Cheap Auto Insurance Quotes Can Save You Money
Most drivers can find auto insurance quotes online, if they dedicate just several hours to their research. The exception may be drivers with exceptionally valuable vehicles, teenagers, and drivers with extremely poor driving records. In either case, it always pays to shop for quotes.
I look for cheap auto insurance quotes for my car (2008 Honda Accord) once every year, about one month prior to my policy expiration date. I live in Indiana, and we are lucky to have almost 200 companies that sell automobile protection. I always do the same thing – create a new spreadsheet, paste my list of companies into it, and start filling out quote rates to the right of each name. Since I’ve been doing this for years, this mundane task doesn’t take me too long anymore – just a few hours. In fairness to say, I know how to get a quote from each of these companies, whether it’s online, over the phone, etc. It may take you a bit longer the first time you do it, but it will be a breeze starting from the second time you do your research.
By the time I’m done, I’m usually able to find a rate that is lower than my current rate elsewhere. Only once my then-current rate was the lowest, so I just stayed with the same insurer for another year. But usually I find a lower rate. Then, I order my new policy from the new company and ask them to start it on the date when my current policy expires. Insurers can time it the way that the gap in your coverage will be less than one minute – when the old policy expires, the new one will kick in the next minute.
Many people stick with the same company for years thinking that they are getting the lowest rate due to the “customer loyalty” discount. Although this may be true in some cases, you can usually find lower rates. The fact is that discounts offered by insurers are not the indicator of a low cost. If a more expensive insurer offers a loyalty discount of 10% and charges you $1,500, this will cost you more than at a company that charges $1,200, with no discount. In fact, my best friend thought that they were paying the best rate, since they were with the same company for over 20 years. Then they found out that that company was more expensive for them than many others. So, it really pays to look around.
Many consumers and experts suggest checking the finances/quality of insurers, and I do this as well. This is easy to do, because I’m only checking one or two companies. First, I check the least expensive one, and if their ratings don’t satisfy me – I check the company that’s next in line by price. Usually, one of these two companies is going to have good ratings.
The above is the exact research that I perform yearly. If you try it, it’s almost for certain that you’ll save money every year. Just compose a list of companies that operate where you live, and you can start your research for a cheap auto insurance quote. You can speed up a part of this process by using multi-quote websites.
