You already know that safe driving can score you a discount on your car insurance. Unfortunately, accidents can and do happen. The good news is that there are plenty of other things that you can do to keep your car insurance costs in check.
For example, when you do your annual comparison shopping for car insurance, ask for quotes to insure all of your household’s vehicles. You do comparison shop for car insurance annually, don’t you? Insurance companies offer better rates when more than one vehicle and/or driver is insured. Some companies may even be able to meet your other insurance needs by adding a homeowner’s or renter’s policy for an even better rate.
The amount of miles that you drive affects your insurance premium. Check with your insurer to find out the different mileage brackets that they use to calculate premiums. Look at whether you are close enough to the next lower mileage bracket that it would make sense to do something like taking public transit to work a few days a week to bring your mileage down enough to get the lower rate.
If you are in the market for a car, think about car insurance when you are deciding what vehicle you will buy. Brand new cars cost a lot more to insure and you usually are restricted as to the adjustments that you can make regarding the level of insurance coverage that you carry. A car that is even just a couple of years old costs much less to insure, not to mention how much less it costs up front.
Also, different insurers offer different discounts for things like being a good student, taking defensive driving classes, installing anti – theft devices, and so on. Ask to see what discounts each company offers. When deciding whether or not to apply for these discounts, don’t forget to calculate the cost of doing whatever it is that you would need to do to get the discount. You would not want to install a two hundred dollar car alarm in order to save fifty dollars a year on your premium.
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