Top Strategies to Lowering Your Mini Cooper Insurance Rates

Buyers have a choice when searching for the lowest priced Mini Cooper insurance. You can either waste hours contacting agents getting price quotes or use the internet to get rate quotes.

There are more efficient ways to compare car insurance rates so we’re going to tell you the quickest way to quote coverages for a Mini and find the cheapest rates from both online companies and local agents.

The purpose of this post is to instruct you on the best way to quote coverages and some tricks to saving. If you are paying for car insurance now, you stand a good chance to be able to lower your premiums substantially using these tips. But car owners must learn the way insurance companies price online insurance because it can help you find the best coverage.

You probably qualify for some discounts

Car insurance can cost a lot, but discounts can save money and there are some available to help bring down the price. Some trigger automatically at quote time, but lesser-known reductions have to be manually applied before you will receive the discount.

Braking Control Discount – Vehicles with anti-lock braking systems prevent accidents and qualify for as much as a 10% discount.
Paperless Signup – Certain companies may give you up to $50 just for signing your application online.
Fewer Miles Equal More Savings – Keeping the miles down on your Mini could be rewarded with a substantially lower rate.
Federal Government Employee – Active or retired federal employment can earn a discount up to 10% on Cooper insurance with certain companies.
Discounts for Safe Drivers – Safe drivers may save up to 50% more on Cooper insurance than less cautious drivers.
Seat Belt Usage – Requiring all passengers to use a seat belt can save 10% or more off your PIP or medical payments premium.

Consumers should know that most credits do not apply to all coverage premiums. A few only apply to the price of certain insurance coverages like liability, collision or medical payments. So despite the fact that it appears all the discounts add up to a free policy, car insurance companies aren’t that generous. Any amount of discount will bring down the amount you have to pay.

Quick Car Insurance Quotes

To find the best car insurance prices, there are several ways to compare rate quotes from car insurance companies in your area. By far the easiest way to find competitive Mini Cooper insurance rates is to perform an online rate comparison. This can be accomplished in just a few minutes using one of these methods.

The single most time-saving way consumers can make multiple comparisons is a comparison rater form click to view form in new window. This form saves time by eliminating multiple quote forms for each company you want a rate for. One quote request will return price quotes from several companies. It’s definitely the quickest method.
A slightly less efficient method to get comparison quotes is to manually visit each company website to complete a price quote. For example, let’s assume you want to compare rates from Allstate, Progressive and GMAC. To find out each rate you need to go to every website to enter your coverage information, which is why the first method is quicker. For a handy list of car insurance company links in your area, click here.
The hardest method to get comparison rates is to spend time driving to and from local insurance agencies. The ability to buy insurance online can eliminate the need for a local agent unless you prefer the professional guidance only provided by licensed agents. However, consumers can obtain prices from the web and get advice from an agent in your area and you’ll learn how to do that later.

It’s up to you which method you use, but make absolute certain that you use apples-to-apples deductibles and coverage limits with every price quote. If you use different limits and deductibles on each one you will not be able to determine the lowest rate for your Mini Cooper. Quoting even small variations in coverages can mean a large discrepancy in price. Just keep in mind that comparing more company’s prices will improve the odds of getting the best rates.

Mini Cooper insurance rates can be determined by these details

Consumers need to have an understanding of some of the elements that play a part in calculating car insurance rates. Having a good understanding of what impacts premium levels helps enable you to make changes that can help you get better car insurance rates.

Shown below are a few of the “ingredients” that factor into your rates.

