Every six months, I am surprised at how many of my friends will groan when they get their car insurance bills. While I am never excited to get a bill, I enjoy lower rates because I have purposely followed these five steps in keeping my car insurance lower. Also, I have not treated car insurance as a profit center whenever some mishap occurs. Instead, my insurance is treated as insurance, I only call my agent in the case of serious emergencies.
Older car
My 14-year-old Malibu has been paid off for 9 years, but the savings have not stopped just at zero car payments. The fact this car is older, and a car-not a truck-means that my insurance is lot less expensive. My brother’s SUV is 3 years older, but I pay $23.00 a month less than he does, because this is a car.
Lower theft rate
Yearly, the NHTSA lists the top cars with vehicle-related theft. I purposely do not drive a car in this high theft category. In addition, I do not leave out my mobile phone charger or my purse or wallet in the car. Removing temptations from my vehicles means that I have never had to file a report with my insurance company.
The bundle
I have bundled my car insurance with my house insurance, which saves me nearly $300 a year. In addition, we have two other family members on the same insurance bill and they save 10 percent off of their insurance because we get a discount for bundling them together.
Defensive driver
When I drive, I wear my seat belt, I do not talk on the cellphone, I drive the speed limit and most of all, I do not drink and drive. I slow down when it is snowing or raining out. Defensive driving means I am not a distracted driver. While accidents can still happen, but my odds are much better if I am driving with my mind 100 percent on what is going around me, and not worrying about my coffee spilling on the carpet or discussing nonsense on the telephone. Most of all, if there is a yellow light, I stop.
Don’t claim everything
A few summers ago, there was a huge hail storm and any car left outside suffered some dents. Instead of calling the insurance company, I first went to a body shop to get an estimate. This was going to cost about $800 to pound out the bumps. With my $500 deductible (another big car insurance savings), I was only going to get about $300 from the insurance company, but the long-term after effects would cost me more. While my friends filed insurance claims and wound up seeing a 15 percent higher insurance increase, I left the bumps on the roof of my car and have not seen any increase on my car insurance.
