Follow These Proven Tips for Cheaper Grand Prairie Texas Car Insurance
Confused by the wide range of car insurance options in Grand Prairie? Many other consumers are too. You have so many options available that it can easily become a real challenge to find better rates.
You need to do rate comparisons yearly since insurance rates change frequently. Just because you found the lowest price last year other companies may now be cheaper. There is a lot of wrong information about car insurance on the web, but by reading this article, you’re going to learn the easiest ways to buy car insurance cheaper.
If you have insurance now or need new coverage, you can use this information to reduce the price you pay while maximizing coverage. Finding cheaper car insurance in Grand Prairie is not that difficult. Texas drivers just need to know the proper methods to get comparison rates online.
These discounts can slash car insurance rates
Car insurance companies don’t always advertise all available discounts in a way that’s easy to find, so we researched some of the more common and also the lesser-known discounts you could be receiving. If you aren’t receiving every discount you deserve, you’re paying more than you need to.
- Good Student Discount – This discount can get you a discount of up to 25%. The discount lasts up until you turn 25.
- Club Memberships – Participating in certain professional organizations could trigger savings on your policy.
- Auto/Life Discount – Companies who offer life insurance give better rates if you take out a life insurance policy as well.
- Government Employees – Simply working for the federal government can save as much as 8% with certain companies.
- More Vehicles More Savings – Insuring multiple cars or trucks on the same car insurance policy may reduce the rate for each vehicle.
- 55 and Retired – Mature drivers may be able to get a discount up to 10%.
- Bundle and Save – If you have multiple policies with one company you could get a discount of at least 10% off all policies.
- Accident Forgiveness – A few companies will forgive one accident before your rates go up if you are claim-free for a set time period.
- Discount for New Cars – Putting insurance coverage on a new car can cost up to 25% less since new cars are generally safer.
- Military Rewards – Being on active duty in the military can result in better rates.
It’s important to understand that some of the credits will not apply to your bottom line cost. Some only apply to individual premiums such as liability and collision coverage. Just because you may think you can get free auto insurance, car insurance companies aren’t that generous.
Factors that affect insurance rates
Consumers need to have an understanding of the rating factors that come into play when calculating the price you pay for car insurance. Understanding what impacts premium levels empowers consumers to make smart changes that will entitle you to much lower annual insurance costs.
- Discounts for multiple policies – Most insurers give discounts to insureds who buy several policies from them in the form of a multi-policy discount. Even with this discount, it’s still a good idea to compare rates to make sure you are getting the best deal.
- Add-on coverages can add up – There are a lot of additional coverages that you can buy if you aren’t careful. Coverages like personal injury protection, towing coverage and motor club memberships may be wasting your money. They may seem good when you first buy your policy, but if you don’t need them get rid of them and save.
- Careful drivers pay lower rates – Your driving citation history has a huge affect on how much you pay. Just one citation may increase your cost forty percent or more. Drivers with clean records receive lower rates compared to drivers with tickets. Drivers who have flagrant citations like hit and run, DWI or reckless driving convictions may need to submit a SR-22 form with the DMV in their state in order to keep their license.
- You might want pay the small claims yourself – If you frequently file small claims, you can expect either policy cancellation or increased premiums. Companies in Texas provide lower rates to drivers who do not file claims often. Your insurance policy is meant to be used in the event of the bigger claims that can’t be paid out-of-pocket.
- Males pay more for insurance – Statistics demonstrate women tend to be less risk to insure than men. That doesn’t necessarily mean that men are worse drivers. Women and men have accidents in similar percentages, but men cause more damage. Men also receive more costly citations like DUI and reckless driving. Male drivers age 16 to 19 are several times more likely to be in an accident and thus pay the highest rates.
Save 15 percent in 15 minutes? Is it for real?
Texas drivers get pounded daily by advertisements for the lowest price auto insurance by Allstate and Progressive. They all say the same thing about savings if you change to their company.
How does each company say the same thing? This is how they do it.
All the different companies are able to cherry pick for the driver that makes them money. An example of a driver they prefer might be between the ages of 30 and 50, is a homeowner, and has a short commute. A driver who matches those parameters receives the best rates and therefore will save quite a bit of money when switching.
Potential customers who are not a match for the “perfect” profile will be quoted higher rates which leads to the driver buying from a lower-cost company. The ad wording is “customers who switch” not “everyone that quotes” save that much money. This is how companies can truthfully make the claims of big savings. This emphasizes why you need to quote coverage with many companies. It’s not possible to predict which car insurance company will have the lowest rates.
Additional reading for car insurance information
Even more information can be found at the Texas Department of Insurance website. Texas drivers can view a list of available companies, file complaints about a company, find out which companies have the most complaints, and report car insurance fraud.
The following articles may also be useful.
Quote often and quote early
Drivers switch companies for a number of reasons such as delays in responding to claim requests, denial of a claim, delays in paying claims and even poor customer service. Regardless of your reason for switching companies, choosing a new insurance company is less work than it seems.
Lower-priced car insurance is available both online as well as from independent agents in Grand Prairie, and you should be comparing both in order to have the best chance of saving money. Some car insurance companies don’t offer the ability to get a quote online and most of the time these smaller companies sell through independent agents.
In this article, we presented a lot of techniques to shop for car insurance online. The most important thing to understand is the more quotes you get, the better your comparison will be. Consumers may even find the most savings is with the smaller companies.