When it comes to insurance, we could all stand to pay a little less. So why not start off 2014 right and lower the rates your paying for auto insurance? By adhering to the following easy tips, you’ll save 15% or more on car insurance — just kidding (couldn’t resist reading the gecko commercial script). But kidding aside, it’s no joke that these tips could save you a lot of money down the road!
Purchase Higher Deductibles
It’s no secret that the higher your deductible is, the lower your premiums are going to be. And by knowing this, you can have a pretty strong gauge on the type of insurance you should purchase for your vehicle. Simply put, depending on the age of your vehicle, higher deductibles for comprehensive and collision coverage may significantly lower your premium.
For instance, if you have a brand new car, you could end up paying much lower premiums by agreeing to higher deductibles for comprehensive and collision coverage. Likewise, you may want to consider paying a higher premium for a lower deductible if your car breaks down often.
More: Driving Tips
More: Driving Tips
Decline Coverage You Don’t Need
It may be common sense to some, but it’s important to know that you can always decide to decline coverage that you don’t think you’ll need. In particular, it’s a wise idea to drop comprehensive and collision coverage on older cars with a low market value, because insurance will never pay more than the car is worth.
Combine Policies with One Carrier
Combining policies is something that most of us don’t have a whole lot of experience with, and for (somewhat) good reason: it ventures more into the complex side of insurance purchasing. But while it may be a slightly more complicated process, combining carriers isn’t hard as long as you make sure all of the carriers are under one company. This is simply because most carriers give discounts for multiple policies with one company. With this in mind, you may want to consider combining your renters, homeowners or life insurance with the same company as your auto insurance — it could save you money in the long run!
Keep a Clean Driving Record
All right, this one shouldn’t be news to anyone: Moving violations and at-fault accidents will raise your premiums. In fact, most carriers will look at your driving record over the last three years, and some even go back five. Accidents and violations not only raise your premium on a point-based system, they also keep you out of some of the best-rated programs that your carrier has to offer.
Improve Your Credit Rating
There are plenty of people out there who fail to recognize the true value of their credit score. Thankfully, all you really need to know is that your credit score is used to calculate your auto insurance premium… to an extent. With that in mind though, you should do what you can to improve your credit score and over time you should see an overall improvement in your auto insurance premium.
Written by Bill Kasmann, owner of Tree Frog Complete Grounds Maintenance. Kasmann has been providing auto, home, business, health and life insurance solutions for over 20 years to the Columbia, Missouri community.
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