5 Top Methods to Lower Car Insurance Costs in Huntington

Having to pay for overpriced car insurance can dwindle your checking account and force you to make sacrifices. Doing a price comparison is a great way to lower your monthly bill.

Multiple auto insurance companies compete for your business, and it can be difficult to compare rates to get the lowest rate possible.

These 5 discounts can lower your rates

Car insurance is not cheap, but there are discounts available that you may not know about. Certain discounts will be applied at quote time, but a few need to be asked about prior to getting the savings.

• Homeowners Pay Less – Being a homeowner can help you save on car insurance due to the fact that maintaining a home demonstrates responsibility.
• Anti-lock Brakes – Anti-lock brake equipped vehicles can avoid accidents and will save you 10% or more.
• Sign Online – A handful of insurance companies will give a small break for buying your policy online.
• Claim Free – Claim-free drivers pay less when compared with bad drivers.
• One Accident Forgiven – A handful of insurance companies allow you one accident before hitting you with a surcharge so long as you haven’t had any claims for a certain period of time.

It’s important to understand that many deductions do not apply the the whole policy. Most only reduce the price of certain insurance coverages like liability and collision coverage. So when the math indicates it’s possible to get free car insurance, companies don’t profit that way. Any qualifying discounts will cut the cost of coverage.

Where Can I Get Cheap Huntington Car Insurance?

There are a variety of methods to shop for car insurance, but some are easier and takes less work. You can spend your afternoon talking to insurance agencies in Huntington, or you could save time and use the internet to get prices fast.

Most of the best insurance companies belong to a marketplace that enables customers to submit one quote, and each company returns a competitive quote for coverage. This saves time by eliminating form submissions to each individual car insurance company.

To find out what other companies charge click here to open in new window.

The only drawback to pricing coverage this way is you can’t choose the providers to get pricing from. If you would rather choose individual companies to compare prices, we put together a list of the cheapest car insurance companies in West Virginia. Click here for list of insurance companies in West Virginia.

It doesn’t matter which method you choose, just make darn sure you compare apples-to-apples coverage limits and deductibles with every price quote. If you have different limits and deductibles on each one it’s impossible to truly determine the lowest rate in Huntington. Quoting even small variations in coverage limits may cause a big price difference. Just keep in mind that having more price comparisons helps you find a lower rate.

Learn about car insurance coverages

Having a good grasp of a car insurance policy helps when choosing the best coverages and the correct deductibles and limits. The terms used in a policy can be difficult to understand and coverage can change by endorsement. Below you’ll find typical coverage types found on most car insurance policies.

Liability car insurance – This coverage protects you from injuries or damage you cause to a person or their property by causing an accident. This insurance protects YOU from legal claims by others. It does not cover damage to your own property or vehicle.

Split limit liability has three limits of coverage: bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. Your policy might show values of 50/100/50 that means you have $50,000 bodily injury coverage, $100,000 for the entire accident, and $50,000 of coverage for damaged propery. Another option is one limit called combined single limit (CSL) which combines the three limits into one amount without having the split limit caps.

Liability coverage protects against claims such as repair costs for stationary objects, medical services and loss of income. How much coverage you buy is a decision to put some thought into, but you should buy as much as you can afford. West Virginia requires minimum liability limits of 20,000/40,000/10,000 but you should consider buying more liability than the minimum.

Collision coverage – Collision coverage pays to fix your vehicle from damage caused by collision with a stationary object or other vehicle. You have to pay a deductible then the remaining damage will be paid by your insurance company.

Collision coverage protects against things like scraping a guard rail, rolling your car and crashing into a building. Collision is rather expensive coverage, so you might think about dropping it from vehicles that are 8 years or older. Drivers also have the option to raise the deductible to get cheaper collision coverage.

Medical expense coverage – Med pay and PIP coverage provide coverage for expenses like hospital visits, chiropractic care and pain medications. The coverages can be used to cover expenses not covered by your health insurance policy or if there is no health insurance coverage. They cover you and your occupants as well as if you are hit as a while walking down the street. PIP is not an option in every state but can be used in place of medical payments coverage

Comprehensive protection – This will pay to fix damage OTHER than collision with another vehicle or object. You first have to pay a deductible then the remaining damage will be covered by your comprehensive coverage.

Comprehensive coverage protects against things like rock chips in glass, damage from a tornado or hurricane, theft, fire damage and a broken windshield. The maximum amount you can receive from a comprehensive claim is the ACV or actual cash value, so if it’s not worth much more than your deductible it’s probably time to drop comprehensive insurance.

Uninsured or underinsured coverage – Your UM/UIM coverage protects you and your vehicle when other motorists either are underinsured or have no liability coverage at all. Covered losses include medical payments for you and your occupants as well as your vehicle’s damage.

Since a lot of drivers have only the minimum liability required by law (20/40/10), it doesn’t take a major accident to exceed their coverage limits. So UM/UIM coverage should not be overlooked. Most of the time your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages are identical to your policy’s liability coverage.

Keep this in mind

You just read many tips how you can shop for car insurance online. The key concept to understand is the more times you quote, the higher the chance of saving money. Consumers may even find the best price on car insurance is with a smaller regional carrier. They can often insure niche markets at a lower cost than the large multi-state companies such as Allstate and Progressive.

Lower-priced car insurance can be purchased from both online companies in addition to many Huntington insurance agents, and you should compare price quotes from both to have the best rate selection. Some car insurance companies do not provide online price quotes and most of the time these small, regional companies sell through independent agents.