Shop carefully and periodically to realize savings on your auto insurance

Tips to save you money on your auto insurance

While everyone needs automobile insurance, it’s not a one size fits all product. Your auto insurance should be tailored to fit your specific situation. The coverage that a friend has at a certain price may or may not work for you. It’s all in the details. In exploring your auto insurance options, let’s take a look at what you should look for:

1. Be sure you have all the cars you own covered. This includes all the cars you and your family drive including your kids. All of them need to be insured under one policy. There is often a positive incentive to this and that’s an additional discount that’s offered for a “multi car” policy. Sometimes a “specialty” car like a restored “antique” car should and can be insured separately but not the cars you drive everyday.
2. Everyone who drives in your family needs to be covered. Don’t leave anyone out and take the chance that they will drive one of the cars, have an accident and in the process create many problems.
3. Buy enough insurance to cover your assets. If you own a home, have a savings account or other assets, you may want to consider carrying more liability insurance than your state requires. You need to be well protected if you do have a liability particularly in the form of a lawsuit from an accident. You don’t want to lose your hard earned assets.. However, if you don’t have many assets, there’s generally no need to carry more insurance than the minimum required by state and the additional coverage is just more premium.
4. While every car does need to have liability insurance, not every car is a candidate for collision or comprehensive insurance. If you have a loan on a car most lenders will require you carry collision and comprehensive, as well as, the amount of liability insurance they require. However, if you don’t have a loan and a car of not much value, you may not need collision or comprehensive.
5. If you own a home or rent and have homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, consider the possibility of one policy for your cars and for where you live. Often this can save money compared to buying two policies.
6. Probably the most important factor to determine what your premium is going to be is your driving record and that of the others who will be covered by your policy. A bad driving record, accidents, speeding tickets and a DUI can all play havoc with your costs. On the other hand, if you have a safe driving record it can reduce your costs noticeably. While there’s not much you can do about your record as it stands, you can be careful not to make it any worse and many violations drop off over a period of time.

In addition to these points, the other important point is to shop for auto insurance. Don’t go to one agent and expect that what they offer is going to be the same as everyone else. The identical coverage can vary from company to company, so it’s very important to compare. An easy, fast and efficient way to do this is to use the internet. It saves you a great deal of time and allows you to shop around efficiently. The information you need when you apply is extensive so try and have it pulled together and have the time available to do a careful and accurate job. This will save a great deal of time down the road. The information you provide, can and will be verified, so don’t try and “dress up” what you perceive as negative. Just tell it like it is. Different insurers have different viewpoints and you will likely find one that is ready to work with someone just like you are.

Auto insurance is in many ways just as important as your auto purchase. Take the time and be careful. There are many benefits for being a careful shopper and checking your rates periodically.