Are you intimidated by the dozens of insurance coverage company choices? You’re not the only one! Consumers have so many companies to choose from that it can quickly become a challenge to find the lowest price.
It is always a good idea to compare prices on a regular basis due to the fact that insurance rates trend upward over time. Even if you got the best rates for RX-8 insurance six months ago there is a good chance you can find better rates now. There is a lot of wrong information about insurance coverage online but with this article, you’re going to get some great ways to reduce your insurance coverage bill.
Auto insurance companies do not advertise all their discounts in a way that’s easy to find, so here is a list both well-publicized and the harder-to-find savings tricks you should be using.
Keep in mind that most of the big mark downs will not be given to the entire policy premium. The majority will only reduce specific coverage prices like collision or personal injury protection. So even though it sounds like all the discounts add up to a free policy, it just doesn’t work that way.
A partial list of companies that possibly offer some of the above discounts include:
Double check with each company which discounts you may be entitled to. Some discounts might not apply in every state.
All the larger auto insurance companies allow you to get insurance quotes on the web. The process doesn’t take much effort as you just type in your required coverages into the quote form. After you submit the form their system obtains credit information and your driving record and gives you a price quote based on these factors.
This makes it a lot easier to compare rates but the work required to visit multiple sites and enter the same data into a form can be a bit repetitive. But it is imperative to perform this step in order to find a better rate.
The quickest way to lower your auto insurance bill requires only one form to return rates from multiple companies. This type of form saves time, eliminates repetitive work, and makes online quotes much more enjoyable. After sending your information, it gets priced with multiple companies and you can pick any one of the quotes returned. If one or more price quotes are lower than your current rates, it’s easy to complete the application and buy the new coverage. The entire process just takes a couple of minutes and may result in a nice savings.
To quickly find out if lower rates are available, click here to open in a new tab and enter your information. To compare your current rates, we recommend you duplicate coverages and limits just like they are on your policy. This helps ensure you will receive comparison quotes for similar coverage.
It’s important that you understand the rating factors that play a part in calculating the price you pay for insurance coverage. Having a good understanding of what determines base rates helps enable you to make changes that can help you get lower insurance coverage prices.
Shown below are some of the factors that factor into your rates.
When it comes to choosing the best car insurance coverage for your vehicles, there is no “perfect” insurance plan. Everyone’s needs are different.
These are some specific questions can help discover whether your personal situation might need an agent’s assistance.
If you can’t answer these questions, you may need to chat with a licensed insurance agent. If you don’t have a local agent, fill out this quick form.
Insurance providers like State Farm, Allstate and Geico constantly bombard you with ads on TV and radio. They all make the same claim of big savings if you switch your coverage to them. How does each company claim to save you money? This is how they do it.
All companies have a certain “appetite” for the right customer that makes them money. For example, a profitable customer could possibly be over the age of 50, owns a home, and drives less than 10,000 miles a year. A propective insured who matches those parameters gets the lowest rates and therefore will save quite a bit of money when switching.
Potential customers who don’t measure up to the requirements will be charged higher prices which leads to the driver buying from a lower-cost company. The ads state “people who switch” not “everybody who quotes” save that kind of money. This is how insurance companies can confidently claim big savings. That is why it’s extremely important to compare as many rates as you can. It’s impossible to know the company that will fit your personal profile best.
Learning about specific coverages of your policy helps when choosing the best coverages and proper limits and deductibles. The terms used in a policy can be difficult to understand and even agents have difficulty translating policy wording.
Comprehensive coverage (or Other than Collision)
This pays for damage caused by mother nature, theft, vandalism and other events. A deductible will apply and the remainder of the damage will be paid by comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive coverage protects against things like falling objects, a broken windshield, damage from getting keyed, fire damage and vandalism. The maximum payout a auto insurance company will pay at claim time is the market value of your vehicle, so if it’s not worth much more than your deductible it’s not worth carrying full coverage.
Coverage for liability
This can cover damages or injuries you inflict on other people or property. It protects YOU from claims by other people, and does not provide coverage for damage sustained by your vehicle in an accident.
Liability coverage has three limits: per person bodily injury, per accident bodily injury, and a property damage limit. As an example, you may have liability limits of 50/100/50 that means you have a $50,000 limit per person for injuries, a per accident bodily injury limit of $100,000, and a total limit of $50,000 for damage to vehicles and property.
Liability can pay for things such as pain and suffering, court costs, repair costs for stationary objects and emergency aid. How much liability coverage do you need? That is up to you, but it’s cheap coverage so purchase higher limits if possible.
Insurance for medical payments
Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and medical payments coverage kick in for short-term medical expenses such as doctor visits, ambulance fees and funeral costs. They are used to fill the gap from your health insurance policy or if you are not covered by health insurance. It covers not only the driver but also the vehicle occupants and also covers being hit by a car walking across the street. PIP coverage is not available in all states but it provides additional coverages not offered by medical payments coverage
Collision insurance
This pays to fix your vehicle from damage from colliding with a stationary object or other vehicle. You will need to pay your deductible and the rest of the damage will be paid by collision coverage.
Collision can pay for claims such as scraping a guard rail, crashing into a building and sideswiping another vehicle. Collision coverage makes up a good portion of your premium, so consider removing coverage from vehicles that are 8 years or older. It’s also possible to bump up the deductible to save money on collision insurance.
Uninsured Motorist or Underinsured Motorist insurance
Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist coverage protects you and your vehicle from other drivers when they either are underinsured or have no liability coverage at all. It can pay for injuries sustained by your vehicle’s occupants as well as your vehicle’s damage.
Since a lot of drivers have only the minimum liability required by law, it doesn’t take a major accident to exceed their coverage limits. For this reason, having high UM/UIM coverages is very important.
When trying to cut insurance costs, don’t be tempted to reduce needed coverages to save money. There are many occasions where someone sacrificed comprehensive coverage or liability limits only to find out that it was a big mistake. Your focus should be to purchase a proper amount of coverage at the best price, not the least amount of coverage.
We just presented some good ideas how to save on 2009 Mazda RX-8 insurance. The most important thing to understand is the more you quote, the better your chances of lowering your rates. Consumers could even find that the lowest rates come from a company that doesn’t do a lot of advertising.
Consumers change insurance companies for any number of reasons including being labeled a high risk driver, unfair underwriting practices, extreme rates for teen drivers and even high rates after DUI convictions. Regardless of your reason for switching companies, finding a new car insurance company is pretty simple and you could end up saving a buck or two.