8 Best Tricks to Reduce Auto Insurance Costs in Joliet Illinois

Are you tired of being strong-armed to pay your car insurance bill each month? You’re in the same situation as most other car owners in Illinois.

Multiple car insurance companies compete for your insurance dollar, and because of this it can be hard to compare insurance companies and get the best coverage at the cheapest price

If you have car insurance now, you stand a good chance to be able to lower your premiums substantially using this strategy. Finding affordable coverage in Joliet is not that difficult. But Illinois car owners must understand how companies sell online and take advantage of how the system works.

More discounts equal less premium

Properly insuring your vehicles can get expensive, but there could be available discounts to help offset the cost. Some discounts apply automatically when you quote, but a few need to be asked for before they will apply.

  • Early Switch Discount – Some insurance companies reward drivers for signing up before your current policy expires. It’s a savings of about 10%.
  • Homeowners Pay Less – Being a homeowner can save you money because owning a home requires personal responsibility.
  • Air Bag Discount – Vehicles with factory air bags and/or automatic seat belt systems can receive discounts of more than 20%.
  • Senior Citizens – If you qualify as a senior citizen, you can possibly qualify for reduced rates.
  • Sign Online – A few companies will give a small break for buying a policy and signing up on their website.
  • No Claims – Drivers who don’t have accidents can earn big discounts when compared with bad drivers.
  • Payment Discounts – If you pay your entire premium ahead of time instead of monthly or quarterly installments you may reduce your total bill.
  • Auto/Life Discount – Companies who offer life insurance give better rates if you take out auto and life insurance together.

As a disclaimer on discounts, some credits don’t apply to the entire policy premium. Most only cut individual premiums such as liability, collision or medical payments. So when the math indicates having all the discounts means you get insurance for free, companies don’t profit that way. Any amount of discount will help reduce your premiums.

To choose insurance companies who offer auto insurance discounts in Illinois, follow this link.

Automobile Insurance Quotes in Joliet

Performing a rate comparison is a ton of work if you aren’t aware of the best way to get rate quotes. You can waste a few hours (or days) talking to insurance companies in Joliet, or you could use online quoting to quickly compare rates.

Most car insurance companies participate in a marketplace that enables customers to enter their coverage request one time, and at least one company returns a rated price for coverage. This saves time by eliminating quote requests to each individual auto insurance company. To enter your information into the quoting system, click here to open in new window.

The single downside to getting quotes like this is you can’t choose the companies you will receive quotes from. So if you want to choose from a list of companies to request quotes from, we put together a list of the cheapest auto insurance companies in Illinois. View list of Illinois insurance companies.

However you get your quotes, make sure you use apples-to-apples coverages and limits for each comparison quote. If the quotes have different deductibles you will not be able to determine the lowest rate in Joliet. Slightly different insurance coverages can make a big difference in price. Just keep in mind that getting more free quotes helps you find better pricing.

Auto insurance coverage basics

Understanding the coverages of a auto insurance policy can help you determine appropriate coverage and the correct deductibles and limits. The coverage terms in a policy can be ambiguous and coverage can change by endorsement. Shown next are the normal coverages offered by auto insurance companies.

Coverage for medical expenses

Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and medical payments coverage pay for immediate expenses for nursing services, pain medications, X-ray expenses, prosthetic devices and ambulance fees. They are used in conjunction with a health insurance plan or if you do not have health coverage. Coverage applies to not only the driver but also the vehicle occupants as well as being hit by a car walking across the street. Personal Injury Protection is not universally available but it provides additional coverages not offered by medical payments coverage

Coverage for uninsured or underinsured drivers

Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist coverage protects you and your vehicle’s occupants from other drivers when they are uninsured or don’t have enough coverage. This coverage pays for medical payments for you and your occupants and damage to your vehicle.

Because many people only carry the minimum required liability limits (which is 20/40/15), it only takes a small accident to exceed their coverage. So UM/UIM coverage should not be overlooked. Usually the UM/UIM limits are similar to your liability insurance amounts.

Comprehensive auto insurance

Comprehensive insurance will pay to fix damage that is not covered by collision coverage. You need to pay your deductible first then the remaining damage will be covered by your comprehensive coverage.

Comprehensive coverage pays for claims like a broken windshield, theft, damage from getting keyed and a tree branch falling on your vehicle. The maximum payout you can receive from a comprehensive claim is the cash value of the vehicle, so if the vehicle’s value is low it’s probably time to drop comprehensive insurance.

Liability car insurance

Liability coverage will cover damage or injury you incur to people or other property in an accident. It consists of three limits, bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. You might see policy limits of 50/100/50 that means you have $50,000 in coverage for each person’s injuries, a total of $100,000 of bodily injury coverage per accident, and a limit of $50,000 paid for damaged property. Some companies may use one number which is a combined single limit that pays claims from the same limit with no separate limits for injury or property damage.

Liability coverage protects against claims like repair costs for stationary objects, medical services and bail bonds. How much liability coverage do you need? That is a decision to put some thought into, but buy as high a limit as you can afford. Illinois requires minimum liability limits of 20,000/40,000/15,000 but you should consider buying more coverage.

Joliet IL car insurance quote

Auto collision coverage

Collision insurance will pay to fix damage to your vehicle from colliding with another vehicle or an object, but not an animal. A deductible applies and the rest of the damage will be paid by collision coverage.

Collision coverage pays for things like hitting a parking meter, crashing into a ditch, damaging your car on a curb and backing into a parked car. Collision is rather expensive coverage, so you might think about dropping it from vehicles that are older. Another option is to increase the deductible to get cheaper collision coverage.

And the best car insurance company is…

While you’re price shopping online, it’s very important that you do not buy poor coverage just to save money. There are many occasions where an insured cut physical damage coverage to discover at claim time they didn’t purchase enough coverage. Your strategy should be to find the BEST coverage at the best price while still protecting your assets.

We just showed you a lot of tips how to shop for auto insurance online. The most important thing to understand is the more rate comparisons you have, the more likely it is that you will get a better rate. Consumers may even find the most savings is with a smaller regional carrier. They may only write in your state and offer lower rates as compared to the big name companies such as Progressive and GEICO.