If you own and drive a car, you need to have good insurance. Driving without insurance is illegal in most places, and if you are involved in an accident, it can be quite costly as well. Without good coverage, any costs will have to come out of your own pocket. This can easily add up to tens of thousands of dollars, or even more.
However, this type of coverage can be expensive, so you need to find a way to get cheap car insurance online without sacrificing quality. The good news is that doing so is not as impossible as you might think. Once you know where to look, you can find a great policy for a very affordable price.
As with many other areas of life, the Internet has made it easier than ever to shop for car insurance. You can get quotes from many different companies and compare them to see who is offering you the best deal. If you want to find out how much insurance will cost you, all you need to do is go online to get free quotes right away.
There are a couple of ways to get these quotes. You can visit each company’s website in turn and submit your information one by one. You can then write down the quotes or save the URLs. Once you have gotten as many as you need, you can take a look at them and compare them to see which one seems right for you.
However, there is a way to make this process go even more quickly. There are online tools that you can use to submit your information to multiple insurance companies at the same time. This way, you only have to enter this information once. The tool then retrieves the quotes and shows them to you side by side.
Having all of this information presented in one place makes it a lot easier to save money and find the best deal. You can look at the policies and compare their features to see which ones are offering the most value for your money. This way, you will be less likely to end up with coverage that is not very satisfactory.
However, there are some important things to remember when you are shopping for auto insurance on the Internet. It may be tempting to try to save money by just picking the policy with the lowest monthly premium, but this is not always a good idea. A bare-bones policy may have a very low premium, but it also may not offer much in the way of protection. Should you be involved in an accident, you will end up regretting your decision to go with the cheap policy.
As you can see, there is a lot to consider when you are trying to find the best cheap auto insurance quotes online. Keep this advice in mind as you start shopping so that you can find the policy that you need at a fair price.
To find the cheapest car insurance coverage, you will probably have to do some basic research and make a few calls. There are several strategies which can help you find the best insurance at the lowest rate. It helps if you understand how insurance works. Knowledge about the industry can help you shave dollars off your premium and still have good coverage.
While auto insurance coverage is usually pretty standard, insurance premiums can really vary. Costs for insurance can vary by hundreds, if not thousands of dollars from company to company. A good way to comparison shop for insurance is to on online and get a quote. You can put in what coverage you need and gets quotes from several companies.
Put all your vehicles on one policy. This can also save you money. You may also want to consider bundling your car and home insurance policies with the same company. These strategies will often help you qualify for significant discounts.
Raise your deductibles. Most people do not consider the impact their deductible amounts have on their insurance cost. If you can absorb a higher deductible in the case of an accident, you can drastically lower your monthly premium. Insurance is supposed to cover those costs which you cannot absorb, so consider how much you could handle out-of-pocket and they set your deductible.
Consider dropping collision insurance on older vehicles. If you car is more than ten years old, you should consider dropping collision coverage. Unless the vehicle is a unique or high-valued vintage vehicle, carrying collision is an unnecessary expense. Do think this decision through, it may not be clear cut. Consider the cost of the collision insurance against the value of the car and then add in the deductibles.
Drive carefully. This may seem like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised at the drivers who think insurance will make up for poor driving. A poor driving record can have a huge impact on the cost of your insurance. A ticket may affect insurance rates for three years and accidents remain on your insurance for at least six years. A poor driving record can result in you paying higher premiums for several years.
Drive a car considered low-risk. This means that your insurance company considers particular vehicles to be less likely to be stolen or involved in an accident. If you drive one of these cars, your insurance premiums will be lower. You can check with your insurance company to see which cars they deem to be a better risk from their perspective.
Do not drive to work. If it is possible to take public transportation or carpool, it can help save on insurance premiums. Insurance companies look at how often and how far a car is driven when calculating insurance premiums. One of the reasons for this is the more the car is on the road, the more likely it is to be involved in an accident.
If you are a new driver, take a training course. Insurance companies like it when their drivers go through training, so they will usually offer a discount for proof of completion of a certified training course. These strategies are the best way to find the cheapest car insurance coverage possible.
When you’re in the market for a new car, prospective insurance rates are rarely the deciding factor in your purchasing decision. They shouldn’t be overlooked, though, because the differences in insurance costs between different models can be staggering. Without delving too deeply into specific yearly models, this guide will equip you with a nose for hunting out the cheapest cars to insure.
What Factors Influence A Model’s Insurance Cost
Some of the factors that play into the rates insurance companies set for different models should probably be obvious to you already. Crash test safety ratings as provided by independent auditors make a huge difference, as does the overall price of a car. Insurers look much deeper than that when they set model prices, though, and some of the more subtle factors may surprise you.
Many cars arrive at low insurance quotes through fundamentally opposed means. The inclusion of lots of advanced safety features can help, but so can a dirt-cheap retail price on a bare-bones car that’s easy to repair. Likely use plays into insurance rates as well. Some of the cheapest cars to insure today are tiny “city” cars like the Smart ForTwo. Insurance companies know that these sorts of cars don’t drive many miles and are usually driven safely. (Consider this to be the reverse of the expensive insurance markup received by flashy sports cars.)
SUVs And Vans
The list of cheapest models to insure changes from year to year, but certain patterns and trends are clear. At the moment, if you peruse any authoritative list of cars with low insurance costs, you’ll find that actual cars — that is, two and four-door sedans — are growing increasingly rare. The best rates are garnered by SUVs and vans. The reasons are twofold: These autos have a good balance between low costs and great safety features, and they’re generally driven by responsible drivers.
Both the Ford Edge and Ford Escape show up regularly in lists of the cheapest insurances rates, as does virtually the full range of Honda’s SUV lineup (CR-V and Pilot). The Subaru Outback is a perennial favorite, as are Jeep’s Compass and Patriot models. Many of the most popular vans on the market (Honda Odyssey, Dodge Grand Caravan, and Chrysler Town And Country) show up regularly on cheap insurance lists.
Oddballs
Besides the above-mentioned Smart ForTwo, there are some cars whose dirt-cheap insurance costs at first seem mystifying. This is the case for the Mazda MX-5 / Miata, which shows up regularly on low-premium lists despite its extremely sporty nature. This is because its overall costs are low and its drivers are — compared to most sports car drivers — responsible. The Toyota Tacoma is the only pure-bed pickup that shows up regularly in lists like this, and it’s thanks to its low price and stellar safety ratings.
Most surprisingly of all, the Jeep Wrangler regularly earns the top spot as the car with the very cheapest insurance. How can it be so cheap to ensure a rollover-prone dinosaur like this? It’s because of the sheer simplicity of the vehicle. Repair costs are minimal and even brand-new Wranglers are inexpensive.
As you can see, finding a car that will get cheap insurance quotes is about more than just looking at price tags and safety ratings. The addition of other factors to the mix (like repair costs and driver reputation) produces an interesting field with some definite surprises in it.