5 Discounts Morristown Drivers Miss when Shopping for Auto Insurance Online

Have you had enough of scraping the payment together each month for car insurance? Your situation is no different than millions of other consumers.

There are many insurance companies to insure vehicles with, and although it’s a good thing to have a selection, it makes it harder to find the best rates for your vehicles.

Smart consumers take time to price shop coverage on a regular basis because rates tend to go up over time. Even if you think you had the lowest price a year ago you will most likely find a better rate today. So block out anything you think you know about auto insurance because you’re about to learn the quickest way to properly buy coverages and cut your premium.

Discounts are great for lower rates

Insurance can cost an arm and a leg, but there are discounts available that many people don’t even know exist. Larger premium reductions will be automatically applied at the time of quoting, but a few must be specifically requested prior to getting the savings.

• Discount for New Cars – Insuring a new car can save up to 30% since new cars are generally safer.
• Paperwork-free – Some insurance companies will discount your bill up to fifty bucks for buying your policy online.
• More Vehicles More Savings – Insuring multiple cars or trucks with the same company can get a discount on all vehicles.
• Anti-theft System – Vehicles with anti-theft systems help deter theft and qualify for as much as a 10% discount.
• Save over 55 – Mature drivers may qualify for a discount up to 10%.

It’s important to understand that some of the credits will not apply to the overall cost of the policy. Most cut the price of certain insurance coverages like physical damage coverage or medical payments. So despite the fact that it appears you would end up receiving a 100% discount, you won’t be that lucky. Any qualifying discounts will reduce the cost of coverage.

To see a list of insurers offering auto insurance discounts in Morristown, follow this link.

More information is available on the website for the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance located here. Visitors are able to file complaints about an insurance agent or broker, view a list of available companies, report car insurance fraud, and learn about insurance regulations.

Additional helpful sites include NAIC.org’s Understanding your Policy and this page for help finding agents in Morristown, TN.

Coverages available on your auto insurance policy

Having a good grasp of a auto insurance policy aids in choosing the best coverages for your vehicles. The coverage terms in a policy can be ambiguous and even agents have difficulty translating policy wording. These are typical coverage types found on most auto insurance policies.

Comprehensive (Other than Collision)

This coverage pays for damage from a wide range of events other than collision. You first have to pay a deductible and the remainder of the damage will be paid by comprehensive coverage.

Comprehensive coverage protects against claims like fire damage, a broken windshield, damage from flooding, damage from a tornado or hurricane and hitting a deer. The most your auto insurance company will pay is the cash value of the vehicle, so if the vehicle’s value is low it’s not worth carrying full coverage.

Protection from uninsured/underinsured drivers

Your UM/UIM coverage gives you protection when the “other guys” are uninsured or don’t have enough coverage. Covered losses include medical payments for you and your occupants and damage to your vehicle.

Because many people only purchase the least amount of liability that is required (25/50/15), it only takes a small accident to exceed their coverage. So UM/UIM coverage should not be overlooked. Most of the time these coverages are similar to your liability insurance amounts.

Collision coverage

This coverage covers damage to your vehicle resulting from a collision with an object or car. A deductible applies and the rest of the damage will be paid by collision coverage.

Collision insurance covers things such as colliding with another moving vehicle, crashing into a building, damaging your car on a curb, sideswiping another vehicle and rolling your car. This coverage can be expensive, so you might think about dropping it from vehicles that are 8 years or older. You can also increase the deductible to get cheaper collision coverage.

Auto liability

This coverage can cover damages or injuries you inflict on other people or property in an accident. This coverage protects you from claims by other people. It does not cover damage to your own property or vehicle.

It consists of three limits, bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. Your policy might show values of 100/300/100 that means you have $100,000 bodily injury coverage, a per accident bodily injury limit of $300,000, and $100,000 of coverage for damaged propery. Occasionally you may see a combined limit which limits claims to one amount rather than limiting it on a per person basis.

Liability insurance covers things such as attorney fees, loss of income, structural damage, medical expenses and repair costs for stationary objects. How much liability should you purchase? That is a decision to put some thought into, but you should buy as much as you can afford. Tennessee requires minimum liability limits of 25,000/50,000/15,000 but you should consider buying higher limits.

Medical expense insurance

Medical payments and Personal Injury Protection insurance reimburse you for bills for things like prosthetic devices, doctor visits, surgery, hospital visits and rehabilitation expenses. The coverages can be utilized in addition to your health insurance policy or if there is no health insurance coverage. Medical payments and PIP cover both the driver and occupants and will also cover any family member struck as a pedestrian. Personal injury protection coverage is only offered in select states but can be used in place of medical payments coverage

One last thing

Cheap auto insurance is definitely available on the web in addition to many Morristown insurance agents, and you need to comparison shop both so you have a total pricing picture. Some auto insurance companies do not provide the ability to get a quote online and most of the time these small insurance companies sell through independent agents.

We just covered a lot of tips how to get a better price on auto insurance. It’s most important to understand that the more quotes you get, the more likely it is that you will get a better rate. Consumers could even find that the best price on auto insurance is with some of the lesser-known companies. Smaller companies can often provide lower rates in certain areas compared to the large companies like Allstate, GEICO and Progressive.