Do you know your deductibles? – Insurance for physical damage to your car, also known as collision and other-than-collision, protects your Mini from damage. Some instances where coverage would apply could be colliding with a building, vandalism, and burglary. The deductibles are the amount of money you are willing to pay before your car insurance pays a claim. The more you are required to pay out-of-pocket, the lower your rates will be on Cooper insurance.
Women pay lower rates – Statistics show that women are safer drivers than men. However, this does not mean women are better drivers. They both cause accidents at a similar rate, but men have costlier accidents. Men also get cited for more serious violations such as reckless driving. Male drivers age 16 to 19 are several times more likely to be in an accident and are penalized with high car insurance rates.
Rates may be lower depending on your job – Did you know your occupation can influence how much you pay for car insurance? Occupations like real estate brokers, executives and accountants are shown to have higher rates than average due to job stress and long work days. On the flip side, occupations such as farmers, athletes and homemakers pay the least on Cooper insurance.
More people means more accidents – Choosing to live in a small town can save you money when talking about car insurance. Less people living in that area means fewer accidents as well as less vandalism and auto theft. Drivers in populated areas have traffic congestion and longer commutes to work. More time commuting means more change of being in an accident.
Careful drivers pay lower rates – A bad driving record has a lot to do with how much you pay for insurance. Even one citation can boost insurance rates by as much as thirty percent. Careful drivers have lower premiums than their less careful counterparts. If you have dangerous violations like reckless driving, hit and run or driving under the influence may find they need to submit a SR-22 or proof of financial responsibility with their state DMV in order to prevent a license revocation.
Do you need the policy add-ons? – There are a lot of extra bells and whistles that you can get tricked into buying when buying car insurance. Coverages like rental car reimbursement, accidental death and additional equipment coverage are examples of these. These may sound like a good investment when you first buy your policy, but now you might not need them so get rid of them and save.
High credit ratings translate to low rates – A driver’s credit rating is a important factor in your rate calculation. People with excellent credit tend to be more responsible as compared to drivers with lower ratings. So if your credit history can use some improvement, you could save money insuring your Mini Cooper by improving your rating.

Buying car insurance from a local agent

Some consumers would rather sit down with an agent. The best thing about price shopping on the web is the fact that you can find the best rates but also keep your business local. Supporting local agencies is especially important in smaller rural communities.

To find an agent, once you fill out this quick form, your information is submitted to local insurance agents who will battle for your insurance coverage. There is no reason to even leave your home due to the fact that quote results will go directly to your email. Now that’s easy! Get lower rates AND an agent nearby.

Insurance agent types

When searching for a reputable insurance agent or broker, there are a couple of types of insurance agents to choose from. agents are categorized either captive or independent (non-captive).

Independent Insurance Agents

Independent insurance agents are not locked into one company but rather can write business amongst many companies and potentially find a lower price. To transfer your coverage to a different company, your agent can switch companies and you don’t have to find a new agent. When shopping rates, we recommend you include price quotes from multiple independent agents to get the best comparison. Many write coverage with different regional companies which can save you money.

Agency Captives

This type of agents write business for a single company like Liberty Mutual, Allstate, Farmers Insurance or State Farm. They are unable to compare other company’s rates so they have no alternatives for high prices. Captive agencies are trained well on their products and sales techniques which helps them compete with independent agents. Consumers often purchase coverage from captives primarily because of loyalty to the company and the convenience of having a single billing for all their coverages.

For a full directory of insurance agencies, visit this site.

Deciding on an insurance agent needs to be determined by more than just a cheap price. Agents should be asked these questions:

How much can you save by raising your physical damage deductibles?
How are they compensated?
Are you getting all the discounts the company offers?
Do they have any clout with companies to ensure a fair claim settlement?
Does the company allow you to choose your own collision repair facility?
Does the agency support the community they serve?
Is working in the agency their full-time job?

After receiving answers to your satisfaction and a good coverage price, you may have just found an insurance agent that can service your policy.

Can switching companies really save?

Companies like Allstate and Progressive continually stream ads in print and on television. All the ads make the same claim about savings after switching your policy. How can each company claim to save you money? It’s all in the numbers.

All companies can use profiling for the type of customer they prefer to insure. A good example of a profitable customer could possibly be a mature driver, insures multiple vehicles, and drives newer vehicles. A customer getting a price quote who fits that profile will qualify for the lowest rates and as a result will probably cut their rates substantially.

Potential insureds who don’t measure up to the requirements will be charged a higher premium which usually ends up with business not being written. The ads state “customers who switch” not “everyone that quotes” save that kind of money. That’s why companies can truthfully make those claims.

That is why it’s extremely important to quote coverage with many companies. It’s not possible to predict the company that will have the lowest rates.

Quote often and quote early

Budget-conscious Mini Cooper insurance can be bought online as well as from independent agents, and you should be comparing both in order to have the best price selection to choose from. There are still a few companies who don’t offer online price quotes and usually these regional insurance providers provide coverage only through local independent agents.

People leave their current company for many reasons like delays in paying claims, delays in responding to claim requests, poor customer service or even policy cancellation. Regardless of your reason for switching companies, choosing a new company is pretty simple and you could end up saving a buck or two.

When you buy insurance online, it’s not a good idea to reduce needed coverages to save money. Too many times, an insured dropped uninsured motorist or liability limits and discovered at claim time they didn’t purchase enough coverage. Your strategy should be to buy the best coverage you can find at an affordable rate while still protecting your assets.