Insurance World

Copyright 2006 Barry Brenner

With the price of gas at an all time high, and no relief in site, consumers are looking for more ways to save money on gas. Consider saving money on your car insurance to offset the high cost of gas.

Today, millions of car insurance consumers are buying their car insurance policies on the telephone and the Internet. Insurance companies are spending more money than ever on advertising. Rate quotes and policies are available through a multitude of web sites, from insurance companies direct, to web sites that offer multiple quotes from a single application.

With this increasing demand for car insurance rate quotes via telephone and the Internet, decisions about cost and coverages are being made faster than ever. Is the average car insurance consumer getting the correct policy at the best possible price? Can the consumer lower their cost of transportation by saving money on their car insurance?

Many car insurance consumers are not aware of the numerous discounts available on car insurance policies today. Check out the following list of some of these discounts and see if any of them apply to you.

A multi-car discount will lower the premium on each vehicle on the same policy. Some companies will sell you a separate policy for each vehicle and still give you the multi-car discount. Keep in mind there can be overhead or additional cost for each policy, so having all of your vehicles on the same policy could save you money.

Most insurance companies will give full time high school or college students with a 3.0 or higher grade point average a discount. This discount could be as high as fifteen percent on the primary vehicle that the student drives. If the premium for the student driver is one to two thousand dollars per year, a good student discount could be a savings of one hundred fifty to three hundred dollars per year. Multiply that by the number of years in school, and that will add up to a huge savings.

Some insurance companies will give you an occupational discount depending on your educational background and job title. Teachers, Medical Professionals, Scientists, Engineers, Computer Professionals, and other jobs that require a college degree, license, or certification.

An anti-theft discount can lower the comprehensive (theft & vandalism) portion of the policy premium. This is generally considered to be a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) based system where your car can be located via a satellite if it is stolen.

Some companies offer a 2% to 15% discount to active and retired members of the military.

Department of Motor Vehicle certified mature driving courses are available for senior citizens and can lower your premium as much as ten percent.

And of course, maintaining a good driving record will allow your insurance carrier to give you a good driver discount and keep your rates down.

“Who is happy with the price of gas today? Consumer advocate studies show that the first and foremost reason people are over paying premium-wise for auto insurance is that they don’t take the time and effort to shop around and compare prices. Cost savings on a policy can add up to hundreds of dollars per year, if you know what to look for and ask. And, shopping for car insurance has never been easier.”

Finding the right auto insurance company for you is an important job, and as such, you need to invest some time and energy in locating the company that will offer you the best deal. While finances are obviously an important aspect in your ultimate choice of auto insurance company, there are other factors at play also, such as reliability and quality of service. You will turn to your automobile insurance company in a time of crisis, and so you need to be sure that you have chosen a company that will pull through for you when you need them most.

So who exactly are the best judges of the quality of any given automobile insurance company? You’ve got that right – ordinary folk just like you. While insurance industry ratings are undoubtedly an important way of gleaning information about any auto insurance carrier, and can provide you with all kinds of technical insights, for real, hands-on evaluations of how helpful a company can be when you really need their assistance, then you need to find out what other customers of the company think.

Most companies, whether they provide auto insurance or any other product or service, are only too keen to share with potential customers the great things that people have said about them – a quick glance at any auto insurance company’s website will reveal testimonials that support this. These companies are not, however, quite so eager to share their shortcomings with those considering taking them up on one of their insurance packages, so how exactly can you find a more balanced picture of an auto insurance company before you sign on the dotted line?

Take a trip to your state’s department of insurance website. These sites offer useful insights into automobile insurance companies by providing details of consumer complaint ratios. These ratios indicate exactly how many complaints an auto insurance company has received for every 1,000 claims filed. This information provides you with a good insight into the quality of the service offered by any insurance company, by illustrating just how many people just like you were disappointed enough by the service they received to make a formal complaint about it.

You might not be able to speak in person to everybody who has chosen a particular auto insurance company before you, but by availing of the consumer complaint ratio service offered by your state’s department of insurance website you can find a more balanced view of a prospective insurance company than you are likely to find at their own website. Who better to advise you on car insurance than other car insurance consumers? Because consumers are the real experts on what makes an auto insurance company great, and what makes them one to avoid.