs: shop around and increase your deductible.

First and foremost, shop around. The auto insurance world is extremely competitive, and you can use that to your benefit. Spend an hour or two getting quotes online or calling a few different insurance companies. A couple of hours of work can cut hundreds of dollars off your yearly bill. Keep in mind that there are different types of auto insurers. Some have their own agents, while others are simply sell direct to consumers over the phone. Rates can differ wildly between different types of insurance outfits. Many companies can even tell you competitor’s rates as well. Don’t be afraid to ask for better rates if you think you deserve it, since many agents or companies can negotiate set amounts, usually up to about 10%.

The second easy step you can take to lower your auto insurance is to raise your deductibles. Deductibles are the cost you pay out of pocket before your insurance begins to cover the damages. Raising your deductible to $500 or $1000 can save a ton of cash over the course of a year. Of course, if you choose to raise your deductible, make sure you have enough cash set aside to cover that deductible should you get in an accident. Also, if you drive an older vehicle that may not be worth much, consider dropping comprehensive coverage all together. Going with liability only insurance can also save a substantial amount of money over time. Your auto insurance costs are a huge part of the cost of owning and using a vehicle. Minimizing that cost isn’t difficult, and can be very financially rewarding. By shopping around for auto insurance and increasing your deductible, you can be assured you are getting the best rates possible.

Two More Ways to Lower Auto Insurance Rates

October 3rd, 2008

Gas prices are going up and so are auto insurance rates. If you are tired of paying high insurance premiums, you can shop around and compare rates. Get the one that gives you the most coverage for the lowest price. Sure, everybody knows that. Get the best deal, but what else can you do? Are there things that can lower your current rates? Yes. Of course there are.

One thing that you can do is to call your agent and tell them that you want to lower your monthly premium. Why would they want to help you pay less? The truth is the agent would rather keep you as a customer at a lower rate than loose you to another company unless you are a really high-risk driver. Your agent can help you find ways to lower your fees. If you have not had any tickets or accidents for several years you may want to have them consider a safe driver credit.

You can also have them look at your deductible and raise it. Especially if you are driving an older car but still want coverage, have them raise it to the maximum amount you think you can afford to deduct. If you can take a hundred dollars off your annual insurance payment, by raising your deductible another $200 and you avoid having an accident during that year you have put that amount in your pocket. You may want to re-evaluate having full coverage on an older car, since the value you will get from the car may well be less than it will cost to fix it. You will get the lesser of the two amounts from your insurance company.

The second thing you can do is to consider your age. If you are over 50 years old, you can pay a nominal fee to take a safe driving course from a certified AARP driving instructor. This will be a class focused on the older driver giving you an update on traffic laws and a hands on experience with a instructor who will help you improve on your driving skills. Once you have completed this course that lasts only a matter of hours, you will be given a certificate that you can take to your insurance agent to obtain your discount. Some states require that insurance companies give you a discount and the certificate is usually good for more than a year.

Two Ways to Help Lower Auto Insurance Premium Rates

October 3rd, 2008

A person is protected from injury or damage to properties caused due to accidents, vandalism, theft or any other unforeseeable reasons with the help of auto insurance.

Some factors that influence auto insurance policy premiums are :

  1. * Voluntary options might be ignored to lower premiums
  2. * Discounts offered for low mileage, hybrid vehicle or safety facilities
  3. * Avoid purchasing high-priced models
  4. * Avoid reckless driving which establishes a clean driving record
  5. * Different companies offer varying premium rates for insurance policies, which could be verified.

Hybrid vehicles can help reduce auto insurance A vehicle which runs on two or more types of fuel is called hybrid vehicle. Some examples of hybrid vehicles are those which run on petrol and gas, diesel and electric, etc. Taking insurance policies for hybrid vehicles offer significant discounts from insurance agencies for the premium paid due to the lower cost of fuel and maintenance. These vehicles are also available with higher fuel efficiency. Some additional benefits are also given to hybrid vehicles like state tax benefits, federal tax discounts, reduced parking and toll taxes and driving incentives. Hybrid vehicles also save fuel and so they are the least expensive vehicles available in the market. Hybrids are also designed to improve the vehicle’s performance and fuel efficiency. Therefore hybrid vehicles assist the owner of the vehicle, who buys auto insurance, by reducing his fuel cost, insurance premium rates, maintenance charges and tax payable to the government.

