Macon Car Insurance Buying Tips You Aren’t Supposed to Know

Shopping for the lowest cost Macon car insurance on the web can seem to be problematic for people who are new to online price comaprisons. Since there are so many companies in the marketplace, how can anyone effectively compare every company to locate the best pricing?

Pricing the cheapest protection in Macon is simple if you know the tricks. In a nutshell, every vehicle owner who buys car insurance will be able to reduce their rates. Nevertheless, Georgia vehicle owners do need to know the way insurance companies sell online and use this information to your advantage.

Macon Rates are Influenced by These Factors

An important part of buying insurance is that you know some of the elements that come into play when calculating the price you pay for car insurance. When you know what positively or negatively influences your rates helps enable you to make changes that could result in better car insurance rates.

  • Lower rates come with age – Older drivers are more responsible, tend to file fewer claims and are safer drivers. Teenage drivers tend to be careless and easily distracted behind the wheel therefore car insurance rates are much higher.
  • High credit ratings translate to low rates – Having a bad credit history is a huge factor in your rate calculation. So if your credit rating is not that good, you could save money insuring your by repairing your credit. Drivers who have high credit ratings tend to be better drivers and file fewer claims than drivers who have lower credit scores.
  • Add-on coverages can add up – There are quite a few extra coverages that you can get tricked into buying on your policy. Things like vanishing deductibles, accidental death and term life insurance may be wasting your money. These coverages may sound good initially, but if they’re wasting money remove them from your policy.
  • Traffic violations increase rates – Drivers who don’t get tickets get better rates than people who have multiple driving citations. Just one moving violation can bump up the cost twenty percent or more. Drivers who have severe citations such as DUI or reckless driving may need to submit a SR-22 form with their state motor vehicle department in order to drive a vehicle legally.

Companies offer discounts so take them!

Insuring your vehicles can cost a lot, but there could be available discounts that many people don’t even know exist. Certain discounts will be triggered automatically at quote time, but some may not be applied and must be manually applied before you get the savings.

  • Early Switch Discount – Some companies give discounts for signing up prior to your current policy expiration. It’s a savings of about 10%.
  • Drive Safe and Save – Drivers who avoid accidents can pay as much as 50% less than less cautious drivers.
  • Homeowners Pay Less – Owning a house in Macon can save you money because owning a home requires personal responsibility.
  • Club Memberships – Participating in certain professional organizations could trigger savings on car insurance.
  • Low Mileage – Fewer annual miles could qualify for discounted rates on garaged vehicles.
  • Driver Safety – Taking part in a course in driver safety could cut 5% off your bill if you qualify.
  • Anti-theft Discount – Cars that have factory anti-theft systems prevent vehicle theft and will save you 10% or more.
  • Payment Discounts – By paying your policy upfront instead of monthly or quarterly installments you can actually save on your bill.
  • No Claims – Drivers with accident-free driving histories can earn big discounts compared to drivers who are more careless.

It’s important to note that some of the credits will not apply to all coverage premiums. Most only reduce individual premiums such as collision or personal injury protection. Just because it seems like all the discounts add up to a free policy, it doesn’t quite work that way. But all discounts will help reduce the amount you have to pay.

For a list of companies offering car insurance discounts in Georgia, click here to view.auto insurance image

Save 15 percent in 15 minutes? Is it for real?

State Farm, Allstate and GEICO regularly use television and radio advertisements. All the companies say the same thing that you can save if you move your coverage to them. How can each company claim to save you money? This is how they do it.

All the different companies can use profiling for the driver they prefer to insure. For example, a profitable customer might be profiled as between 30 and 50, has no tickets, and has a high credit rating. Any driver who fits that profile will get the preferred rates and as a result will probably pay quite a bit less when switching companies.

Drivers who are not a match for this ideal profile must pay higher rates which usually ends up with the driver buying from a lower-cost company. The ad wording is “drivers who switch” not “people who quote” save that kind of money. That’s the way insurance companies can make the claims of big savings.

This illustrates why drivers must compare many company’s rates. It’s not possible to predict the company that will provide you with the cheapest rates.

Additional information is available on the Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner website through this link. Georgia consumers can learn about specific coverages, report car insurance fraud, view agent and company licensing information, and view a list of available companies.

Keep this in mind

Cheaper car insurance is possible online and also from your neighborhood Macon agents, so you should be comparing quotes from both in order to have the best price selection to choose from. Some insurance providers may not provide online price quotes and these small insurance companies work with independent agents.

When you buy insurance online, do not reduce coverage to reduce premium. There have been many cases where someone dropped physical damage coverage only to regret at claim time that saving that couple of dollars actually costed them tens of thousands. The proper strategy is to buy enough coverage for the lowest price while still protecting your assets.

People switch companies for any number of reasons including unfair underwriting practices, policy non-renewal, high prices or an unsatisfactory settlement offer. Whatever your reason, finding a new company can be easy and end up saving you some money.