
How Can I Save Money On My Car Insurance?
Everyone wants to save money on their car insurance. It’s a fact. I hear everyday: Can you find me a better rate through another carrier? or What can I do with my policy to make it cheaper?
There are several things you can do to cut costs on your car insurance. But most people don’t think about if they would need the coverage they removed in the event of an accident or claim.
Most likely they would need the coverage that was removed. For example, a client asked me to remove their med pay and accidental death and dismemberment coverages the other day to save them around $50 every six months on their policy. The next month, they were involved in a multi-car, multi-person accident. They had no medical expense coverage for anyone in their vehicle. Nor did they have any of the supplemental coverages they would have had that could have saved them thousands of dollars in medical bills or ambulance fees. It probably would have been worth paying the extra $50, don’t you think?
Another example is when a client increased his deductible from $250 to $500 on his comprehensive coverage to save him about $10 per month on his premium. Later in the policy term, he had a glass claim and had to pay for the entire loss out of pocket because the claim was right at $500 to replace the glass. Once again, probably worth keeping the payment $10 more per month.
One final example of how cheaper is not necessarily better: Oftentimes, we have clients who attempt to remove or not add household members to their policies in the first place. Most of the time, there is a reason they don’t want to disclose these household members to us insurance agents. Rather it be they have accidents, violations or something else going on with their driving record. Or they may even be a new driver, which would drive up their premium costs. Whatever the reason may be, it is not very smart to leave household members off your insurance, because most carriers will deny any claims that result from an unlisted driver that lives in the same household.
So you may have spent only $500 for your policy and thought you were “beating the system” and had a good rate. However, when the claims adjuster calls you with the bad news that your claim is denied because the person driving the car was not on your policy, then you realize you didn’t have such a great deal after all. And at that point, it is too late.
In conclusion, it is always great to save money but you still need to be smart about it and make sure you have the coverages you would need in the event of a claim or loss.
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