Want to lower your car insurance rates? Get married and raise your credit score.
What do marriage and credit scores have to do with car insurance?
47 states allow insurance companies to use credit scores to determine car insurance rates, the exceptions being Massachusetts, Hawaii and California. Insurance companies use credit scores to determine rates because they’ve found a correlation between good credit and low frequency of filing claims.
Married people also often have lower rates than single people.
Here are six more ways to lower your car insurance rates:
3: Bundle your insurance. We offer numerous discounts for bundling your home, boat, motorcycle, business, umbrella, ATV, golf cart, snowmobile and other types of insurance with us. That’s a pretty good list. And a reminder that we offer many types insurance to cover virtually all your insurance needs. There are additional benefits to bundling. Many companies will only charge you one deductible if you have multiple policies impacted by the same event. This can save you thousands if you have a couple cars and your house damaged by the same hail storm.
4: Stay accident and incident free for at least three years, but preferably 5. If you haven’t had a ticket or accident in the past three – five years you qualify for a safe driver discount.
5: Purchase your insurance through an independent insurance agency. An independent insurance agency can shop numerous companies on your behalf. Not every company is a good fit for every consumer. Our agency has access to a number of companies, including Progressive, Safeco, Nationwide, Travelers, Chubb, Encompass, State Auto and many others. We can’t promise you that the rates with an independent agent will be the lowest, but they will be highly competitive throughout your lifetime.
6: Pay electronically. By paying your bills automatically, you can get the maximum discount for payment method on your car insurance.
7: Say YES to telematics! Most insurance companies are now offering a discount if you’re willing to download an app to your phone that will score your driving behavior. I’ve yet to find a company that will penalize you for your driving habits, every company we currently work with will give you some kind of discount for just participating. Some give you a discount as high as 5%, even if you’re a horrible driver. Some give discounts as high as 30% for good drivers.
8: Quit bouncing from company to company. You may think that shopping your insurance every 6-12 months and chasing the lowest cost plan at the time will save you money. However, this will drive up your costs over time. Insurance companies give better rates to people who stay with the same company for longer periods of time. I recommend staying with the same company for a minimum of 2-3 years, unless your circumstances greatly change where it’s required that you change companies. Many companies offer benefits to staying put, such as decreasing deductibles and accident forgiveness.
Questions about how you can reduce your car insurance rates? Give me a call at 303.922.1002.
