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| English: U.S. Health Insurance Status (Under 65) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
This is a guest post by Evan Fischer
These days, just about everyone is scraping the bottom of the barrel to find ways to pay monthly bills and maybe even sock a little savings away. Thanks to the ongoing recession this is easier said than done. But when it comes to the cost of operating a vehicle, a necessity for most working adults, there are quite a few ways that you can cut back, from carpooling to DIY maintenance. And your auto insurance policy is like a treasure trove of savings if you know what to look for. So here are a just a few tips and tricks that will help you to quickly cut your costs so that the privilege of driving doesn’t turn into a burden.
1. Ask about discounts. Your insurance provider likely offers all kinds of discounts for meeting certain criteria, but you may have to ask in order to get them. Some that you will certainly want to look into are discounts for safe driving, low mileage, multiple drivers, multiple policies (auto and home, for example), safety features (like LoJack or other anti-theft devices), and even good student discounts for the teen drivers in your household. If you are eligible for even one of these rebates you could see a significant savings on your insurance rates.
2. Raise your deductible. If you’re a safe driver that is unlikely to be at fault for an accident, you may want to increase your deductible in a bid to lower your premiums. Of course, you will have to pay more out of pocket if you’re at fault for an accident, but the longer you go with a clean driving record the more you’ll stand to save.
3. Don’t double up on coverage. There are many parts to an insurance policy and each one comes with a cost. But if you’re already covered by another form of insurance, you don’t want to have to pay twice. And the main area that you can probably cut back is personal injury protection. As long as you have a stellar health insurance policy (along with disability and life insurance) there’s no reason you have to shell out for maximum coverage from your auto policy, as well. In fact, using the personal injury portion of your policy rather than health insurance to cover medical bills in the event of an accident could result in your premiums getting bumped, so go for the minimum allowed in your state and count on your health benefits to cover the rest.
4. Consider your car. The demographics and records of individual drivers aren’t the only thing insurance companies take into consideration when pricing a policy; they also look at the car you drive. If you’ve got a sporty convertible that only meets the minimum requirements in terms of safety features, has a history of being easy to steal, and costs a small fortune to repair, you could be paying a lot more for insurance. So when it comes time to buy a new car, do your homework to find one that is safe and affordable, or simply talk to your insurance agent to get a list of the cars they charge the least to cover.
5. Comparison shop. You wouldn’t necessarily buy the first house or car you looked at, so why are you still settling for the insurance policy your parents set you up with years ago? You could be paying a lot less for comparable coverage elsewhere and many companies will go a long way to win your business. At the very least, you could use this competitive knowledge to try to secure a better rate with the company you currently use.
Insurance: A Guide
"Remember kids, I have life insurance" - Adam Savage
This is a guest article from Tatyana Levin
These days one must be financially savvy. Money is not easy to come by and should be managed carefully. With the availability of tools that make it easy to keep track of current events, the stock market, and even your own money, it would be almost a crime to not utilize these tools to make the best and most informed financial decisions. Unfortunately, the more there is, the more there is to keep track of. This applies both to tracking tools and money (the small curse within the comfort of having money to keep track of).
The savvier ones of us dabble in investments, and the savviest make their living that way. The key is that they know what to invest in. Not magically, of course; investors do a significant amount of research to learn how to optimize their portfolios, but they have the understanding.
A grossly overlooked investment is insurance. This may be because is not typically referred to as an investment with the exception of whole life insurance that has a specific investment component within it. Webster’s defines the word “invest” as a commitment of money for a return and “insurance” as a guarantee. This makes insurance the safest type of investment, because your returns are guaranteed. But returns are not always financial in the case of insurance. They can be, if there is an unforeseen accident, but the most certain return is the feeling of security.
Now there are many different types of insurance, and what you need depends on your current situation. Obviously you only need auto insurance, found using auto insurance leads if you have a car, and you only need renter’s insurance if you rent and have possessions that you would need insured. Insurance is for those who have something to lose. With an attachment to something, either emotional of physical (or dependence, not like physically being glued to your car), comes the fear that it will be damaged or ruined in some way. For example, if your house caught on fire, you would be devastated. What would add insult to injury is not having a way to recover from this horrible disaster.
These types of examples are not unique to this article. That is the way that insurance is sold. As they say that clichés are clichés for a reason, insurance is promoted this way for a reason. The foundation of the concept of insurance is uncertainty, and it is the same uncertainty that is conjured up when investing.
The main difference between insurance and investment is that not having insurance creates a feeling of uncertainty while investments by nature are uncertain. Therefore, investing in insurance creates security and is the only secure investment that exists (and is legal). Getting insurance should be one of the easier financial tasks if you apply all the resources available with technological advances like smart phones.
About the Author: This article was written by Tatyana Levin, a copywriter for InsuranceFiles.com
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