Easy Techniques to Cut Costs on Redmond Auto Insurance

Having to pay for overpriced auto insurance can take a big chunk out of your personal savings and put the squeeze on your family’s finances. Comparing price quotes is a great way to tighten up your finances. Companies like State Farm, Progressive and GEICO all claim big savings with TV and radio ads and it can be hard to see past the corporate glitz and find the best price available.

How much can you save with discounts?

Companies don’t always advertise every discount in an easy-to-find place, so we break down some of the best known as well as the least known ways to save on auto insurance. If they aren’t giving you every credit possible, you are throwing money away.

Braking Control Discount – Vehicles equipped with ABS or steering control can reduce accidents and earn discounts up to 10%.
Organization Discounts – Participating in a civic or occupational organization could trigger savings when shopping for auto insurance.
Employee of Federal Government – Simply working for the federal government can earn a discount up to 10% with a few auto insurance companies.
New Vehicle Savings – Adding a new car to your policy can save up to 30% since new cars are generally safer.
Passive Restraints – Vehicles equipped with air bags may earn rate discounts up to 30%.
Payment Method – If you pay your bill all at once instead of making monthly payments you can actually save on your bill.
Multi-policy Discount – When you have multiple policies with the same company you may save 10% to 20% off each policy.
Military Rewards – Being on active duty in the military could mean lower rates.
Discount for Swiching Early – Some companies give discounts for buying a policy before your current policy expires. The savings is around 10%.
Low Mileage – Low mileage vehicles can earn discounted rates on garaged vehicles.

It’s important to understand that some of the credits will not apply to all coverage premiums. Most only apply to the price of certain insurance coverages like physical damage coverage or medical payments. Just because it seems like having all the discounts means you get insurance for free, auto insurance companies aren’t that generous.

To choose insurance companies who offer auto insurance discounts in Redmond, follow this link.

Comparison of Auto Insurance in Redmond

All the larger auto insurance companies allow you to get insurance quotes on the web. Getting quotes doesn’t take a lot of time as you just type in your coverage preferences into a form. Upon sending the form, their rating system requests your driving record and credit report and returns pricing information based on these factors. This streamlines rate comparisons, but the work required to visit several different sites and complete many quote forms is repetitive and time-consuming. But it is imperative to get many rate quotes in order to get the lowest auto insurance rates. car insurance image

Isn’t there an easier way to compare rates?

The preferred way to find lower prices makes use of a single form to get prices from many companies. It’s a real time-saver, eliminates form submissions, and makes comparison shopping a lot less work. As soon as the form is sent, it is rated and you can select any of the quotes returned. If one or more price quotes are lower than your current rates, you can click and sign and buy the new coverage. This process takes 15 minutes at the most and you’ll know if lower rates are available.

To quickly compare rates now, click here to open in new window and enter your vehicle and coverage information. If you have a policy now, it’s recommended you type in your coverages as close as possible to your current policy. This helps ensure you will have an apples-to-apples comparison based on similar coverages.

Understand what determines the rate you pay

An important part of buying insurance is that you know the different types of things that come into play when calculating auto insurance rates. Understanding what impacts premium levels helps enable you to make changes that can help you get better auto insurance rates.

Sex matters – Statistics demonstrate women are more cautious behind the wheel. However, don’t assume that women are better drivers. Men and women are in accidents at about the same rate, but the males cause more damage and cost insurance companies more money. They also get more serious tickets like reckless driving and DUI.
How your age affects price – Teenage drivers in Washington are known to be careless and easily distracted behind the wheel so they pay higher auto insurance rates. If you’ve ever had to add a young driver to your auto insurance policy can break the bank. Older drivers are more cautious drivers, tend to file fewer claims and get fewer tickets.
How’s your driving record? – Just one moving violation may increase your cost twenty percent or more. Drivers with clean records have lower premiums than bad drivers. Drivers who have serious citations like hit and run, DWI or reckless driving convictions may need to submit a SR-22 form with their state DMV in order to continue driving.
Do you need the policy add-ons? – There are many additional coverages you can purchase if you aren’t careful. Insurance for vanishing deductibles, better glass coverage and term life insurance are examples of these. These may sound like a good investment when you first buy your policy, but if they’re wasting money eliminate the coverages to reduce your premium.
Lower rates with optional equipment – Owning a car with a theft deterrent system can save you a little every year. Theft prevention features like GM’s OnStar, tamper alarm systems and vehicle immobilizers can help prevent car theft.

Final considerations

Cheaper auto insurance is definitely available online as well as from independent agents in Redmond, and you need to price shop both in order to have the best chance of saving money. A few companies don’t offer online quoting and usually these regional insurance providers provide coverage only through local independent agents.

In this article, we covered quite a bit of information on how to save on auto insurance. It’s most important to understand that the more rate quotes you have, the better chance you’ll have of finding lower rates. You may be surprised to find that the lowest priced auto insurance comes from a smaller regional carrier. Some small companies may often insure only within specific states and give getter rates than the large multi-state companies such as Allstate and Progressive.

As you restructure your insurance plan, do not sacrifice coverage to reduce premiums. In too many instances, someone sacrificed physical damage coverage to discover at claim time that the few dollars in savings costed them thousands. Your aim should be to purchase a proper amount of coverage for the lowest price while still protecting your assets.

Washington insurance information

Additional detailed information can be found at the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner website. Washington consumers can read state legal mandates and laws, find out industry alerts, and learn about insurance regulations.