How to cut insurance costs

A little comparison shopping can pay not upon with a policy that require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones hundreds less.

Accidents happen. In cars, they happen nearly 100000 times a day, and insurance can be the single thing standing between you and financial catastrophe. on the other hand you don't have to resign yourself to paying sky-high insurance premiums, plane if you have a less-than-perfect driving record.

To find without just how much real tribe with real driving experiences could save, we picked a family and a single man and did the shopping for them. Among the startling results:

* The highest semiannual premium quot for our single man's policy ($1727) was more than triple the lowest premium ($533)--for exactly the same coverage.

* The highest six-month rate for our family's policy ($2100) was more than double the lowest rate we set ($890).

* The companies with the best deals for our family quot rates that were among the worst for our single man.

The enormous price differences and lack of consistency illustrate the greatest in quantity important point about searching for affordable auto insurance: You have to store around. Every insurer has its possess formula for setting premiums--a mingled combination of variables including your age, sex driving record, where you live and the kind of car you drive. You will be richly rewarded if you take the time to find the insurance company whose criteria shine the best light upon you and your family.

Reality check #1

The family we shopp for includes a teenage son who started driving a two of years ago--a notoriously expensive addition to any family's policy. When we priced policies last year, he had already received sum of two units speeding tickets, and Mom had also gotten shakeed over for speeding. Such incidents aren't terribly without of the ordinary, but the combination made the family untouchables in the organ of visions of some insurers.

For the past not many years, they had relied upon an independent agent to come by them the best deal upon insurance for their 1989 Mazda MPV minivan and 1990 Toyota Celica. They were paying $1061 each six months for car insurance, including:

* $100000 liability coverage for bodily injury and characteristic damage;

* $2000-per-person medical payments coverage;

* $100 deductible upon comprehensive coverage;

* $200 deductible upon collision coverage; and

* $100000 uninsured- and underinsured-motorist coverage.

Tweaking and shopping. Before setting not upon to find a better deal, review your insurance coverage in light of the recommendations in the case at left. The family we shopp for, for example, should hike their liability protection to $100000 by person, $300,000 per accident and $50000 for characteristic damage. We made that change and upp the uninsured-motorist coverage to $100000 for person, $300,000 per accident. We also boost the deductibles to $250 (they didn't want to go on much higher than that). The medical-payments coverage stayed the same.

The range of prices quot through 17 agents and companies was startling. The lowest six-month premium was $890 almost $350 a year less--for more coverage--than the family had been paying.

greatest in quantity of the companies that charged lower premiums paired the teenager with the Mazda, confirming the notion that assigning teenagers to an older car can save coin (A few companies wouldn't overlay the family at all because of the speeding tickets.)

Although the chance to wound $350 a year off their premium gave the family sufficiency to smile about, they could easily save more. Raising the collision and comprehensive deductibles to $500 for example, would knock $73 not on the premium from one insurer.

Reality check #2

The single man we shopp for is a 35-year-old assistant comptroller for a real estate investment firm, drives a 1993 Isuzu Rodeo and lives in the picturesque Marina district of San Francisco. on the contrary insurance companies don't care about nice views. Instead, his downtown address boost his car insurance premiums in a state that's already more expensive to live in.

a certain number of companies might goose his premiums level higher because he's single, crevices his home, parks on the public way and has one ticket for turning left from a no-left-turn lane. upon the other hand, his round-trip exchange is only six miles.

We shopp for the same amount of coverage as we had for the family (100/300/50 liability; 100/300 uninsured motorist; and $2000 medical payments), on the contrary raised the comprehensive and collision deductibles to $500

The lowest price among the 20 cites we got: $533 for six month The highest quote: $1727 for six months

Driving your premium down

The insurer that quot the highest price for the family was single of the lowest-cost insurers for the single man. That's single reason it's tough to make nifty generalizations about auto insurance.

If you have a apportionment of accidents or get a destiny of tickets for moving violations, you're going to pay more for auto insurance. Everyone knows that. on the contrary the means by which insurance companies sort on the outside the good risks from the bad aren't always thus obvious. The price you pay is determined through a complex process that begins drawn out before you apply for a policy. When you apply, you are defenceed by a company underwriter who decides whether the company wants to insure you and if thus in what general category to fit you.