By insuring a number of vehicles with the same insurer, or by trying to take out home and life insurance through your car insurer, you may be able to secure a ‘bulk buy’ discount.
Location
A big influence on the cost of your car insurance is where you live. The chance of your car being broken into or stolen is a key concern for the insurer. More urban areas traditionally facing greater risk of theft and therefore tend to be more expensive than countryside locations.
Excess
By agreeing to pay a greater excess on each claim you can reduce your car insurance premiums. This is because you are reducing the liability of the insurer and therefore in return they are able to offer you a lower premium.
Your Vehicle
The cheaper and slower your vehicle the lower your premiums are likely to be. If you are looking to buy a new vehicle make sure you fully consider the cost of insurance – you may be able to buy the car but can you afford to run it?
Mileage
You can control your insurance premiums by restricting your annual mileage. However, be aware that if you exceed the restricted number of miles you'll then become uninsured!
Parking
Where you park your vehicle overnight is also very important to the insurers. If it is kept in a locked garage, you should be offered a lower premium than if you leave it unattended in the street.
Security
Security devices that prevent or hinder theft may also reduce your premium. Common examples include alarms and immobilisers, however, be aware that as we improve the quality of our security devices the thieves just become better at bypassing them. No Claims Discount
Save up your no claims discount by avoiding making small claims upon your policy. After a set number of years, 4 or 5 typically, you'll often be offered the option to pay an additional small premium to protect your no claims bonus. This can prove very helpful if you subsequently end up having an accident.
Advanced driving skills
By taking an advanced driving course you may also be able to reduce your premiums. The Institute for Advanced Motorists and the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents each offer membership which provides you with discounts for both the cost of driving courses and your car insurance premiums. Two key variables NOT within the policyholder's control.
Your Sex.
Women are statistically less likely to have an accident and, if they do, it's less likely to be serious. Because of these statistics women benefit from lower premiums. It is also worth noting that if you represent one half of a couple you should consider having the female as the primary driver with the male as the second driver.
Your Age
The older you are, the less likely you are to make a claim. As a result insurance companies charge lower premiums for more mature drivers.
One final piece of advice.
A large percentage of car insurance is now sold on the Internet. That's because it's convenient and cheap. Many insurers now give a further 10%-15% discount if you buy online.
This is a story about Ted Peterson who is a Business major at the Univ. of Texas (UT). A freshman student at UT, he recently decided that he wanted to purchase a used Chevrolet Trailblazer to replace his Ducati road bike. Ted lives near the Northpark Dallas precinct and he just met a local girl, Rachel, that he wants to ask out on a date. He's going to need a car for that.
Ted has enough dough to buy the Chevrolet Trailblazer that he wants, but because of his age (he is 19), he knows that he will be charged more bucks for best-in-class coverage from a local Dallas insurer. He recalls a Financial Responsibility class that the University offered earlier in the year where Professor Charles Paulson covered awesome ways for college-aged drivers to save dough by using Local Dallas Insurers' Auto Insurance Discounts.
Ted Begins His Search For Trustable Information on Automobile Insurance Discounts
So Ted decides to search online for qualified information on Dallas auto insurance discounts. He instantaneously plops himself down on his bed with his laptop and connects to the wi-fi home connection. He immediately draws a blank.
"Where should I look first for information?" he asks himself. His mental gears go into action, and he suddenly has an idea. He launches the Internet Explorer browser and punches in the URL for WebCrawler.com. First he attempts to search using the query "cheap auto insurance in dallas texas tx", but the listings returned seem off-the-subject. His next step is to punch in a query for "auto insurance Dallas Texas TX discounts" using the WebCrawler.com search tool.
Amazingly, the top-level listing that WebCrawler.com returns is for a site called www.dallasinsurance.com. He clicks on the link, and a page pops up with cute logo of a tan-colored car at the top-left of the page and a big goldenrod box that says: Looking For an Auto Quote? Enter Your Zip Code Now! "Oh, What The Heck!", he yells out loud. "They're just trying to sell me auto quotes, and I need sincere information."
Ted Finds The Dallas Chamber of Commerce Website
A bit disconcerted, he sits back and tries to recall what was covered in the Financial Responsibility class he attended. He remembers some uncomplicated info sources that Professor Paulson mentioned, and one of them happened to be the Chamber of Commerce site for Texas. The information on this site is qualified because of the fact that the Chamber of Commerce workers are objective in their findings and articles.
With his new-found epiphany he quickly hits the 'BACK' button in the browser and is directed back to the WebCrawler.com search page. He enters in "Dallas Chamber of Commerce", and then clicks on the top link that returns. He is taken to www.dallaschamber.org, and is relieved to find zero best-in-class advertisements, which - in his mind - means that the site is more trustworthy because they aren't trying to get any money from him.
Ted surfs through a site a bit, and after just a few minutes finds a link to the Texas Department of Insurance website. Upon clicking the link he is transferred to www.tdi.state.tx.us. "Outstanding" he thinks to himself a tad joyous, "Now I'm getting somewhere." He quickly eyes an Internal SITE SEARCH box, and enters in a search for "Dallas auto insurance discounts". On the page that comes up he clicks on some links that appear with a goldenrod-colored link on the SEARCH PAGE.
Significantly enough after only 25 minutes of research via the Search links, he is able to come up with a few amazing auto Dallas insurance discounts that are applicable to College-aged Drivers. Here is what Ted finds: 1. Distant-student Discount 2. "Occasional Driver" Status Discount 3. "Occasional Driver" Status Discount 4. Distant-student Discount 5. Good Grade Discount for College-aged Drivers
Now How Does Ted Find Trustable Agents? - He Uses the Dallas Yellow Pages Automobile Search Query
"Now I need to find a list Dallas auto insurance agents", he thinks to himself. Remembering one of the more appropriate topics covered in the 'Financial" class, he recalls the teacher stating that an excellent way to conserve bucks was to get more than one quote - experts recommend at least 4 to 5 awesome ones from Dallas auto insurers.
So Ted navigates the browser back to WebCrawler.com and attempts a search for "us auto insurance services dallas", but he is turned off because the results seem relatively illegitimate. Then he remembers that he had conserved an earlier search (at the Dallas Yellow Pages-Auto Inaurance website) in his Favorites folder. He found and clicked on the link and a list of Dallas auto insurance companies popped up in the browser. He decided that it was more appropriate to talk to a real agent on the phone versus signing up online, so he could take advantage of all the College-aged Driver Discounts he had discovered for college-aged drivers.
Amazingly, most insurers won't allow you to apply online for College-aged Driver Discounts, so it was an excellent solution to call an agent directly.
Sweet Success - Ted Saves Some Money
After just 5 days, Ted was able to get back all the 'quote responses' from each of the 5 Uncommon insurers that he applied to. To test out the power of the college-aged driver discounts, he asked each insurer to give him 2 ultra-quick quotes: for the first quote, he wanted the College-aged Driver discounts applied, and for the second one, he wanted a quote without the discounts applied. With most of the agent replies, the price savings (with college-aged driver discounts applied) was over $275! With another insurer it was $379! "Totally Excellent!" he exclaimed out loud. "I am sure glad that I decided to execute observant, smart shopping tactics in my search for Dallas auto insurance.
Both Michael Challiner & J. David Triplett are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Michael Challiner has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Advertising Guide and Quit Smoking. Michael Challiner has 15 years experience in financial services marketing at senior level. Michael now works as the editor of