Tired of being strong-armed to pay your car insurance bill each month? You’re in the same situation as many other drivers.
Big-name insurance companies like GEICO, 21st Century and Progressive constantly blast consumers with advertising and consumers find it hard to ignore the flashy ads and find the best price available.
You should take the time to get comparison quotes at least once a year since insurance rates change frequently. Even if you think you had the lowest rates for Escape insurance two years ago there may be better deals available now. Block out anything you think you know about insurance coverage because you’re about to find out the easiest way to reduce your cost while improving coverage.
If you currently have car insurance, you stand a good chance to be able to reduce your rates substantially using these tips. Choosing the best insurance company for you is not that difficult. Although car owners benefit from understanding how companies determine prices and use this information to your advantage.
It’s important that you understand the different types of things that come into play when calculating the price you pay for insurance coverage. Having a good understanding of what impacts premium levels empowers consumers to make smart changes that could result in big savings.
The list below includes a partial list of the pieces used by your company to calculate premiums.
Companies don’t necessarily list all available discounts very clearly, so we break down some of the more common and the harder-to-find ways to save on auto insurance.
Consumers should know that some of the credits will not apply the the whole policy. Some only reduce the price of certain insurance coverages like liability, collision or medical payments. Just because it seems like having all the discounts means you get insurance for free, you won’t be that lucky.
Companies that possibly offer some of the above discounts may include but are not limited to:
Double check with each company which discounts you may be entitled to. All car insurance discounts may not apply in every state.
When it comes to choosing coverage, there is no one size fits all plan. Everyone’s situation is a little different and your policy should reflect that. For instance, these questions might help in determining whether you may require specific advice.
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you may need to chat with a licensed agent. To find an agent in your area, simply complete this short form or you can also visit this page to select a carrier
Knowing the specifics of a auto insurance policy can help you determine which coverages you need at the best deductibles and correct limits. The coverage terms in a policy can be confusing and nobody wants to actually read their policy. These are typical coverages available from auto insurance companies.
Liability coverage can cover injuries or damage you cause to people or other property by causing an accident. It protects YOU from legal claims by others, and does not provide coverage for damage to your own property or vehicle.
Split limit liability has three limits of coverage: bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. You might see policy limits of 100/300/100 which stand for a $100,000 limit per person for injuries, a per accident bodily injury limit of $300,000, and a limit of $100,000 paid for damaged property.
Liability insurance covers claims such as structural damage, emergency aid and pain and suffering. How much liability coverage do you need? That is a decision to put some thought into, but buy higher limits if possible.
Your UM/UIM coverage protects you and your vehicle’s occupants when the “other guys” do not carry enough liability coverage. It can pay for medical payments for you and your occupants as well as damage to your Ford Escape.
Because many people only carry the minimum required liability limits, it only takes a small accident to exceed their coverage. So UM/UIM coverage is a good idea.
This covers damage caused by mother nature, theft, vandalism and other events. You need to pay your deductible first and the remainder of the damage will be paid by comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive insurance covers claims like hitting a deer, hitting a bird and fire damage. The most your auto insurance company will pay is the market value of your vehicle, so if the vehicle’s value is low it’s not worth carrying full coverage.
This will pay to fix damage to your Escape resulting from a collision with another vehicle or an object, but not an animal. You have to pay a deductible then your collision coverage will kick in.
Collision insurance covers things like backing into a parked car, hitting a mailbox and scraping a guard rail. Collision is rather expensive coverage, so you might think about dropping it from vehicles that are 8 years or older. You can also raise the deductible to get cheaper collision coverage.
Coverage for medical payments and/or PIP kick in for bills like X-ray expenses, surgery, chiropractic care, EMT expenses and ambulance fees. The coverages can be utilized in addition to your health insurance plan or if you lack health insurance entirely. They cover both the driver and occupants and will also cover getting struck while a pedestrian. PIP coverage is only offered in select states but can be used in place of medical payments coverage
The cheapest 2015 Ford Escape insurance can be purchased online as well as from independent agents, so you should compare both in order to have the best price selection to choose from. Some companies don’t offer online price quotes and many times these small, regional companies only sell through independent insurance agents.
As you go through the steps to switch your coverage, make sure you don’t reduce needed coverages to save money. There are a lot of situations where an accident victim reduced liability coverage limits and learned later that saving that couple of dollars actually costed them tens of thousands. Your goal should be to get the best coverage possible at a price you can afford while still protecting your assets.
In this article, we presented a lot of techniques to get a better price on insurance. The key concept to understand is the more companies you get rates for, the more likely it is that you will get a better rate. Consumers could even find that the most savings is with some of the smallest insurance companies. Regional companies may have significantly lower rates on certain market segments than their larger competitors like Allstate, GEICO and Progressive.
Even more information can be read in these articles: