Everyone who owns a car needs auto insurance. This article will give you some tips on lowering your auto insurance costs. You will find a checklist of items to ask your insurance agent that may qualify for discounts. Keep in mind that not all discounts can be applied with all insurance companies in all states.

1. Shop Around

Go to your favorite search engine and type in "free car insurance quotes online". You'll see a long list of insurance companies that you may even be familiar with. Visit at least five car insurance websites and look for a link to free quotes. You will then be asked basic information about yourself, your driving history, and your car's make, model, and year. It just takes a couple of minutes, and shortly thereafter, they will email you a no obligation quote. Write down their website address, their toll free number, and customer service email address.

Each insurance company will ask you generally the same questions, and will give you options about how much coverage you will want. Find your current policy, if you have one, and take note of the coverage you currently have. Always provide the same information and ask for the same coverage at each company so you will be comparing apples to apples. Read the fine print and make sure nothing is excluded from the quote like Rental car coverage, towing, medical, etc...

For the purposes of the quote, the insurance company will not ask you your social security number, but keep in mind your actual cost maybe higher or lower depending on your credit history. If you're not sure about some of the terminology or coverage, take notes so that you can ask the insurance company about them directly.

Once you have at least five quotes emailed to you, take the lowest two or three quotes and see if they are less than what you are paying now. Most likely at least one of them is much lower. At this point you will want to call them directly to get the most accurate quote by providing additional personal information. For additional discounts, here is a checklist of things you should ask about.

[ ] $500 deductible
[ ] $1,000 deductible
[ ] Paying monthly, semi-annually, or annually
[ ] More than 1 car
[ ] No Accidents in 3 Years
[ ] No Moving Violations in 3 Years
[ ] Driver Training Courses
[ ] Defensive Driving Courses
[ ] Anti-Theft Devices
[ ] Low Annual Mileage
[ ] Air Bags
[ ] Anti-Lock Brakes
[ ] Daytime Running Lights
[ ] Student Drivers with Good Grades
[ ] Auto and Homeowners Coverage with the Same Company
[ ] College Students away from Home
[ ] Long-Time Customer
[ ] Other Discounts

2. Saving Insurance Premium on cars you own outright.

If you own a clear title to your car, meaning there is no bank loan on it, then you may want to consider dropping the collision/comprehensive coverage. As a rule of thumb, if the cars value is less than $3000, it may not make sense for you to pay for this additional coverage. Over time, the cost of the additional insurance premium will exceed the value of the car. It's pretty simple math.

Check the fair market value of your car either through Edmunds.com or even your local newspaper. See what other people are trying to get for the same car. Keep in mind your cars mileage, condition, and age. Has it been in an accident before? Does it have unusually high mileage in excess of 15,000 miles per year? Does it need new tires? You get the idea. Be realistic, because in the event that this car is in an accident and is damaged beyond repair, it is unlikely you will get the full value of the car.

3. Ask About Insurance Rates in Different Areas

Rates can vary widely even in the same state. Different locals have different accident rates, population, and crime. These all factor in to the final cost. If you are moving to a different area, ask about what the rates are for that town.

4. Ask About Getting Other Insurance Policies Together With Your Auto Insurance

Combining insurance policies with the same company can often give you additional discounts. If you own a home, ask about combining your homeowners insurance with your auto insurance. Also ask about other polices, such as life, health, and business insurance. Most insurance companies cover a wide range of policies and will give substantial discounts when you do business exclusively with them.

5. A Clean Credit History Can Reduce Car Premiums:

Having good credit can also lower your insurance costs. Many insurance companies will use credit information to price auto insurance policies. Drivers with good credit and a clean driving record may qualify as a "preferred" customer with lower risk and will be rewarded with lower premiums.

6. Low Mileage Discounts

Some companies offer discounts to drivers who drive a lower than average number of miles per year. If you car pool, take public transportation like the subway, or work from home, you will most likely drive few miles per year than the average driver.

7. Group Insurance

Some insurers offer discounts to drivers who work for certain companies or belong to professional associations, and alumni groups. Ask your employer, group or clubs that you belong to if they have any special arrangements with different insurance companies.

Using all of these tips can save you hundreds of dollars per year, especially when you have multiple cars and multiple drivers in the same household.

