6 Discounts Howard City Consumers Forget when Shopping for Car Insurance

Price shopping your Howard City car insurance is a challenge for beginners to comparison shopping online. People have so many options available that it can easily become a big hassle to compare prices in Howard City.

These six discounts can lower your rates

Insurance can cost an arm and a leg, but you can get discounts to help offset the cost. Larger premium reductions will be automatically applied at the time of quoting, but some must be specifically requested before you will receive the discount.

  • Memberships - Belonging to a civic or occupational organization is a good way to get lower rates when buying car insurance.
  • No Accidents - Claim-free drivers can earn big discounts when compared with bad drivers.
  • Drivers Ed for Students - Have your child enroll in driver's education in high school.
  • Service Members Pay Less - Being on active duty in the military can result in better rates.
  • Anti-lock Brake System - Anti-lock brake equipped vehicles prevent accidents and therefore earn up to a 10% discount.
  • 55 and Retired - Mature drivers can possibly qualify for better car insurance rates.

Keep in mind that most discount credits are not given to the entire cost. Some only reduce the price of certain insurance coverages like physical damage coverage or medical payments. Just because it seems like all the discounts add up to a free policy, it just doesn't work that way. But any discount will reduce the cost of coverage.

To see a list of insurers with the best car insurance discounts in Howard City, click here to view.

Comparison of Car Insurance in Howard City

Most companies allow you to get coverage prices on their websites. Getting quotes is pretty painless as you just enter as detailed in the form. Once you submit the form, their rating system will obtain information on your driving record and credit history and returns a price.

Online quotes helps simplify price comparisons, but having to visit several different sites and fill out multiple forms can be a bit repetitive. But it's very important to do this in order to find better car insurance pricing.

There is a better way!

The preferred way to lower your car insurance bill is to use a quote form to get prices from a bunch of companies at once. The form is fast, requires much less work on your part, and makes online quotes a little more enjoyable. After your information is entered, it is rated and you are able to buy your choice of the price quotes you receive.

If one or more price quotes are lower than your current rates, it's easy to complete the application and purchase the new policy. The entire process only takes a few minutes and may save quite a bit of money.

To find out what other companies charge, click here to open in new window and submit your coverage information. If you have a policy now, it's recommended you input the insurance coverages as shown on your current policy. This makes sure you will have comparison quotes based on the exact same insurance coverage.

Are you falling for claims of savings?

Allstate, GEICO and Progressive regularly use ads on television and other media. All the companies make an identical promise that you can save if you move to their company. How can each company make the same claim? This is how they do it.

Insurance companies can use profiling for the driver that is profitable for them. An example of a profitable customer could be a mature driver, is a homeowner, and has excellent credit. Any new insured who meets those qualifications will get very good rates and as a result will probably save when they switch companies.

Potential insureds who are not a match for the requirements must pay more money and ends up with business going elsewhere. The ads say "drivers who switch" not "everybody who quotes" save that much. That's why insurance companies can make those claims.

This illustrates why drivers must get quotes from several different companies. It's just too difficult to predict the company that will have the lowest rates.

Shop smart and save

Affordable car insurance is possible from both online companies and also from your neighborhood Howard City agents, and you need to price shop both to have the best chance of lowering rates. Some companies may not provide the ability to get a quote online and usually these smaller companies provide coverage only through local independent agents.

People who switch companies do it for any number of reasons including questionable increases in premium, high rates after DUI convictions, extreme rates for teen drivers or unfair underwriting practices. Regardless of your reason for switching companies, switching car insurance companies is actually quite simple.

While you're price shopping online, it's not a good idea to reduce coverage to reduce premium. In too many instances, an accident victim reduced liability limits or collision coverage only to find out they didn't purchase enough coverage. Your focus should be to find the BEST coverage for the lowest price while not skimping on critical coverages.

Learn more today

More information is available on the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation website. Click here for link. Consumers can find out which companies have the most complaints, read industry bulletins, and download brochures.