When searching for lower-cost insurance, are you overwhelmed by the number of car insurance companies that you can choose from? Drivers have such a large number of options that it can easily become a difficult situation to find the best premium rates. If you’ve ever been there, you know that Gulf Shores has many things to offer, but paying high car insurance rates can make it nearly impossible to purchase enough protection.
How to buy car insurance online
Many insurance companies such as Geico, State Farm and Progressive allow consumers to get pricing directly from their websites. Getting prices online is quite simple because it’s just a matter of typing in your personal and coverage information into the quote form. When complete, their quoting system pulls information on your driving record and credit history and returns a price based on these factors.
Online price estimates makes it simple to compare prices but the process of having to visit a lot of sites and type in the same information is repetitive and time-consuming. But it’s very important to get many rate quotes in order to get better car insurance pricing.
Quote rates the easy way
A less time-consuming method to locate the lowest prices uses one simple form that gets price quotes from a lot of companies. It saves time, requires less work, and makes online quotes a lot less work. Immediately after you send the form, your coverage is rated and you can select any one of the quotes returned.
If the quotes result in lower rates, you simply finish the application and purchase coverage. It takes just a few minutes to complete and may result in a nice savings.
To quickly compare rates now, click here to open in a new tab and enter your information. To compare your current rates, we recommend you type in as close as possible to your current policy. This helps ensure you’re receiving a price comparison using the same coverage and limits.
Car insurance discounts are available to cut your rates
Some companies don’t always advertise all their discounts very clearly, so the list below contains a few of the more well known in addition to some of the lesser obvious credits available to you.
- ABS Braking Discount – Anti-lock brake equipped vehicles prevent accidents so companies give up to a 10% discount.
- Save with a New Car – Buying car insurance coverage on a new vehicle can get you a discount compared to insuring an older model.
- Driver Education Discount – It’s a good idea to have your young drivers enroll in driver’s education in school.
- Passive Restraints – Options like air bags or automatic seat belts may get savings of 20 to 30 percent.
- Discount for Low Mileage – Low annual miles could be rewarded with discounted premium rates on garaged vehicles.
- Multi-policy Discount – If you have multiple policies with the same company you could earn a discount of as much as 10 to 15 percent.
- Club Memberships – Participating in qualifying clubs or civic groups could earn you a nice discount when shopping for car insurance.
- Good Driver Discounts – Drivers who don’t get into accidents can save up to 40% or more on their than drivers with accident claims.
We need to note that some credits don’t apply to the overall cost of the policy. Most cut individual premiums such as liability, collision or medical payments. So even though it sounds like you could get a free car insurance policy, that’s just not realistic. Any qualifying discounts will positively reduce the amount you have to pay.
Some of the larger companies who might offer these benefits are:
It’s a good idea to ask every company what discounts are available to you. Some of the discounts discussed earlier may not apply to policyholders in your state.
Educate yourself about car insurance coverages
Knowing the specifics of your policy can help you determine the right coverages and the correct deductibles and limits. Policy terminology can be ambiguous and nobody wants to actually read their policy.
Medical costs insurance
Med pay and PIP coverage kick in for bills such as pain medications, nursing services and X-ray expenses. The coverages can be used to cover expenses not covered by your health insurance policy or if you are not covered by health insurance. Coverage applies to not only the driver but also the vehicle occupants and also covers getting struck while a pedestrian. PIP coverage is not available in all states but it provides additional coverages not offered by medical payments coverage
Liability
Liability insurance protects you from injuries or damage you cause to a person or their property that is your fault. Liability coverage has three limits: per person bodily injury, per accident bodily injury, and a property damage limit. Your policy might show liability limits of 100/300/100 which stand for $100,000 in coverage for each person’s injuries, a per accident bodily injury limit of $300,000, and property damage coverage for $100,000. Occasionally you may see a combined limit which limits claims to one amount rather than limiting it on a per person basis.
Liability coverage protects against claims such as attorney fees, repair bills for other people’s vehicles, structural damage and bail bonds. The amount of liability coverage you purchase is your choice, but consider buying higher limits if possible. Alabama state minimum liability requirements are 25,000/50,000/25,000 but you should consider buying higher limits.
Comprehensive or Other Than Collision
Comprehensive insurance will pay to fix damage caused by mother nature, theft, vandalism and other events. A deductible will apply and then insurance will cover the rest of the damage.
Comprehensive can pay for claims such as hitting a bird, rock chips in glass and falling objects. The most you can receive from a comprehensive claim is the cash value of the vehicle, so if your deductible is as high as the vehicle’s value consider removing comprehensive coverage.
Collision insurance
Collision coverage pays for damage to your vehicle resulting from a collision with an object or car. You will need to pay your deductible and then insurance will cover the remainder.
Collision coverage pays for claims such as rolling your car, hitting a mailbox, scraping a guard rail, crashing into a ditch and driving through your garage door. Paying for collision coverage can be pricey, so you might think about dropping it from lower value vehicles. Drivers also have the option to bump up the deductible in order to get cheaper collision rates.
UM/UIM Coverage
This coverage gives you protection when other motorists do not carry enough liability coverage. Covered claims include injuries sustained by your vehicle’s occupants as well as damage to your vehicle.
Since a lot of drivers have only the minimum liability required by law (25/50/25), their limits can quickly be used up. For this reason, having high UM/UIM coverages should not be overlooked. Normally your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages are identical to your policy’s liability coverage.
More comparisons equals lower rates
When shopping online for car insurance, never buy lower coverage limits just to save a few bucks. There are many occasions where an insured cut liability coverage limits only to regret that the few dollars in savings costed them thousands. Your strategy should be to purchase plenty of coverage at the best possible price, but do not sacrifice coverage to save money.
A few companies may not provide the ability to get a quote online and usually these small insurance companies prefer to sell through local independent agencies. Lower-priced car insurance can be sourced both online and from local insurance agents, and you need to price shop both in order to have the best price selection to choose from.
In this article, we covered many ideas to reduce car insurance auto insurance rates online. It’s most important to understand that the more providers you compare, the more likely it is that you will get a better rate. Consumers may even find the lowest auto insurance rates are with a small local company.
Online resources for education
Additional information can be found on the through this link. Consumers can find out industry alerts, file complaints about an insurance agent or broker, and read enforcement actions against agents and companies.