Save Money on Car Insurance

Saving money on car insurance; its easy right?  That’s what the commercials tell you.  Is there really a solid way to save money on car insurance or is it all a hoax?  Here are my thoughts on saving money on car insurance.

1.  Shop your insurance regularly; if not each year, every other year.  Use a good agent to help you cover more ground and to check with carriers you may not know about.

2.  Keep your driving record clean.  If you get a ticket, go to school and get it erased from your record.

3.  Don’t file claims for small things.  I know we wall want to use our insurance because we feel like we are paying lots of money for it so we should use it; but for the small things, it doesn’t make financial sense to do so most of the time.  If you have an at-fault accident you can pay for out of pocket, you might be better off doing that.  Talk to your agent.

4.  Get a knowledgeable agent.  Just like some doctors are better than others, some insurance agents are better than others.    If you talk to a rookie agent or even a veteran agent that doesn’t know much, you might not get the best deal available.  There are “tricks” of the insurance trade that can be used.  Stuff that is above the table and perfectly acceptable by the insurance company but if not known about will not get you the best results.

5.  If you have teenage drivers, consider less expensive, smaller cars with less horsepower.
6.  Don’t compare yourself to your neighbor.  Remember, your neighbor is in a totally different situation than you are.  Different credit, different driving records, different household demographics.  What’s good for your neighbor may not be good for you.

7.  Don’t be afraid to share what you are currently paying with another agent you are shopping with.  If the new agent knows what you are paying, they feel more confident spending the time necessary to really work for you.  If you are keeping them in the dark, they feel they have little chance to win your business and may not put as much of an effort into really trying to save you money.  Understand, we as agents know you are not going to switch just to save pennies so we do our best to get you significant savings and it helps to know what we are up against.