Monday, April 6, 2009

Vehicle Insurance Rate -- Ways To Qualify For Cheaper

By Chimezirim Odimba

If you elect to pay your premiums monthly, you'll pay higher rates. Yes, paying monthly might be less stressful but it's also costly.

If you do transactions with banks you'll agree with me that each check you process is regarded as transaction which attracts charges. For twelve payments (that is, your monthly payments) you'll have a sum of 12 transactions. This implies that transaction fees would be 12 times more for people who make monthly payments.

Apart from this there are also administrative costs that are incurred due to the monthly payment option. A good example of such is the expense associated with sending out payment notices..

These costs plus a profit margin for this feature is factored into your rates making it more than another of the same profile that pays yearly every year.

The longer you stick with the same insurer the more you stand to gain for two reasons: The long term discount and accident forgiveness. Most insurers will give you a discount of about 5% if you stay with them for up to five years (some will give you once you stay for up to three.

Most insurers will also not raise the rates of a long standing policy holder if they make only just one claim. Insurers offer these as incentives to keep you with them since it serves them better too. The longer you stay, the more you'll save.

But it will only be right for me to also point out that in spite of these incentives, you might actually gain more if you switch to another insurer.

"Pimping your ride" does NOT help if you want lower rates. Things like changing your tires to bigger ones than specified by the manufacturer, adding equipment that will increase your car's horse-power will cost you a lot more. So if you're really serious about keeping your rate down, leave your car the way it was manufactured.

Under-25 drivers get higher rates than any other age group. More so, the younger an under-25 driver, the more they'd have to pay. That is why teenagers pay a lot more than 22-year olds.

This means that you'll help keep your rates down if you do NOT have a teen driver on your policy. It will have an adverse effect on your rate. Your teen driver should have his/her own policy. This will be made possible if you sign an exclusion form.

It's a fair price for them to pay to enjoy the adult privilege of driving. An addition argument in favor of this is that your teen will be more willing to take measures to reduce what he or she pays. Your teen will also be safer as the steps that will bring down his/her rates will make her a more responsible behind wheels.

There are useful extras and there are those that do nothing but just inflate your rate. A good example of the later is adding a towing service to your policy. Do you know that your credit card company might have already given you towing as an extra benefit?

Overall, you're better off using a third pary towing service than placing it on your auto insurance policy.

And...

You will save a lot if you really have between 25-30 minutes. Visit, get and compare auto insurance quotes from several quotes sites. The cheapest offer should be what you pick easily.

Nevertheless, you have to go beyond simply the lowest quote to the best price to value ratio. The lowest priced may not be the best price/value for you as an individual.

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