Feel like you’re a prisoner to high-priced auto insurance? Believe me when I say you’re not the only one. Lots of car insurance companies contend to insure your vehicles, and because of this it can be hard to compare auto insurance companies and get the best coverage at the cheapest price
If you are insured now or are looking for a new policy, you can use these techniques to reduce the price you pay while maximizing coverage. Finding affordable coverage is quite easy. Drivers only need an understanding of how to shop their coverage around over the internet.
Verify you’re getting all your discounts
Car insurance can cost a lot, but there could be available discounts that you may not know about. Larger premium reductions will be automatically applied when you purchase, but some may not be applied and must be asked about prior to receiving the credit. If they aren’t giving you every credit you deserve, you’re paying more than you need to.
- Sign Early and Save – A few companies offer discounts for signing up before your current expiration date. It can save you around 10%.
- Discount for Good Grades – This discount can save 20 to 25%. Earning this discount can benefit you until age 25.
- Multiple Policy Discount – When you have multiple policies with one insurance company you will save 10% to 20% off each policy.
- Save with a New Car – Adding a new car to your policy can save up to 30% due to better safety requirements for new cars.
- Driver Safety – Completing a course teaching defensive driving skills can save you 5% or more and easily recoup the cost of the course.
- Braking Control Discount – Anti-lock brake equipped vehicles can reduce accidents and therefore earn up to a 10% discount.
A little note about advertised discounts, some of the credits will not apply the the whole policy. Most only cut individual premiums such as liability and collision coverage. Just because it seems like you can get free auto insurance, it doesn’t quite work that way. Any qualifying discounts will reduce the cost of coverage.
For a list of insurers with discount auto insurance rates, click this link.
Comprehensive Auto Insurance Comparison
Getting better auto insurance pricing is not rocket science. Just take time to get quotes provided by online insurance companies. This is very easy and can be done in just a few minutes using one of these methods.
- The fastest way to compare a lot of rates at once is an all-inclusive rate comparison click to view form in new window. This type of form saves time by eliminating separate quote forms for each company. Filling out one form compares rates from many national carriers.
- A different way to find lower rates is going to each individual company website to complete a price quote. For examples sake, let’s assume you want to compare rates from State Farm, Farmers and Liberty Mutual. You would have to take the time to go to each site and enter your policy data, which is why most consumers use the first method. For a list of links to companies insuring cars in your area, click here.
Whichever method you choose, compare the exact same coverage limits with every price quote. If you compare differing limits you can’t possibly make an equal comparison.
Pontiac Firefly premiums are determined by many factors
An important part of buying insurance is that you know the factors that help determine the rates you pay for auto insurance. Knowing what controls the rates you pay allows you to make educated decisions that can help you get much lower annual insurance costs.
- Do you need those extra coverages? – There are quite a few extra bells and whistles that you can get tricked into buying if you aren’t careful. Things like vanishing deductibles, accidental death and term life insurance are some examples. They may seem good when you first buy your policy, but if they’re wasting money remove them from your policy.
- Battle of the sexes – Statistics demonstrate women tend to be less risk to insure than men. That doesn’t necessarily mean that women are better drivers. Both sexes are in accidents in similar numbers, but the males cause more damage. They also get cited for more serious violations such as DWI and reckless driving. Teenage male drivers are most likely to cause an accident and thus pay the highest rates.
- Drive a safer car and pay less – Safer cars are cheaper to insure. Safe vehicles reduce injuries and lower injury rates translates into fewer and smaller insurance claims passed on to you as lower rates. If the Pontiac Firefly earned at least four stars on Safercar.gov or an “acceptable” rating on iihs.org you may qualify for a discount.
- More performance means more cost – The make and model of the car you own makes a big difference in determining your rates. Since the Pontiac Firefly falls in the subcompact class, insurance will be about the same or even less than the average rate where you live. Low performance passenger cars generally receive the lowest base rates, but there are many factors that impact the final cost.
- Older drivers save more – Youthful drivers tend to be careless and easily distracted when behind the wheel so auto insurance rates are higher. Older insureds are more cautious drivers, tend to cause fewer accidents and tend to be better behind the wheel.
- Rate your vehicle for proper use – The more you drive every year the higher your rates will be. Almost all companies charge to insure your cars based on their usage. Cars that are left in the garage get more affordable rates than vehicles that are driven to work every day. Having the wrong rating on your Firefly may be wasting your money. Verify your auto insurance policy is rated on the correct driver usage.
- Your job and insurance rates – Jobs such as real estate brokers, architects and stock brokers have the highest rates in part from stressful work requirements and lots of time spent at work. On the other hand, professions such as scientists, students and retirees get better rates on Firefly coverage.
Don’t listen to company ads
Consumers constantly see and hear ads that promise big savings from the likes of Allstate and Progressive. They all make the same claim that you can save after switching your coverage to them.
How can each company claim to save you money?
All companies can use profiling for the right customer they prefer to insure. An example of a desirable insured might be profiled as between the ages of 40 and 55, a clean driving record, and has a short commute. A propective insured that hits that “sweet spot” will get the preferred rates and therefore will pay quite a bit less when switching companies.
Consumers who don’t qualify for these standards will be charged higher premiums and this can result in the customer not buying. Company advertisements say “customers that switch” not “everyone that quotes” save money. That is how companies can make the claims of big savings.
That is why you need to get a wide range of price quotes. Because you never know which company will give you the biggest savings.
Online plus local equals savings
While you’re price shopping online, don’t be tempted to buy poor coverage just to save money. There are many occasions where an accident victim reduced collision coverage and discovered at claim time that the small savings ended up costing them much more. Your focus should be to purchase a proper amount of coverage at an affordable rate while not skimping on critical coverages.
In this article, we covered many ways to shop for Pontiac Firefly insurance online. The most important thing to understand is the more times you quote, the better your comparison will be. You may even find the most savings is with a small local company. Smaller companies can often provide lower rates in certain areas than their larger competitors like Allstate and Progressive.