Tightwads Guide to Saving on Owasso Car Insurance

Have you had enough of scraping the payment together each month for car insurance? You're in the same situation as the majority of other car owners in Oklahoma. Because you have many car insurance companies to choose from, it is very difficult to pick the best insurer.

Be sure to get all your discounts

Insurance can cost an arm and a leg, but companies offer discounts that many people don't even know exist. Certain discounts will be triggered automatically when you get a quote, but a few must be specially asked for before you will receive the discount. If you don't get every credit available, you're paying more than you need to.

Memberships - Being a member of a professional or civic organization could trigger savings when buying car insurance.
Military Discounts - Having a family member in the military could mean lower rates.
Braking Control Discount - Anti-lock brake equipped vehicles are safer to drive and will save you 10% or more.
Senior Citizens - Mature drivers may qualify for a discount up to 10%.
Fewer Miles Equal More Savings - Driving fewer miles could be rewarded with better rates on cars that stay parked.
Student in College - Any of your kids who are attending college and do not have a car can receive lower rates.

As a disclaimer on discounts, many deductions do not apply to the entire cost. A few only apply to individual premiums such as physical damage coverage or medical payments. So even though they make it sound like you can get free auto insurance, car insurance companies aren't that generous. Any amount of discount will help reduce the amount you have to pay.

To see a list of insurers offering car insurance discounts in Oklahoma, click this link.

Comprehensive Car Insurance Comparison in Owasso

Comparing car insurance rates can be challenging if you aren't aware of the easiest way. You can waste a lot of time discussing policy coverages with insurance agencies in Owasso, or you could save time and use the web to get the quickest rates.

Many insurance companies participate in a marketplace that allows shoppers to submit one quote, and each participating company returns a rated price determined by their information. This system prevents you from having to do quotation requests to each individual car insurance company. To submit your quote information now, click to open in new window.

The single downside to doing it this way is buyers cannot specifically choose which carriers you want pricing from. So if you want to select specific providers to request quotes from, we put together a list of car insurance companies in Oklahoma. Click here for list of insurance companies in Oklahoma.

It doesn't matter which method you choose, just double check that you are using apples-to-apples coverage limits and deductibles for each price quote. If your comparisons have different liability limits it's not possible to truly determine the lowest rate in Owasso.

Understand what determines the rate you pay

An important part of buying insurance is that you know the rating factors that go into determining the rates you pay for car insurance. When you know what positively or negatively impacts premium levels helps enable you to make changes that could result in lower car insurance prices.

Liability coverage protects you - Liability insurance will protect you if you are found liable for damages caused by your negligence. It provides legal defense starting from day one. Carrying liability coverage is mandatory and cheap compared to physical damage coverage, so drivers should carry high limits.
Theft deterrents lower rates - Driving a car with an alarm system can help lower your rates. Anti-theft features like vehicle immobilizer systems, General Motors OnStar and LoJack tracking systems all hinder your vehicle from being stolen.
Clean credit earns discounts - A driver's credit score is a important factor in your rate calculation. If your credit score is lower than you'd like, you could pay less to insure your by improving your rating. Consumers who have high credit scores tend to be less risk to insure than drivers who have poor credit.
Multi-policy discounts can save money - Most car insurance companies will award you with lower prices to insureds who have multiple policies with them, otherwise known as a multi-policy discount. Even if you're getting this discount you still need to compare rates to confirm you are receiving the best rates possible. You may still be able to find better rates by insuring with multiple companies.
Battle of the sexes - The statistics show women tend to be less risk to insure than men. That doesn't necessarily mean that men are WORSE drivers than women. Women and men have accidents in similar numbers, but the male of the species cause more damage. Men also tend to have more aggressive citations like DUI and reckless driving. Youthful male drivers are most likely to cause an accident and therefore have the most expensive car insurance rates.
Your job and insurance rates - Did you know your occupation can influence how much you pay for car insurance? Occupations such as judges, executives and stock brokers are shown to have the highest rates because of high stress levels and lengthy work days. On the other hand, occupations like farmers, students and homemakers pay the least.
Don't buy coverages you don't need - There are many extra bells and whistles that you can get tricked into buying when buying car insurance. Things like vanishing deductibles, accidental death and membership fees may be wasting your money. These may sound like a good investment when you first buy your policy, but your needs may have changed so remove them from your policy.

Is there truth in advertising?

Consumers in Oklahoma can't get away from ads for the lowest price auto insurance from companies such as Allstate, GEICO and Progressive. All the companies make the same claim about savings if you switch your policy.

But how can every company claim to save you money?

All companies can use profiling for the right customer that is profitable for them. For instance, a profitable customer might be between the ages of 40 and 55, has no tickets, and chooses high deductibles. Any driver who matches those parameters receives the best rates and is almost guaranteed to save a lot of money.

Drivers who don't measure up to this ideal profile must pay higher premiums which leads to the customer not buying. Company advertisements say "customers that switch" but not "drivers who get quotes" save that kind of money. That's why companies can truthfully state the savings.

This illustrates why drivers must quote coverage with many companies. You cannot predict the company that will give you the biggest savings.

A tidy conclusion

Cheap car insurance can be found both online in addition to many Owasso insurance agents, so you should be comparing quotes from both to have the best chance of lowering rates. Some insurance companies do not provide the ability to get a quote online and usually these small, regional companies provide coverage only through local independent agents.

When buying insurance coverage, do not reduce coverage to reduce premium. In too many instances, an insured dropped collision coverage and learned later that their decision to reduce coverage ended up costing them more. Your focus should be to buy enough coverage at a price you can afford while not skimping on critical coverages.

Additional information is located on the website for the Oklahoma Insurance Department located here. Visitors are able to find out which companies have the most complaints, view a list of available companies, find out industry alerts, and read consumer alerts.

Additional helpful sites include this link for Oklahoma car insurance quotes and this link which helps you find a Owasso agent.