Car Insurance in Garfield, NJ - 5 Discounts You Might be Unaware of

Are you intimidated by the dozens of car insurance options in Garfield? Lot's of other consumers are too. You have so many choices that it can turn into a lot of work to locate the lowest price.

How to Compare Car Insurance Quotes in Garfield, New Jersey

There are several ways to compare car insurance prices and some are less time-consuming than others. You can spend your afternoon discussing policy coverages with insurance companies in Garfield, or you can stay home and use the web to get pricing more quickly.

Most of the larger companies enroll in a system that allows shoppers to send in one quote, and every company returns a rated price based on the submitted data. This eliminates the need for quotation requests to each individual car insurance company. To submit your quote information now, click here to open in new window.

The single downside to using this type of form is you cannot specify which providers you want pricing from. If you prefer to choose from a list of companies to compare rates, we put together a list of the cheapest car insurance companies in New Jersey. Click here for list of insurance companies in New Jersey.

Whichever way you use, ensure you are comparing the exact same coverage limits and deductibles for every company. If you enter different liability limits you will not be able to decipher which rate is best in Garfield.

Be sure to get all your discounts

Insurance can cost an arm and a leg, but you can get discounts that many people don't even know exist. Some trigger automatically at quote time, but a few must be asked for in order for you to get them. If they aren't giving you every credit possible, you are paying more than you should be.

  • Organization Discounts - Belonging to certain professional organizations could qualify you for a break when buying car insurance.
  • Multi-car Discount - Buying insurance for more than one vehicle with the same company qualifies for this discount.
  • Theft Prevention Discount - Anti-theft and alarm systems can help prevent theft and therefore earn up to a 10% discount.
  • Defensive Driver - Successfully completing a driver safety course could possibly earn you a 5% discount if your company offers it.
  • No Charge for an Accident - A few companies will allow you to have one accident before hitting you with a surcharge so long as you haven't had any claims for a set time period.

As a disclaimer on discounts, most of the big mark downs will not be given to all coverage premiums. Most only cut the price of certain insurance coverages like physical damage coverage or medical payments. Even though it may seem like adding up those discounts means a free policy, car insurance companies aren't that generous. Any amount of discount will cut the amount you have to pay.

To choose insurers offering car insurance discounts in Garfield, follow this link.

Is there truth in advertising?

Consumers can't ignore all the ads that promise big savings by Allstate, GEICO and Progressive. All the companies say the same thing about savings if you switch to their company.

How do they all make the same claim? This is how they do it.

Insurance companies are able to cherry pick for the driver that makes them money. For instance, a profitable customer could be between 25 and 40, has no driving citations, and has great credit. Any new insured who fits that profile will qualify for the lowest rates and is almost guaranteed to cut their rates substantially.

Potential insureds who don't measure up to the "perfect" profile must pay more money which usually ends up with business going elsewhere. The ad wording is "drivers who switch" but not "drivers who get quotes" save that much. That's the way companies can truthfully advertise the savings.

This illustrates why you need to get quotes from several different companies. It's just too difficult to predict which car insurance company will give you the biggest savings.

Additional information is located on the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance website. Click here for link. Consumers can find out which companies have the most complaints, report car insurance fraud, and read consumer alerts.

Best coverage at the best price

Cheap car insurance can be found from both online companies and also from your neighborhood Garfield agents, so you should compare both in order to have the best chance of saving money. There are still a few companies who may not provide online price quotes and usually these small, regional companies provide coverage only through local independent agents.

As you prepare to switch companies, you should never reduce coverage to reduce premium. In too many instances, someone sacrificed collision coverage and learned later that the small savings ended up costing them much more. Your focus should be to purchase a proper amount of coverage for the lowest price while not skimping on critical coverages.

Consumers switch companies for any number of reasons including questionable increases in premium, lack of trust in their agent, policy non-renewal or even policy cancellation. Regardless of your reason, switching car insurance companies is easier than you think.