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How to Save More on Car Insurance: Your Ultimate Savings Guide

Oct 21, 2021

Auto Insurance

How to Save More on Car Insurance: Your Ultimate Savings Guide

Currently, motorists in King County, Renton, and other parts of Washington pay an average of $1,160 every year for auto insurance coverage. Some of the factors that determine the cost of car insurance include your Motor Vehicle Record (MVR), the type, model, and age of your car, your gender, your location, and your insurer. It's worth noting that while some of these factors are fixed, others are variable.

You can use the variable factors to lower your insurance costs. For instance, by driving safely, you can avoid traffic tickets, keep your driving record clean, and reduce your car insurance costs. Another simple way to lower your auto insurance costs is to take advantage of car insurance discounts. Different auto insurers offer different discounts and reward programs. Here's some more information on this topic:

Insurance "Bundles"

According to the Insurance Information Institute (III), one way to lower your auto insurance costs is by purchasing your car insurance and home insurance policies from the same insurance provider. This is known as bundling of policies, and while most insurers use it as a marketing strategy, you can actually save money from it.

Take note that you don't need to have home insurance coverage to take advantage of insurance bundles. For instance, you can still bundle your car insurance with other personal insurance coverage such as boat insurance and renters insurance and earn bundling discounts. When it comes to bundling your car and health insurance policies, the rules generally vary from one insurance company to another. Therefore, to make an informed decision, you should talk to your insurance agent about bundling your policies.

Advantages of Bundling Policies

  • Lowers insurance costs ' You can earn discounts worth 5% to 15% and lower your overall insurance costs by purchasing your car insurance alongside other insurance policies from the same company.
  • Easy management of policies ' Typically, dealing with one insurance company means that you will manage your policies more easily than having different policies scattered across various insurers. For instance, with bundled policies, you can reduce your paperwork, pay only one insurance bill every month, have fewer contact details to keep, and communicate with the insurance provider easily.

Disadvantages of Bundle Arrangements

Bundling discounts is essentially a marketing strategy. While bundling discounts can help you lower your insurance costs, they may not necessarily be appropriate for the long term. Some of the disadvantages of bundling policies include:
  • May not lower costs significantly ' Bundling discounts generally range anywhere from 5% to 15% across all policies. Depending on how many policies you've bundled as well as the sum insured, this amount may be too small to make any significant difference on your overall insurance costs. Additionally, insurers also give you these discounts at the beginning to encourage you to purchase their policies due to low premiums. Unfortunately, they end up increasing their costs with time even if you pay on time and file zero claims.

  • Bundling is inflexible ' In bundle arrangements, canceling one policy will likely affect other policies directly. For instance, in 2019 alone, insurance companies failed to renew home insurance coverages for more than 235,200 homeowners in California because of heightened wildfire risk, according to the Insurance Journal. When insurers canceled the said policies, homeowners with bundled policies had to find alternative coverage elsewhere and, as a result, lost their bundling discounts. This shows just how inflexible the bundling arrangement can be, especially if you want to change insurance companies for certain policies. Also, if your insurance provider pulls out of your location or business, you will have difficulty looking for new coverage from scratch.

Auto Insurance Renton - Car Insurance Discounts for Professionals

Some insurance companies offer car insurance discounts to certain professionals, such as engineers, registered nurses, scientists, and real estate agents. With this in mind, if you are a professional, find out if your insurance provider has any car insurance discounts for you.

Affinity Car Insurance Discounts

Affinity discounts are car insurance discounts given to members of specific professional organizations, say members of travel or dining clubs. The organization has to be pre-approved for its members to be eligible for these discounts. If you are affiliated with a pre-approved professional organization, make sure to ask your insurance provider if there are any car insurance discounts available for you.

Car Insurance Discounts for Taking Driving Lessons

If you are not affiliated with a club or a particular fraternity, you can still earn discounts on your car insurance, provided you take certain driver's educational courses. By doing this, you will enhance your driving skills, avoid committing traffic violations and become a safer driver. If you take a young driver's class, senior driver's course, or defensive driver's course, the insurance company will likely give you some discount on your car insurance. This is because most insurance companies typically like insuring safe drivers who pose low risks for them. Specifically, safe drivers get fewer traffic tickets and are less likely to get involved in an accident where they would file for claims.

Other Types of Car Insurance Discounts

  • New car discount
  • Multi-car discount
  • Car safety discount
  • Anti-theft discount
  • Pay-in-full discount
  • Paperless discount
  • Usage-based insurance program discount
  • Online quote discount
  • Electronic Funds Transfer discount

To lower your car insurance costs, take advantage of car insurance discounts offered by your insurer. If you're looking for reliable and affordable car insurance coverage, talk to the team at Humble & Davenport Insurance today.

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