Proven Techniques to Save on West Copake Car Insurance

Scraping up a payment for overpriced car insurance can overdraw your personal savings and put a big crunch on your finances. Doing a price comparison is free and is an excellent way to slash your bill and have more diposable income. Drivers have multiple to buy insurance from, and although it's a good thing to be able to choose, it can be more challenging to compare rates.

The purpose of this article is to help educate you on the best way to quote coverages and some tips to save money. If you currently have car insurance, you should be able to cut costs considerably using this strategy. New York vehicle owners just need to know the most effective way to buy car insurance over the internet.

Good Decisions Result in Lower Rates

Consumers need to have an understanding of the rating factors that help determine your car insurance rates. Knowing what controls the rates you pay enables informed choices that will entitle you to better car insurance rates.

The following are a partial list of the pieces car insurance companies consider when setting prices.

  • Occupation reflects on rates - Did you know your job can affect your rates? Careers like judges, executives and financial analysts tend to have higher average rates in part from stressful work requirements and long work hours. Conversely, occupations such as pilots, engineers and performers receive lower rates.
  • Discounts for married couples - Having a wife or husband can get you a discount on your car insurance policy. Having a significant other means you're more mature than a single person it has been statistically shown that married drivers get in fewer accidents.
  • With age comes lower rates - Young drivers in New York are known to be careless and easily distracted when driving so they pay higher car insurance rates. Having to add a teen driver to your car insurance policy can really hurt. More mature drivers are more cautious drivers, tend to cause fewer accidents and get fewer tickets.
  • Women pay lower rates - Statistics have proven that women are safer drivers than men. However, this does not mean men are worse drivers. Men and women are in accidents in similar numbers, but the men have costlier accidents. Men also statistically have more aggressive citations such as reckless driving. Teenage male drivers tend to get in the most accidents and are penalized with high car insurance rates.
  • How's your driving record? - Careful drivers tend to pay less for car insurance compared to drivers with tickets. Only having one ticket can boost insurance rates by as much as thirty percent. If you have flagrant violations like reckless driving, hit and run or driving under the influence may find they need to submit a SR-22 form with their state motor vehicle department in order to keep their license.
  • Safer cars are cheaper to insure - Safer cars tend to have better insurance rates. The safest vehicles reduce injuries and fewer injuries translates into savings for insurance companies and thus lower rates.

Are you getting all your discounts?

Properly insuring your vehicles can get expensive, but you can get discounts that you may not know about. Larger premium reductions will be automatically applied when you get a quote, but a few must be asked for before you will receive the discount. If you're not getting every credit you deserve, you are paying more than you should be.

  • No Accidents - Drivers who don't have accidents pay much less when compared to accident-prone drivers.
  • Paperwork-free - Some insurance companies will give a small break for buying a policy and signing up over the internet.
  • New Car Discount - Adding a new car to your policy can cost up to 25% less compared to insuring an older model.
  • Accident Waiver - Certain companies will allow you to have one accident before hitting you with a surcharge if your claims history is clear for a certain period of time.
  • Good Student Discount - This discount can save 20 to 25%. Earning this discount can benefit you well after school through age 25.
  • Service Members Pay Less - Having a family member in the military may qualify for rate reductions.
  • Drivers Education - Cut your cost by having your teen driver successfully complete driver's ed class if it's offered in school.
  • Driver Safety - Taking a driver safety course could cut 5% off your bill if your company offers it.
  • Passive Restraints and Air Bags - Cars that have air bags or automatic seat belts may earn rate discounts of more than 20%.

Consumers should know that most discount credits are not given to all coverage premiums. Some only reduce the price of certain insurance coverages like comp or med pay. So when the math indicates you could get a free car insurance policy, companies don't profit that way. But all discounts will bring down the cost of coverage.

To choose insurance companies who offer car insurance discounts in New York, click this link.

How can Progressive, Allstate and GEICO save drivers who switch?

Consumers can't ignore all the ads for car insurance savings by Progressive, Allstate and GEICO. They all make the same claim that you'll save big after switching to their company.

How does each company make the same claim? This is how they do it.

Different companies have a preferred profile for the driver that makes them money. For instance, a driver they prefer could be a mature driver, insures multiple vehicles, and has great credit. A customer who matches those parameters will get very good rates and as a result will probably save when switching.

Drivers who are not a match for these standards will be quoted higher premiums which leads to business going elsewhere. The ads say "drivers who switch" not "everybody who quotes" save that much. This is how companies can advertise the savings.

This emphasizes why you should get a wide range of price quotes. Because you never know which insurance companies will give you the biggest savings.

Much more information about car insurance in New York is located on the website for the New York Department of Financial Services. Click here for link. Consumers can read industry bulletins, get help finding coverage, read enforcement actions against agents and companies, and learn about insurance regulations.

In the end, you save

Discount car insurance can be sourced from both online companies and also from your neighborhood West Copake agents, and you need to price shop both to have the best chance of lowering rates. There are still a few companies who may not provide online price quotes and these small, regional companies work with independent agents.

As you prepare to switch companies, it's very important that you do not buy poor coverage just to save money. There are too many instances where drivers have reduced collision coverage and learned later that the small savings ended up costing them much more. Your strategy should be to find the BEST coverage for the lowest price while still protecting your assets.