9 Ways You Can Buy Auto Insurance for Less in Sidney Montana

Tired of robbing Peter to pay Paul to buy car insurance? You’re in the same situation as most other car owners in Montana.

Insurance companies such as GEICO and Progressive all claim big savings with advertising and it can be hard to see past the corporate glitz and take the time to shop coverage around.

How to Get Auto Insurance in Sidney

Most major insurance companies give coverage price quotes directly from their websites. The process is fairly simple as you just enter the coverages you want as requested by the quote form. Once entered, their system will obtain reports for credit and driving violations and returns a price quote based on these factors. This makes comparing rates easy, but the process of having to visit different websites and complete many quote forms gets old quite quickly. But it’s absolutely necessary to compare as many rates as possible in order to get better auto insurance pricing.

Rate comparisons made easy

The smarter way to compare auto insurance pricing makes use of a single form that gets prices from a bunch of companies at once. This type of form saves time, eliminates repetitive work, and makes rate comparisons much more enjoyable. Immediately after you send the form, it is quoted and you are able to buy any or none of the resulting price quotes.

If you find a better price it’s easy to complete the application and buy the new coverage. The entire process can be completed in less than 10 minutes and may save quite a bit of money.

To find out how much you’re overpaying now, click here to open in new window and enter your information. If you have a policy now, it’s recommended you complete the form with the insurance coverages as shown on your current policy. Using the same limits helps guarantee you will be getting comparison quotes using the same coverage and limits.

Cut your premium with these nine discounts

The price of auto insurance can be rather high, but you can get discounts that you may not know about. Some trigger automatically at quote time, but less common discounts must be manually applied before they will apply.

• Student Driver Training – Require your teen driver to successfully complete driver’s ed class if offered at their school.
• Homeowners Discount – Owning a home in Sidney may earn you a small savings due to the fact that maintaining a home shows financial diligence.
• Early Signing – A few companies offer discounts for switching policies before your current policy expires. This can save 10% or more.
• Resident Student – Youth drivers living away from home attending college without a vehicle on campus can receive lower rates.
• Passive Restraints and Air Bags – Cars that have air bags can get savings up to 30%.
• Seat Belts Save more than Lives – Drivers who require all occupants to buckle their seat belts could save 15% on the medical payments or PIP coverage costs.
• Federal Government Employee – Active or retired federal employment could cut as much as 10% off with a few auto insurance companies.
• Memberships – Being a member of a professional or civic organization may earn a discount when buying auto insurance.
• Defensive Driver – Completing a defensive driving course can save you 5% or more and easily recoup the cost of the course.

A little note about advertised discounts, many deductions do not apply to your bottom line cost. Some only apply to specific coverage prices like liability and collision coverage. Just because you may think having all the discounts means you get insurance for free, you’re out of luck. Any amount of discount will help reduce the cost of coverage.

To choose insurance companies with the best auto insurance discounts in Montana, click here.

What is the best insurance coverage?

When it comes to choosing the right insurance coverage for your vehicles, there really is not a cookie cutter policy. Everyone’s situation is unique so your insurance needs to address that. These are some specific questions may help highlight if your situation will benefit from professional help.

• Should I put collision coverage on all my vehicles?
• Do I have any recourse if my insurance company denies a claim?
• Does my personal auto insurance policy cover using my vehicle for business use?
• Are my tools covered if they get stolen from my vehicle?
• Should I file a claim if it’s only slightly more than my deductible?
• Am I covered when driving a rental car?
• How many claims can I have before being cancelled?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions then you might want to talk to an insurance agent. If you want to speak to an agent in your area, simply complete this short form or go to this page to view a list of companies.

Auto insurance coverages

Knowing the specifics of a auto insurance policy aids in choosing the right coverages for your vehicles. Auto insurance terms can be difficult to understand and even agents have difficulty translating policy wording. These are typical coverages available from auto insurance companies.

Insurance for medical payments – Coverage for medical payments and/or PIP kick in for bills for rehabilitation expenses, funeral costs, prosthetic devices and hospital visits. They are used to cover expenses not covered by your health insurance program or if you do not have health coverage. Coverage applies to both the driver and occupants and also covers getting struck while a pedestrian. PIP coverage is only offered in select states but it provides additional coverages not offered by medical payments coverage

Collision coverages – Collision insurance pays for damage to your vehicle caused by collision with another car or object. You will need to pay your deductible and then insurance will cover the remainder.

Collision coverage pays for things like crashing into a ditch, hitting a parking meter, damaging your car on a curb and rolling your car. Collision is rather expensive coverage, so analyze the benefit of dropping coverage from vehicles that are 8 years or older. Another option is to bump up the deductible in order to get cheaper collision rates.

Uninsured Motorist or Underinsured Motorist insurance – Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist coverage protects you and your vehicle when other motorists either are underinsured or have no liability coverage at all. This coverage pays for injuries to you and your family as well as your vehicle’s damage.

Since many Montana drivers have only the minimum liability required by law (which is 25/50/10), their liability coverage can quickly be exhausted. That’s why carrying high Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage is a good idea. Usually your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages are identical to your policy’s liability coverage.

Comprehensive coverage (or Other than Collision) – This will pay to fix damage caused by mother nature, theft, vandalism and other events. You first must pay your deductible then your comprehensive coverage will pay.

Comprehensive can pay for things such as a broken windshield, falling objects and hitting a bird. The most you’ll receive from a claim is the ACV or actual cash value, so if your deductible is as high as the vehicle’s value consider removing comprehensive coverage.

Liability insurance – This can cover injuries or damage you cause to people or other property by causing an accident. Split limit liability has three limits of coverage: bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. As an example, you may have liability limits of 100/300/100 that translate to a limit of $100,000 per injured person, a per accident bodily injury limit of $300,000, and a total limit of $100,000 for damage to vehicles and property. Some companies may use a combined limit which combines the three limits into one amount without having the split limit caps.

Liability insurance covers claims such as repair bills for other people’s vehicles, legal defense fees and pain and suffering. How much liability coverage do you need? That is a decision to put some thought into, but it’s cheap coverage so purchase as large an amount as possible. Montana state minimum liability requirements are 25,000/50,000/10,000 but drivers should carry more coverage.

One last thing

We just presented a lot of tips how to save on auto insurance. It’s most important to understand that the more times you quote, the better your comparison will be. Consumers could even find that the best prices are with some of the lesser-known companies. Smaller companies may often insure only within specific states and give getter rates as compared to the big name companies such as Allstate or State Farm.

As you shop your coverage around, it’s very important that you do not buy lower coverage limits just to save a few bucks. In many instances, someone dropped liability limits or collision coverage only to discover later that the savings was not a smart move. Your aim should be to get the best coverage possible at an affordable rate, not the least amount of coverage.

Cheap auto insurance can be bought online in addition to many Sidney insurance agents, so you should compare both so you have a total pricing picture. A few companies do not provide online price quotes and these smaller companies work with independent agents.

Additional auto insurance information can be read on the website for the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance. Click here for link. Montana drivers can view agent and company licensing information, report car insurance fraud, and read enforcement actions against agents and companies.

Additional helpful sites include this page for auto insurance prices in Montana and this page on QuoteClickInsure.com.