15 Ways To Get Insurance Discounts – plus bonus tips!
There are many car insurance discounts available – thing is, many people don’t know about them. Let’s take a moment and talk about 15 ways you can save on your car insurance so you are informed and get any and all discounts available to you. Above all – Make sure to choose the proper auto insurance for you and your family; one that covers everything you need it to. Research is always a great key in finding the insurance company and policy that’s right for you. These 15 tips below will help guide you on the path to finding the best auto insurance discounts.
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#1 – If you have tickets or points on your driving record that are about to disappear, you want to consider waiting to purchase insurance until it does. By having tickets or points on your record, you could end up paying far more for insurance than you would if you waited until these were gone.
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#2 - Purchase commercial auto insurance if you use your personal car to deliver property or humans from one location to another for business, or even if you volunteer to do it on an ongoing basis. Insurers call this type of vehicle usage “livery.” Most personal auto insurance will not cover you if you get into an accident while using your personal car for livery purposes.
Bonus Money Saving Tip Before you even buy a vehicle you should get a few insurance quotes so that you know what to expect. It makes no sense to go and get a vehicle and then after you purchase it you have to worry about whether you can afford the monthly insurance payments.
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#3 – Know the value of your car and get coverage accordingly. If your car is old, then it probably doesn’t make sense to have full coverage on it, but you may want full coverage if you have a new car. Also, look into purchasing Gap insurance for the first couple years that you have a new, financed car that was purchased using less than twenty percent down.
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#4 – Keep up a high credit score. Most states allow the auto insurance companies to consider your credit score when figuring the cost of your auto insurance premiums. Claiming that people with lower credit scores are a bigger risk, auto insurance companies charge higher premiums to people with poor credit than they do to people with good credit.
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#5 – If you drive an older vehicle, you should consider reducing the amount of your insurance coverage. Think about dropping unnecessary coverage for any car worth less than about ten times the cost of coverage. The reality is, if you make a claim for this vehicle, the amount you receive might be less than your auto insurance.
Bonus Money Saving Tip Don’t automatically dismiss medical payment coverage (MedPay) when purchasing auto insurance. You may have health insurance, but if you are injured due to an accident another motorist causes, it can be quite some time before their insurer pays your medical expenses.
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#6 – Are you a student under the age of twenty five? If so, you may be able to get a discount on your auto insurance, this good student discount is available from many companies. You may have to provide a copy of your latest transcripts from school as proof, but for the money off your insurance cost it is well worth your time.
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#7 – Keep your vehicle secure with anti-theft devices and a garage if possible. If there is a great risk to the vehicle’s security, it is likely that you will receive much higher insurance rates than if the vehicle were more secure. An anti-theft device such as an alarm and a garage to house the vehicle can keep your rates down lower.
- #8 – Let your auto insurer know if you are part of a car pool. The less time you spend driving, the better the discount you can get on your auto policy. Depending on how much driving time you cut out thanks to participating in a car pool, you could get a discount up to twenty-five percent.
Bonus Money Saving Tip Make sure you have appropriate uninsured and underinsured auto coverage. The amount of motorists without insurance and under-insured motorist coverage is rising due to the economy.
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#9 – Learn what the best auto policy is for you by researching on your own. Don’t expect the insurance company employee to tell you. An employee can help guide you through policies, but might not have in mind what is best for you. Depending on what type of commission plan an agent receives, the employee be steering you toward policies that are in the best interest of the employee’s paycheck.
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#10 – Check for blemishes on your driving record. Infractions on your record can affect your auto insurance rates, and it is possible that there is old or incorrect information on yours. Knowing what’s on your driving record before you seek out insurance will let you know what you need to deal with ahead of time.
#11 – Pay your auto insurance premiums in full. There are usually added fees tacked onto your rates if you decide to stretch your payments to monthly payments or even once-every- two-month payments. Also, rates are often cheaper when you have them set to auto-debit from your checking account instead of using a credit card to pay them.
Bonus Money Saving Tip If your auto insurer labels you as a high risk driver, periodically ask them to review your insurance policy and record. Cleaning your driving record up over time will lower your risk again in the eyes of the insurer.
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#12 – Ask about car insurance discounts. There are many discounts in the auto insurance world and safe driver discounts are among the most common. You want to make sure that you are getting any discount that you are entitled to, so have the auto insurance representative run down the list of discounts offered and explain how to qualify for them.
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#13 – Be sure to ask your insurance agent about car insurance discounts for having all of your insurance coverage with him or her. When you have your car, homeowners, health and dental insurance all in one place, you may qualify for a good discount. Additionally, if you have multiple cars to insure, it may lower your rates.
Bonus Money Saving Tip If an auto insurer offers you the chance to get a warranty on the parts that are used to repair your vehicle, do not jump on board with it without doing research first. Most repair shops guarantee their work, and the makers of auto parts repair the parts they make.
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#14 – When you are hunting car insurance discounts, check with all of the clubs and organizations you belong to, not just auto-related ones. Professional organizations and major service clubs (like the AARP), often have car insurance deals to offer to their members. Taking advantage of organizational discounts can save you plenty of money.
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#15 – For your service to your country there is often times great benefits, one of them is military auto insurance discounts. Practically every insurance company will offer good discounts to service men and women. So if you have been or are serving our country do not forget to mention this to the person quoting you a policy.
A simple way to make sure you are getting all of the auto insurance discounts you are entitled to is to simply ASK your insurance company for a list of every discount they offer. You can work your way through this complete list to find every possible discount that may apply to your situation.
Bonus Money Saving Tip Ask local body shops that you trust who they think are the best insurance companies for you to purchase a policy from. Body shop employees deal with insurance adjustors often.
Make sure that you do your end of the research and know what company you are signing with. The tips above are a great start on your search for the right company. Hopefully you will save some money in the process!
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