5 Easy Tips for Lowering Your Car Insurance Rate

Every time you flip on the TV or drive past billboards, you’re likely to see at least one advertisement for car insurance. Providers everywhere bombard us with their competitive rates and incentives for choosing their plans. But no matter your insurance provider, you can do several things to lower your rate. These few tips can get you started.

Drive a Low-Cost Vehicle

Driving a clunker certainly has its drawbacks, but insurance isn’t one of them. The lower the value of your car, the lower your premium.

Why?

Because car insurance is there partially to pay for any damages to your car in an accident. But if you’re driving a car from the ’90s in 2014, chances are that car wouldn’t last much longer after your accident anyway. For the most part, it costs your provider much less money to pay for those repairs.

This doesn’t mean you need to drive a straight-out clunker. Your premium will also be lower if your car is considered safe. If your car scored highly in a crash test, your provider will usually lower your rate for that too.

Drive Fewer Miles

Many auto insurance companies reduce your premium if you drive less than 7,500 miles per year. If you can, limit how much you use your car. Switch up your commute by taking public transportation or carpooling with coworkers. You don’t have to drop your car altogether (why else are you paying auto insurance?). Just cut back on unnecessary miles.

Get an Insurance Package

Insurance companies tend to provide a discount if you combine insurance plans. Rather than using three different providers for car, home, and life insurance, combine them into one package.

Make the Most of Good Grades

Insurance companies reward good students. If your teenager or college student is driving a car you insure and they do well in school, tell your provider. They’ll typically provide a discount (of about 15%) for students on the honor roll or with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Sometimes, the higher the GPA, the higher the discount.

Why?

Because good grades tend to indicate safer drivers. Insurance companies use statistics that show good students have better decision-making skills and safer driving habits. So if your student driver qualifies and is under the age of 25, get that discount.

Be a Safe Person

Hopefully, you have higher incentives than your car insurance to be safe, but safe habits will definitely lower your rate. Most providers recognize a clean driving record and habits that indicate strong decision-making skills, like grades do. Try the following ideas to be safer every day:

• Kick bad habits like drinking or smoking. Drinking puts you at a higher risk for driving under the influence, and a DUI charge may mean that you must find a great DUI attorney in Athens or your particular area or risk a criminal record. Furthermore, both smoking and drinking risk your health. The healthier (and less distracted) you are while driving, the less likely you are to get in an accident.
• Take a driver’s ed course. You’ll learn valuable skills like how to avoid accidents and combat driving in poor weather.
• Avoid getting into accidents or getting tickets. Easier said than done, but drive defensively and stay within the speed limit. Be more careful with those preventive measures. Your driving record helps establish the rate you pay.
• Establish good credit. Like good grades, solid credit indicates you’re responsible.

Inherent factors like your age and gender also play a role in your rate. If you’re an older driver or a female, you’ll pay less because you’re considered lower-risk.

Ask whether any of these qualities and habits qualify you for a lower rate. Wherever you get your auto insurance, it’s very likely you qualify for a discount and can cut back on that rate. Just communicate those qualifications to your provider so they can reward you for being a safe, low-maintenance driver.