Tired of robbing Peter to pay Paul to pay your car insurance bill each month? You’re in the same situation as most other car owners. Insurance companies such as Progressive, Geico and Farmers Insurance continually bombard you with TV and radio ads and it can be hard to avoid their marketing magic and do the work needed to find the best deal.
Insurance can cost an arm and a leg, but you can get discounts that you may not even be aware of. Larger premium reductions will be automatically applied when you purchase, but a few need to be asked for before you get the savings. If you don’t get every credit available, you’re just leaving money on the table.
As a disclaimer on discounts, many deductions do not apply to the entire policy premium. Most only reduce the price of certain insurance coverages like comprehensive or collision. Just because it seems like you can get free auto insurance, it doesn’t quite work that way. Any amount of discount will help reduce your overall premium however.
For a list of providers with discount insurance coverage rates, click here.
An important part of buying insurance is that you know the factors that play a part in calculating the price you pay for insurance coverage. Having a good understanding of what impacts premium levels helps enable you to make changes that can help you get better insurance coverage rates.
Shown below are a few of the “ingredients” that factor into your rates.
When choosing the right insurance coverage for your personal vehicles, there is no “best” method to buy coverage. Everyone’s situation is a little different so this has to be addressed. For example, these questions could help you determine if you would benefit from professional advice.
If you’re not sure about those questions, you may need to chat with a licensed agent. If you don’t have a local agent, complete this form or you can also visit this page to select a carrier It’s fast, doesn’t cost anything and may give you better protection.
Having a good grasp of insurance aids in choosing which coverages you need for your vehicles. Policy terminology can be impossible to understand and even agents have difficulty translating policy wording. Shown next are typical coverage types found on the average insurance policy.
Medical payments and PIP coverage – Med pay and PIP coverage kick in for short-term medical expenses such as funeral costs, EMT expenses, pain medications and nursing services. They can be used in conjunction with a health insurance program or if you are not covered by health insurance. It covers not only the driver but also the vehicle occupants and will also cover if you are hit as a while walking down the street. PIP coverage is not available in all states and may carry a deductible
UM/UIM (Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist) coverage – This coverage provides protection when other motorists are uninsured or don’t have enough coverage. This coverage pays for medical payments for you and your occupants and damage to your BMW Z3.
Due to the fact that many drivers carry very low liability coverage limits, it doesn’t take a major accident to exceed their coverage limits. So UM/UIM coverage is a good idea. Normally these limits are similar to your liability insurance amounts.
Auto liability – Liability insurance will cover damages or injuries you inflict on a person or their property in an accident. This coverage protects you from claims by other people. Liability doesn’t cover your own vehicle damage or injuries.
It consists of three limits, bodily injury for each person injured, bodily injury for the entire accident and a property damage limit. Your policy might show limits of 25/50/25 which means a limit of $25,000 per injured person, a total of $50,000 of bodily injury coverage per accident, and property damage coverage for $25,000. Occasionally you may see one number which is a combined single limit which limits claims to one amount rather than limiting it on a per person basis.
Liability insurance covers things such as funeral expenses, structural damage, bail bonds and court costs. How much liability should you purchase? That is a personal decision, but you should buy as large an amount as possible.
Collision coverages – Collision coverage will pay to fix damage to your Z3 resulting from a collision with another vehicle or an object, but not an animal. You will need to pay your deductible and then insurance will cover the remainder.
Collision can pay for things like driving through your garage door, hitting a parking meter and crashing into a ditch. Collision is rather expensive coverage, so consider dropping it from lower value vehicles. It’s also possible to bump up the deductible to bring the cost down.
Comprehensive auto coverage – This coverage will pay to fix damage that is not covered by collision coverage. You need to pay your deductible first then the remaining damage will be covered by your comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive can pay for things such as fire damage, hitting a deer, rock chips in glass and theft. The maximum amount a insurance company will pay at claim time is the actual cash value, so if your deductible is as high as the vehicle’s value it’s probably time to drop comprehensive insurance.
You just learned many ideas to lower your 2001 BMW Z3 insurance rates. The key thing to remember is the more providers you compare, the higher your chance of finding lower rates. Consumers could even find that the best price on auto insurance is with the least-expected company. Smaller companies can often provide lower rates in certain areas than the large multi-state companies such as State Farm, Geico and Nationwide.
When buying insurance coverage, never skimp on critical coverages to save a buck or two. There are a lot of situations where an accident victim reduced collision coverage only to regret that their decision to reduce coverage ended up costing them more. Your strategy should be to find the BEST coverage at an affordable rate while still protecting your assets.
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