How to Know You're Wasting Money for Car Insurance in Selmer

Did you fall for a flashy sales pitch and buy an underperforming, overpriced car insurance policy? Believe me when I say there are lots of people in the same boat. Drivers have multiple to pick from, and although it's nice to be able to choose, it can be more challenging to compare rates.

Good Decisions Result in Lower Rates

Consumers need to have an understanding of the factors that go into determining the rates you pay for car insurance. Knowing what influences your rates enables informed choices that could result in much lower annual insurance costs.

Listed below are some of the factors car insurance companies consider when setting premiums.

Liability insurance protects assets - Liability insurance provides coverage if you are found liable for causing damage or personal injury in an accident. It will provide legal defense coverage which can be incredibly expensive. Carrying liability coverage is mandatory and cheap compared to physical damage coverage, so do not skimp.
Do you know your deductibles? - The deductibles represent how much money you are willing to pay if you file a covered claim. Physical damage coverage, otherwise known as comp (or other than collision) and collision, protects your car from damage. Some instances where coverage would apply would be colliding with a building, collision with an animal, or theft. The more money you are required to pay out-of-pocket, the less your car insurance will be.
Bad driving skills means higher rates - Whether or not you get tickets has a lot to do with how much you pay for insurance. Careful drivers have lower premiums than bad drivers. Even a single speeding ticket can boost insurance rates forty percent or more. Drivers with serious tickets such as reckless driving, hit and run or driving under the influence are required to file a SR-22 to the state department of motor vehicles in order to continue driving.
Rural vs Urban Areas - Choosing to live in small towns and rural areas is a positive aspect when talking about car insurance. Urban drivers regularly have more traffic problems and a longer drive to work. Less people living in that area translates into fewer accidents and also fewer theft and vandalism claims.
With age comes lower rates - Youthful drivers in Tennessee are statistically proven to get distracted easily when behind the wheel so they pay higher car insurance rates. Older insureds are more responsible, statistically cause fewer accidents and receive fewer citations.
Are you male or female? - Statistics demonstrate that women are safer drivers than men. That doesn't necessarily mean that men are worse drivers. Both sexes tend to get into accidents at about the same rate, but the male of the species cause more damage. Men also tend to get more serious tickets like DUI and reckless driving. Young males are most likely to cause an accident and are penalized with high car insurance rates.

Save big with these discounts

Insurance can cost an arm and a leg, but you can get discounts that you may not even be aware of. Some trigger automatically when you purchase, but lesser-known reductions have to be inquired about before being credited. If you're not getting every credit possible, you are paying more than you should be.

Organization Discounts - Being a member of a qualifying organization may earn a discount when buying car insurance.
Homeowners Discount - Owning a home in Selmer can save you money because owning a home requires personal responsibility.
Discount for Good Grades - This discount can earn a discount of 20% or more. The discount lasts until age 25.
Life Insurance Discount - Some companies give a discount if you purchase life insurance.
Student in College - Youth drivers who live away from home and do not have a car may qualify for this discount.

It's important to note that some credits don't apply to all coverage premiums. Most only reduce individual premiums such as physical damage coverage or medical payments. So even though it sounds like adding up those discounts means a free policy, you're out of luck. But any discount will bring down your overall premium however.

To choose insurers offering car insurance discounts in Tennessee, click here.

Car insurance ads bend the truth

Consumers in Tennessee can't ignore all the ads that promise big savings by Allstate, GEICO and Progressive. All the companies have a common claim that you can save if you switch to their company.

How does each company claim to save you money?

Insurance companies are able to cherry pick for the driver that makes them money. An example of a profitable customer might be between 25 and 40, has no driving citations, and has great credit. Any driver that hits that "sweet spot" will get the preferred rates and most likely will save when switching.

Consumers who fall outside these standards must pay higher prices and this can result in the customer not buying. The ads state "customers that switch" not "people who quote" save that much. That's the way insurance companies can advertise the savings.

This illustrates why you should compare as many rates as you can. You cannot predict which car insurance company will fit your personal profile best.

Learn more about Tennessee car insurance

More information is available on the website for the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance located here. Visitors are able to find out which companies have the most complaints, report car insurance fraud, file complaints about a company, and view agent and company licensing information.

Other informative sites include this link for Tennessee car insurance quotes and this link which helps you find a Selmer agent.

In the end, you save

Lower-priced car insurance is available both online and also from your neighborhood Selmer agents, so you should compare both in order to have the best price selection to choose from. There are still a few companies who may not provide online price quotes and usually these smaller companies provide coverage only through local independent agents.

We just presented a lot of ways to save on car insurance. The key thing to remember is the more rate comparisons you have, the better your comparison will be. Drivers may discover the most savings is with a small local company. Some small companies often have lower prices on specific markets than their larger competitors like .

When you buy insurance online, make sure you don't buy poor coverage just to save money. In too many instances, someone sacrificed comprehensive coverage or liability limits to discover at claim time that the few dollars in savings costed them thousands. Your focus should be to get the best coverage possible at a price you can afford while not skimping on critical coverages.