Auto Insurance Blog

How To Cut Your Auto Insurance Bill

Kiplinger's Personal Finance offers several tricks to lower your auto insurane bill:

Because of these changes, buying a safe car can also make a big difference in your auto insurance rate. You can look up the car's cost to insure at State Farm's vehicle ratings page, which shows you the car's relative insurance costs in three categories: the damage and theft index grade (how its collision and comprehensive premiums stack up against vehicles in its price range), the liability rating index score (relative premiums for bodily injury and property damage liability) and the car's vehicle safety discount (the discount for medical payments or personal injury protection coverage, based on the cost of claims involving injury to the occupants of the insured car). These ratings are from State Farm's claims experience and may be different for other companies. You can also look up a car's crash test results at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Web site.

Another easy way to lower your premiums is to raise your deductibles on your comprehensive and collision coverage, or drop that coverage entirely if your car is only worth a few thousand dollars. Increasing your deductible from $250 to $1,000 can lower your premiums by 15% or more and make you less likely to file small claims that could cost you a claims-free discount.

And make sure you're getting all of the discounts you deserve. Most insurers will reduce your rates if you have your homeowners and auto insurance with the same company, if the young drivers in your family maintain at least a B average in school, if your car has special safety and anti-theft devices and if you don't commute with the car and keep the annual mileage low. You may also get up to a 20% discount if nobody on the policy has had an at-fault accident or moving violation within the past three or five years. The specific discounts vary by company and state, so ask each insurer you're considering about the rate reductions you could qualify for.