Driving, it’s essential activity for many of us, but it still costs so much, with the price of purchasing a vehicle is only a part of this. In fact, those driving also need to consider the day to day running costs of their vehicle as well as the insurance they need to be allowed to drive at all. In particular, the latter can be incredibly expensive and cause budget worries for any drivers young and old. Â However, with some clever strategizing you can lower the cost of your insurance and so save some of your precious money. Just read the post below to find out how.
Shop around
Number one the list of strategies for lowering your insurance payments is to shop around. Happily, there are so many insurance providers on the market, and as they are all in competition with each other, it means you can get some pretty impressive deals if you bother to look for them.
One way of comparing insurance prices is to use a specially crafted comparison site like the ones discussed here. These sites are designed to collect policy information and costs from a range of providers, therefore making it easy for the customer to see them side by side and decide which is the best one.
However, it is also worth noting that some of the more prominent and more independent company do not allow their firms to be represented on these sites. Something that means you can get a better deal by going to them directly. Although you won’t know it’s a better deal until you have compared it to the other prices you have been quoted, which does take a little more effort.
Excel academically
Weirdly, some drivers can get a good discount on their insurance by getting good grades in school and college. I guess this is because the insurance company thing that if you are responsible enough to excel academically, it’s likely that you will be conscientious on the road too
Scoring a good GPA can lower your insurance premiums!
Obviously, this aspect isn’t much help for those of us that are out of full-time education, but it can be a great motivator for parents to use with their kids to keep their grades high, as well as save them some money.
Advance your driving skills
Another strategy that can be massively helpful when you are trying to keep your auto insurance cost as low as possible is to improve your driving skills. Something that makes it well worth your while to enroll on a defensive driving course that is being run in your area. The reason that this will help is two-fold.
First, naturally the more skilled a driver you are, the less likely you are to have a severe accident, and as previous accidents raise the cost of your insurance, this alone can help to keep the price down.
Secondly, the sheer fact that you have enrolled in an advanced driving skills course is enough for many insurances to lower your premiums. They do this because statistically if you have this training, you are likely to have fewer accidents in the future, so they are less likely to have to pay out. This factor makes you less of a risk, and so they can afford to lower what they charge you, meaning you can reduce the cost of your insurance and make driving a much more affordable activity overall.
Choose the right vehicle
Next, a strategy that many folks use to keep their insurance premiums down to a minimum is to choose the vehicle that they buy carefully. In fact, the choice of car can affect how much it costs to get insured in several ways.
The first way is the age of the vehicle; this affects insurance premiums because the older the car is, the less likely it is to be reliable. With older cars are more vulnerable to things going wrong, this is something that can easily lead to an accident.
In additional older vehicles will not have all the modern safety equipment and gadgets that the more modern models do. Safety equipment such as side and passenger airbags, seat belt tensioners and ABS. This lack of safety equipment means that if such vehicles are involved in an incident their capability to deal with it is reduced, and therefore they present a higher risk to the insurance company, something they will pass on to their customers in higher prices.
However, it is also worth noting that the safety rating of a vehicle isn’t just a matter of older versus newer cars. In fact, even if you buy brand new, you will find a big variation in the IIHS safety ratings, depending on the make and model that you purchase. With that in mind, if you are looking to get that insurance cost down as low as possible, you need to pick a vehicle that is both new and has a rating of good on the IIHS scale.
Get insured as you learn
It’s one of those quirks of car insurance that it often costs less when you are learning compared to when you have just passed. I guess this is because there needs to be an experienced driver in the vehicle with you before you are qualified. Something that means once again you are less of risk and insurance companies can afford to keep their premiums low.
The funny thing is that many companies will agree to keep your premiums at the level you pay when you are learning after you have passed if you ask them and are driving the same car. Something to bear in mind, as it can save you a good few dollars in your first year.
Increase deductible for lower rates
Lastly, it is also possible to lower your insurance costs by playing a numbers game. This game is all about deductibles and how much you are willing to pay towards repairs and other claims if the worst does happen.
For example, if you are willing to pay 500 dollars, then your monthly premiums may be pretty low. However, if you only want to pay 50 – 100 dollars towards getting your vehicle back on the road, it’s much more likely that you will be charged a higher monthly sum.
What this means is that before you purchase your insurance, you have to decide whether you will take the gamble that you are a safe enough drive that you won’t ever have to pay that big deductible. Otherwise, your monthly insurance premiums can be incredibly expensive.