Car Insurance in Barre, VT – 6 Discounts You Might be Forgetting

Saving money on Barre car insurance can seem to be difficult for consumers not familiar with buying insurance online. You have so many companies to choose from that it can quickly become a ton of work to compare prices in Barre.

Take these six discounts and save

Insuring your vehicles can cost a lot, but you may find discounts that you may not know about. Most are applied at the time of quoting, but some may not be applied and must be manually applied before they will apply. If you aren’t receiving every discount you deserve, you’re just leaving money on the table.

• Accident Free – Drivers with accident-free driving histories pay less when compared to bad drivers.
• Seat Belts Save – Drivers who require all occupants to use their safety belts can save up to 15% off your PIP or medical payments premium.
• Good Student Discount – Getting good grades can get you a discount of up to 25%. The discount lasts until age 25.
• Discount for Swiching Early – Some companies give discounts for switching to them before your current policy expires. The savings is around 10%.
• Safe Drivers – Safe drivers can pay as much as 50% less than their less cautious counterparts.
• Discount for New Cars – Adding a new car to your policy is cheaper compared to insuring an older model.

Keep in mind that some credits don’t apply to the overall cost of the policy. Most only apply to the cost of specific coverages such as collision or personal injury protection. So despite the fact that it appears it’s possible to get free car insurance, you won’t be that lucky. Any amount of discount will reduce your overall premium however.

How to Compare Barre Car Insurance Costs

Finding a lower price on insurance can be quick and easy. The only requirement is to take time comparing price quotes online with multiple companies. This is very easy and can be done using a couple different methods.

1. Probably the best way to get quotes is to use a rate comparison form click here to open form in new window. This method prevents you from having to do separate forms to each individual car insurance company. In just a few minutes this one form gets you coverage quotes from many national carriers. Just one form and you’re done.
2. A different way to get quotes online is spending the time to visit each company’s website and complete a new quote form. For examples sake, we’ll pretend you want rates from State Farm, Progressive and GMAC. To find out each rate you need to spend time on each company’s site to input your insurance information, which is why most consumers use the first method. For a list of links to insurance companies in Barre, click here.

Which method you use is up to you, but ensure you’re using the exact same deductibles and coverage limits for each price quote. If each company quotes higher or lower deductibles it will be next to impossible to decipher which rate is best in Barre.

Auto insurance 101

Understanding the coverages of car insurance can help you determine which coverages you need and the correct deductibles and limits. Car insurance terms can be difficult to understand and nobody wants to actually read their policy.

Liability coverages

This protects you from damages or injuries you inflict on a person or their property by causing an accident. Split limit liability has three limits of coverage: bodily injury for each person, bodily injury for the entire accident, and a limit for property damage. As an example, you may have liability limits of 25/50/25 which stand for $25,000 bodily injury coverage, $50,000 for the entire accident, and a total limit of $25,000 for damage to vehicles and property. Alternatively, you may have one limit called combined single limit (CSL) which limits claims to one amount rather than limiting it on a per person basis.

Liability coverage protects against things such as court costs, bail bonds and pain and suffering. The amount of liability coverage you purchase is your choice, but it’s cheap coverage so purchase as much as you can afford. Vermont state law requires minimum liability limits of 25,000/50,000/10,000 but it’s recommended drivers buy more liability than the minimum.

Protection from uninsured/underinsured drivers

This coverage gives you protection from other drivers when they are uninsured or don’t have enough coverage. Covered claims include medical payments for you and your occupants and damage to your vehicle.

Since many Vermont drivers only purchase the least amount of liability that is required (Vermont limits are 25/50/10), their limits can quickly be used up. So UM/UIM coverage should not be overlooked. Normally these coverages are similar to your liability insurance amounts.

Medical expense insurance

Coverage for medical payments and/or PIP provide coverage for expenses for surgery, hospital visits, nursing services and funeral costs. They can be used to cover expenses not covered by your health insurance program or if you lack health insurance entirely. Coverage applies to all vehicle occupants as well as getting struck while a pedestrian. PIP is not an option in every state and may carry a deductible

Collision coverage

This covers damage to your vehicle resulting from colliding with an object or car. You first must pay a deductible then the remaining damage will be paid by your insurance company.

Collision insurance covers claims like crashing into a building, sideswiping another vehicle and colliding with another moving vehicle. Paying for collision coverage can be pricey, so analyze the benefit of dropping coverage from vehicles that are older. You can also choose a higher deductible in order to get cheaper collision rates.

Comprehensive (Other than Collision)

Comprehensive insurance will pay to fix damage that is not covered by collision coverage. You first must pay your deductible and then insurance will cover the rest of the damage.

Comprehensive coverage pays for claims such as hitting a bird, vandalism and damage from getting keyed. The maximum amount your car insurance company will pay is the ACV or actual cash value, so if the vehicle is not worth much consider dropping full coverage.

A little work can save a LOT of money

As you shop your coverage around, make sure you don’t sacrifice coverage to reduce premiums. There are a lot of situations where consumers will sacrifice collision coverage to discover at claim time that their decision to reduce coverage ended up costing them more. The aim is to buy a smart amount of coverage at an affordable rate while still protecting your assets.

In this article, we covered a lot of ways to compare car insurance prices online. The most important thing to understand is the more rate quotes you have, the better likelihood of reducing your rate. Consumers could even find that the lowest priced car insurance comes from a smaller regional carrier.

Drivers change insurance companies for a number of reasons such as denial of a claim, policy cancellation, not issuing a premium refund or questionable increases in premium. Whatever your reason, finding a new company can be pretty painless.