For most people who drive, making sure that your car is legal and covered in the event of an accident with the right insurance policy is one of the biggest expenses to pay. Car insurance is essential to ensure that you are safe, covered, and legal on the road, and it’s against the law to drive without it in any state. The good news is that although car insurance is an expense that there’s no getting away from, there are several things that you can do to drive the cost down and ensure that you are not paying any more than is necessary to get the coverage that you need.
Compare Quotes
If your car insurance is due to be renewed, don’t just go for the quote given to you by your current insurer. The chances are that you can get a better price by shopping around and switching to a different insurance company instead. There are plenty of online comparison sites like Cheap Insurance that you can use to find several additional personalized quotes for your car insurance and determine the cheapest one that is a good fit for your needs as a driver. All you’ll need to do is enter details about yourself and your vehicle, and you’ll get a list of quotes to choose from.
Go Direct
Sometimes you can get an even better deal by working directly with an insurance company that offers specialized insurance policies for drivers in certain groups. For example, if you are newly qualified, disabled, work in a certain job, or over a certain age, insurance can be quite costly through public companies, and it might be wiser to opt for an insurer that caters specifically to people in your demographic. Car insurance from The Hartford is an excellent option for drivers over 50, providing affordable auto insurance with various features for drivers in this age range.
Drive Less
Driving less has a ton of benefits that cannot be ignored. Today it can be all too easy to jump in the car even when going a short distance away, but the bad news is that it will increase your annual mileage, impacting your car insurance cost. The less you drive, the lower your risk of being involved in a car accident. Therefore you can usually expect your car insurance policies to decrease. Instead of driving, walking, or cycling is also much better for the environment and your health and your pocket.
Invest in a Dashcam
Today, dash cams are becoming commonplace on the road and have plenty of insurance benefits. Along with being an obvious deterrent against your vehicle’s theft and those driving recklessly around you, a dashcam that records everything going on around you on the road can be used as hard evidence in an insurance claim and mean that you get paid out faster. Thus, dashcams are very beneficial to the insurance companies themselves as they cut down on a lot of the workload of determining exactly what happened. For this reason, many insurers are now offering discounts to drivers who use one.
Be Smart About Your Next Car
If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, it’s good to research the insurance costs on the cars you like before you make the purchase. Some cars will cost less to insure than others due to the number of safety features that they include to help reduce the event of a collision. Opting for a car with features such as automatic braking, lane assist, cruise control, and rear parking sensors can help drive your insurance policy price down since all these features are designed to help keep you safer on the roads and reduce your risk of an accident.
Consider the Extras
Many insurance companies offer policies with additional optional features such as windshield cover, breakdown cover, legal protection, or driving in other states or countries. It’s worth considering which of these extras you need, which ones you won’t use, and whether or not you could get a cheaper deal getting them separately. For example, suppose your insurance company offers breakdown cover included with your policy. In that case, it may be a more affordable option to opt-out and go directly to a breakdown company instead. It’s certainly worth shopping around to make sure that you’re getting the best deal rather than accepting all the extras as standard.
For most drivers, car insurance can be the biggest expense of staying on the road second to purchasing the vehicle itself. However, by applying some savvy strategies in your search for a new car insurance policy, you can drive the cost down as much as possible and make sure that you are not paying more than you need to for your cover.
