Taking The Mystery And Confusion Out Of Auto Insurance
Most people are pretty good when it comes to shopping for something
. While we all have our moments of impulse buying when we get home and wonder what in the heck we were thinking, most of the time we do all right. We figure out what we want, what's important about it, and then go shopping until we find the best deal. This seems to be somehow innately programmed into our evolutionary thinking. Except when it comes to auto insurance. This is something that most of us just want to get over with. We don't pay nearly enough attention to the policy itself. It's like getting a root canal. We just want to get it over with and go home. Of course, if we do that, we could open ourselves up to financial disaster. That's why we need to figure this out, so we don't waste any money. That's exactly what we are going to do in this article.The first thing is to ignore all those slick ads on TV. Sure, they are some of the best and most entertaining ads you'll ever see, but that doesn't mean the underlying product is any good. All it means is that they've got a huge advertising budget, and some pretty creative people in their marketing department. Use the ads only for entertainment, and not for decision making processes.
Some company's will use your credit score to determine your rates. That's because they need to factor late payments into their payment schedule. The thinking is that if you have a low credit score, you'll be much more likely to make late payments. This will usually give you a higher rate. To avoid this, find a company that doesn't use credit scores to determine their rates.
Like anything else, shopping around is your best option. First, figure out what kind of coverage you need, and then find different companies that offer that coverage. Find out how much they want, and then go from there. The prices should be pretty close. Of course, some companies may charge more because they've got those huge advertising budgets to pay for.
When you get the quote, ask them how they came up with it, and what exactly does it contain. Sometimes company's will low ball you over email or the telephone, hoping you'll come in to the office, or talk to an agent on the phone. Then they slowly increase the price, and pretty soon the price you end up with is nothing near the original quote. Sometimes they'll quote you a bare bones minimum, and then convince you to buy extra stuff once you're on the phone or in the office.
When you take your time, know what you want, and shop around, it's not difficult to get some pretty competitive rates from a decent company.
by: Winston Takeda