Owning and maintaining a car generally costs a lot of money. But it does not necessarily leave you broke. If you are also one of the victims of insurance companies and paying higher premiums on your car insurance, read on to find out the ways you can adopt to reduce the premium on your car insurance:
Use Safety Measures
With the use of safety measures like anti-theft alarms, airbags, anti-lock brakes, you would be lowering the changes of risk for your vehicle, which would turn in the lesser chances of claims. Here, if you have installed such devices in your car, the insurance company would charge you with lesser premium amount considering the lower probability of filing a claim.
Ensure Safe Driving Habits
Insurance companies look for factor to determine safe driving parameters before deciding the premium rates for each policy. Under this, to boost your safe driving habits, you have pitch for the lower insurance premiums on the basis of your history of no claims. Also, in case you have a certificate of training from well-known driving schools, it will help you get the lower car insurance premium.
On the other hand, in case you have a history of accidents, insurers are likely to charge significantly increased premiums. However, if you have not had any accident in the past eight to ten months, you can contact your insurance agent and ask if you qualify for a special discount in premium payment.
Buy Online
To get lower premiums, it is advisable to buy insurance policy online as online insurance policies are marginally cheaper than the ones which are bought offline. It is because of reduced distribution and commission charges, on the part of insurers. Insurers like to pass on this reduction in the cost to the consumers in today’s competitive environment. But here, you need to make sure you provide correct and valid information while buying a policy, as wrong information can create problems at the time of making a claim. In worst cases, the claim may be rejected outright.
Member Of Vehicle Association
In case you are a member of any recognized vehicle association running in your area, you are likely to be eligible for lower car insurance premium. These associations have tie-ups with certain insurers, which help members avail special discounts. Even if you don’t a policy with that particular insurer, you may still get discount of up to 5% if you produce a certificate of membership. Look around for such tie-ups to avail discount.
Good Maintenance, Loyalty Benefits
It is usual for insurers to charge less for less driven vehicles. The golden rule is the better is the condition of your vehicle, the lower will be the premium charged by you. Also, the farther you drive, the more prone you are to accidents, resulting in higher premium amount charges by the insurance company as it increases your risk factor.
In addition, if you get your vehicle insurance renewed before it expires, you are likely to earn discounts. Also you could get loyalty benefits, which is additional, on your premium in case you get your vehicle insurance renewed by the same insurer over the years. It is a good idea to ask your insurer whether it provides such loyalty benefits or not.
Multiple Policies From Same Insurer
Some insurers do provide benefit (lower premium) under their cross-selling strategy. Under this arrangement, if you buy different insurance policies, say health and car, the premium for the second policy gets reduced by up to 25 per cent. So, it is advisable to approach insurer of your life/ health insurance and check for such discounts.
Avail Professional Discount
Professional discounts are those, which are offered by insurance companies for people practicing certain professionals listed with them. These generally include doctors, chartered accountants, lawyers and teachers. The list of professions differs from insurer to insurer. It is good to find out whether your profession is considered under this category by any insurer. If yes, you would also be eligible for discounts in that case.
Deductibles
A deductible is the paid by you voluntarily before your insurance carrier pays any claim. Insurance companies offer deductibles on certain coverage in insurance policies as a method of sharing risk with the people they insure. Insurers believe that if you, the insured, share some of the risk you will likely to be more careful and try to minimize the possibility of a claim. As the risk factor and liability is lower, a insurer tends to charge for lower premium.
Also, since the insured pays his share before the company is liable for its share, smaller claims are often avoided.