About The Author

Robert Rogers is a writer in the Washington DC area and specializes in money saving techniques. For free online quotes on all types of insurance, visit http://valuesweb.com.

Whole Life Insurance, Trends, and Staying Power

Whole life insurance provides customers with a life insurance policy that will help their loved ones in the future, and with an investment component that will help customers and their families right away. This mixture of delayed and instant gratification has been attractive to life insurance shoppers for decades, but today’s trend in life insurance is moving away from whole life insurance packages. Once, whole life insurance policies were the standard, but today they are the exception.

As the economy changes and the American public become increasingly savvy about money management, the full service that a whole life insurance policy provides just isn’t as necessary as it used to be. People who want a more hands on approach to investing are likely to find a whole life insurance policy too limiting. And, the amount of money that one of these policies requires each month can make it difficult to pursue other investment options, especially for middle and lower class families who are living on a budget. A lot of financial experts today feel the investment portions of whole life insurance policies do not offer customers the best return rate on their money. This provides an incentive for people to purchase term life insurance policies which do not include any investment components, and then invest their money elsewhere.

However, there are still some advantages to purchasing a whole life insurance policy. Although the investments that an insurance company will make on your behalf may not be the most lucrative, they will almost certainly be among the most stable. Many people prefer a lower rate of return with a lower chance of loss rather than a riskier gamble. There is plenty to be said in favor of this perspective, especially when it comes to planning for the future. In addition, people who do not have the discipline or inclination to save money on their own often find the structured saving a whole life insurance policy requires to be a boon.

If the idea of budgeting your own savings plans and spending time researching hot stock tips appeals to you, a whole life insurance policy probably won’t be to your personal taste. Of course, even if you don’t opt for this tried and true kind of policy, you can be certain that someone else will. Although today’s trends seem to foretell the end of the whole life insurance policy, there are still enough customers interested in this kind of traditional and conservative policy that insurance companies will be likely to offer this kind of coverage for many years to come.

About The Author

Gray Rollins is a featured writer for USAInsuranceCenter. To learn more about whole life insurance, visit us at http://www.usainsurancecenter.com/wl/

When it comes to life insurance we have two primary types of policy to choose from – term life insurance or whole of life insurance. Many people find it hard to come to a decision about which type of policy to take out but the decision you have to make really isn’t that complex and both will offer good levels of cover for the majority of people. Let’s take a closer look at your options.

The most popular type of life insurance is, without a doubt, term life insurance. This kind of policy will be set out to last for a specified ‘term’ – i.e. it will last for a set time period. So, you can take out a life insurance term policy for 25 years, as an example. During this 25 year period you will make your policy payments and you’ll have the protection of the policy if you die. So, your next of kin can claim against the policy in the event of your death. But, at the end of the 25 years your policy will be finished and you’ll get no further protection from it.

Many people opt to take out a term life insurance policy because they know that they will no longer have a great need for insurance at the end of the specific term. For many people this kind of policy will end at around the time that they retire so their mortgage will probably be repaid, their families will be grown and they won’t need to make provision for their family to have such a large lump sum or income if they die. So, a term policy can suit them very well indeed, giving them cover during the years when they really need it and finishing when they don’t.

A whole of life policy, on the other hand, will suit those of us who want protection for the rest of our days. This kind of life insurance is designed to last until you die – so you’ll be covered in the short, medium and long term. A lot of people who opt for this kind of life insurance do so because it can be set up to help with issues such as inheritance planning, although many people simply prefer to get cover that is guaranteed to make a payment at some point so that they feel that they are getting some return on their policy payments. There is a guarantee of payment with a whole of life policy that isn’t there with a term policy. Once your term policy is finished that really is it – you are only guaranteed a payment if you do die while the policy is in force.

Many people make their choice here based on their budget. The fact that a term life insurance policy may not ever make a payment (i.e. the fact that you will probably survive your policy) means that insurers can offer lower costs. A whole of life policy – with its guaranteed payment at some point – is consequently more expensive. The choice you make here will be a personal one and may well depend on your financial circumstances. The vital thing to remember is that some form of life insurance cover is vital for most of us – especially if we have a family to consider and we can consequently get great protection from either kind of policy at the end of the day.

About The Author

Micheal Reese has worked in the life insurance http://www.1tracklifeinsurance.co.uk industry and specialises in cheap life insurance policy http://www.cheap-life-insurance-policy.co.uk.