No car owner fancies paying their premiums for car insurance, especially knowing the cost is way too high. You have so many car insurance companies to buy insurance from, and even though it’s nice to have a selection, it can be more challenging to find the best rates.
Performing a rate comparison can take hours if you don’t understand the best way to get rate quotes. You could waste time driving to insurance companies in your area, or you could use the internet to get rate comparisons in just a few minutes.
Many of the larger companies take part in a program that enables customers to submit their information once, and each participating company then returns a price quote based on that information. This prevents consumers from doing form submissions for every insurance coverage company.
To access this free quoting program, click here to open in new window.
The only downside to doing it this way is you don’t know exactly the providers you will receive quotes from. If you wish to select from a list of companies to receive pricing from, we put together a list of low cost insurance coverage companies in your area. Click to view list.
Compare rates however you want, just double check that you are using equivalent deductibles and coverage limits for each price quote. If the quotes have different liability limits it will be next to impossible to make a fair rate comparison.
Insurance coverage is neither fun to buy or cheap, but you might be missing out on some discounts that you may not know about. Many discounts should be triggered when you complete an application, but some may not be applied and must be inquired about before you will receive the discount.
A quick disclaimer, most of the big mark downs will not be given to the entire policy premium. Most cut specific coverage prices like collision or personal injury protection. Even though it may seem like having all the discounts means you get insurance for free, companies don’t profit that way. Any qualifying discounts will positively reduce your premiums.
To see a list of insurance coverage companies with the best insurance coverage discounts, click here.
When choosing the best insurance coverage coverage for your personal vehicles, there is no single plan that fits everyone. Everyone’s situation is unique so this has to be addressed. For example, these questions might point out whether or not you would benefit from professional advice.
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then you may want to think about talking to a licensed insurance agent. If you want to speak to an agent in your area, take a second and complete this form or you can go here for a list of companies in your area. It is quick, free and can help protect your family.
Having a good grasp of a auto insurance policy helps when choosing the best coverages at the best deductibles and correct limits. The terms used in a policy can be confusing and even agents have difficulty translating policy wording. Listed below are typical coverage types available from auto insurance companies.
Medical expense insurance
Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and medical payments coverage provide coverage for bills like funeral costs, rehabilitation expenses and nursing services. The coverages can be utilized in addition to your health insurance policy or if you lack health insurance entirely. It covers you and your occupants and also covers getting struck while a pedestrian. Personal Injury Protection is not universally available and may carry a deductible
Comprehensive (Other than Collision)
This coverage covers damage from a wide range of events other than collision. You first have to pay a deductible then the remaining damage will be covered by your comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive can pay for claims such as damage from getting keyed, rock chips in glass, hail damage, theft and hitting a deer. The highest amount you’ll receive from a claim is the actual cash value, so if your deductible is as high as the vehicle’s value it’s not worth carrying full coverage.
Collision coverage protection
Collision coverage pays to fix your vehicle from damage resulting from a collision with a stationary object or other vehicle. You first must pay a deductible then your collision coverage will kick in.
Collision coverage pays for claims like hitting a parking meter, hitting a mailbox, driving through your garage door and sustaining damage from a pot hole. Collision is rather expensive coverage, so you might think about dropping it from vehicles that are 8 years or older. You can also choose a higher deductible in order to get cheaper collision rates.
Liability coverage
This provides protection from damages or injuries you inflict on people or other property that is your fault. This insurance protects YOU against claims from other people, and does not provide coverage for damage to your own property or vehicle.
Coverage consists of three different limits, bodily injury for each person injured, bodily injury for the entire accident and a property damage limit. You commonly see values of 50/100/50 that translate to $50,000 bodily injury coverage, a per accident bodily injury limit of $100,000, and $50,000 of coverage for damaged propery.
Liability coverage pays for claims like pain and suffering, legal defense fees, medical services, repair bills for other people’s vehicles and loss of income. The amount of liability coverage you purchase is a decision to put some thought into, but it’s cheap coverage so purchase as much as you can afford.
Protection from uninsured/underinsured drivers
Your UM/UIM coverage protects you and your vehicle from other drivers when they are uninsured or don’t have enough coverage. It can pay for medical payments for you and your occupants as well as damage to your Pontiac Sunfire.
Since many drivers only carry the minimum required liability limits, it only takes a small accident to exceed their coverage. So UM/UIM coverage is very important.
Lower-priced 1997 Pontiac Sunfire insurance is definitely available from both online companies and with local insurance agents, and you need to comparison shop both to have the best chance of lowering rates. Some auto insurance companies may not have online price quotes and usually these small, regional companies sell through independent agents.
When shopping online for auto insurance, it’s a bad idea to skimp on critical coverages to save a buck or two. There are many occasions where an accident victim reduced uninsured motorist or liability limits and found out when filing a claim that it was a big mistake. Your goal should be to get the best coverage possible for the lowest cost, but do not sacrifice coverage to save money.
Throughout this article, we presented quite a bit of information on how to lower your 1997 Pontiac Sunfire insurance rates. The most important thing to understand is the more times you quote, the better chance you’ll have of finding affordable auto insurance. Consumers may even find the lowest priced auto insurance comes from the smaller companies. Smaller companies may cover specific market segments cheaper as compared to the big name companies such as State Farm, GEICO and Nationwide.
Additional auto insurance information is available on the following sites: