Being forced to pay for expensive car insurance premiums can stress out your personal savings and force you to tighten up your finances. Price shopping at each renewal is recommended to reduce premiums and put more money in your pocket.
People have so many insurance companies to purchase coverage from, and even though it’s nice to be able to choose, it can be more difficult to compare rates and find the lowest cost car insurance.
Performing a rate comparison can take hours if you aren’t aware of the most efficient way. You could spend your day driving to insurance companies in your area, or you can utilize the web to achieve your goal.
Many popular insurance companies participate in a marketplace that allows shoppers to enter their policy data once, and every company can provide price quotes based on the submitted data. This eliminates the need for form submissions for each company. To find out what other companies charge click to open in new window.
The only downside to using this type of form is buyers cannot specifically choose which insurance companies you want to price. So if you prefer to pick individual companies to receive pricing from, we have a page of the cheapest insurance companies in your area. Click here to view list.
Compare rates however you want, just try to keep identical coverage limits and deductibles for each price quote. If each company quotes different values for each quote it will be very difficult to make an equal comparison. Slightly different insurance coverages may cause a big price difference. And when quoting insurance, remember that more quotes helps improve the odds of finding a better price. Some regional insurers cannot provide price estimates online, so you should also compare prices from those companies as well.
Some companies don’t always publicize all disounts very clearly, so we took the time to find a few of the more common in addition to some of the lesser obvious discounts that you may qualify for.
A little note about advertised discounts, many deductions do not apply to the entire policy premium. Most only cut individual premiums such as comp or med pay. So even though it sounds like you could get a free auto insurance policy, nobody gets a free ride. But any discount will definitely reduce your overall premium however.
Companies and their offered discounts include:
If you need affordable car insurance quotes, ask all the companies to apply every possible discount. Savings may not be offered in every state. If you would like to choose from a list of insurance companies that offer multiple discounts, click here.
When choosing proper insurance coverage, there really is not a perfect coverage plan. Everyone’s situation is a little different so this has to be addressed. For instance, these questions may help highlight whether you would benefit from professional advice.
If you don’t know the answers to these questions but you know they apply to you then you might want to talk to an agent. If you want to speak to an agent in your area, complete this form or click here for a list of auto insurance companies in your area.
Having a good grasp of insurance can help you determine which coverages you need and proper limits and deductibles. The terms used in a policy can be difficult to understand and even agents have difficulty translating policy wording. Shown next are typical coverage types found on most insurance policies.
Collision coverages – Collision insurance covers damage to your Dakota resulting from colliding with another car or object. You first must pay a deductible then your collision coverage will kick in.
Collision coverage protects against claims such as driving through your garage door, crashing into a ditch and colliding with a tree. Collision is rather expensive coverage, so consider dropping it from older vehicles. You can also increase the deductible to save money on collision insurance.
UM/UIM (Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist) coverage – This coverage protects you and your vehicle’s occupants when other motorists either are underinsured or have no liability coverage at all. This coverage pays for injuries sustained by your vehicle’s occupants as well as damage to your 1990 Dodge Dakota.
Due to the fact that many drivers only carry the minimum required liability limits, it only takes a small accident to exceed their coverage. That’s why carrying high Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage should not be overlooked.
Medical payments and PIP coverage – Coverage for medical payments and/or PIP reimburse you for immediate expenses like funeral costs, chiropractic care, rehabilitation expenses and prosthetic devices. They are often used to cover expenses not covered by your health insurance policy or if there is no health insurance coverage. Medical payments and PIP cover not only the driver but also the vehicle occupants in addition to any family member struck as a pedestrian. PIP is not universally available and gives slightly broader coverage than med pay
Comprehensive auto coverage – This coverage will pay to fix damage that is not covered by collision coverage. A deductible will apply and the remainder of the damage will be paid by comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive insurance covers things such as theft, a tree branch falling on your vehicle, hitting a deer, damage from getting keyed and fire damage. The highest amount you can receive from a comprehensive claim is the actual cash value, so if the vehicle’s value is low it’s not worth carrying full coverage.
Coverage for liability – This will cover damages or injuries you inflict on people or other property by causing an accident. This coverage protects you against claims from other people. Liability doesn’t cover your injuries or vehicle damage.
Coverage consists of three different limits, bodily injury for each person injured, bodily injury for the entire accident and a property damage limit. As an example, you may have policy limits of 50/100/50 that means you have $50,000 bodily injury coverage, $100,000 for the entire accident, and property damage coverage for $50,000.
Liability coverage pays for things like structural damage, funeral expenses, medical services and bail bonds. How much liability coverage do you need? That is a decision to put some thought into, but consider buying as much as you can afford.
Some insurance providers may not have the ability to get a quote online and usually these regional carriers provide coverage only through local independent agents. The cheapest 1990 Dodge Dakota insurance can be bought online and from local agencies, and you need to price shop both in order to have the best price selection to choose from.
When trying to cut insurance costs, it’s very important that you do not reduce needed coverages to save money. There are a lot of situations where consumers will sacrifice liability limits or collision coverage only to regret that it was a big error on their part. The goal is to purchase a proper amount of coverage at the lowest possible cost while still protecting your assets.