7 Shopping Tips Guaranteed to Slash the Cost of Auto Insurance Costs in Jerome
Buying the cheapest Jerome auto insurance online can seem to be challenging for consumers not familiar with price shopping online. With so many choices of insurance companies available, how can consumers have a chance to compare every one to find the lowest price?
Smart consumers take time to check auto insurance prices at least once a year due to the fact that insurance rates fluctuate regularly. Just because you found the best rates two years ago you can probably find a better price now. Forget anything you know (or think you know) about auto insurance because we’re going to demonstrate how to use the internet to find the best coverage while lowering your premiums.
If you have insurance now or are looking for a new policy, you can use these techniques to find the best rates while maximizing coverage. Pricing the lowest cost protection in Jerome is simple if you know the tricks. Idaho vehicle owners just need to understand how to shop for auto insurance online.
Discounts are great for lower rates
Car insurance companies don’t always advertise every available discount in an easy-to-find place, so the following is a list of some of the more common and the harder-to-find savings tricks you should be using. If they aren’t giving you every credit you qualify for, you’re just leaving money on the table.
- Pay Upfront and Save – By paying your policy upfront instead of making monthly payments you could save 5% or more.
- Seat Belts Save more than Lives – Buckling up and requiring all passengers to wear their seat belts could cut 10% or more off the personal injury premium cost.
- Federal Employees – Employees or retirees of the government could cut as much as 10% off with a few auto insurance companies.
- Driver’s Ed – Make teen driver coverage more affordable by requiring them to successfully complete driver’s ed class if offered at their school.
- Accident Waiver – Some insurance companies will forgive one accident before hitting you with a surcharge if you are claim-free for a particular time prior to the accident.
- Service Members Pay Less – Being on active duty in the military could mean lower rates.
- Life Insurance Discount – Larger companies have a break if you buy life insurance.
A little note about advertised discounts, most discounts do not apply to the entire cost. Most only reduce the price of certain insurance coverages like liability and collision coverage. So when it seems like all those discounts means the company will pay you, companies don’t profit that way.
To see a list of companies who offer auto insurance discounts in Idaho, click here to view.
Vehicle Insurance Comparison
All major auto insurance companies provide price estimates on their websites. This process is quite simple as you just type in the amount of coverage you want as requested by the quote form. Upon sending the form, their rating system makes automated requests for your credit score and driving record and provides a quote determined by many factors.
Quoting online helps simplify price comparisons, but the time it takes to visit multiple sites and fill out multiple forms is not the best way to spend an afternoon. But it’s very important to perform this step in order to get better auto insurance pricing.
There is an easier way!
The easiest way to lower your auto insurance bill uses one simple form that analyzes rates from a lot of companies. It saves time, reduces the work, and makes online price comparison much easier to do. Once the form is submitted, it is quoted and you can choose any of the resulting price quotes. If the quotes result in lower rates, you simply finish the application and buy the policy. The whole process takes 15 minutes at the most and may save quite a bit of money.
If you want to fill out one form to compare multiple rates now, click here to open in new window and begin entering your coverage information. If you have a policy now, it’s recommended you type in the coverages as close as possible to your current policy. This way, you are getting comparison quotes based on similar coverages.
Auto insurance specifics
Having a good grasp of a auto insurance policy can help you determine the right coverages for your vehicles. Policy terminology can be ambiguous and coverage can change by endorsement.
Coverage for liability
This coverage protects you from damages or injuries you inflict on people or other property in an accident. It consists of three limits, bodily injury for each person injured, bodily injury for the entire accident and a property damage limit. As an example, you may have values of 25/50/25 that means you have $25,000 in coverage for each person’s injuries, $50,000 for the entire accident, and $25,000 of coverage for damaged propery.
Liability insurance covers things such as funeral expenses, legal defense fees, repair costs for stationary objects, bail bonds and structural damage. How much liability coverage do you need? That is a personal decision, but it’s cheap coverage so purchase as high a limit as you can afford. Idaho requires minimum liability limits of 20,000/50,000/15,000 but you should consider buying more coverage.
Uninsured and underinsured coverage
Your UM/UIM coverage gives you protection when other motorists are uninsured or don’t have enough coverage. It can pay for medical payments for you and your occupants and damage to your vehicle.
Since a lot of drivers only purchase the least amount of liability that is required (20/50/15), it only takes a small accident to exceed their coverage. So UM/UIM coverage is a good idea.
Coverage for medical payments
Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and medical payments coverage provide coverage for bills like surgery, nursing services, dental work and chiropractic care. The coverages can be utilized in addition to your health insurance policy or if you lack health insurance entirely. They cover both the driver and occupants and also covers being hit by a car walking across the street. PIP is only offered in select states but can be used in place of medical payments coverage
Comprehensive coverages
Comprehensive insurance pays to fix your vehicle from damage OTHER than collision with another vehicle or object. You first have to pay a deductible and the remainder of the damage will be paid by comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive coverage pays for claims like a tree branch falling on your vehicle, fire damage, damage from getting keyed and falling objects. The highest amount you can receive from a comprehensive claim is the actual cash value, so if the vehicle’s value is low it’s not worth carrying full coverage.
Collision insurance
Collision coverage covers damage to your vehicle resulting from colliding with an object or car. You have to pay a deductible and then insurance will cover the remainder.
Collision coverage protects against things like crashing into a ditch, scraping a guard rail, hitting a mailbox and damaging your car on a curb. Collision is rather expensive coverage, so consider dropping it from lower value vehicles. Drivers also have the option to raise the deductible to bring the cost down.
A tidy conclusion
The cheapest auto insurance can be purchased on the web as well as from independent agents in Jerome, and you should compare price quotes from both to get a complete price analysis. Some companies don’t offer you the ability to get quotes online and these small insurance companies work with independent agents.
As you restructure your insurance plan, never skimp on critical coverages to save a buck or two. There have been many cases where an insured dropped liability limits or collision coverage only to discover later they didn’t have enough coverage. Your aim should be to buy a smart amount of coverage for the lowest price while not skimping on critical coverages.
We just presented a lot of ways to lower your auto insurance rates. The key thing to remember is the more rate quotes you have, the more likely it is that you will get a better rate. Drivers may discover the biggest savings come from an unexpected company.