Companies that provide auto insurance are all playing the same game. They’re trying to outmaneuver each other and pick off each other’s clients through a variety of guarantees, pricing and marketing techniques. Luckily for us, all this competition works out to our advantage, even after we’ve purchased auto insurance.
Insuring your car is different than other types of insurance in a few ways that really play to our advantage:
- It’s less regulated.
- The sign up process is quicker.
- Competition is very high.
- It’s easy to drop one and move to another.
The ease by which you can pick up an auto insurance policy or drop one is quite remarkable compared to other types of insurance. In fact, 45 minutes and a couple phone calls can have you switched over to a new policy with time to spare.
This sets up a nice foundation for us to shop around and look for a better price on a regular basis. Even if you have a good auto insurance policy, there are a few excellent reasons to keep calling around to see if you can get a better price.
Here are three reasons why you’ll probably see some good results.
Insurance reps will bend over backwards to beat your current rate. – If you have a policy and call a competing company, posing as an unsatisfied customer, you’re essentially a gold mine to them. The person on the phone with you truly has every incentive to beat your current insurer’s price and will look for every possible way to give you a discount. If you do this for three or four different companies, you could end up with some pretty low quotes. Go with the lowest one, wait a few months than start the process all over again.
Some companies have discount policies that you might be unaware of. – Owning a newer car or turning 25 are some of the more known ways you can get a discount on your auto insurance. Though there are often discount policies companies have that you won’t know about until you call or do some research.
Even if you’ve gone with an auto insurance policy already, that company won’t call you and tell you about these discounts; you’ve got to ask them yourself. Call them up or do some digging. If you aren’t happy with the answers, jot them down and call some other insurance companies to see if they can offer you a wider range of discounts.
Rates can change on a fairly regular basis. – Auto insurance rates are wildly unpredictable, so it pays to keep checking back, whether you’re getting quotes online or just calling the companies and talking to a representative.
The downside of being this aggressive is that you’re bound to get your fair share of annoying call backs. Though if you’re thrifty at screening your calls and don’t mind doing so, a little prodding every few months is likely to save you a substantial amount on your monthly premium.
Conclusion
At some point in this process you’ll probably hit a dead end, but most people don’t even shop around. Make sure that you do until you’re certain you’ve got the lowest price available, then give it a year or so and go back for another round. You might be able to get your savings in the triple digits, which will really add up over the course of a year or two.
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written by: Jenny Sampson
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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
