Introduction.
Whether it’s come round to the time of year for your renewal or if you’ve got a new vehicle to insure – everyone wants to find ways to help in reducing auto insurance costs. It seems to be a fact of modern times that no matter how carefully you might have driven for years, having never even bumped your car let alone have been involved in an auto-wreck; the car insurance company keeps on increasing the cost of your auto insurance policy.
Auto insurance renewal costs.
The old saying goes “seek and ye shall find” and it’s a saying that can easily be applied to auto insurance. It’s amazing how many American motorists still labor under the illusion that the insurance company they’ve been with for years will always have their best interests at heart and will always offer them the best deal in auto insurance. Never mind the literature they send you with your car insurance renewal notice about how much they value you as a customer and how they understand your needs etc – if the price of your auto insurance has risen and you’ve not needed to claim on the policy, you should at lest challenge the new amount they want to charge you. After all they’re concerned with their profit margins, not your finances. It’s a fact that when folk challenge an insurance company over the renewal cost for auto insurance – the company will invariably be able to lower their offer. The question then arises, have they lowered it enough or can you get an even better car insurance deal elsewhere?
Getting a new auto insurance quote.
The following applies whether you want to get an auto insurance quote from a different insurance company to the one you’ve been using or if you’ve just bought a new auto and need to insure it for the first time. Many people these days will still get a car insurance quote by either phoning or emailing a single specialist car insurance company or broker. Which might be fine as they’ll want to reel you in as a new customer, so they might even offer you a fair deal. However, there can be no doubt that if you have internet access then searching online for auto insurance deals will give you a better selection to choose from and will give you the very best prices available. Whether you use one of the car insurance comparison websites or simply request auto insurance quotes from different companies of your choice is entirely up to you. Of course when looking at the various prices you’re offered to insure your vehicle, don’t simply accept he lowest value quote you see – do make sure the offers are of an equal nature. Even using an auto insurance price comparison website not all of the offers will be of equal value, something that we’ll consider in the next section.
Comparing the value of auto insurance offers.
Of utmost importance when comparing auto insurance offers is that if you are seeking more than the legally minimal liability car insurance that all of the offers are of equal merit. Put another way if you want liability cover with comprehensive and/or collision cover then be suspicious of an auto insurance offer at $500 if all the others are nearer to $1200. That’s not to say that you might not uncover a truly amazing car insurance offer, just check thoroughly exactly what you’ll be getting for your dollars – some times low cost can just be cheap rather than good value! Secondly, suppose you’ve checked all the auto insurance policies that you like the prices for and satisfy yourself that they all include all of the cover you need/want. Quite understandably you’ll probably click that mouse on the $800 offer rather than the $1200 one; again you should take a moment to look at the exact offer. Particularly if you live in a city or major conurbation, the need for you to claim on your car insurance can increase through no fault of your own. For example, someone puts a dent in your car door in the mall parking lot, or a mirror gets knocked off when you’re parked somewhere – you might not even be in the car at the time and so cannot make an auto insurance claim off the other driver. Getting an electric door mirror replaced can easily cost $500 or more at a dealer auto repair shop, so which car insurance offer might be better for you – a $800 one with a $300 deductible, or a $1200 with no deductible?
One of the problems in J.D. Powers rating system on insurance companies is that they do not break out *claims* or *rental*. The biggest headache with a company in the *poor* bracket is that they have extremely an extremely poor claims department whose sole job seems to be to slash the estimate and try to rush the claim in order to charge your deduction. With one of companies, there is also question of the professionalism of the claims people and their relationship with the *preferred* body shops. This company claims adjuster bragged about his 20 year relationship (personal) with the company’s preferred shop.Because of this omission, The brunt of the displeasure is directed at the agent. In fact, this company’s agent are their best asset but are under cut by other departments that they have no control over. For this reason, one must take JD powers ratings with a grain of salt and I was shocked to see the survey made no mention of the most important part of auto insurance: Claims. not one question related to claims or the rental department