Sick and tired of robbing Peter to pay Paul to pay your car insurance bill each month? You’re in the same situation as millions of other consumers. Having so many insurance companies to choose from, it’s difficult to locate the most cost effective provider.
Smart consumers take time to take a look at other company’s rates before your policy renews because rates are adjusted regularly by insurance companies. Even if you think you had the best deal last year a different company probably has better rates today. There is a lot of bad information regarding car insurance online, so we’re going to give you some great ways to buy car insurance cheaper.
Car Insurance Prices in Mineral Wells
Finding lower car insurance rates doesn’t have to be difficult. Consumers just need to invest a few minutes to compare rate quotes online with multiple companies. It is quite easy and can be accomplished in several different ways.
- One of the best ways to get quotes is to use a rate comparison form (click to open form in new window). This easy form eliminates the need for repetitive form submissions for each company you want a rate for. In just a few minutes this one form gets rate comparisons from several companies.
- A different way to get comparison quotes consists of going to the website of each company to complete a price quote. For sake of this example, let’s say you want rates from Nationwide, Liberty Mutual and GMAC. To get each rate you have to take the time to go to each site and enter your information, and that’s why the first method is more popular.
For a handy list of car insurance company links in Mineral Wells, click here.
It’s up to you which method you use, but be sure to compare the exact same coverages and limits on every quote. If your comparisons have mixed coverages it’s not possible to determine the lowest rate in Mineral Wells.
Companies offer discounts so take them!
Car insurance companies don’t always advertise every discount in an easy-to-find place, so we break down some of the best known as well as the least known discounts you could be receiving. If they aren’t giving you every credit available, you are paying more than you should be.
- Life Insurance Discount – Select insurance companies reward you with a break if you buy life insurance from them.
- Sign Online – A handful of insurance companies will discount your bill up to fifty bucks simply for signing digitally online.
- Fewer Miles Equal More Savings – Fewer annual miles could qualify for lower rates on the low mileage vehicles.
- Anti-theft Discount – Anti-theft and alarm systems help deter theft and will save you 10% or more.
- Driver Safety – Taking part in a driver safety course could cut 5% off your bill if your company offers it.
- New Car Discount – Adding a new car to your policy can be considerably cheaper because new vehicles have to meet stringent safety requirements.
- Military Rewards – Being on active duty in the military may qualify for rate reductions.
- Braking Control Discount – Anti-lock brake equipped vehicles can avoid accidents and therefore earn up to a 10% discount.
- Organization Discounts – Affiliation with certain professional organizations could qualify you for a break when shopping for car insurance.
- Student Driver Training – Make teen driver coverage more affordable by requiring them to successfully complete driver’s ed class if offered at their school.
It’s important to note that most of the big mark downs will not be given to your bottom line cost. Some only apply to specific coverage prices like medical payments or collision. So when the math indicates adding up those discounts means a free policy, it doesn’t quite work that way.
To choose insurance companies with discount car insurance rates in Mineral Wells, click this link.
Car insurance coverage considerations
Learning about specific coverages of a car insurance policy can be of help when determining appropriate coverage at the best deductibles and correct limits. Car insurance terms can be impossible to understand and nobody wants to actually read their policy. Shown next are the usual coverages found on most car insurance policies.
Comprehensive coverage (or Other than Collision) – This coverage pays to fix your vehicle from damage from a wide range of events other than collision. A deductible will apply and then insurance will cover the rest of the damage.
Comprehensive can pay for things such as falling objects, fire damage, a tree branch falling on your vehicle and vandalism. The most a car insurance company will pay at claim time is the cash value of the vehicle, so if your deductible is as high as the vehicle’s value consider dropping full coverage.
Coverage for liability – This protects you from damage that occurs to people or other property. This insurance protects YOU from claims by other people. It does not cover damage to your own property or vehicle.
Liability coverage has three limits: bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. As an example, you may have liability limits of 100/300/100 that means you have $100,000 bodily injury coverage, $300,000 for the entire accident, and a total limit of $100,000 for damage to vehicles and property.
Liability can pay for things like pain and suffering, medical expenses, structural damage, loss of income and repair bills for other people’s vehicles. How much coverage you buy is a decision to put some thought into, but it’s cheap coverage so purchase as much as you can afford. Texas requires minimum liability limits of 30,000/60,000/25,000 but you should consider buying more coverage.
Insurance for medical payments – Medical payments and Personal Injury Protection insurance kick in for expenses for things like dental work, pain medications, doctor visits, chiropractic care and hospital visits. The coverages can be used in conjunction with a health insurance program or if you lack health insurance entirely. Medical payments and PIP cover you and your occupants in addition to any family member struck as a pedestrian. PIP coverage is not an option in every state but can be used in place of medical payments coverage
Uninsured Motorist or Underinsured Motorist insurance – Your UM/UIM coverage provides protection from other motorists when they either have no liability insurance or not enough. This coverage pays for injuries sustained by your vehicle’s occupants and also any damage incurred to your vehicle.
Since a lot of drivers carry very low liability coverage limits (30/60/25), their liability coverage can quickly be exhausted. For this reason, having high UM/UIM coverages is important protection for you and your family.
Collision coverages – Collision insurance will pay to fix damage to your vehicle caused by collision with another vehicle or an object, but not an animal. A deductible applies then your collision coverage will kick in.
Collision coverage protects against things such as sideswiping another vehicle, backing into a parked car, crashing into a building and colliding with a tree. This coverage can be expensive, so you might think about dropping it from older vehicles. Drivers also have the option to increase the deductible to get cheaper collision coverage.
Better coverage you can count on
As you restructure your insurance plan, make sure you don’t buy poor coverage just to save money. There are a lot of situations where drivers have reduced liability limits or collision coverage only to discover later that it was a big error on their part. The proper strategy is to purchase a proper amount of coverage at a price you can afford while still protecting your assets.
Lower-priced car insurance is definitely available from both online companies as well as from independent agents in Mineral Wells, and you need to comparison shop both in order to have the best chance of saving money. Some car insurance companies don’t offer you the ability to get quotes online and usually these smaller companies provide coverage only through local independent agents.
We covered some good ideas how you can lower your car insurance rates. The most important thing to understand is the more rate comparisons you have, the better likelihood of reducing your rate. You may even find the biggest savings come from the least-expected company. These smaller insurers may only write in your state and offer lower rates as compared to the big name companies such as Allstate and Progressive.
Even more information can be read at the Texas Department of Insurance website. Texas drivers can learn about specific coverages, file complaints about an insurance agent or broker, find a variety of consumer forms, and find out industry alerts.