Are you a victim of an underperforming, overpriced car insurance policy? Trust us when we tell you you’re not alone. Companies like State Farm, Farmers Insurance, Geico and Allstate all claim big savings, bombarding you with TV and radio ads and it can be hard to separate fact from fiction and find the best price available.
If you have insurance now or are shopping for new coverage, you can follow these tips to cut your premiums while maintaining coverages. Finding the best rates is quite easy. Drivers only need to know the proper methods to shop their coverage around online.
It’s important that you understand some of the elements that come into play when calculating your insurance rates. When you know what positively or negatively influences your rates empowers consumers to make smart changes that will entitle you to big savings.
The list below includes some of the items used by your company to calculate prices.
Insurance can be prohibitively expensive, but there are discounts available to cut the cost considerably. Certain discounts will be triggered automatically at the time of quoting, but some must be asked about prior to getting the savings. If you aren’t receiving every discount you deserve, you are throwing money away.
Consumers should know that most of the big mark downs will not be given to the entire cost. Some only apply to specific coverage prices like comp or med pay. Just because it seems like having all the discounts means you get insurance for free, you’re out of luck. Any qualifying discounts will help reduce the amount you have to pay.
Companies that possibly offer these discounts include:
Double check with every prospective company which discounts they offer. Savings might not be offered everywhere.
When choosing the best car insurance coverage for your vehicles, there really is no perfect coverage plan. Everyone’s situation is a little different and your policy should reflect that. These are some specific questions could help you determine whether or not you would benefit from an agent’s advice.
If you don’t know the answers to these questions but you think they might apply to your situation, you may need to chat with an insurance agent. If you want to speak to an agent in your area, complete this form or go to this page to view a list of companies. It is quick, free and you can get the answers you need.
Learning about specific coverages of your car insurance policy helps when choosing the best coverages and proper limits and deductibles. Policy terminology can be impossible to understand and coverage can change by endorsement. Listed below are the usual coverages found on the average car insurance policy.
Coverage for medical payments
Med pay and PIP coverage reimburse you for immediate expenses for things like surgery, pain medications and hospital visits. They are often used to fill the gap from your health insurance plan or if there is no health insurance coverage. Medical payments and PIP cover all vehicle occupants and will also cover if you are hit as a while walking down the street. Personal injury protection coverage is not universally available and gives slightly broader coverage than med pay
Liability coverages
This coverage provides protection from damage that occurs to other people or property by causing an accident. It protects you against claims from other people, and doesn’t cover your own vehicle damage or injuries.
Split limit liability has three limits of coverage: bodily injury for each person injured, bodily injury for the entire accident and a property damage limit. Your policy might show values of 50/100/50 that means you have $50,000 in coverage for each person’s injuries, a limit of $100,000 in injury protection per accident, and $50,000 of coverage for damaged propery. Alternatively, you may have a combined single limit or CSL which provides one coverage limit with no separate limits for injury or property damage.
Liability coverage protects against things like structural damage, attorney fees, repair bills for other people’s vehicles, repair costs for stationary objects and medical services. The amount of liability coverage you purchase is a personal decision, but you should buy as high a limit as you can afford.
Uninsured and underinsured coverage
This provides protection when other motorists either are underinsured or have no liability coverage at all. It can pay for injuries to you and your family as well as your vehicle’s damage.
Since many drivers carry very low liability coverage limits, it doesn’t take a major accident to exceed their coverage limits. That’s why carrying high Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage is a good idea. Frequently these limits are identical to your policy’s liability coverage.
Comprehensive coverages
This coverage will pay to fix damage caused by mother nature, theft, vandalism and other events. You first have to pay a deductible and the remainder of the damage will be paid by comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive coverage pays for things like rock chips in glass, vandalism, damage from flooding and hail damage. The maximum payout a car insurance company will pay at claim time is the actual cash value, so if it’s not worth much more than your deductible it’s not worth carrying full coverage.
Collision protection
Collision insurance covers damage to your C30 from colliding with an object or car. A deductible applies and then insurance will cover the remainder.
Collision coverage pays for claims like colliding with a tree, damaging your car on a curb and scraping a guard rail. Paying for collision coverage can be pricey, so consider dropping it from lower value vehicles. Another option is to increase the deductible to bring the cost down.
Cheaper 2011 Volvo C30 insurance can be sourced online and also from your neighborhood agents, so you should be comparing quotes from both so you have a total pricing picture. Some auto insurance companies may not provide you the ability to get quotes online and most of the time these regional insurance providers sell through independent agents.
We covered a lot of techniques to reduce insurance prices online. The key thing to remember is the more companies you get rates for, the higher your chance of finding lower rates. You may even discover the lowest premiums are with an unexpected company. These companies may often insure only within specific states and give getter rates than their larger competitors like Allstate, Geico and Progressive.
To learn more, take a look at the resources below: