Get Cheap Auto Insurance… Without Sacrificing an Iota of Quality
This article aims to debunk some of the myths of cheap auto insurance — and suggest well-worn and battle proven strategies for lowering your rates without sacrificing the quality of your coverage even one bit.
Perhaps the biggest myth is that the key to better coverage is to make quick “band-aid” like fixes to your policy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. You are ultimately much better off playing “long ball” and thinking about your insurance from a strategic perspective than you are trying to make little tactical fixes to toy with your rates. So free yourself from the mentality of “I am going to get cheap auto insurance by researching 5 minutes online” and instead steel yourself to make insurance shopping an ongoing priority. It will require regular reassessment, quality help and a lot of planning.
Now that may sound like a lot of work. And you have to ask yourself: is being strategic about this really worth my time? For most people — even people in dire financial situations who need better insurance now — the answer is almost certainly a resounding “yes.”
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five crucial strategies.
1. When Shopping for Cheap Auto Insurance, Consider Every Possible Discount.
You may know that you can get cheap auto insurance by raising your deductible, fixing your credit score, installing antilock brakes, and taking a defensive drivers course. You may even know that you can get discounts for insuring your home and auto with the same carrier and installing a car alarm. But did you know that you can also discounts for paying your insurance bill via electronic funds transfer (EFT) instead of via paper billing? And did you know that you can get a savings of 5% (or maybe even more) by paying your premium in an annual lump sum as opposed to monthly installments (because you save on administrative fees)?
Truth be told, there are myriad discount opportunities out there — be sure to mine them all because even small-bore savings like 5% can add up to something more substantial.
2. Get Rid of What You Don’t Need.
Do you own a crummy pick-up truck that you use for fishing at a local stream? Do you really care what happens to the vehicle? Instead of insuring the pick-up truck for comprehensive and collision, just abandon these coverages to save on your rates. In other words, part of getting cheap auto insurance is isolating the coverage that you must have (such as bodily injury liability) from what you don’t need (in this case, comprehensive for the pick-up truck).
3. Reassess Regularly.
Mark your calendar to reassess your coverage annually. Factors in your life will change, and these dynamic changes will influence your rates and potential discount opportunities. For instance, say over the course of the next year, your daughter goes off to college, and you no longer need to keep her on your insurance policy. By taking her off, you can get a substantial discount. Plus, by forcing yourself to look at and think about your insurance policy annually, you will inevitably find places to trim your coverage and isolate discount opportunities.
4. Get Help — Use an Agent.
You can find cheap auto insurance on your own. But why we reinvent the wheel?
An experienced and qualified insurance agent can help you find shortcuts, eliminate “slack” in your coverage and clue you into excellent discount opportunities that you might otherwise miss.
5. Shop Around for Quotes.
Use NetQuote, a free and fast online service, to collect and analyze five plus quality quotes from reliable carriers.
See how much you could save today on your car insurance. Get your free auto insurance quotes today!
