Tips to Save Money on Your Insurance!
Let’s face it, everyone wants to pay less for their insurance. Insurance is an expense that you only get something out of, if something bad happens. Insurance is expensive and it’s not getting less expensive. We don’t recommend lowering your insurance by having lower coverage’s, there are better alternatives.
Here are the 3 ways to save money on your insurance without cutting coverage’s:
1. Discounts
There are a number of discounts available that you may not know you are missing out on. The occupational discount is one of them. Most carriers provide a discount if you are a doctor, nurse, police officer, firefighter, paramedic, engineer, scientist, teacher, veterinarian, dentist, pharmacist, accountant, pilot, etc… Some companies provide a discount if you are a business owner, if you can provide a copy of your business license or a copy of your business insurance you may qualify for a discount. College degree, if you can provide a copy of your diploma you may qualify for a discount.
There are a number of discounts available and it will depend on what your insurance company has to offer. For example, Nationwide Insurance has a “SmartRide” program. If you opt in for the SmartRide program you get a discount. Nationwide sends you a small device that plugs into your vehicle and tracks your mileage for three months. After three months they send you a package to mail the device back. The multiple the mileage by 4 (3 months X 4 = 12 months) and determine your annual mileage. This locks in that mileage for the life of the vehicle. Not only do they offer a 5% discount just for opting into the program but depending on your mileage you may qualify for an even larger discount. Plus, you don’t have to have to worry about providing annual mileage again or having your miles increased on renewal. Your best bet is to get in touch with an awesome insurance advisor that can use their expertise to get you all of the discounts you deserve.
It will vary with each insurance company but most of the companies that insureCAL is partnered with offer all of these discounts. However, most companies have a maximum on discounts. I.e., if you qualify for the doctor, college graduate, and business owner discount you aren’t going to receive three discounts. Wouldn’t that be nice though!
2. Packaging
One of the largest discounts available is the “Multi-Policy Discount“. One of our insurance companies offers a 25% discount on the home insurance policy and a 20% discount on the auto insurance policy when they are both insured through them. On average that could save a family $500-1000/year or more… Those are huge savings!!!
There are some cases that you may have separate insurance companies but 90% of the time it is always best if all of your insurance is with one company.
3. Drive Less
The biggest rating factor on auto insurance is annual mileage. If you can cut back how many miles you drive, you can lower your reported annual mileage, which will in turn lower your insurance premium. Whether you have a long commute (more than 50 miles) or a short commute (less than 50 miles) carpooling may be one option to help cut back those miles.
These are just a few tips, there may be a number of other options not covered in this post. As always, the best tip we can offer is to partner with an insurance advisor that cares about you and has your best interests in mind. If all else fails, get in touch with us as we’d love to help.