Getting a great deal on your car insurance can be done using several techniques. First, make sure you are safe driver who avoids traffic violations. Secondly, make sure you are aware of the various discounts that exist, and finally, make sure you educate yourself on the ways that insurers determine the rates for car insurance premiums. Good coverage can be found at a low price for those who do the proper research.
Driving history is very important to insurance companies when determining someone’s premium. A poor record will have an immediate affect on the cost of your car insurance. Those who maintain a clean record will realize a significant savings. Speeding tickets, and at-fault accidents both work against a policyholder to increase an insurance premium. Insurers use this information to determine if a driver is a good risk for their company. For those who have a bad history with many accidents or moving violations, a higher premium can be expected, as insurers will view this history as an indication that future accidents are likely. Many insurers will ignore initial or minor violations.
Regardless of your driving record, one technique that can be utilized by anyone is to look for available discounts. There are many offered by various insurers and your best strategy is to simply ask your agent or broker to examine all possible avenues for car insurance discounts. A multi-line discount is one of the most common discounts for car insurance customers and it is one of the easiest to obtain. Multi-line discounts involve merely obtaining your property insurance and car insurance from the same company. This is often very easy to do for most people as their agent often sells both types of policies, with the same company.
If you can educate yourself on the basic criteria that insurers use to determine who is a good candidate for insurance, you can position yourself to obtain the best possible rate. Insurers look at the driving record as outlined above, but they also review a driver’s credit history, the distance they drive daily, the geographical area where the car is kept while not driving, as well as the type of vehicle. In fact, there are many factors that insurers use to determine how much risk they may be accepting by insuring a particular customer.
This last notion provides a good outline of the role of an insurer. As a consumer, you have to take an objective view of yourself, your driving history, and your car. Allowing common sense to be your guide, you should be able to determine whether you pose a high, medium, or low risk to an insurance company. This technique may require an honest self-evaluation that might be difficult for some insurance customers, but necessary for anyone interested in lowering their premium. People who pose the highest risk to an insurer will be required to pay the highest premium, and those who pose the lowest risk will be able to pay a lower premium.
This risk-based view of insurance pricing will help you reduce your premiums in the end.
Searching for discounts is an effective short term strategy that can yield results, but should only be considered a remedial measure as many of the discount “triggers” offered by insurance companies involve evidence of long term habits that demonstrate driver safety. Avoiding traffic violations and driving safe cars is the best long-term strategy to maintain low car insurance premiums.
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