Paying for high-priced car insurance can drain your savings account, especially in this economy. Doing a price comparison is a great way to slash your bill and have more diposable income. You have multiple auto insurance companies to pick from, and although it’s a good thing to be able to choose, it makes it harder to get the best deal.
Kennebunk Car Insurance Quote Comparison
Lowering your car insurance rates is not rocket science. You just need to invest a little time to compare quotes from different insurance companies. This can be done in just a few minutes using one of these methods.
- The best way to get quotes for comparison would be an industry-wide quote request form (click to open form in new window). This type of form saves time by eliminating multiple quote forms to each individual car insurance company. One quote request will return price quotes from car insurance companies with the best prices.
- A less efficient way to get quotes online requires visiting each individual company website and fill out their own quote form. For examples sake, let’s assume you want to compare rates from Allstate, 21st Century and Geico. To find out each rate you need to visit each site to input your insurance information, which is why most consumers use the first method. To view a list of companies in Kennebunk, click here.
It’s your choice how you get your quotes, but make darn sure you compare identical information on every quote you get. If you have different limits and deductibles on each one it will be very difficult to find the best deal in Kennebunk.
Can you really save that much by switching?
Maine drivers can’t get away from ads for car insurance savings from companies such as Allstate and Progressive. They all seem to make the same claim of big savings if you switch your policy.
How can each company say the same thing? This is how they do it.
Different companies have a preferred profile for the driver that is profitable for them. An example of a driver they prefer might be between 25 and 40, owns a home, and drives less than 7,500 miles a year. Any new insured who meets those qualifications will get very good rates and therefore will save quite a bit of money when switching.
Potential insureds who don’t measure up to the “perfect” profile will have to pay higher prices and this can result in business going elsewhere. Company advertisements say “customers who switch” but not “drivers who get quotes” save money. That’s why companies can state the savings.
Because of the profiling, you need to quote coverage with many companies. It’s just too difficult to predict which company will have the lowest rates.
Discounts are basically free money
The cost of insuring your cars can be expensive, but you may find discounts to reduce the price significantly. Certain discounts will be triggered automatically at the time of purchase, but less common discounts must be requested specifically prior to getting the savings. If you don’t get every credit possible, you are throwing money away.
- Passive Restraint Discount – Vehicles equipped with air bags or motorized seat belts can qualify for discounts up to 30%.
- Anti-lock Brake Discount – Vehicles equipped with ABS or steering control can reduce accidents and qualify for as much as a 10% discount.
- Auto/Home Discount – If you insure your home and vehicles with one company you may save approximately 10% to 15%.
- No Charge for an Accident – A handful of insurance companies allow you one accident before your rates go up as long as you don’t have any claims prior to the accident.
- Payment Discounts – If you pay your bill all at once instead of making monthly payments you could save 5% or more.
- Accident Free – Drivers who don’t have accidents pay much less compared to drivers who are more careless.
- Low Mileage – Low mileage vehicles could be rewarded with a substantially lower rate.
- Multiple Vehicles – Insuring multiple vehicles on one policy qualifies for this discount.
- Drivers Ed for Students – Have your child take driver’s ed class in school.
It’s important to understand that some credits don’t apply to the overall cost of the policy. Most cut the price of certain insurance coverages like comprehensive or collision. Even though it may seem like having all the discounts means you get insurance for free, companies wouldn’t make money that way. Any amount of discount will bring down your premiums.
For a list of providers with the best car insurance discounts in Maine, click here.
Car insurance coverages explained
Having a good grasp of car insurance aids in choosing the right coverages and proper limits and deductibles. Policy terminology can be impossible to understand and nobody wants to actually read their policy. These are typical coverage types offered by car insurance companies.
Auto liability insurance
This coverage protects you from damage that occurs to a person or their property in an accident. It consists of three limits, bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. You commonly see values of 25/50/25 that means you have $25,000 in coverage for each person’s injuries, $50,000 for the entire accident, and $25,000 of coverage for damaged propery. Occasionally you may see one limit called combined single limit (CSL) which provides one coverage limit with no separate limits for injury or property damage.
Liability coverage pays for things like funeral expenses, legal defense fees, emergency aid and attorney fees. How much liability should you purchase? That is a decision to put some thought into, but consider buying as high a limit as you can afford. Maine requires minimum liability limits of 50,000/100,000/25,000 but you should consider buying more liability than the minimum.
Coverage for medical payments
Medical payments and Personal Injury Protection insurance pay for bills for things like dental work, EMT expenses, rehabilitation expenses and X-ray expenses. They are used in conjunction with a health insurance plan or if you lack health insurance entirely. Medical payments and PIP cover you and your occupants in addition to any family member struck as a pedestrian. Personal Injury Protection is only offered in select states but it provides additional coverages not offered by medical payments coverage
Collision coverage
This coverage pays for damage to your vehicle resulting from a collision with another car or object. You have to pay a deductible and the rest of the damage will be paid by collision coverage.
Collision insurance covers things such as crashing into a ditch, rolling your car and backing into a parked car. This coverage can be expensive, so consider removing coverage from older vehicles. You can also raise the deductible to save money on collision insurance.
Comprehensive coverages
Comprehensive insurance coverage pays to fix your vehicle from damage OTHER than collision with another vehicle or object. You first have to pay a deductible and the remainder of the damage will be paid by comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive can pay for claims such as theft, rock chips in glass and hitting a bird. The highest amount you can receive from a comprehensive claim is the market value of your vehicle, so if the vehicle is not worth much it’s not worth carrying full coverage.
Uninsured and underinsured coverage
Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist coverage protects you and your vehicle’s occupants from other motorists when they either are underinsured or have no liability coverage at all. It can pay for injuries to you and your family as well as your vehicle’s damage.
Since many Maine drivers only carry the minimum required liability limits (which is 50/100/25), it doesn’t take a major accident to exceed their coverage limits. That’s why carrying high Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage should not be overlooked. Usually the UM/UIM limits are identical to your policy’s liability coverage.
Additional information can be found on the website for the Maine Bureau of Insurance located here. Visitors are able to read consumer alerts, find out which companies have the most complaints, and find out industry alerts.
Also read more on BankRate.com’s Car Insurance: When not to Skimp and CarInsuranceDIY.com.
One last thing
When shopping online for car insurance, it’s not a good idea to buy poor coverage just to save money. In too many instances, consumers will sacrifice liability limits or collision coverage to discover at claim time that a couple dollars of savings turned into a financial nightmare. Your focus should be to buy the best coverage you can find at an affordable rate, not the least amount of coverage.
Lower-priced car insurance can be bought on the web in addition to many Kennebunk insurance agents, and you need to price shop both so you have a total pricing picture. Some companies do not provide online price quotes and many times these small insurance companies only sell through independent insurance agents.
Throughout this article, we presented some good ideas how you can get a better price on car insurance. It’s most important to understand that the more times you quote, the higher your chance of finding lower rates. Consumers could even find that the lowest rates come from the smaller companies. Smaller companies often have lower prices on specific markets as compared to the big name companies such as State Farm and Allstate.