Overpriced car insurance can dwindle your personal savings and force you to make sacrifices. Comparing price quotes is a great way to make sure you’re not throwing money away. Insurance companies such as Geico and Progressive constantly blast consumers with catchy ads and it can be hard to see through the cute green geckos and mayhem and find the best price available.
If you are insured now or need new coverage, you will benefit by learning to get lower rates and still get good coverage. Finding affordable coverage in New Brunswick is not that difficult. New Jersey drivers just need to understand the best way to find the lowest price online.
Compare the Market for Car Insurance in New Brunswick
Most companies provide coverage price quotes directly from their websites. The process is fairly straightforward as you just enter your required coverages into a form. When the form is submitted, their rating system will obtain your driving and credit reports and returns a price quote. Quoting online streamlines rate comparisons, but the time required to go to each company’s website and repetitively enter the same data into a form can be a bit tiresome and repetitive. Unfortunately, it is important to compare as many rates as possible in order to get a better rate.
The easiest way to get multiple rate quotes requires only one form that analyzes rates from several companies at one time. This type of form saves time, helps eliminate reptitive entry, and makes price shopping online much more enjoyable. After sending your information, it gets priced and you can select any one of the returned quotes.
If you find a better price it’s easy to complete the application and buy the policy. This process can be completed in less than 10 minutes and may save quite a bit of money.
To save time and find out what other companies charge, click here to open in new window and begin entering your coverage information. If you currently have coverage, we recommend you enter the insurance coverages as shown on your current policy. This makes sure you’re receiving comparison quotes for the exact same coverage.
Discounts are great for lower rates
Insurance can cost an arm and a leg, buy you may qualify for discounts that can drop the cost substantially. A few discounts will automatically apply when you get a quote, but a few must be inquired about prior to receiving the credit. If you’re not getting every credit you qualify for, you are paying more than you should be.
- Defensive Driving Course – Successfully completing a course in driver safety could possibly earn you a 5% discount and easily recoup the cost of the course.
- Discounts for Safe Drivers – Insureds without accidents may save up to 50% more than less cautious drivers.
- Payment Discounts – By paying your policy upfront instead of making monthly payments you could save 5% or more.
- Save over 55 – If you’re over the age of 55, you may be able to get better car insurance rates.
- Student in College – Children who attend school more than 100 miles from home and do not have access to a covered vehicle can be insured at a reduced rate.
- Save with a New Car – Putting insurance coverage on a new car can cost up to 25% less compared to insuring an older model.
- One Accident Forgiven – Some insurance companies allow you one accident before hitting you with a surcharge so long as you haven’t had any claims for a certain period of time.
- Multi-policy Discount – If you insure your home and vehicles with the same insurance company you may save 10% to 20% off each policy.
It’s important to understand that most credits do not apply to the entire cost. Most only apply to individual premiums such as liability, collision or medical payments. So when it seems like you could get a free car insurance policy, companies wouldn’t make money that way. But all discounts will cut the cost of coverage.
For a list of insurers with discount car insurance rates in New Brunswick, click this link.
You may need specialized coverage
When buying the right insurance coverage, there really is not a “best” method to buy coverage. Each situation is unique so your insurance needs to address that. For instance, these questions might point out whether your personal situation will benefit from professional help.
- Is borrowed equipment or tools covered if stolen or damaged?
- Do I really need UM/UIM coverage?
- Should I rate my vehicle as pleasure use or commute?
- Do I have any recourse if my insurance company denies a claim?
- Do I need higher deductibles?
- Is business equipment covered while in my vehicle?
- When should I drop full coverage on my vehicle?
- Does my policy cover my teen driver if they drive my company car?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions but you think they might apply to your situation then you might want to talk to a licensed insurance agent. If you don’t have a local agent, complete this form or you can go here for a list of companies in your area. It’s fast, doesn’t cost anything and can help protect your family.
What impacts New Brunswick insurance rates?
It’s important that you understand the different types of things that come into play when calculating the price you pay for car insurance. Having a good understanding of what determines base rates helps enable you to make changes that will entitle you to much lower annual insurance costs.
The list below includes a few of the “ingredients” that factor into prices.
- Your spouse saves you money – Having a wife or husband can actually save you money when buying car insurance. It translates into being more responsible and it’s proven that being married results in fewer claims.
- Pleasure use saves money – The higher the mileage driven each year the more you’ll pay to insure your vehicle. Most companies charge to insure your cars determined by how the vehicle is used. Cars used primarily for pleasure use get more affordable rates as compared to vehicles used primarily for driving to work. Double check that your car insurance declarations sheet properly reflects the correct usage for each vehicle.
- A clean driving record saves money – A bad driving record impacts your car insurance rates tremendously. Drivers with clean records tend to pay less for car insurance than people who have multiple driving citations. Only having one citation may increase your cost forty percent or more. If you have severe violations such as hit and run, DWI or reckless driving convictions may find they need to submit a SR-22 form to the state department of motor vehicles in order to drive a vehicle legally.
- Safe vehicles cost less to insure – Vehicles with high crash test scores tend to have better insurance rates. These vehicles protect occupants better and fewer injuries translates into savings for insurance companies and more competitive rates for policyholders.
- Teen drivers pay high rates – Teenage drivers in New Jersey are statistically proven to be more careless behind the wheel so they pay higher car insurance rates. Parents adding a youthful driver to your policy can be very expensive. Older drivers are viewed as being more responsible, statistically cause fewer accidents and get fewer tickets.
- Do you need the policy add-ons? – There are a ton of add-on coverages that you can buy on your policy. Coverages like rental car reimbursement, towing coverage and motor club memberships may be costing you every month. They may seem like a good idea when you first buy your policy, but if you don’t need them get rid of them and save.
Better coverage you can count on
When buying insurance coverage, it’s very important that you do not reduce coverage to reduce premium. In many instances, an accident victim reduced physical damage coverage and discovered at claim time that it was a big error on their part. Your strategy should be to purchase a proper amount of coverage at the best price while still protecting your assets.
Cost effective car insurance can be bought on the web and with local New Brunswick insurance agents, and you need to comparison shop both to get a complete price analysis. There are still a few companies who do not offer you the ability to get quotes online and most of the time these small, regional companies sell through independent agents.
Additional car insurance information can be read on the website for the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance found here. New Jersey drivers can download brochures, learn about insurance regulations, report car insurance fraud, and find out which companies have the most complaints.
Additional helpful sites include BankRate.com’s Car Insurance: When not to Skimp and this page on QuoteClickInsure.com.