Pay Less for Des Moines Car Insurance Rates in Five Minutes

Having to pay for overpriced car insurance can dwindle your personal savings and make it hard to pay other bills. Comparing price quotes is a smart way to cut your insurance bill.

Big-name insurance companies like Progressive, State Farm and GEICO continually bombard you with ad campaigns and it is challenging if not impossible to sift through the bull and do the work needed to find the best deal.

If you currently have car insurance, you should be able to reduce your rates substantially using this information. Finding affordable coverage in Des Moines is quite easy. Although Iowa drivers must learn how companies market insurance on the web.

How to Lower your Car Insurance Rates

It’s important that you understand the rating factors that go into determining the rates you pay for car insurance. Knowing what controls the rates you pay helps enable you to make changes that may reward you with much lower annual insurance costs.

Listed below are some of the items that factor into rates.

Older drivers pay less – Teen drivers in Iowa are known to be careless and easily distracted behind the wheel so they pay higher car insurance rates. Adding a young driver onto your car insurance can be very expensive. Older drivers are more cautious drivers, statistically cause fewer accidents and are safer drivers.
More miles equals more premium – The more miles you rack up on your car each year the more you will pay for car insurance. Most companies price each vehicle’s coverage based upon how you use the vehicle. Vehicles used primarily for pleasure use can get a lower rate than those used for commuting. Double check that your car insurance policy shows how each vehicle is driven, because it can save money.
Allowing your policy to lapse raises rates – Having an insurance coverage lapse is a guaranteed way to bump up your car insurance costs. Not only will rates go up, failure to provide proof of insurance may earn you a steep fine or even jail time.You may need to file a SR-22 with the Iowa motor vehicle department to get your license reinstated.
Traffic violations increase rates – Your driving record impacts your car insurance rates tremendously. Drivers with clean records tend to pay less for car insurance compared to drivers with tickets. Only having one ticket may increase your cost by twenty percent. Drivers who get flagrant violations like hit and run, DWI or reckless driving convictions may be required to submit a SR-22 form to the state department of motor vehicles in order to keep their license.

Free Quotes for Car Insurance in Des Moines

Most major insurance companies like Allstate, GEICO and Progressive quote pricing on the web. Getting online quotes is fairly straightforward as you just type in your coverage preferences into a form. After the form is submitted, the company’s rating system will obtain reports for credit and driving violations and generates pricing information determined by many factors. Online quotes streamlines rate comparisons, but the process of having to visit a lot of sites and enter the same data into a form can be a bit tiresome and repetitive. Unfortunately, it is important to do this if you are searching for the best price on car insurance.

A more efficient way to compare rates is to use a quote form to get prices from more than one company. It’s a real time-saver, helps eliminate reptitive entry, and makes quoting online much more enjoyable. After your information is entered, it gets priced and you can select any one of the quotes returned. If one or more price quotes are lower than your current rates, you simply finish the application and purchase coverage. This process takes less than 15 minutes and may save quite a bit of money.

In order to get comparison pricing now, click here and enter your vehicle and coverage information. If you currently have coverage, we recommend you copy your coverages as shown on your current policy. Doing this assures you are getting comparison quotes using the same coverage and limits.

Companies offer discounts so take them!

Companies do not list all their discounts very well, so we took the time to find some of the best known and the more hidden discounts you could be receiving.

Driver’s Ed – Make teen driver coverage more affordable by requiring them to enroll in driver’s education in school.
Club Memberships – Being a member of a professional or civic organization may earn a discount on your policy.
Good Student – Getting good grades can be rewarded with saving of up to 25%. This discount can apply up to age 25.
Lower Rates for Military – Being on active duty in the military could be rewarded with lower premiums.
Distant Student – Youth drivers who attend school more than 100 miles from home and don’t have a car can receive lower rates.
Air Bag Discount – Factory air bags and/or automatic seat belt systems can get savings of 20% or more.
Save with a New Car – Adding a new car to your policy can cost up to 25% less due to better safety requirements for new cars.
Multi-policy Discount – If you have multiple policies with the same company you could get a discount of approximately 10% to 15%.

Keep in mind that most of the big mark downs will not be given to your bottom line cost. Some only apply to individual premiums such as physical damage coverage or medical payments. So when the math indicates having all the discounts means you get insurance for free, you’re out of luck.

Do I just need basic coverages?

When it comes to buying coverage, there is no cookie cutter policy. Every situation is different and your policy should reflect that. For instance, these questions might help in determining if you would benefit from an agent’s advice.

Should I buy only the required Iowa minimum liability coverage?
How high should my medical payments coverage be?
When should I remove comp and collision on my vehicle?
Do I need PIP coverage since I have good health insurance?
Is my cargo covered for damage or theft?
Does my liability insurance cover pulling a trailer or camper?
Am I covered if I crash into my own garage door?
Am I covered when driving on a suspended license?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions but you think they might apply to your situation then you might want to talk to a licensed insurance agent. To find lower rates from a local agent, fill out this quick form or you can go here for a list of companies in your area.

More tips and info about car insurance is available at the Iowa Insurance Division website. Iowa consumers can find disaster information, find a variety of consumer forms, view a list of available companies, and report car insurance fraud.

Also read more on this online resource for car insurance quotes in Iowa and this link where you can get more info about Des Moines car insurance.

A tidy conclusion

Throughout this article, we presented many ways to shop for car insurance online. The most important thing to understand is the more companies you get rates for, the higher the chance of saving money. You may be surprised to find that the lowest premiums are with a smaller regional carrier. They can often insure niche markets at a lower cost than the large multi-state companies such as Allstate or State Farm.

When buying insurance coverage, never buy lower coverage limits just to save a few bucks. In many instances, drivers have reduced collision coverage only to regret that the few dollars in savings costed them thousands. The proper strategy is to purchase a proper amount of coverage for the lowest price while not skimping on critical coverages.