Since every car has to be insured, it is important to know how to get the best coverage and what would be the right choice for a certain person. Here are a few steps that might be helpful in this situation.
Step 1. The Amount of Coverage
Nobody wants to overpay on insurance, but at the same time there are some laws with minimal requirements that cannot be avoided. In the beginning, a mindful car owner should study what coverage is mandated in the area where he or she lives. This information can be found online or at any auto insurance agency.
After the list of required points is set, one should think on additional coverage. Some people like to go by worst case scenario, but only few drivers have high chances to get in an accident and need as full coverage as they can get. It would be reasonable to consider driving habits. If one has a hard time fitting in the garage door opening, if the driver has problems with space judging or if he is slow in making decisions at emergency situations, then it would be smart to add on comprehensive coverage. It is not necessary to get extra collision coverage is the person has good driving record and the vehicle is more likely to be stolen than wrecked.
2. Driving Record and Current Coverage
Nothing affects insurance rates as strongly as bad driving record. Before getting quotes, the policy holder should check whether it will improve any time soon and how badly speeding tickets, previous accidents and other records affect the coverage.
It is useful to keep notes of the auto insurance bills writing down monthly and yearly numbers. Insurance comparison websites will have quotes given in both ways and it will be handy to have records like this.
3. Auto Insurance Quotes
A good search might take an hour or more. It is reasonable to have everything collected in one place in case the information will be needed: current policy, driver’s license, vehicle registration, all notes that have been taken about payments (see point 2) and the list made according to point 1.
Shopping for insurance online is the most convenient way. Various sites like InsWeb.com, Insurance.com, Esurance.com, InsureMe.com, and others offer quotes from several leading insurance providers in comparison. It is a boring job, but after some minutes of patience one can breathe with relief, knowing the shopping for quotes saved hundreds of dollars in future. In some cases car owners can figure out how to save up to $800. If shopping took only an hour, then one can consider this $800 as an hourly payment for the boring job.
Searching for insurance quotes can be done by phone and in some cases it is the only choice because not all 50 states have insurance comparison online. In fact, this is a faster way to get insurance quotes and the necessary information about the right coverage. If requested, the results can be sent by email, fax or ordinary mail.
A car owner should keep desired coverage in the same limits while requesting for the quotes, so that later he or she could have fair results.
4. The Right Provider
After the shopping is done and information is collected fully, it is time to make a decision. However, the cheapest insurer is not always the most reliable one. If a car owner is concerned which insurance company does the best job, he or she can do these:
• Ask body shops, dealerships or any trustworthy organizations that work with car fixing, which providers they recommend.
• Check with state’s department of insurance about consumer complaints and basic rate comparison surveys.
• Visit JDPower.com for customers’ satisfaction surveys with auto insurance companies.
5. Signing the Documents
After the decision is made, it is time to finish the deal by signing the necessary documents. One should read the policy attentively and be sure all the aspects are done as planned. There are two tricky things that can be mentioned in the policy. Sometimes people do not even notice they give up right to sue the insurer by signing the paper. This point should be taken away form the policy. Experts also advise against “aftermarket parts used for body shop repair”. Either it needs to be changed, or a different provider should be chosen.