Reducing Your Auto Insurance Rates
Auto insurance rates have been on an upward trend for the last few years now. Unfortunately, this is a trend that is unlikely to change anytime soon. The increase in rates can be attributed to various factors. Some of them include high medical costs, exorbitant repair costs, increase in the number of accidents etc. All of these are passed down to consumers in form of high auto insurance rates.
How to reduce auto insurance
The good news is that it is possible to lower your auto insurance rates in the following ways:
Insure many drivers/cars - Usually, it is much more expensive to insure a single vehicle with an insurance company than it is to insure several vehicles. This is because these companies tend to offer bulk rates in a bid to attract more business. The same applies to insuring many drivers.
Clean driving record - The more moving violations or accidents that one has, the more money they will pay in their annual premiums. Therefore, try to keep a clean driving record so that you pay much less for your auto insurance.
Defensive driving course - There are instances when insurance companies provide discounts to consumers who have successfully completed approved defensive driving courses. Even taking a course in accident prevention can really help in reducing your auto insurance. However, it is best to always consult your insurance company before you sign up for these courses.
Look around incase premium is hiked - If your annual premium has significantly gone up and you are yet to renew your policy, it is advisable to shop around for better quotes. In addition, make it a habit to look around every 2 years for competitive rates.
Use mass transit - Insurance companies are known to issue questionnaires during the signing up stage. One of the most obvious questions that you will be asked is the number of miles that the automobile is driven each year. This means that the higher the mileage, the higher the rate. Using mass transit occasionally can help in greatly reducing the mileage and this is positively transferred to your premium.
Carefully select vehicle - The type of vehicle that you purchase has a large bearing on your premium rate. Vehicles that are large and top of the range attract higher premiums compared to smaller vehicles. Hybrid vehicles attract discounts from insurance firms. The best way to go about this is to do your homework before buying a vehicle.
Raise your deductibles - Generally, the lower a deductible is, the more one has to pay in auto insurance. This means that if your raise your deductibles then your premium will be positively affected.
Improve credit rating - The record of a driver is one of the top items that influence the cost of auto insurance. What most people fail to realize is that there are insurance companies that also look at the credit rating of the driver. This is because people who are responsible in their private lives are less likely to file claims.
The tips above are not exhaustive as there are many more.
The above insightful information clearly shows some of the things that can help you to lower your auto insurance rates. Try to follow most if not all of the tips and see the results for yourself.
What Factors Affect My Auto Insurance Premiums
Believe it or not, auto insurance rates are not just some arbitrary numbers that insurance companies make up; they are well thought-out calculations. Insurance companies rely on your own personal information and their algorithms to make educated guesses on your likelihood to make a claim. The riskier a person appears to be, the higher the amount they pay in insurance premium. The following are some of the main factors insurance companies consider when deciding the amount a customer pays for auto insurance premiums:
Location - The first thing insurance companies ask for your ZIP code so that they can know where you live. If you live in a densely populated urban area, things, such a congestion and accidents, are more common hence the higher likelihood of insurance claims. The ZIP code also helps insurance companies find out the rate of stolen vehicles in the state where the client lives. All these have an impact on the amount of the premiums.
Age - Without a doubt, the younger the driver is, the more likely they will be involved in an accident. Young, inexperienced drivers have been statistically proven to be immature behind the wheel, distracted easily, and most likely to crash amongst all other age groups.
A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drivers aged 30-69 are a lot less likely to be involved in an accident. If you manage to keep your driving record clean, car insurance rates will stay fairly flat till you become a senior driver. However, rates may increase when you are over 70 years as seniors are also at more risk of getting into accidents due to poor reflexes. As such, rates for young people and seniors are lightly higher than other age groups.
Gender - If you look at crash statistics in most state, you will find that there I a huge difference between statistics on female and male drivers. Data shows men are much more likely to be involved in an accident as they are known to drive more miles, and engage in risky driving behavior, such as peeing, not using a seatbelt, driving while intoxicated, among others.
Driving record - This is perhaps the most important thing to insurance providers when they are trying to figure out what sort of a driver you are. Your driving record shows how you generally behave on the roads, and records any incidents that may have happened to you such as accidents. Looking at your driving record, the insurer can know how many times you’ve crashed and the details concerning such a crash. With such information, they can know how risky you are and adjust your rates accordingly.
Safety features in your vehicle - Modern car are now armed with a lot of technology, some of which comes into play during accidents to prevent them or reduce the damages or injuries caused significantly. For instance, insurance companies are known to offer discounts for vehicles with more airbags. Other cool tech features such as object detection and avoidance can also help reduce premiums.
Vehicle type - Your car type determines its price, accident rates, cost of repairs, safety rating, among other things that have a direct impact on the amount of insurance premiums.
Which Car Brands are the Safest?
When people are shopping for cars, one of the most important things they look out for is the vehicle’s safety especially for family vehicles. Everyone wants a car that has enough safety features to prevent accidents from happening or minimize the damages and injuries caused in the event of an unavoidable accident. The safety rating of a vehicle also plays a key role when auto insurance companies are calculating your premiums. The more the safety features, the lower the risk of an accident, hence the lower the premiums charged. The following is a list of some of the safest car brands available today:
Lexus - Lexus has a wide variety of vehicle types, from small luxury cars to large luxury SUVs, and luxury sports cars. A few Lexus vehicles, such as the luxury midsize GS, score a perfect 10 out of 10 on the U News safety score. Lexus offers a variety of safety features, such as forward collision warning, automatic braking, pre-collision system with pedestrian detection, blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, rear and front parking sensors, lane keep assist, rear cross traffic alert, rain-sensing wipers, head-up display, and a driver drowsiness monitor. Although not all features are available in all Lexus models, most of them are.
BMW - Like Lexus, BMW also offers a long list of diverse vehicles, from sports sedans, to high-performance SUVs, to hyper cars. All BMWs that were taken through crash tests scored an almost perfect US News safety score. The lowest in the lineup was the X which scored 9.4 out of 10. This is more than some brands can offer with their best brands.
BMW offers almost every active safety feature offered by Lexus, with a few notable extras such as speed limit detection, parallel parking assist, slide collision prevention, and night vision.
Mercedes-Benz - Mercedes-Benz has a similar vehicle lineup as BMW with both brands having been in stiff competition for many decades. As a result of this competition, Mercedes-Benz also has invested heavily in research to improve their safety standards on their vehicles; research that has paid off. The automaker has made its name for always having advanced safety systems on their vehicles.
Unlike many brands, Mercedes-Benz provides valuable safety features as a standard in most of their vehicles. This includes crosswind assist, driver drowsiness monitoring system, Mercedes Pre-Safe (prepares a vehicle for a potential accident by tightening seatbelts and closing windows), and many other features, some of which you must pay extra for.
Tesla - When it comes to automaker, Tesla has always been viewed as sort of an outlier. Being the leading electric car manufacturer, Tesla also invests a lot on research to ensure their cars are also recognized as some of the safest. All Tesla cars come standard with advanced safety features like lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, autonomous driving among other cool features.
Volvo - For many decades, the Volvo name has been associated with vehicle safety, so much so that they market their vehicles primarily using their reputation for safety. The company has a vision of ensuring there are no fatalities or injuries in their vehicles after 22020. Volvos come with a multitude of safety features, many of which are standard on most of their models. Some of the notable features include the Park Assist Pilot which parks the car for you and the Pilot Assist semi-autonomous system which allows the car to drive itself on the highway under certain conditions.