Understanding Auto Insurance Tips 2

August 10th, 2008

Prices of car insurances vary drastically. You need to do a considerable amount of homework if you want to save money. The first tip that I’d give you: shop and bargain. Call several car insurances in your area, at least 6 I’d say. Visit also 6 web sites and get a quote online (several web sites now allow you to request for a quote charge and commitment free). If you can exchange some emails with them, even better. Bargain as much as you can – from my experience some insurances will bring their prices down by 25% sometimes only based on conversation with the client – talk about your driving habits, how careful you are, how little you drive, and if you already have a quote from some other insurance, even better, use that as your baseline.

Don’t mention the name of the other insurances you’re getting a quote from, just negotiate based on the fact that “you’re already have another insurance with a quote of X, can you do better than that?”. Once you have decided on which insurance to go, as you go about your life there are some things you can do to reduce the amount you pay monthly.

One, have kids – the more children you have the more careful the insurance will think you driving, and over time that will play in your favor and you might get a cut here and there. Also, the less you drive the better. Try to reduce your commute, if you leave close to work that’s defintiely a plus, and if you commute by other means such as biking, walking, bus, getting a ride with a friend (carpooling) that’s again something that can get you a cut in your monthly payments. But all these things are in vain if you don’t let the insurance company know that you’re doing that. Every month give them a call, tell them your new habits, and ask what they can do for you. You will need to do that for several months until they get convinced that you deserve a better deal. And in addition to do, keep calling the other insurances – monthly.

Tips to Understanding Auto Insurance

August 10th, 2008

The insurance cover and rate of auto insurance varies from company to company. So the first thing one should do is to get the information of various well famous companies and compare the same. One should choose the famous companies only which has high assets under management so that it is easier for insurer to get claim passed with comparatively lesser efforts and paper works.

The second important thing is that what kind of vehicle you own. Whether it is two wheeler, three wheeler, four wheeler or a heavy consumer vehicle. The rate of insurance also varies with different kind of vehicles. Another factor these companies takes into account is how old is your vehicle. Whether it is bought a fresh vehicle or a second hand vehicle. The rate will increase with the age of vehicle increases or the cover amount will decrease with the age of vehicle increases. Vice versa the rate is lower for fresh vehicles and the cover amount is also higher for such vehicles.

And the very important factor to be considered is the market price of your vehicle. How costly is your vehicle. The more the price higher the cover amount and lower the rate and lesser the price, cover amount is lower and the rate may increase. Now talking some practical matters. Generally people do not find time for understanding requirements of insurance and doing paperwork. So what do they do is people are engaging insurance agents for insuring their life, house, office, factory or vehicle. Now in such cases your insurance agents may dominate you in terms of making certain decisions like this particular company you should choose for insuring your life or property or vehicle and this much would be the cost of insurance and you have to pay this much with this company.

In many cases, customers do no know they are buying a very costly insurance and sometimes whether they will get their claims passed or not because there are many know-how which a customer must know before signing the agreement and handing over the cheque or demand draft. But if you have some agent in your relation then she can help you a lot with her knowledge and expertise. So you must be careful when you are dealing with an insurance agents.

Understanding Auto Insurance

August 10th, 2008

Now that auto insurance has been deregulated, it is important to look around which company can give you the best deal. Television abounds with checking into the different rates. Finally, there is competition out there as it should have been years ago. For myself, I wasn’t aware of this factor until I got my yearly bill and saw it went down slightly and was told about the deregulating. Thank you.

Now shopping for auto insurance depends upon the coverage you need. If you own a car that has a loan on it, you must carry all insurance required. You must decide if you want to pay the yearly bill when it come or do it monthly installments. If you choose to make monthly payments, you may need to take into consideration that the insurance company may very well charge you an additional fee for processing your check. Neat little trick. Now let’s say you own an older car that doesn’t have a loan on it either. Yippee! You now must decide if you want to cut back on the coverage. Start going over your previous coverage with a fine tooth comb and see if you can cut back.

One of the things to really think about is your deductible amount. How much are you willing to pay out of pocket if that precious piece of metal and plastic sustains a major dent, or worse yet, an accident that’s bigger than a bread basket? How much are you willing to carry on medical expenses it others if you are in an accident without running the risk of putting your house under the Homestead Act so you don’t lose it? If you have anything on your driving record that gives you less than a Step 9, it would definitely be worth your while to shop around.

The best advice I can give is to ask around friends and acquaintances and see who they deal with for auto insurance and what their coverage is. Ask if they’ve had any problems with that particular company. If you have already paid your yearly premium and want to change, beware any fees for switching to someone else. This is another cute trick.