There isn’t a single person who rejoices having to buy car insurance, particularly when they could lower their rates if they shopped around. You have multiple car insurance companies to pick from, and although it’s a good thing to have a choice, more choices can make it harder to find a good deal.
It’s important to price shop coverage before your next renewal because insurance prices are rarely the same from one policy term to another. If you had the best rate last year you may be paying too much now. Forget all the misinformation about car insurance because you’re about to learn the right way to find lower rates on car insurance.
Lower rate quotes with these seven discounts
Insuring your vehicles can cost a lot, but you might find some hidden discounts that can dramatically reduce your bill. Certain credits will be shown when you complete an application, but some may not be applied and must be requested specifically before you will receive the discount. If you don’t get every credit available, you could be paying more than you need to.
- Seat Belt Usage – Requiring all passengers to use a seat belt can save a little off the medical payments premium.
- Good Student – A discount for being a good student may save you up to 25%. The good student discount can last up until you turn 25.
- Telematics Devices – Drivers who elect to allow driving data submission to monitor vehicle usage by installing a telematics device such as Progressive’s Snapshot could possibly reduce rates if they are good drivers.
- Drivers Ed for Students – Require your teen driver to participate in a local driver’s education class in high school.
- New Car Discount – Insuring a vehicle that is new can be considerably cheaper because new vehicles are generally safer.
- Federal Employees – Federal government employees could qualify for a slight premium decrease depending on your car insurance provider.
- Save with More Vehicles Insured – Insuring multiple vehicles with the same company can reduce the rates for all insured vehicles.
As is typical with insurance, most credits do not apply to the entire policy premium. A few only apply to specific coverage prices like liability and collision coverage. So when it seems like it’s possible to get free car insurance, you aren’t that lucky.
Companies and a summarized list of policyholder discounts are shown below.
- Mercury Insurance offers premium reductions for good driver, ease of repair, age of vehicle, professional/association, accident-free, type of vehicle, and location of vehicle.
- Farmers Insurance may offer discounts for bundle discounts, good student, homeowner, electronic funds transfer, and youthful driver.
- Farm Bureau may include discounts for multi-policy, driver training, renewal discount, safe driver, and multi-vehicle.
- State Farm policyholders can earn discounts including student away at school, good driver, defensive driving training, accident-free, and multiple autos.
- Allstate discounts include anti-theft, FullPay discount, auto/life discount, safe driver, resident student, good student, and utility vehicle.
- Geico may have discounts that include emergency military deployment, membership and employees, five-year accident-free, military active duty, and multi-vehicle.
Before buying, ask every prospective company to apply every possible discount. All car insurance discounts may not be available everywhere. To see insurers offering car insurance discounts in Indiana, click here.
Switch companies and save? Really?
Indiana consumers can’t escape the ads that promise big savings by companies like Progressive, Allstate and Geico. They all seem to advertise the message about savings just by moving to them.
How does every company lower your auto insurance rates? Just pay attention to how they say it.
Most companies give the best rates for the type of driver that will not have excessive claims. For example, this type of risk profile might be a female over age 40, has no driving citations, and the vehicle is rated for pleasure use. A propective insured who fits those characteristics will get very good West Lafayette auto insurance rates and as a result will probably save quite a bit of money when switching.
Insureds who fall short of these standards will have to pay higher rates which usually ends up with the customer not buying. If you listen to the ad wording, they say “customers who switch” but not “everyone who gets a quote” save money. That’s why companies can make the claims of big savings.
Because of these techniques, it is so important to get as many as possible. You cannot predict which car insurance company will have the best premium rates for your profile.
Car insurance can be complex
When it comes to buying the best car insurance coverage, there really is not a perfect coverage plan. Every insured’s situation is different so your insurance needs to address that. Here are some questions about coverages that could help you determine if your insurance needs would benefit from an agent’s advice.
- Does my insurance cover a custom paint job?
- Do I benefit by insuring my home with the same company?
