Save Big Money On Your Car Insurance - Now!
Insurance companies churn out so many ads that you have to tune them out. But their message is usually the same: If you purchase your car insurance during a specific time frame, or get it through this company, you’ll save money.
I’ve always thought that a car insurance ad promising you money-saving opportunities sounded a bit too good to be true. After all, who actually saved money by switching car insurance companies?
I recently found out the answer: Me! I saved almost $2,000. That’s almost half the cost of my current health insurance premium. Now I know why car insurance ads are so tempting – because they can actually deliver on their promises!
In this article, I give you two key pieces of information that can help you save some serious money if you buy your next year’s car insurance between now and February 20, 2012: 1. Your premium will probably go up. And 2. You can save money by shopping around to find the best car insurance premium for you and your specific driving habits.
Today, my car insurance premium is $1,904 per year. By February 20, 2012, it could be as high as $2,500 - or more than $1,000 more! So if you want to save money on your next year’s car insurance, you’d better get prepared now. And the first thing you need to do is to figure out your current premium, so let’s start there.
How to find out your current car insurance premium
Your annual car insurance premium is likely listed on your last year’s car insurance bill. Or if you’re shopping around for low-cost quotes, most insurance companies will give you an estimate of what your premium will be if you switch to their plan. Here are a few tips on how to shop around for low-cost quotes:
Shop around in October and November.
You’ll get the lowest car insurance premium once a company decides which cars it will insure – and most of them won’t have decided that yet. But by shopping around in October or November before your policy expires, you can save as much as $100 on the average annual premium.
Shop around on the Internet.
I found out I could save more than $150 a year on my car insurance by shopping around on the Internet. And you can probably do the same thing if you have access to an Internet browser and some simple navigation skills. Here are some tips:
Shop for companies that offer the best discounts for drivers with good driving records and/or safety ratings.
If you have a safe driving record, shop around to find out if your carrier offers any discounts for good driving records.
Compare quotes. Some companies offer “everyday low prices” and others charge more for the same products. Find out if you can get the best deal by comparing different companies’ quotes and then deciding who’s willing to give you the best rate.
Compare car insurance premiums online: Enter all of the necessary information in a quote calculator on one company’s website, then repeat the process on a number of other sites to see which company gives you the best price.
Shop around in February and March.
You can get a good deal on your next year’s car insurance if you buy it from a company that hasn’t decided which drivers it will insure yet. So if you shop around after your current policy expires, you can save $100 or more. And I think the best time to do this is right after Valentine’s Day, because most companies make their decisions on who they’re going to insure by then. To find out when insurers start deciding which drivers they’re going to insure, just do a Google search for [insurers decide quote].
How to get cheap car insurance quotes
To get the best rates on car insurance, you need to shop around. Here are three ways you can do this:
1. Find out how much you can save if you shop around for low-cost quotes online. You’ll probably be surprised at how much money you can save. For example, I found a quote for $2,500 per year from State Farm and another quote for $1,200 per year from Nationwide. That’s a difference of more than $1,300 per year! And that doesn’t even count all the additional discounts I was offered by Nationwide that weren’t included in the calculations by State Farm.
2. Use an online car insurance quote aggregator to get several quotes from a number of different companies. An aggregator site will ask you for your zip code, then show you a list of companies that offer services in your area and links to their websites.
3. Get an instant online car insurance quote comparison by entering a zip code and some other basic information into an online price comparison tool, such as the one at FindtheBest.com/best-auto-insurance-companies . This tool also shows you which providers have the best discounts for drivers with safe driving records, good driving records and excellent credit scores. You can also do a Google search for online car insurance quote comparison tools to get a list of alternatives.
How to save money on your next year's car insurance premiums
If you’re willing to make some changes in your driving habits, you can save as much as $100 or more a year on your premium by shopping around for lower-cost quotes and then following these tips:
Shop around in February and March (see step 1 above). If you find a quote that beats the $2,500 or $1,200 rates offered by State Farm and Nationwide, go ahead and switch. There will still be other discounts available from other companies that I didn’t include in my calculations.
Many companies will offer discounts for good driving records. If you’re willing to make an effort to be even safer than you are, you can save $50 or more a year on your car insurance premium by shopping around for better premium deals. But if you don’t make a real effort to be safer, once again there will still be other discounts available that I didn’t include in the calculations.
Conclusion
The cost of car insurance is going up. So if you want to save money on your next year’s premium, you had better start checking your current quote now – and get ready to shop around by February 20, 2012. You can save more than $1,000 on the average premium by switching car insurers or making changes in your driving habits.
By the way, did I mention that the average cost of a college education is $41,600 a year? So you can't afford to waste too much time and effort trying to figure out how to save a few bucks on your next year's car insurance premium.