Forget saving up to 15% on car insurance, as some commercials claim. Not too long ago I was able to save over 40% on my family’s auto insurance. Here is how I got a better rate on auto insurance for my family.
Insurance company complacency. We had been with our prior insurance company for over twenty years. Based on the commercials, every major company will boast that switching to their company saves money compared to their competitors. They’re probably right, because companies often fight harder to win new business than keeping their current customers. Years of gradual rate increases from one company pushed us into higher rates. A new company, eager to win our business, was more than ready to undercut the price. Lesson: Always be ready to shop around and switch insurers if necessary.
Multi-car discounts. We had a 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan and 2005 Ford Escape when we made our switch. Our new insurer gave us a much steeper multi-car discount than our prior insurer. Lesson: Ask for this discount if it is not offered.
Multi-insurance discounts. At the same time we switched auto insurance, we also switch homeowner’s insurance. While the homeowner insurance was priced about the same with both insurers, moving it switching it gave us another discount on our auto insurance. Lesson: bundling insurance can save money.
Good driver discounts. Neither my wife nor I had been in an accident that was our fault for decades. Neither did we have any moving violations that added points to our driver’s records. Lesson: If you have a good driving record, use it to ask for additional discounts.
Automatic-pay discounts. We had been paying our auto insurance on a semi-annual basis by check, because our prior insurance charged a fee to process monthly payments. Our new insurer gave us an additional discount for setting up our payments as a monthly debit rather than billing us. With new technology the automatic payment method saves the insurance company billing costs, which they were happy to pass along to us. Lesson: Find the least expensive method of payment, which increasingly is becoming an automatic payment.
We have been very happy with our new insurance company. While no one company can provide the best rate for everyone, you can follow the same steps we did to shop around and get a good rate on car insurance.