You’ll pay lower rates if you opt to pay your premiums annually and not monthly. True, monthly payments might be less stressful but it is also much more expensive.

There are transaction fees that are attached to processing a check. .While a yearly payment attracts a single check and therefore one transaction for a year, monthly payments attrract twelve. This implies that transaction costs would be twelve times more for those who make monthly payments.

that is just part of it: Insurance companies also incure certain admnistrative costs for your monthly payments. For instantce, it costs insurers millions of dollars annually to send out payment notices..

The additional administrative cost to an insurer is ultimately borne by you (that’s in addition to their own markup for giving you such a “convenient” option).

The longer you stick with the same insurer the more you stand to gain for two reasons: The long term discount and accident forgiveness. Some insurers will give you up to 5% in discounts once you’ve been with them for up to three years while others will give you such a discount only when you’ve stayed for up to five.

Furthermore, if a long term policy holder files just one claim, most insurers will NOT raise their rates thereafter. Insurers offer these as incentives to keep you with them since it serves them better too. The longer you stay, the more you’ll save.

But it will only be right for me to also point out that in spite of these incentives, you might actually gain more if you switch to another insurer.

If you want to keep your rates down, do NOT “pimp your ride.” Doing such reduces your car’s safety and, therefore, warrants higher rates as far as the insurer is concerned.

It’s a known fact that young drivers attract high rates. Even in this age bracket, a 23-year old driver will pay much less than a 17 year old all other things being equal.

This means that you’ll help keep your rates down if you do NOT have a teen driver on your policy. It will have an adverse effect on your rate. You can discuss with your agent about signing an exclusion form so that your teen driver can have his/her own auto policy.

Let your teen bear the responsibility of paying for their auto insurance. This act will save you more than money as your teen driver will happily listen when suggestions are made on things that will bring down the high rates they pay. Your teen will also be safer as the steps that will bring down his/her rates will make her a more responsible behind wheels.

There are useful extras and there are those that do nothing but just inflate your rate. A good example of the later is adding a towing service to your policy. Do you know that your credit card company might have already given you towing as an extra benefit?

Overall, you’re better off using a third pary towing service than placing it on your auto insurance policy.

And…

You will save a lot if you really have between 25-30 minutes. Visit, receive and compare auto insurance quotes from selected insurance quotes sites. The cheapest offer should be what you pick easily.

However, you have to go beyond simply the lowest price to the best price to value ratio. The lowest priced may not offer the best price/value for you as a person.