Car insurance is mandatory in almost all states. As per law, driving a vehicle without proper car insurance is a punishable offence often reflecting on the track record of the driver as a black mark. The exact rules of insurance vary from state to state. For example, PIP or personal injury protection, that provides coverage to an individual who sustains injuries in an accident, for all medical expenses, loss of pay and even expenses for treating passengers, is mandatory in some states while it is optional in other states. However, one insurance that is common across the board is the liability insurance, which pays for the medical expenses and damage repair costs of the counterparty in an accident where you have been held legally responsible. Many people ignore the insurance to save on money while it is really possible to get a good rate for a policy that covers a lot of things.
The first tip is obviously to be aware of how insurance companies work. They are in the business to make profit and for them profit means getting premium from low risk people, who have a very less chance of making claims. If you are one such person, make sure you use it to the fullest extent to get as much discount as possible from the insurance company. This discount which is called the safe driver discount is given to those drivers who have a clean track record without accident claims or traffic rule violations against their name over an extended period of 3 years or more.
The second tip, of course, is to spend a bit on installing security equipment in your vehicle to make it safer and less vulnerable towards theft and accidents. While navigation and monitoring systems along with automatic controls make the car safer, anti-theft devices make it a safer bet against being lost. In both cases, you can claim a reasonable discount from the insurance company on the premium. Similarly, if your car, by virtue of its make is safer, possessing air bags and installed motorized seatbelts, you should claim for discounts from the insurance company.
A standard tip to all those contemplating to take an insurance policy is to club as many insurance policies as possible. So if you have a house as well as a car, taking policies from the same company will put you in a position to bargain the premium and get a fair discount as you bring in more business. This is referred to commonly as the discount owing to multiple policies. Hence commonly, a safe driver, a safe car and multiple policies are likely to get you more discounts and you must take them accordingly.
There are some things you can avoid on your insurance too to lower your premium. For example, you can do away with the commute expenses coverage as a result of the damage to your vehicle, if you are not overly dependent on a vehicle to reach your destination every day. In such a case your premium will go down because the coverage too is reducing in case of accident. Apart from all this, you can strike the right balance between premium and deductible which are inversely proportional to each other. Higher the deductible more is the amount you will pay towards damage repairs.
