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Home » Auto And Trucks Articles » Inexpensive Car Insurance Six Secrets

Inexpensive Car Insurance - Six Secrets

I learned a lesson about inexpensive car insurance when I was younger: Insurance agents lie. I would love to be able to say this is rare, but my experience tells me it is depressingly common. Apart from lying, they just won't tell you some things you need to know to save money.

Car insurance was just a legal requirement as far as I was concerned. I didn't have valuable cars when I was young, and I had no assets to protect from lawsuits. All I wanted was the minimum legal coverage needed to be on the road. I always made this very clear to my insurance agents, using many rephrasings, like "Just what the law requires, and nothing more," just to be sure they understood.

I assumed that this minimum was what my insurance company was giving me. Only after paying the premiums for many years did I learn that they had lied. I didn't have the most inexpensive car insurance policy, as they claimed. They gave me not the minimum coverage required by law, but their own "company minimum." I was pissed off.

I went to other insurance companies and they tried to do the same thing, passing off their own normal liability policies as the state-mandated minimum requirements. Only when I pushed would they provide the policy that I wanted - as long as I signed more paperwork, acknowledging that I was "under-insured." That was fine. I had no assets to protect at the time (Having few assets means you're less of a target for a lawsuit).

The bottom line is that by commission and omission, you will likely be lied to by insurance agents. I overpaid by hundreds of dollars over those years, because of one such lie. Now you know what to watch for if you just want a basic liability policy. Here are some other things you should know about getting inexpensive car insurance.

Secrets Of Inexpensive Car Insurance

- Get several quotes, of course. The important part here, though, is to be sure that each quote is for the same thing. Write down and compare the specific policy limits, deductible and a other parts of the policy.

- Review your policies annually. Ask for a policy review and get new quotes every year or so. Suppose that speeding ticket you had is past the three year mark (or whatever the company guideline is). They will often "forget" to drop the rate, so you may need to remind them.

- Take the kids off your policy. If your kids are at a college that's more than 100 miles away, you can have them taken off the insurance policy and save a lot of money. You can't let them drive the car when they come home to visit though.

- Raise your deductible. You will always get more inexpensive car insurance with higher deductibles. Plan to pay the first $1,000 of that accident if it happens someday. In the meantime, you may save far more in premiums over those years.

- Drop collision coverage. Once the value of your car is below a certain amount (an amount you can afford to lose), drop the collision coverage. It doesn't make sense to pay out thousands over a few years to insure a car that is worth just a few thousand.

- Ask about special discounts you might be eligible for. Non-smoker discounts, car/home policy discounts, and others are a possibility. Ask what discounts you may be eligible for in the future, too, and remind your agent when the time comes.

-Look at every part of the policy, and don't pay for things you don't need. Ask about anything you don't fully understand. Asking a lot of questions and really understanding the policy is one of the surest ways to get inexpensive car insurance.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

The Business Day (Lease Purchase or Otherwise)

For those of you conducting a lease purchase business (or any other business), the first thing for you to do each morning is to check your goals. How many calls are you to make, how many contacts, articles, etc. Your goals will depend on where you are in your business - just starting, in business for a year, two years, etc.

The next thing to do for those in lease purchasing or any other business is to check your calendar for the day, and to check your tickler file. Depending on what is on your calendar and in your tickler file will determine what else you will be doing for the day. Let's assume you don't have any appointments scheduled. Your tickler file is empty, other than for your To Do list.

Next you check any e-mail you have received and answer it. Answer any snail mail from the previous day. For those of you operating a lease purchase business, next, be sure you have enough newspapers with sellers to call, otherwise go through the next one in your stack. The same goes for your FSBO sites on line (if you already have a list to call from fine, if not, go to the FSBO sites and pull down the information you need to make calls). Once this is done, start calling (be sure to follow your script and leave the appropriate message).

After you are done calling, send out any follow up information you need to. Be sure after calling to update your databases. If you would like to start a successful home based lease purchase business, check out our "Lease Purchasing As A Home-Based Business Manual" on our website at: http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com/products/products.htm

Next you want to do some reading in your area, both on and off-line. Don't forget you can do some of this during your lunch break. Also be sure to visit on-line groups that relate to your business.

Be sure to check e-mail again in the afternoon and respond if necessary.

At the end of the day, straighten out your desk, do your To Do list for the next day, check your tickler file, and add any appointments to your calendar.

Depending upon when your mail is delivered, you will need to deal with this also. Open and respond to any snail mail, or put it in mail folders to deal with later or the next day. If you use a mail box you will need to schedule this in during the day. Decide if you need to go daily or a couple times a week.

In addition, for accounting and deposits, I do this on a weekly basis, however, others might feel more comfortable dealing with it daily.

Also for those of you with merchant accounts, it is best to run your credit cards in batches and then batch out at the end of the day.

For items purchased that I e-mail out, I do that during down times, after work hours, lunch time, break times. For items that need to be mailed, I schedule two post office runs each week. You waste too much time going every day. For those of you running a mail order business, you might want to look into services that come to your home for pick-up or use a service that goes to the post office for you.

For those of you in the lease purchase business, the above is just part of what you need to do each day. What I mean is if you are in the middle of a deal you will also have to schedule time for credit checks, showing the property, and calls from tenant buyers. With good time management and organization skills it can be done. We do it every day, plus a whole lot more. While some days we might concentrate on coaching or consulting, other days we will concentrate on writing or research. However, we get it all done with time to spare, How? Organization and time management....plus a lot of years of practice.

So, don't get discouraged, persevere and some day you will be in the same place we are.

Copyright 2002 DeFiore Enterprises