Tightwads Guide for Saving on St Bernard Car Insurance

Sick and tired of not being able to afford each month for car insurance? You are in the same boat as the majority of other car owners in Louisiana. Online insurance companies like GEICO and Progressive constantly bombard you with catchy ads and it can be hard to sift through the bull and find the best price available.

How to Compare Car Insurance Costs in St Bernard

Most major insurance companies provide insurance quotes directly from their websites. The process doesn't take much effort as you simply type in the amount of coverage you want into the quote form. Behind the scenes, their rating system will obtain credit information and your driving record and gives you a price quote based on many factors. Online quotes makes it a lot easier to compare rates but the process of having to visit different websites and enter the same data into a form is not the best way to spend an afternoon. Unfortunately, it is important to compare as many rates as possible if you want to find a lower rate.

A less time-consuming method to find cheaper rates utilizes a single form to obtain quotes from a lot of companies. It's a real time-saver, eliminates form submissions, and makes online shopping much easier to do. After sending the form, it gets priced and you can choose your choice of the returned quotes. If a lower price is quoted, you can click and sign and purchase the new policy. The whole process takes less than 15 minutes and you'll know if lower rates are available.

If you want to find out how much you're overpaying now, click here and submit the form. To compare your current rates, we recommend you duplicate the coverage information identical to your current policy. This way, you will be getting an apples-to-apples comparison based on similar coverages.

Understand what determines the rate you pay

It's important that you understand the rating factors that go into determining your car insurance rates. Having a good understanding of what impacts premium levels helps enable you to make changes that will entitle you to better car insurance rates.

Listed below are a few of the "ingredients" that factor into prices.

Your occupation can affect rates - Did you know your job can affect your rates? Careers like lawyers, executives and dentists are shown to have the highest average rates because of high stress levels and long work hours. Other jobs such as farmers, historians and homemakers pay the least.
Drive a safer car and pay less - Safer cars tend to have better insurance rates. The safest vehicles have better occupant injury protection and fewer injuries translates into fewer and smaller insurance claims and more competitive rates for policyholders.
Clean credit earns discounts - Having a bad credit score is a important factor in your rate calculation. Therefore, if your credit rating is lower than you'd like, you could be paying less to insure your by improving your credit score. Consumers who have high credit scores tend to be less risk to insure than drivers who have poor credit.
You might want pay the small claims yourself - If you tend to file frequent claims, you can definitely plan on either higher rates or even cancellation. Companies in Louisiana give cheaper rates to insureds who do not rely on their insurance for small claims. Car insurance is meant to be used in the event of major claims that would cause financial hardship.
Are you male or female? - The statistics show women are more cautious behind the wheel. That doesn't necessarily mean that men are WORSE drivers than women. Men and women cause accidents in similar percentages, but the men cause more damage. Men also statistically have more aggressive citations such as reckless driving. Youthful male drivers are most likely to cause an accident and thus pay the highest rates.
How's your driving record? - A bad driving record has a huge affect on how much you pay. Drivers with clean records have lower premiums than bad drivers. Only having one moving violation may increase your cost by twenty percent. If you have serious violations like hit and run, DWI or reckless driving convictions may find they need to file a proof of financial responsibility form (SR-22) with their state motor vehicle department in order to continue driving.
Big city or small town - Being located in a small town can save you money when it comes to car insurance. Less people living in that area means reduced accidents. Drivers who live in large Louisiana cities have to deal with traffic congestion and longer commute times. More time on the road translates into higher accident risk.

More discounts equal less premium

Car insurance companies don't necessarily list every discount in a way that's easy to find, so we break down some of the more common as well as the least known ways to save on car insurance. If you aren't receiving every discount available, you're just leaving money on the table.

No Claims - Claim-free drivers can save substantially when compared to frequent claim filers.
Military Discounts - Having a family member in the military could mean lower rates.
Passive Restraint Discount - Cars that have air bags can qualify for discounts of 20% or more.
Employee of Federal Government - Simply working for the federal government can earn a discount up to 10% with a few car insurance companies.
55 and Retired - Older drivers may qualify for a discount up to 10%.
Good Students Pay Less - Getting good grades can save 20 to 25%. This discount can apply until age 25.

As a disclaimer on discounts, most discount credits are not given to the entire cost. Most only reduce individual premiums such as comp or med pay. So when it seems like you would end up receiving a 100% discount, car insurance companies aren't that generous.

For a list of insurance companies offering car insurance discounts in St Bernard, click this link.

Even more information can be found at the Louisiana Department of Insurance website. Consumers can read industry bulletins, find disaster information, find out industry alerts, and download brochures.

A tidy conclusion

We just showed you some good ideas how to lower your car insurance rates. The key thing to remember is the more price quotes you have, the higher your chance of finding lower rates. Drivers may discover the most savings is with some of the lesser-known companies. Smaller companies may have significantly lower rates on certain market segments as compared to the big name companies such as .

As you shop your coverage around, it's a bad idea to reduce needed coverages to save money. There are too many instances where an insured dropped uninsured motorist or liability limits only to regret that saving that couple of dollars actually costed them tens of thousands. Your strategy should be to get the best coverage possible at a price you can afford while still protecting your assets.