Never Quote Albany, NY Car Insurance Without Knowing These Money Saving Tricks

Price shopping your Albany car insurance can be challenging for people who are new to comparison shopping online. People have so many choices that it can quickly become a real hassle to locate the lowest price in Albany.

Consumers should take time to check car insurance prices every six months because insurance rates trend upward over time. If you had the lowest price a couple years back there may be better deals available now. Starting right now, forget all the misinformation about car insurance because we’re going to show you the quickest way to find better rates and still maintain coverage.

Compare the Market for Car Insurance in Albany

The are a couple different ways of comparing rate quotes from car insurance companies in your area. The best method to find the lowest rates consists of obtaining rate quotes online. This is very easy and can be done using a couple different methods.

  1. The easiest and least time consuming way to get the best comparison quotes is to use a rate comparison form (click to open form in new window). This easy form eliminates the need for separate quote forms for each company you want a rate for. A single, simple form will return price quotes . It’s definitely the quickest method.
  2. A different way to analyze rates is going to each individual company website to complete their respective quote request forms. For sake of this example, let’s say you want comparison quotes from Liberty Mutual, State Farm and GMAC. To find out each rate you need to take the time to go to each site to enter your coverage information, and that’s why the first method is more popular. For a handy list of car insurance company links in Albany, click here.

Whichever way you use, ensure you’re using apples-to-apples quote information for each price quote. If you are comparing unequal deductibles or liability limits it will be impossible to make an equal comparison in Albany. Quoting even small variations in coverage limits could mean much higher rates. Just remember that comparing a large number of companies will enable you to find a lower rate.

Do car insurance companies bend the truth?

Car insurance companies such as Progressive, Allstate and GEICO consistently run ads on television and other media. They all seem to have a common claim about savings if you change your policy. How do they all say the same thing? It’s all in the numbers.

All the different companies can use profiling for the type of customer that is profitable for them. An example of a profitable customer might be profiled as between the ages of 40 and 55, a clean driving record, and has great credit. A customer getting a price quote who meets those qualifications receives the best rates and most likely will save quite a bit of money when switching.

Potential customers who don’t meet this ideal profile will be quoted a higher premium and this can result in the customer not buying. The ad wording is “customers that switch” not “people who quote” save that much. This is how insurance companies can advertise the savings.

This emphasizes why drivers should compare many company’s rates. It’s impossible to know which insurance companies will give you the biggest savings.

Don’t miss out on these money-saving discounts

The price of auto insurance can be rather high, but there are discounts available that you may not know about. Most are applied at the time of purchase, but a few must be inquired about prior to receiving the credit.

  • Military Discounts – Being deployed with a military unit can result in better rates.
  • Early Switch Discount – A few companies offer discounts for buying a policy prior to your current policy expiring. It’s a savings of about 10%.
  • Employee of Federal Government – Being employed by or retired from a federal job can save as much as 8% with certain companies.
  • No Charge for an Accident – Some insurance companies allow you one accident before your rates go up so long as you haven’t had any claims prior to the accident.
  • College Student – Any of your kids who are attending college without a vehicle on campus can be insured at a reduced rate.
  • Club Memberships – Belonging to a civic or occupational organization could trigger savings on your policy.
  • E-sign – A handful of insurance companies give back up to $50 simply for signing on their website.
  • Student Driver Training – Have your child enroll in driver’s education if it’s offered in school.
  • Multi-car Discount – Buying insurance for more than one vehicle on the same car insurance policy may reduce the rate for each vehicle.

A little note about advertised discounts, some of the credits will not apply to your bottom line cost. Most only cut specific coverage prices like comp or med pay. So even though they make it sound like adding up those discounts means a free policy, you’re out of luck. But any discount will help reduce the amount you have to pay.

For a list of providers with the best car insurance discounts in New York, click this link.

Much more information about car insurance in New York is located on the New York Department of Financial Services website found here. New York consumers can download brochures, file complaints about a company, and read enforcement actions against agents and companies.

The following information may also be useful.

Better coverage you can count on

When buying insurance coverage, it’s a bad idea to sacrifice coverage to reduce premiums. In many instances, an insured dropped comprehensive coverage or liability limits and discovered at claim time that a couple dollars of savings turned into a financial nightmare. The ultimate goal is to purchase a proper amount of coverage at an affordable rate while still protecting your assets.

We just showed you some good ideas how you can reduce car insurance prices online. It’s most important to understand that the more rate comparisons you have, the higher the chance of saving money. Consumers may even find the lowest priced car insurance comes from a company that doesn’t do a lot of advertising.

Insureds leave their current company for a variety of reasons including lack of trust in their agent, not issuing a premium refund, poor customer service or being labeled a high risk driver. It doesn’t matter why you want to switch finding the right car insurance provider is pretty easy and you might even save some money in the process.