Five Easy Ways to Save on Your Car Insurance
With the economy still struggling, you’re probably looking for easy ways to trim your monthly budget. If you plan correctly, car insurance can be an area to save money without sacrificing coverage. Here are five easy ways to get great coverage at a great rate:
- Compare rates. Spending a few minutes online comparing rates from different carriers can make a huge difference in your monthly premiums. Sites like Really Cheap Car Insurance allow you to instantly compare rates from multiple insurers in your area. They have particularly useful information on getting cheap car insurance for young drivers, a group that is particularly difficult to insure. Insurance companies focus on different geographic areas and different types of drivers, so a few minutes shopping around can pay off handsomely.
- Check before you buy a new car. Your car insurance rate is determined by your personal profile and the type of car you drive. While you might not be able to do much about the fact that you’re young and single, or have a bad credit record, you can make smart decisions about the car you drive. Not surprisingly, sports cars or SUVs with bug engines can cost a fortune to insure. Compact cars are much more affordable to insure, but there can be big differences between models. A two door model can be more costly to insure than a similar four door model. Check with the Highway Data Loss Institute list of cars to see which have the highest and lowest rates.
- Ask for discounts. Insurance companies often have a wide variety of discounts available to drivers, but you have to ask for them when shopping. Safe driver discounts and low mileage discounts are two of the most common, but there are also potential discounts for military personnel, people in certain professions, and drivers who have taken defensive driving courses. these discounts can knock 10% off your premium, so be sure to ask.
- Increase your deductible. If you are comfortable with a higher deductible, increasing it to $1,000 or more can significantly reduce your car insurance premiums. Of course, in the even of an accident you will be out of pocket more money, but that can be more than made up for by the lower premiums you will have been paying.
- Check your medical insurance. If your existing medical insurance provides adequate hospital coverage, you may want to consider reducing he medical portion of your car insurance. Be sure to talk this over with both your health insurance company and you car insurance company to make sure there are no gaps.
Spending just a bit of time thinking about your car insurance coverage and comparing rates can save you money in the long term.