The Bottom Five Ways to Save on Your Car Insurance

There are thousands of articles on the internet with titles like "The Top Five Ways to Save on Car Insurance" or "The 10 Best Way to Lower Your Car Insurance Rates." These generic articles are valuable, but they all pretty much say the same things. What about the more overlooked ways of lowering your car insurance rates? With this in mind, we present "The Bottom Five Ways to Save on Your Car Insurance."

#59 - Yearly Car Insurance Policies

Most car insurance policies are written for six-month terms. This allows the car insurance company a chance to raise your rates twice a year. By opting for an annual policy instead, your insurance agent will have only half as many chances to raise your rates.

#60 - Paying in Advance

Along the same lines, paying up front and in-full is another way to save on your car insurance. Rather than paying monthly or every other month, paying for all six months (or a full year) in advance can usually result in substantial savings.

#61 - Automatic Payments

If you can't afford to pay for six months or a year at a time, consider opting-in to automatic payments. This way, instead of writing a check every month, your premiums will be automatically deducted from your bank account or billed to your credit card. This will prevent you from forgetting to send the check on time, which can result in a lapse of coverage. In addition to the risk of driving without insurance, lapses in coverage also cause your rates to go up. Furthermore, many car insurance companies offer a discount for customers who agree to automatic payments.

#62 Low Mileage

Mileage is an often overlooked factor that plays a rather significant part in determining your car insurance rates. For one, the total number of miles you put on your car is taken into account, but perhaps more important is your distance to work. If you change jobs and your new place of work is closer to your home, make sure you inform your insurance agent. Furthermore, don't overestimate the distance to your job. The difference between a 10 mile commute and a 12 mile commute could be important if your insurance company puts the two distances in different tiers.

#63 - Comprehensive Storage Coverage

And what if your car's mileage is literally going to be zero? If you have a car in storage, you should drop not only its collision coverage, but its liability coverage as well. This will make the car illegal to drive, but not illegal to store. You should, however, keep comprehensive (other-than-collision) coverage on the vehicle, since it protects the car from damage by vandals, fire, or theft.

In Conclusion

Okay, we admit it. These aren't really the five "worst" ways to save on your car insurance, and there are probably a lot more than 63 ways for you to save. The idea of this article was to show you that there are more than just a handful of ways to save - there are dozens, perhaps even hundreds - but the most important is almost always ranked #1 - comparison shopping. A close #2 that is almost always underrated is being informed. Use this site to learn as much as you can in the time you have to spare, and then shop around for the best rates. You will be surprised by the amount of money you can save with just a little effort!