Are you kicking yourself for buying an expensive insurance policy? Don’t feel bad because there are a lot of people just like you who feel imprisoned by their insurance policy.
Since you have so many different company options, it is hard for the average consumer to locate the lowest price insurance company.
When shopping for auto insurance there are multiple ways to compare rate quotes from companies that offer auto insurance in your state. The easiest way to compare rates is to perform an online rate comparison. It’s really quite simple and can be done by using one of the methods below.
One of the best ways to compare a lot of rates at once would be an industry-wide quote request form (click to open form in new window). This type of form keeps you from doing repetitive form submissions to each individual auto insurance company. A single, simple form gets insurance cost estimates direct from many companies.
A less efficient way to compare prices is to manually visit the website for each individual company and fill out a new quote form. For examples sake, let’s say you want to view quotes from Geico, State Farm and Allstate. To find out each rate you need to go to every website and enter your policy data, which can be really labor intensive. For a list of companies in your area, click here.
The method you choose is up to you, but ensure you are comparing identical coverages for each comparison quote. If you are comparing unequal deductibles or liability limits it will be very difficult to determine which company has the best rates. Slightly different insurance coverages can result in a big premium difference. And when price shopping your coverage, more quotes will improve the odds of getting the best rates. Not every company does price estimates online, so you need to compare rates from those companies as well.
Not too many consumers would say auto insurance is affordable, but you may find discounts that many people don’t even know exist. A few discounts will automatically apply when you purchase, but lesser-known reductions have to be specifically requested prior to getting the savings.
Discounts reduce rates, but you should keep in mind that some of the credits will not apply to the entire policy premium. A few only apply to the price of certain insurance coverages like liability and collision coverage. Even though it may seem like adding up those discounts means a free policy, insurance companies wouldn’t stay in business. Any amount of discount will cut the amount you have to pay.
For a list of companies that offer multiple discounts, follow this link.
When buying proper insurance coverage, there is no cookie cutter policy. Everyone’s situation is a little different and your policy should reflect that. Here are some questions about coverages that can aid in determining whether you might need professional guidance.
If you don’t know the answers to these questions but one or more may apply to you then you might want to talk to an insurance agent. If you want to speak to an agent in your area, fill out this quick form or go to this page to view a list of companies.
Many factors are used when you get a price on insurance. Some are pretty understandable like a motor vehicle report, but others are not as apparent like your vehicle usage or your financial responsibility.
The list below includes most of the major factors used by insurance companies to determine premiums.
Insurance coverage companies such as 21st Century, Allstate and State Farm endlessly run ads in print and on television. All the ads seem to make the promise about how much you will save if you get a free insurance coverage quote and switch your coverage to them. How can each company say the same thing? Here is the trick they use.
Different companies give the cheapest rates for the type of driver that will generate a profit. For example, this type of risk profile could be a female over age 40, has no prior claims, and chooses high deductibles. Any person that matches those criteria will probably get cheap prices and have a good chance to save a lot of money.
Insureds who do not fit the “perfect” profile may be forced to pay higher rates and ends up with business going elsewhere. The ads state “people that switch” not “everybody who quotes” save that much when switching. That’s why insurance companies can state the savings.
This really illustrates why you need to compare as many free insurance coverage quotes as you can. It is just not possible to predict which company will fit you best based on your risk profile.
Learning about specific coverages of your car insurance policy can be of help when determining appropriate coverage and proper limits and deductibles. The coverage terms in a policy can be ambiguous and nobody wants to actually read their policy. Shown next are typical coverage types offered by car insurance companies.
Liability – This protects you from damage that occurs to a person or their property in an accident. It protects you from claims by other people. Liability doesn’t cover your own vehicle damage or injuries.
Split limit liability has three limits of coverage: bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. You commonly see limits of 25/50/25 that means you have a $25,000 limit per person for injuries, a per accident bodily injury limit of $50,000, and property damage coverage for $25,000. Alternatively, you may have a combined single limit or CSL which combines the three limits into one amount without having the split limit caps.
Liability insurance covers things like pain and suffering, loss of income and emergency aid. How much liability coverage do you need? That is your choice, but you should buy higher limits if possible.
Comprehensive coverage (or Other than Collision) – Comprehensive insurance will pay to fix damage OTHER than collision with another vehicle or object. You first must pay your deductible and then insurance will cover the rest of the damage.
Comprehensive coverage pays for claims such as hitting a bird, damage from a tornado or hurricane, hail damage, damage from getting keyed and vandalism. The most you’ll receive from a claim is the ACV or actual cash value, so if it’s not worth much more than your deductible consider dropping full coverage.
Uninsured Motorist or Underinsured Motorist insurance – Your UM/UIM coverage protects you and your vehicle’s occupants when the “other guys” either have no liability insurance or not enough. Covered claims include injuries to you and your family as well as your vehicle’s damage.
Since a lot of drivers have only the minimum liability required by law, their limits can quickly be used up. For this reason, having high UM/UIM coverages is very important. Most of the time your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages are identical to your policy’s liability coverage.
Collision coverage – Collision coverage will pay to fix damage to your RDX caused by collision with a stationary object or other vehicle. You will need to pay your deductible then your collision coverage will kick in.
Collision coverage pays for claims such as sideswiping another vehicle, sustaining damage from a pot hole, damaging your car on a curb and hitting a mailbox. Paying for collision coverage can be pricey, so consider dropping it from vehicles that are older. Drivers also have the option to raise the deductible to get cheaper collision coverage.
Insurance for medical payments – Medical payments and Personal Injury Protection insurance reimburse you for expenses for things like dental work, chiropractic care, pain medications, X-ray expenses and prosthetic devices. The coverages can be used to cover expenses not covered by your health insurance plan or if you lack health insurance entirely. It covers you and your occupants in addition to any family member struck as a pedestrian. Personal Injury Protection is not an option in every state but it provides additional coverages not offered by medical payments coverage
When searching for cheaper insurance coverage quotes, do not buy poor coverage just to save money. In too many instances, someone sacrificed physical damage coverage and learned later they didn’t have enough coverage. The proper strategy is to get the best coverage possible at the best possible price, not the least amount of coverage.
Throughout this article, we presented a lot of information how to reduce 2018 Acura RDX insurance car insurance rates online. The most important thing to understand is the more rate comparisons you have, the more likely it is that you will get a better rate. You may even find the most savings is with a small mutual company. Some small companies may only write in your state and offer lower premium rates than the large multi-state companies such as Progressive and Geico.