Comparison Shop Gate City Car Insurance Prices With These Methods

Buying the most affordable Gate City car insurance online can seem to be impossible for beginners to comparison shopping online. With so many choices of online companies available, how can you possibly compare every one to find the cheapest available price?

Buying car insurance in Gate City is quite easy. If you are paying for car insurance now, you will be able to lower your premiums substantially using these methods. Virginia drivers only need an understanding of the most efficient way to get comparison quotes online.

Take advantage of discounts

Companies that sell car insurance don't list all available discounts very clearly, so we break down both the well known as well as the least known discounts you could be receiving. If you're not getting every credit you deserve, you're paying more than you need to.

  • Fewer Miles Equal More Savings - Driving fewer miles can earn a substantially lower rate.
  • Accident Waiver - Certain companies will forgive one accident before raising your premiums so long as you haven't had any claims for a particular time prior to the accident.
  • Good Student Discount - A discount for being a good student can be rewarded with saving of up to 25%. This discount can apply until age 25.
  • Paperless Signup - A handful of insurance companies may give you up to $50 simply for signing over the internet.
  • Senior Citizens - Mature drivers may qualify for a small decrease in premiums.
  • Defensive Driver - Taking part in a defensive driving course could cut 5% off your bill and easily recoup the cost of the course.
  • Student in College - Youth drivers who attend school more than 100 miles from home and do not have a car may qualify for this discount.

It's important to understand that some credits don't apply to all coverage premiums. Most only apply to individual premiums such as liability and collision coverage. So even though they make it sound like all those discounts means the company will pay you, it doesn't quite work that way.

To see a list of insurers offering car insurance discounts in Virginia, click here.

car insurance in Gate City

Car Insurance Prices in Gate City, Virginia

Finding cheaper car insurance prices is surprisingly easy. Just take a couple of minutes comparing rates online with multiple companies. This can be done in a couple of different ways.

  • The best way to find low rates is to use a rate comparison form (click to open form in new window). This type of form keeps you from doing multiple quote forms to each individual car insurance company. One form submission will return quotes from multiple low-cost companies. Recommended for those who want to invest the least amount of time.
  • A slightly less efficient method to compare rate quotes is to take the time to go to the website for every company you want to comare and complete a new quote form. For examples sake, let's assume you want comparison quotes from , and . To find out each rate you need to take the time to go to each site and enter your information, which is why the first method is more popular.

    To view a list of companies in Gate City, click here.
  • The most time-consuming way to compare rates is to waste gas driving to insurance agents' offices. Shopping for car insurance online has reduced the need for local agents unless you require the professional guidance only provided by licensed agents. It is possible to obtain prices from the web and still use a local agent and you'll learn how to do that later.

Whichever method you choose, ensure you are comparing identical coverages and limits on every quote. If you use different deductibles it will be impossible to make a fair comparison in Gate City.

Tips to Get Lower Gate City Rates

An important part of buying insurance is that you know the factors that go into determining the rates you pay for car insurance. Knowing what determines base rates empowers consumers to make smart changes that could result in big savings.

Listed below are a few of the "ingredients" used by your company to calculate premiums.

  • Extra coverages can waste money - There are many add-on coverages that you can get tricked into buying when buying car insurance. Coverages for roadside assistance, accidental death and additional equipment coverage are some examples. They may seem good when you first buy your policy, but now you might not need them so eliminate them to save money.
  • Are you male or female? - Statistics have proven that women are safer drivers than men. That doesn't necessarily mean that women are BETTER drivers than men. They both tend to get into accidents in similar percentages, but the male of the species cause more damage. Men also tend to get more serious tickets like DUI and reckless driving. Male drivers age 16 to 19 are most likely to cause an accident and therefore have the most expensive car insurance rates.
  • Bad driving skills means higher rates - Drivers who don't get tickets have lower premiums than bad drivers. Even a single citation can bump up the cost by as much as thirty percent. Drivers with serious tickets like DUI or reckless driving are required to file a SR-22 to the state department of motor vehicles in order to continue driving.
  • Having a spouse can save you money - Having a spouse can actually save you money on car insurance. Having a spouse translates into being more mature and responsible and it's proven that married drivers get in fewer accidents.
  • Mature drivers pay less - Youthful drivers in Virginia are statistically proven to get distracted easily when driving so they pay higher car insurance rates. Parents adding a youthful driver onto a policy can be quite pricey. More mature drivers are more responsible, file fewer claims and receive fewer citations.
  • High deductibles save money - The deductibles represent how much money you are willing to pay if you file a covered claim. Coverage for physical damage, commonly called comprehensive (or other-than-collision) and collision coverage, covers damage that occurs to your car. A few examples of covered claims would be colliding with a building, collision with an animal, or theft. The higher the amount you have to pay, the bigger discount you will receive.

Are car insurance companies telling the truth?

Consumers in Virginia can't get away from ads for car insurance savings from the likes of 21st Century, Allstate and State Farm. All the companies have a common claim of big savings if you switch your coverage to them.

How does each company claim to save you money?

All the different companies have a preferred profile for the type of customer that is profitable for them. For example, a profitable customer might be between the ages of 30 and 50, insures multiple vehicles, and chooses high deductibles. Any driver that hits that "sweet spot" is entitled to the best price and most likely will save when switching.

Consumers who don't qualify for these standards must pay higher rates and this can result in the customer not buying. The ads state "customers that switch" not "people who quote" save that much money. This is how insurance companies can confidently state the savings. This illustrates why drivers must get quotes from several different companies. You cannot predict which insurance companies will give you the biggest savings.

A tidy conclusion

Low-cost car insurance is available both online as well as from independent agents in Gate City, and you should compare price quotes from both to get a complete price analysis. Some insurance companies don't offer the ability to get a quote online and usually these regional insurance providers provide coverage only through local independent agents.

We just presented a lot of ways to compare car insurance prices online. The key thing to remember is the more companies you get rates for, the better your chances of lowering your rates. You may be surprised to find that the lowest rates come from a small local company.

When buying insurance coverage, never reduce coverage to reduce premium. There are a lot of situations where drivers have reduced uninsured motorist or liability limits only to regret that their decision to reduce coverage ended up costing them more. The proper strategy is to buy a smart amount of coverage at a price you can afford while not skimping on critical coverages.

For more Virginia car insurance information

More tips and info about car insurance can be found at the Virginia Bureau of Insurance website. Visitors are able to discover disciplinary actions, learn about insurance regulations, and file complaints about a company.