Times are tight. We understand that at SafeAuto, which is why we focus on "minimum cost" insurance. You shouldn’t have to pay a lot to get out on the road.
People are always asking us how low we can get our auto insurance rates, so here are some tips from the practical to the… not so much.
– Buy a car that nobody wants to steal and is as safe as humanly possible. Limiting insurance costs is all about limiting risk, both to yourself and your vehicle. If your car is unlikely to get stolen and unlikely to kill you, we’re less likely to have to pay out your policy… so we’ll ask you for less money to keep it.
– If that doesn’t work for you… drive a junker. Seriously. Most older cars just aren’t worth that much, so you can get away with insuring them to your state minimum requirements and absolutely nothing else. Of course, this can put you in a situation where it makes more sense to total your car than to perform basic repairs.
– Drive your car as little as possible. The less time you spend on the road, the less chance you’ll get in a wreck. Carpool with friends to work, have grocery-shopping trips with friends, and so on. The less time your car is on the road, the cheaper your insurance will be.
– Drive safely when on the road. Tickets and accidents where you’re at fault increase how risky you are in the eyes of insurers.
– Raise your deductible. The higher the amount of damage you’re on the hook for, the less likely an insurance policy will be required to pay out. We wouldn’t recommend this one unless you like gambling, though.
– Make sure your bills are paid on time. Many insurers use an "insurance score" to determine certain factors, including cost, and it’s weighted heavily towards paying your bills on time. Keep your credit score clean as well.
– Move. If you live in an area noted for high rates of auto theft, auto accidents, or other problems, you’re likely going to be paying a higher rate solely because of where you happen to be. Even moving one county over can have some surprising effects on your insurance rates. You can even move to low-risk states… which we’ll get to.
– Be a discount hawk. Insurers offer all sorts of discounts — ranging from AAA membership discounts to veteran discounts to safe driver discounts. Ask what we’ve got available and what you qualify for; it’s what we’re here for.
– And finally, if you really just don’t want to deal with all of this, you hate the paperwork, you don’t want to compare quotes, move to New Hampshire, Wisconsin, or California. All three allow you to drive without having any car insurance whatsoever.
You might be wondering what the catch is, aside from having to live in those states. The catch is that you’ll still need to prove you can cover damages, so you’ll need to file a bond or give the state a five-figure deposit, in cash, to cover any liability.
See, isn’t getting car insurance so much easier?
Remember, these stack. So, if you have a boring car that nobody wants that you drive as little as possible as safely as possible with a policy that has a high deductible with as many discounts as you can get in a place with the lowest rates of auto theft and accidents, you will have the lowest insurance rates you can get. Whether or not you’ll have any fun is another story…
