Did you fall for a flashy sales pitch and buy overpriced auto insurance? Trust us, you’re not alone.
Drivers have multiple insurance companies to insure vehicles with, and although it’s nice to have a selection, it can be more difficult to adequately compare rates.
You should take the time to shop coverage around quite often because prices tend to go up over time. Just because you had the lowest rates last year there may be better deals available now. You can find a lot of misleading information regarding auto insurance on the web, but with this article, you’re going to get the best ways to find affordable auto insurance.
The purpose of this post is to instruct you on the best way to quote coverages. If you currently have car insurance, you should be able to lower your premiums substantially using this information. But Oregon car owners need to have an understanding of the way insurance companies price insurance differently because it can help you find the best coverage.
Do you qualify for these nine discounts?
Insurance can cost an arm and a leg, but companies offer discounts that you may not even be aware of. Some trigger automatically when you complete an application, but a few need to be asked about before you will receive the discount.
- Good Student Discount – A discount for being a good student can save 20 to 25%. Earning this discount can benefit you well after school through age 25.
- Seat Belt Usage – Buckling up and requiring all passengers to buckle their seat belts can save 10% or more off the personal injury premium cost.
- Anti-lock Brake System – Cars that have steering control and anti-lock brakes can avoid accidents and earn discounts up to 10%.
- Federal Employees – Being employed by or retired from a federal job can earn a discount up to 10% with select insurance companies.
- Discount for Life Insurance – Some companies give a break if you buy life insurance.
- More Vehicles More Savings – Buying insurance for multiple cars or trucks with the same company may reduce the rate for each vehicle.
- Safety Course Discount – Taking a defensive driving course could save 5% or more depending on where you live.
- Discounts for Safe Drivers – Safe drivers may receive a discount up to 45% less than less cautious drivers.
- Passive Restraints – Factory air bags and/or automatic seat belt systems can qualify for discounts of more than 20%.
Keep in mind that most discount credits are not given to the overall cost of the policy. Most only reduce individual premiums such as liability, collision or medical payments. So even though it sounds like you can get free auto insurance, companies don’t profit that way. Any qualifying discounts will bring down the amount you have to pay.
To see a list of companies offering auto insurance discounts in Oregon, click here to view.
How to Buy Troutdale Auto Insurance Online
When shopping for auto insurance there are multiple ways to compare rate quotes and find the best price. One of the best ways to find the lowest rates is simply to get online rate quotes. This can be done using a couple different methods.
- One of the simplest ways to get the best comparison quotes is an all-inclusive rate comparison click here to open form in new window. This easy form keeps you from doing a different quote for every auto insurance company. A single form will return quotes from multiple low-cost companies.
- A slightly less efficient method to obtain and compare quotes online requires a trip to the website for each individual company to complete their respective quote request forms. For examples sake, we’ll pretend you want rates from USAA, Allstate and State Farm. To find out each rate you need to visit each site and enter your information, which is why most consumers use the first method. For a list of links to insurance companies in Troutdale, click here.
It’s up to you which method you use, but be sure to compare identical coverage limits and deductibles on every quote you get. If you are comparing different liability limits it will be impossible to determine the lowest rate in Troutdale. Quoting even small variations in limits can make a big difference in price. Just remember that comparing a large number of companies helps you find the best rates.
Auto insurance policy coverages
Understanding the coverages of auto insurance aids in choosing the best coverages for your vehicles. Auto insurance terms can be confusing and nobody wants to actually read their policy. These are the normal coverages found on most auto insurance policies.
Comprehensive protection
Comprehensive insurance pays for damage caused by mother nature, theft, vandalism and other events. You first must pay your deductible then your comprehensive coverage will pay.
Comprehensive coverage protects against things like hitting a deer, falling objects, fire damage and hail damage. The highest amount you can receive from a comprehensive claim is the ACV or actual cash value, so if it’s not worth much more than your deductible consider removing comprehensive coverage.
Uninsured or underinsured coverage
Your UM/UIM coverage protects you and your vehicle when other motorists either have no liability insurance or not enough. Covered losses include injuries to you and your family and also any damage incurred to your vehicle.
Since a lot of drivers have only the minimum liability required by law (25/50/20), it only takes a small accident to exceed their coverage. That’s why carrying high Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage is important protection for you and your family. Most of the time your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages do not exceed the liability coverage limits.
Coverage for liability
This coverage protects you from damage or injury you incur to people or other property that is your fault. This insurance protects YOU from claims by other people, and does not provide coverage for damage sustained by your vehicle in an accident.
Coverage consists of three different limits, per person bodily injury, per accident bodily injury, and a property damage limit. Your policy might show values of 100/300/100 that translate to a $100,000 limit per person for injuries, $300,000 for the entire accident, and $100,000 of coverage for damaged propery. Another option is one limit called combined single limit (CSL) that pays claims from the same limit rather than limiting it on a per person basis.
Liability coverage protects against claims like bail bonds, pain and suffering and attorney fees. How much coverage you buy is up to you, but you should buy higher limits if possible. Oregon state minimum liability requirements are 25,000/50,000/20,000 but drivers should carry more coverage.
Collision insurance
Collision coverage pays for damage to your vehicle from colliding with another car or object. A deductible applies and the rest of the damage will be paid by collision coverage.
Collision coverage protects against things such as sideswiping another vehicle, crashing into a building, hitting a mailbox and driving through your garage door. This coverage can be expensive, so consider dropping it from older vehicles. Drivers also have the option to increase the deductible to bring the cost down.
Medical expense coverage
Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and medical payments coverage reimburse you for expenses for things like funeral costs, surgery and prosthetic devices. They are used in conjunction with a health insurance policy or if you are not covered by health insurance. Medical payments and PIP cover both the driver and occupants as well as being hit by a car walking across the street. Personal injury protection coverage is not an option in every state but it provides additional coverages not offered by medical payments coverage
Final considerations
Cheap auto insurance can be bought from both online companies in addition to many Troutdale insurance agents, and you need to price shop both so you have a total pricing picture. There are still a few companies who do not provide the ability to get a quote online and most of the time these small, regional companies sell through independent agents.
In this article, we covered many ways to save on auto insurance. The most important thing to understand is the more you quote, the better your chances of lowering your rates. You may be surprised to find that the lowest priced auto insurance comes from a lesser-known regional company. They may have significantly lower rates on certain market segments than the large multi-state companies such as Progressive and Geico.