Everybody loves to complain about the high cost of their car insurance. It seems like just throwing money into the void and the greedy insurance companies want us to throw in more and more. One of the biggest costs to owning a car is, indeed, the insurance required to drive it.
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However, not many people know that the quote you get is not necessarily what you’ll have to pay. There are a lot of ways to lower your insurance bill giving you far more control than you had thought.
If you are tired of feeling at the mercy of your car insurance provider then this comes as welcome news. Read on for the list of the best ways to keep those bills down.
1 – Be a defensive driver
Notice how I didn’t see be a good driver. Or, be a better driver. The thing is, everybody thinks they are good drivers including the one that thinks he has time to beat a red light.
Being a defensive driver is what’s important and will go a long way to reducing the chances of you getting into an accident. You can actively avoid accidents whether they would be your fault or not by making this a habit in your driving.
Defensivedriving.org has a lot of great tips to help you understand what it means. The gist of it is that you do things like slow down when approaching an intersection, keeping a two-second distance between other cars, and giving the right of way.
The best part about this driving style besides keeping you safe is you can often see reductions of up to 10% on your insurance premium.
2 – Keep it garaged
Do you keep your car in the garage? Does your insurance company know that you keep your car garaged?
Keeping your car in a garage keeps your car away from would-be thieves so insurance companies like this. Then, your car is also kept in a much better condition out of the elements so it is less likely to break down or even cause an accident from a malfunction.
Make sure to let your insurance company know where your car is garaged because you will get a discount on your premium for this.
3 – Bundle it
Insurance companies usually offer many different types of insurance. Your auto insurance provider is likely no exception. That means that if you own a home, boat, or other assets, you can often bundle up the insurance for all of them. This gives you some really big discounts.
One thing to beware of before you bundle is how they also like to bundle unnecessary provisions into it. You may end up buying more insurance than you actually need. Make sure to take stock of what you actually need covered and don’t budge when they try to upsell you on things you don’t need.
4 – Older cars
When your car was new you likely had to buy one of the highest costing premiums as you were financing. Some states require a high amount of coverage for a car that in theory, the bank owns.
Now that your car is older it likely doesn’t need to have the maximum coverage. How likely is your car to get stolen now that it has some scrapes and is out of date? You can certainly lower that by getting rid of theft coverage.
There are likely a lot of things you are paying for in your policy that are no longer needed or relevant. Review your policy when you finish paying off the car loan and see where you can make some cuts.
5 – Shop around
Insurance companies love to poach customers from rivals. As such, they are willing to beat the cost of what you are paying now to make the switch to them. Go online and request quotes from various companies. Many will ask if you currently have insurance so you can definitely get a great quote back when they realize you’re covered.
Also, don’t settle for what their computer algorithm tells you. Call somebody and get an agent on the line as you can always see some bigger discounts than what the figure on their calculator is showing. Humans can search around and find things the computer will miss. They may even get a bonus by onboarding new customers so they have an added incentive to find you the best deal.
It never hurts to ask so don’t settle for the quote if it is over your budget.
