6 Best Tricks to Reduce Car Insurance Costs in Kalamazoo, MI

Have you had enough of paying out the nose each month for car insurance? You’re in the same situation as many other drivers in Michigan.

Many insurers vie to insure your vehicles, and it can be difficult to compare rates and get the definite best price available.

Smart consumers take time to price shop coverage before your policy renews due to the fact that insurance rates change frequently. Despite the fact that you may have had the lowest rates last year the chances are good that you can find a lower rate today. Forget all the misinformation about car insurance because I’m going to let you in on the secrets to the only way to get good coverage at a lower rate.

If you currently have a car insurance policy, you stand a good chance to be able to save some money using these tips. Choosing the best insurance company for you in Kalamazoo is quite easy. But Michigan car owners can benefit by having an understanding of the way insurance companies market insurance on the web and use this information to your advantage.

Don’t miss out on these six money-saving discounts

The cost of insuring your cars can be expensive, but discounts can save money and there are some available to help bring down the price. Certain discounts will be applied when you get a quote, but some must be manually applied before being credited.

• Driver’s Ed – Have your child successfully complete driver’s ed class in school.
• Safety Course Discount – Taking a defensive driving course could save 5% or more and easily recoup the cost of the course.
• Senior Discount – If you’re over the age of 55, you may receive a discount up to 10%.
• Anti-theft Discount – Cars that have factory anti-theft systems prevent vehicle theft and therefore earn up to a 10% discount.
• Sign Online – Certain companies will discount your bill up to fifty bucks for buying your policy over the internet.
• Use Seat Belts – Buckling up and requiring all passengers to buckle their seat belts could cut 10% or more off your PIP or medical payments premium.

It’s important to understand that some credits don’t apply to your bottom line cost. Most only reduce the cost of specific coverages such as liability and collision coverage. So even though they make it sound like you would end up receiving a 100% discount, you won’t be that lucky. But any discount will help reduce your overall premium however.

To choose insurers with the best car insurance discounts in Michigan, click here to view.

Car Insurance Comparison Rates in Kalamazoo, MI

To find the best car insurance prices, there are several ways to compare quotes and find the best price. The best method to find the cheapest insurance rates is to use the internet to compare rates. This can be done in several different ways.

• The easiest and least time consuming way to get quotes is to use a rate comparison form (click to open form in new window). This easy form saves time by eliminating a different quote for every car insurance company. One quote request gets you coverage quotes from all major companies.
• A less efficient way to shop for car insurance online requires you to visit each company website to request a price quote. For sake of this example, we’ll pretend you want to compare rates from Progressive, Farmers and GMAC. You would have to go to every website and enter your information, and that’s why the first method is more popular. For a list of links to insurance companies in Kalamazoo, click here.

Which method you use is up to you, but compare apples-to-apples coverage limits on every quote you get. If your comparisons have different deductibles it’s not possible to make a fair comparison in Kalamazoo. Having just a slight variation in limits may result in large price differences. And when comparing car insurance rates, know that more quotes will improve the odds of getting lower pricing.

Auto insurance coverages

Having a good grasp of car insurance can be of help when determining the best coverages and the correct deductibles and limits. The coverage terms in a policy can be impossible to understand and reading a policy is terribly boring. These are typical coverage types found on most car insurance policies.

Uninsured Motorist or Underinsured Motorist insurance – This coverage provides protection when the “other guys” either have no liability insurance or not enough. Covered losses include injuries sustained by your vehicle’s occupants and also any damage incurred to your vehicle.

Since a lot of drivers carry very low liability coverage limits (Michigan limits are 20/40/10), their limits can quickly be used up. For this reason, having high UM/UIM coverages is important protection for you and your family. Normally these limits do not exceed the liability coverage limits.

Comprehensive coverage (or Other than Collision) – Comprehensive insurance coverage will pay to fix damage OTHER than collision with another vehicle or object. You need to pay your deductible first then your comprehensive coverage will pay.

Comprehensive coverage protects against things such as damage from getting keyed, hail damage, a tree branch falling on your vehicle and falling objects. The maximum payout your car insurance company will pay is the cash value of the vehicle, so if your deductible is as high as the vehicle’s value consider removing comprehensive coverage.

Liability car insurance – Liability coverage will cover damage that occurs to other’s property or people by causing an accident. This insurance protects YOU from legal claims by others. It does not cover your own vehicle damage or injuries.

Split limit liability has three limits of coverage: bodily injury for each person injured, bodily injury for the entire accident and a property damage limit. You commonly see policy limits of 100/300/100 that translate to $100,000 bodily injury coverage, a total of $300,000 of bodily injury coverage per accident, and a limit of $100,000 paid for damaged property. Another option is one number which is a combined single limit which provides one coverage limit without having the split limit caps.

Liability coverage pays for things like repair bills for other people’s vehicles, court costs, repair costs for stationary objects, attorney fees and legal defense fees. How much coverage you buy is a personal decision, but consider buying as much as you can afford. Michigan state minimum liability requirements are 20,000/40,000/10,000 but drivers should carry better liability coverage.

Collision coverages – This coverage will pay to fix damage to your vehicle resulting from colliding with another vehicle or an object, but not an animal. You will need to pay your deductible then your collision coverage will kick in.

Collision can pay for things like hitting a mailbox, colliding with a tree and crashing into a building. Collision is rather expensive coverage, so analyze the benefit of dropping coverage from vehicles that are older. It’s also possible to bump up the deductible in order to get cheaper collision rates.

Insurance for medical payments – Medical payments and Personal Injury Protection insurance provide coverage for bills for nursing services, surgery and doctor visits. The coverages can be used to cover expenses not covered by your health insurance policy or if there is no health insurance coverage. Coverage applies to you and your occupants and also covers any family member struck as a pedestrian. PIP is only offered in select states but can be used in place of medical payments coverage

Quote more, save more

As you prepare to switch companies, it’s a bad idea to skimp on coverage in order to save money. There are too many instances where consumers will sacrifice liability limits or collision coverage and learned later that the small savings ended up costing them much more. Your focus should be to find the BEST coverage at the best price, not the least amount of coverage.

In this article, we presented a lot of information how to lower your car insurance rates. The key concept to understand is the more you quote, the better your comparison will be. Drivers may discover the lowest premiums are with a small mutual company. These companies may only write in your state and offer lower rates than their larger competitors like Allstate or State Farm.

Additional car insurance information is available on the website for the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation through this link. Visitors are able to report car insurance fraud, file complaints about a company, and read enforcement actions against agents and companies.