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Save Money On Your Auto Policy
By: Charles French
Here are a few auto tips that may help lower your auto premiums. Most insurance
companies are pretty competitive when it comes to insurance rates. Although,
there are insurance companies that prefer certain lines of business. Company "A"
may favor their auto line of business over their homeowners policies. Company
"B" may favor homeowners policies over auto policies. This could be due to a
particular companies loss ratio or geographical location. Whatever the case, it
is good to shop around to find the best rates available.
Things to know when shopping auto rates:
Before you call or ask for a quote, have your auto policy in hand. Inform the
agent of your deductible amounts and limits of liability, medical payments,
uninsured motorist, towing and labor and rental if needed. This way you are
comparing exact coverages in comparing premiums.
Insurance is a gamble, in a way. You may pay for auto insurance and never have
an accident. Then on the other hand, you may purchase an auto policy and have an
at fault the very same day.
Don't be afraid of higher deductibles. Low comprehensive and collision
deductibles make up the biggest cost in an auto policy. Example...if you had a
$100 dollar deductible on comp and a $250 dollar deductible on collision, lets
say this cost you $600 dollars a year. Now by increasing your deductibles to
$500 comphrensive and $500 or $1000 dollars on collision, you could save two to
three hundred dollars a year. If your car is financed, you need to check with
the lender for their limits on your deductibles.
NOTE: Many insurance companies have a clause called Accident Forgiveness. This
means that if you or any driver listed on your policy had at fault accident, you
would not be surcharged by your insurance company. In other words, your premiums
would not increase due to the accident. In order to qualify, the company
requires that you have had no accidents and no lapse in coverage for a
predetermined time (usually three to five years) Ask your agent if your
insurance company has this benefit.
When shopping auto rates, it is important to know wheather your existing policy
has the accident forgiveness clause. If you can only save a few dollars on the
new policy, it may well not be worth changing. If you have an at fault accident
soon after changing auto policies, the surcharge is around 30 percent.
Here's a tip to lower your auto premiums:
Many companies determine their rates on the limits of liability you have on your
exixting policy. In other words, the rates will be better if your prior
liability limits were 100/300/100 as opposed to 25/50/25.
As an agent I have quoted thousands of auto policies. A misnomer is that all
insurance agents are trying to get deep in your pocket book. Believe me, an
agent won't write many auto policies by having the highest premium. When an
agent is asked to do a auto quote, trust me, he will be trying his hardest to be
competitive.
Try this when asking for a quote. Ask the agent to figure the quote seperately
with these two factors... your prior liability limits of 25/50/25 and
100/300/100
Note...the agent is merely quoting against prior limits, to determine if the
premium would be lower.
Lets say you ask an agent for a quote and you want the same liability limits as
your existing policy. For instance, your current policy has 25/50/25 liability
limits. When the agent does the quote, his system will prompt him, "What are the
appilicants prior liability limits" This is where he enters 25/50/25 or
100/300/100. When using the higher limits, many times the premiums will be less
than with the lower limits.
If this is the case, and you decide you want to change auto insurance companies.
Do This. Call your current insurance company and ask them to increase your
liability limits to 100/300/100. You will probably want to wait for a few weeks
to a month before changing insurance companies. This way you will be able to
provide a declaration page from your prior company showing the new limits of
liability.
Multiline Discounts
All insurance companies give discounts for multiline policies. Meaning that if
you have your auto, homeowners, life, health or business insurance with the same
company, these discounts will be applied to all policies. If you are satisfied
with a certain company, it could be to your advantage to have them quote all
your insurance needs. Many times you can save hundreds of dollars with multiline
discounts.
About the Author:
Charles French is an Independent insurance agent and owner of My Insurance
Answers. Use of article reguires an active link to
http://www.myinsuranceanswers.com
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