- What happens if I owe more than my vehicle is worth?
- Can I pay claims out-of-pocket if I buy high deductibles?
- Does having multiple vehicles earn me a discount?
- Is my babysitter covered when using my vehicle?
If you can’t answer these questions, you might consider talking to an agent. To find lower rates from a local agent, take a second and complete this form or click here for a list of car insurance companies in your area. It’s fast, doesn’t cost anything and you can get the answers you need.
Educate yourself about car insurance coverages
Knowing the specifics of a car insurance policy helps when choosing appropriate coverage and proper limits and deductibles. The terms used in a policy can be ambiguous and even agents have difficulty translating policy wording. Shown next are the usual coverages found on the average car insurance policy.
Comprehensive insurance – Comprehensive insurance coverage covers damage OTHER than collision with another vehicle or object. You first have to pay a deductible and the remainder of the damage will be paid by comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive can pay for things such as a tree branch falling on your vehicle, damage from getting keyed, hitting a deer, damage from a tornado or hurricane and damage from flooding. The maximum payout you’ll receive from a claim is the market value of your vehicle, so if the vehicle is not worth much consider dropping full coverage.
Collision – This coverage will pay to fix damage to your vehicle caused by collision with an object or car. A deductible applies and then insurance will cover the remainder.
Collision insurance covers things like crashing into a ditch, rolling your car, colliding with another moving vehicle and backing into a parked car. Paying for collision coverage can be pricey, so analyze the benefit of dropping coverage from vehicles that are older. Another option is to increase the deductible to bring the cost down.
Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) – Your UM/UIM coverage protects you and your vehicle’s occupants when the “other guys” either have no liability insurance or not enough. This coverage pays for injuries sustained by your vehicle’s occupants as well as your vehicle’s damage.
Since a lot of drivers have only the minimum liability required by law (25/50/10), their limits can quickly be used up. This is the reason having UM/UIM coverage is very important. Most of the time your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages do not exceed the liability coverage limits.
Liability auto insurance – This protects you from damages or injuries you inflict on a person or their property in an accident. This insurance protects YOU against other people’s claims. Liability doesn’t cover damage sustained by your vehicle in an accident.
Coverage consists of three different limits, bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. Your policy might show liability limits of 100/300/100 which stand for $100,000 in coverage for each person’s injuries, $300,000 for the entire accident, and property damage coverage for $100,000. Occasionally you may see a combined single limit or CSL which limits claims to one amount with no separate limits for injury or property damage.
Liability can pay for claims such as repair costs for stationary objects, loss of income, legal defense fees and medical services. The amount of liability coverage you purchase is a personal decision, but you should buy as much as you can afford. Indiana state law requires minimum liability limits of 25,000/50,000/10,000 but you should consider buying higher limits.
Med pay and Personal Injury Protection (PIP) – Med pay and PIP coverage provide coverage for immediate expenses such as X-ray expenses, nursing services and chiropractic care. They can be used to fill the gap from your health insurance policy or if you lack health insurance entirely. It covers both the driver and occupants and also covers getting struck while a pedestrian. PIP is not available in all states but it provides additional coverages not offered by medical payments coverage
More consumer information in Indiana
Additional car insurance information can be found on the found here. Indiana drivers can find disaster information, report car insurance fraud, and read state legal mandates and laws.
Also read more on this page for car insurance in Indiana and this link where you can get more info about West Lafayette coverage.
One last thing to lower rates
Low-cost car insurance is possible on the web and also from your neighborhood West Lafayette agents, and you need to comparison shop both in order to have the best price selection to choose from. Some car insurance companies do not provide rates over the internet and usually these regional insurance providers only sell coverage through independent agents.
We just presented many tips how you can get a better price on car insurance. It’s most important to understand that the more times you quote, the higher the chance of saving money. Consumers could even find that the lowest priced car insurance comes from a company that doesn’t do a lot of advertising. These smaller insurers may only write in your state and offer lower prices than their larger competitors like State Farm and Allstate.