Largo Car Insurance Buying Tips You Aren’t Supposed to Know

If you are a novice to online car insurance shopping, it’s easy to be confused by the sheer number of online companies all offering big savings in Largo.

Take discounts and save

The cost of insuring your cars can be expensive, but there could be available discounts that can drop the cost substantially. Some discounts apply automatically at quote time, but less common discounts must be manually applied before being credited. If they aren’t giving you every credit available, you are throwing money away.

• Claim Free – Claim-free drivers can save substantially when compared with drivers who are more careless.
• Student Driver Training – Cut your cost by having your teen driver complete a driver education course in high school.
• Own a Home – Being a homeowner can save you money due to the fact that maintaining a home requires personal responsibility.
• Military Discounts – Being deployed with a military unit may qualify for rate reductions.
• Resident Student – Youth drivers who attend school more than 100 miles from home and don’t have a car can receive lower rates.
• Seat Belt Usage – Using a seat belt and requiring all passengers to wear their seat belts could cut 10% or more on the medical payments or PIP coverage costs.

Consumers should know that some credits don’t apply to the overall cost of the policy. Most cut specific coverage prices like comp or med pay. So when it seems like all the discounts add up to a free policy, you won’t be that lucky. Any qualifying discounts will reduce the amount you have to pay.

For a list of insurers offering car insurance discounts in Largo, click here to view.

What impacts Largo insurance rates?

It’s important that you understand the rating factors that help determine your car insurance rates. Knowing what controls the rates you pay helps enable you to make changes that will entitle you to much lower annual insurance costs.

• Choose a safe vehicle and save – Vehicles with good safety scores get lower rates. The safest vehicles reduce injuries and lower injury rates means lower claim amounts and lower rates for you.
• A lapse in coverage is a bad thing – Having an insurance coverage lapse will be a quick way to trigger a rate increase. Not only will you pay more, but not being able to provide proof of insurance may earn you a hefty fine and possibly a revoked license.
• Males pay more for insurance – Statistics show that women are safer drivers than men. However, this does not mean men are worse drivers. Both sexes tend to get into accidents in similar numbers, but the men have costlier accidents. Men also statistically get more serious tickets such as DWI and reckless driving. Young males are several times more likely to be in an accident and thus pay the highest rates.
• Do you have a high stress job? – Occupations like real estate brokers, architects and financial analysts have higher average rates due to stressful work requirements and lots of time spent at work. Conversely, professions such as scientists, engineers and retirees get better rates.
• What type of vehicle do you drive? – The type of vehicle you are insuring makes a significant difference in how high your rates are. Lower performance four cylinder passenger cars generally have the cheapest insurance rates, but the final cost of insurance is determined by many other factors.

Save $436 a year. For real?

Florida drivers can’t get away from ads for the lowest price auto insurance from the likes of Allstate and Progressive. All the companies make the same claim that you’ll save big after switching your coverage to them.

How can each company say the same thing? This is how they do it.

All the different companies are able to cherry pick for the type of driver that is profitable for them. An example of a preferred risk might be profiled as between 30 and 50, insures multiple vehicles, and has excellent credit. Any new insured who fits that profile will get very good rates and therefore will save when they switch companies.

Potential insureds who don’t measure up to these standards will be quoted a more expensive rate which leads to business going elsewhere. Company advertisements say “drivers who switch” but not “drivers who get quotes” save that kind of money. That’s why companies can advertise the way they do.

This emphasizes why drivers should get as many comparisons as possible. It is impossible to predict the company that will provide you with the cheapest rates.

Additional reading for car insurance information

Additional information can be read on the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation website through this link. Consumers can discover disciplinary actions, read consumer alerts, find out which companies have the most complaints, and learn about specific coverages.

Buy online or local, you save

Throughout this article, we presented a lot of tips how to compare car insurance prices online. It’s most important to understand that the more companies you get rates for, the better chance you’ll have of finding lower rates. Drivers may discover the best prices are with some of the lesser-known companies.

People leave their current company for any number of reasons including unfair underwriting practices, policy cancellation, lack of trust in their agent or denial of a claim. Regardless of your reason, finding a new company can be less work than you think.

When buying insurance coverage, you should never buy less coverage just to save a little money. There are many occasions where an insured dropped uninsured motorist or liability limits to discover at claim time that the savings was not a smart move. Your focus should be to get the best coverage possible at an affordable rate while still protecting your assets.