If you’re thinking about insuring your vehicles with Allstate car insurance, there are a number of discounts that you need to be aware of before buying. Even if you currently have an Allstate car insurance policy, you may be missing out on discounts that can save you quite a bit of money on your auto insurance bill.

So whether you are comparing rates with your current carrier, or even if you’re currently insured with Allstate, follow these tips to make sure you’re maximizing the discounts available from Allstate. Read the rest of this entry

These are trying economic times and simply turning on the television can put you in a state of depression. You may be a casualty of a layoff at work, a downsizing or a flat out firing and you still have to pay that stack of bills that are piling up on your counter. The temptation to cut your car insurance coverage to save money may end up costing you more in the end than it saves you today.

You may be tempted to raise your auto insurance deductibles to save a few hundred dollars on your car insurance, but is this really a good idea? Let’s take a look at the benefits of both scenarios. Read the rest of this entry

Progressive Insurance has some changes coming to their car insurance policies that may lower your car insurance bill. Drivers will now be rated by averaging the driver risk across all the vehicles on your policy rather than on a specific vehicle. The changes include:

• Household Averaging Driver Assignment – This change means drivers are averaged across your vehicles instead of rating a specific driver on a specific vehicle. Occassional driver status will be taken into consideration when factoring these rates.
• Occasional Operators – Drivers age 25 or less who drive your vehicles less than 50 percent of the time will get a lower rate as long as they are not rated as a principal operator on any vehicle on your car insurance policy.
• Minor Child Discount – Drivers on your policy for at least 12 months who are 19 years or younger and children of the named insured will receive this discount.
• Distant Student Discount – Students who live at a school more than 100 miles from home and do not have regular access to your insured vehicles will get this discount.

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Progressive Insurance Company has a new car insurance program called MyRate which allows drivers to opt-in to save money on their Progressive auto insurance bill.

When you sign up with MyRate, you receive a wireless transmitter which plugs into the diagnostic port of your car. The little device constantly transmits your driving habits and mileage to Progressive, and if you are in fact deemed a safe driver, then you may see savings of up to 60% off your car insurance. Read the rest of this entry

If you own a “classic” car, which could be considered anything over about 25 years old, you could save money on your car insurance by buying specialized classic car insurance.

There are two ways to find insurance for your older vehicles. The first is to check with your current insurance company to see if they have a rating classification for classic or antique autos. This rate will be significantly less than a pleasure use rate, but it may also come with some mileage or usage limitations.

The other way to insure your classic car is to use an insurance company that specializes in insuring restored vehicles. Their policies have unique coverages that may not be available with an ordinary car insurance policy. Here’s a breakdown of some of the categories of classic vehicles you might want special coverage for: Read the rest of this entry

For the third consectutive quarter, RateWatch from Insurance.com has shown an upward trend in car insurance rates, reversing the downward trend of 2007. On average, the lowest car insurance rates for the third quarter of 2008 rose $56 over the previous quarter.

Does this mean your car insurance rates are going to go up? Not necessarily, and actually it could mean your rates are going down! The national average rate increase was 3%, with the largest increases coming in Washington D.C. (8.3%), Nebraska (8.0%), Rhode Island (7.4%), Kansas (6.6%) and Florida (4.9%). The largest car insurance rate decreases came in North Dakota (-7.8%), West Virginia (-7.0%), Wyoming (–4.5%), Alabama (-3.3%) and Vermont (-3.2%). Read the rest of this entry

The stock market has sank 40% in the past year, your 401K has probably fell a similar amount. You hear about how bad things are every day in the news, but one positive thing you can do to help your personal financial situation is to review your home and auto insurance coverages. There isn’t much you can do to bring the markets back, but you can make sure you have adequate coverages at the lowest rates available on your home insurance and car insurance policies.

People have a tendency to put off the occassional financial tuneup, thinking their coverages are adequate. But with increases in construction costs over the last few years, your home may be underinsured and you may not know it. It’s important to recalculate the replacement cost of your home every few years. Your home insurance policy may have an annual cost of living increase, which bumps up your home’s insured value automatically. If it doesn’t, however, then you need to make the adjustment yourself by increasing the insured value by an amount you are comfortable with. You agent or insurance company can help you calculate the replacement cost of your home using sophisticated replacement cost software that is continuously updated by the software provider. Read the rest of this entry

As we come to the end of 2008, you’ll undoubtedly be making a few New Year’s resolutions. It’s the perfect time to add cutting your auto insurance premiums to the list of “to-do’s” in 2009.

Car insurance companies adjust their rates on a regular basis, and the great deal you got a year or two ago may not be the lowest auto insurance rate today. If you’ve maintained a good driving record and kept your credit rating above par, then now is a great time to find out if you can save some money on your car insurance rates. Read the rest of this entry