No sane person looks forward to paying premiums for auto insurance, particularly when they are paying too much. You have multiple auto insurance companies to buy insurance from, and although it’s nice to have multiple companies, so many choices can make it hard to find the best rates.
You should take the time to compare premium rates occasionally because insurance prices trend upward over time. If you had the lowest rates two years ago the chances are good that you can find a lower premium rate today. Forget all the misinformation about auto insurance because you’re about to learn the easiest way to properly buy coverages and cut your premium.
This information will introduce you to the best way to quote coverages and some money-saving tips. If you currently have a car insurance policy, you will be able to lower your premiums substantially using this information. Colorado vehicle owners just need to know the tricks to compare prices online.
Save with these five money-saving discounts
Auto insurance is easily one of your largest bills, but there are discounts available that you may not even be aware of. Larger premium reductions will be automatically applied at the time of purchase, but some need to be inquired about before you get the savings.
- Distant Student Discount – Any of your kids who live away from home at college and do not take a car to college can receive lower rates.
- Air Bag Discount – Cars that have air bags or automatic seat belts could see savings of up to 25% or more.
- Braking Control Discount – Cars, trucks, and SUVs that have steering control and anti-lock brakes are safer to drive and earn discounts up to 10%.
- Early Payment Discounts – If you pay your entire premium ahead of time rather than paying monthly you may reduce your total bill.
- Seat Belts Save – Buckling up and requiring all passengers to use a seat belt can save a little off the personal injury premium cost.
A little note about advertised discounts, some credits don’t apply to the overall cost of the policy. Most cut the price of certain insurance coverages like comprehensive or collision. Just because you may think having all the discounts means you get insurance for free, you’re out of luck.
Large auto insurance companies and their offered discounts can be found below.
- Progressive has discounts for homeowner, online signing, good student, online quote discount, multi-vehicle, and continuous coverage.
- AAA discounts include anti-theft, multi-car, good driver, AAA membership discount, pay-in-full, education and occupation, and multi-policy.
- Farmers Insurance offers premium reductions for teen driver, bundle discounts, mature driver, youthful driver, multi-car, and good student.
- Geico offers discounts including multi-policy, daytime running lights, air bags, seat belt use, federal employee, membership and employees, and anti-lock brakes.
- Esurance policyholders can earn discounts including anti-theft, safety device, claim free, Pac-12 alumni, multi-car, anti-lock brakes, and Switch & Save.
- SAFECO has savings for drive less, accident prevention training, bundle discounts, anti-theft, multi-car, teen safe driver, and anti-lock brakes.
- State Farm offers discounts for Drive Safe & Save, good driver, Steer Clear safe driver discount, passive restraint, and anti-theft.
When getting a coverage quote, ask all companies you are considering which discounts can lower your rates. Some of the discounts discussed earlier might not be offered on policies in La Junta. To find insurers with discount auto insurance rates in La Junta, follow this link.
All major auto insurance companies allow you to get price estimates online. Getting prices online doesn’t take much effort as you simply enter your coverage information into the quote form. When the form is submitted, the system gets credit information and your driving record and returns pricing information based on the data you entered. Being able to quote online makes it a lot easier to compare rates but the work required to visit each company’s website and repetitively enter the same data into a form is repetitive and time-consuming. But it’s absolutely necessary to do this in order to find the best price on auto insurance.
An easier way to get multiple rate quotes uses one simple form to get prices from multiple companies. It saves time, eliminates form submissions, and makes online quotes much easier to do. After sending your information, it is quoted with multiple companies and you can pick your choice of the quotes returned.
If the quotes result in lower rates, you can simply submit the application and purchase coverage. The entire process takes less than 15 minutes and may save quite a bit of money.
To quickly compare pricing, click here and submit the form. If you have coverage now, it’s recommended you type in as close as possible to your current policy. Doing this assures you will have rate quotes based on similar coverages.
Auto insurance coverages 101
Knowing the specifics of your auto insurance policy helps when choosing appropriate coverage at the best deductibles and correct limits. Policy terminology can be impossible to understand and even agents have difficulty translating policy wording. Listed below are the normal coverages found on most auto insurance policies.
Auto liability insurance
This can cover damages or injuries you inflict on other’s property or people. It protects you against claims from other people, and does not provide coverage for your own vehicle damage or injuries.
It consists of three limits, bodily injury for each person, bodily injury for the entire accident, and a limit for property damage. You commonly see limits of 25/50/25 which stand for a $25,000 limit per person for injuries, $50,000 for the entire accident, and a limit of $25,000 paid for damaged property. Another option is a combined single limit or CSL which combines the three limits into one amount with no separate limits for injury or property damage.
Liability insurance covers things such as repair costs for stationary objects, emergency aid and legal defense fees. How much liability coverage do you need? That is up to you, but you should buy as much as you can afford. Colorado requires drivers to carry at least 25,000/50,000/15,000 but you should consider buying more liability than the minimum.
Med pay and Personal Injury Protection (PIP)
Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and medical payments coverage reimburse you for expenses like rehabilitation expenses, hospital visits and pain medications. 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 all vehicle occupants in addition to getting struck while a pedestrian. PIP is only offered in select states and gives slightly broader coverage than med pay
Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM)
This protects you and your vehicle when the “other guys” do not carry enough liability coverage. Covered losses include injuries sustained by your vehicle’s occupants and damage to your vehicle.
Due to the fact that many Colorado drivers only carry the minimum required liability limits (25/50/15 in Colorado), it doesn’t take a major accident to exceed their coverage limits. This is the reason having UM/UIM coverage should not be overlooked. Normally these limits are set the same as your liablity limits.
Comprehensive insurance
This 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 hail damage, hitting a deer, damage from flooding, rock chips in glass and a broken windshield. The most you’ll receive from a claim is the market value of your vehicle, so if the vehicle’s value is low consider removing comprehensive coverage.
Coverage for collisions
This will pay to fix damage to your vehicle resulting from a collision with an object or car. A deductible applies then your collision coverage will kick in.
Collision can pay for claims such as backing into a parked car, rolling your car and driving through your garage door. This coverage can be expensive, so analyze the benefit of dropping coverage from vehicles that are 8 years or older. Another option is to bump up the deductible to get cheaper collision coverage.
What is YOUR best insurance company?
We just presented quite a bit of information on how to compare auto insurance car insurance rates online. The key thing to remember is the more times you quote, the better your comparison will be. You may even find the best car insurance rates are with a smaller regional carrier. These smaller insurers may cover specific market segments cheaper than their larger competitors like State Farm or Progressive.
As you go through the steps to switch your coverage, it’s not a good idea to reduce needed coverages to save money. There are too many instances where someone dropped physical damage coverage to discover at claim time that the few dollars in savings costed them thousands. Your aim should be to purchase plenty of coverage for the lowest price while still protecting your assets.
More affordable auto insurance is definitely available from both online companies and also from your neighborhood La Junta agents, and you should compare price quotes from both to have the best chance of lowering rates. A few companies may not offer the ability to get quotes online and most of the time these smaller providers provide coverage only through independent insurance agencies.