Learn How to Find an Auto Insurance Discount

Auto insurance coverage can be expensive, so drivers should be trying to get as many discounts as possible. Although you probably won’t qualify for every discount, they are a great way to save money on your auto insurance premiums.

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Even if you don’t qualify for discounts now, it is a great time to start planning for those discounts in the future. As long as you plan to own a vehicle, you will need car insurance. It’s a smart, long-term move to plan now for discounts in the future.

How Discounts Are Related to Risk

Auto insurance companies are concerned with a driver’s risk when they set auto insurance premiums. Your risk means how likely you are to file a claim in the future for an accident, theft, or other loss. If you are deemed to be more likely to have a claim, then you are put into a higher risk category and you pay more for car insurance.

Risk categories run the gamut, from spotlessly clean driving records and other positive indicators, to high-risk drivers with multiple accidents and tickets, drivers with serious violations like DUIs and hit-and-run accidents, and drivers who have been caught operating a vehicle without insurance.

Car insurance providers want low-risk drivers as customers because those drivers are less likely to have an expensive claim for the insurance to pay. Discounts are a way for car insurance providers to attract good drivers and encourage good driving behaviors; drivers are less likely to take driving risks if they know they will lose high-dollar discounts.

Possible Discounts

There are a host of discounts available, though your insurance provider might not offer all of them. The industry experts at the Insurance Information Institute advise that discounts are a great way to save money on the cost of auto insurance.

The first group of discounts relate to safety. Increased safety means lower risk, which results in lower claims. Safe-driving discounts reward low-risk drivers who haven’t had an accident or a ticket in three years. Mature drivers can also get a discount, as the age group from 50 to 65 years statistically has the lowest amount of accidents.

Furthermore, discounts for safe vehicles are also an option. You can enjoy discounts for air bags, anti-lock brakes, traction control, and other safety features. There is also a low-mileage discount for drivers who operate their vehicles on a limited basis because it reduces the likelihood of the car being in an accident.

The next group of discounts lowers the risk of having a vehicle stolen.

Car alarms and GPS tracking systems can get a vehicle owner discounts because they reduce the chances that a vehicle will be stolen and increase the chance of recovery if it is stolen. VIN etching can also garner a discount in this category.

Additionally, there are discounts that lower the risk associated with young drivers. There is the good student discount, which is a discount that is awarded every quarter as long as the student driver shows evidence of good grades. The thought process behind such a discount is that students who have the reasoning skills to get good grades are more likely to apply those good deductive skills to driving as well.

In that same vein, discounts for driver’s education courses or defensive driving courses are also available because they can help all drivers to make better driving decisions. Also, there is a discount if a college student on a parent’s policy is away at college, making them unable to drive the family vehicles and unlikely to need coverage.

The last set of discounts is the only group not directly related to risk, but they are used as incentives to keep low-risk drivers as customers. Some auto insurance companies offer discounts for long-time customers, while others offer multi-vehicle discounts and bundling discounts when you get your car and home insurance coverage from the same insurer.

Check with Your State

The first way to find discounts is to check with your state’s department of insurance website. It will have information about the discounts available by law in your state, as well as other car insurance information. Not all states allow the same kind of discounts, and each insurance company will have its own list.

The New York State Department of Financial Services lists all of the discounts available to New York drivers and how they can qualify for those discounts. It explains in full what situations might allow you to get discounts, and where in the policy the discounts are applied.

Some discounts reduce your rates for comprehensive coverage, such as security and anti-theft devices; other discounts lower your rates for personal injury protection/medical payments, such as discounts for safety devices.

Most states have a wealth of great car insurance advice on their department of insurance websites.

State insurance department websites are a good resource for discounts, other money-saving tips, and anything related to auto insurance.

Ask Your Insurance Provider

The next way to find auto insurance discounts is to ask your insurance provider, advises the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. They should be helpful in informing you about all of the ways that you can lower your car insurance costs. If you find your car insurance provider to be unhelpful, then perhaps it is time to switch!

Informing customers about discounts is a tenet of good customer service. There are many other car insurance companies out there who would be happy to explain each and every discount to you in full.

Your car insurance company will know exactly for which discounts you will currently qualify, and they can guide you on how to meet the requirements of each discount. For instance, every provider defines a good student in different ways, and they all require different methods to prove it. Some want to see report cards with all B grades or better; others require that the student is on the dean’s list; while others want a print out from a high school, college, or university stating that the student’s grades are in the 85th percentile compared to fellow students.

View Their Website

Most car insurance providers also list the discounts they offer on their websites. You can look up their offered discounts and how to qualify for them if you don’t want to speak with a representative. You may prefer to research information in this way, as you won’t have to wait for an available representative to answer your questions.

Utilizing a company’s website to view discounts will also allow you to see for which discounts you may qualify in the future. Furthermore, you can also review the discounts offered by other insurance companies to compare with your current provider if you are thinking about switching providers. Not all companies offer the same discounts, so you can use them as a way to compare auto insurance companies.

Add New Discounts

There will often be times when you qualify for a discount that you couldn’t get when you first signed up with the company. For instance, you might have installed an alarm system or you might have just completed a defensive driving course. Your next step is to alert your insurance provider.

Your car insurance company will not know if you now qualify for a discount that you didn’t before.

Essentially, you will have to call them up and let them know that you now qualify for the discount. The representative you speak with will let you know how to send in proof of the new qualification.

Plan for Discounts in the Future

It is also a good idea to review the lists of available discounts and make a plan to qualify for as many as possible in the future. If you have had an accident or tickets in the past, you can plan to qualify for the good driver discount by obeying all traffic laws and trying to drive in a safer manner.

You can research car safety ratings at the National Traffic Safety Administration to plan for your next vehicle. Choosing a safer vehicle to buy in the future will help you to get additional safety-related discounts.

If you have a teenager who is soon to be a driver, you can arrange driver’s ed. courses or a defensive driving course as soon as possible. Letting your teen know that their driving privileges will be tied to their grades is also a good idea.

You can also plan what sort of security devices you can afford to install. For instance, VIN etching is a very inexpensive process that is even offered for free by many police departments or during community event, so you can plan to utilize the service at the next opportunity by finding out when it will be offered.

Planning to qualify for future discounts is a smart way to lower your car insurance rates.

What you will actually be doing is lowering your risk of being in an accident or suffering a loss, so it is really a win-win as it is better to never have an accident at all!

Win all the way around when you find the best car insurance rate for you by inserting your ZIP code into the FREE box on this page!