Are you satisfied with the quality of coverage you get for the money you pay? Of course, most of us think that cheap means low-quality and tend to overpay just believing that this will give them better insurance or services. In fact, it is not so. Paying too much money for insurance often leads only to over-spending money and doesn’t increase the quality of coverage you get. So if money is vital to you and you want to lower your insurance costs, here are some simple tips how to do it:

Lower theft risk: The majority of new cars carry anti-theft features. And the more such features your car has the lower will be your insurance premiums. Theft is one of the major risks for insurance companies, especially in urban areas, and if you do something to prevent such risks your policy will be much cheaper.

Multiple car discounts: Sometimes insuring two cars can cost you the same amount of money as insuring a single vehicle. People often get pleasantly surprised with multiple car discounts they can get from their insurance companies when asking for one. It’s much cheaper to have a single policy covering all your cars rather than separate policies for each individually. Even if you think of selling your second car, it is better to get it insured too because it will allow you to opt for the multiple car discount. But when you actually sell the car and report it to your insurer it is quite likely that your rates will go up.

Get one-year policies: Not only you save yourself from the hassle of looking for a new policy every six months instead of a year, but you also get fixed rates for a longer period of time. Which is quite nice if you find a cheap policy initially.

Storage discounts: In case you will be storing your car for a certain period of time, it would be smart to inform your insurance company about it. Because during that time you aren’t likely to be needing any collision or liability coverage, making your car insurance much cheaper during the storage period.

Check your exact mileage: When the insurance agent asks you how much mile you drive within a certain period of time, it is better to be as precise as possible. Your mileage strongly affects your rates, so if you drive only a few miles to work and back it is good to know how much “a few” really is.

Opt for group discounts: In case you are a member of a credit union, college association, driver’s club or any other organization, you can opt for a group discount on your car insurance in case the organization is affiliated to your insurance company.

EFT payments are cheaper: You might notice that every time you pay for car insurance by mail, you are charged more than by any other means. Start using your banking account for settling payments: it’s not only more convenient but actually cheaper.

There is no point in being anything other than completely honest. The US economy is in trouble and things are going to stay this way for some time. That means unemployment will remain a problem and credit will be hard to find. The majority of people have responded to this situation by switching from a high-spending lifestyle to something more modest to keep enough money to service all the debts. Otherwise, the bank may foreclose on the mortgage and credit scores will be lost. This creates dilemmas. What do you need and what can be cut back? Public transport is poor. Most people need a vehicle to get around. Almost all states make it an offense to drive a vehicle on a public highway without a valid insurance policy in place. The temptation is therefore to cut back on coverage but this can be financially dangerous.

The main types of policy are liability, comprehensive and collision. The minimum legal requirement is liability coverage. Auto loan and leasing contracts usually require comprehensive and collision coverage. Thus, if you own an older car outright, you could buy a liability policy for the minimum amount and save several hundred dollars. This is called self-insurance and is generally popular in the form of deductibles where you agree to pay the first slice of any claim out of your own pocket. Let’s work through an example to see how it works. Suppose you own a car worth $2,500 and it costs you $1,000 a year for all three policies. You decide to cancel the collision coverage and this saves you $300. Sadly, two months later, you are involved in an accident that totals your vehicle. You may have saved $300 but can you afford to replace your car? Worse, you kept you car because it was well-maintained and reliable. There is no guarantee that a secondhand replacement will be as good.

Similarly, you could reduce your liability coverage to the statutory minimum amount. But, if you cause an accident and the victim’s claim for injury and property damage exceeds the minimums, can you afford to pay the balance? If you have assets or savings, these could all be lost if there’s a judgment against you. The more you self-insure, the greater the risk to your financial safety. Of course, if you have no assets, it is unlikely anyone will chase you for payment. But if you own property or have a portfolio of investments for retirement, these are at risk. So you need to take a hard look at your situation and, more importantly, shop around. This site gives you the chance to get car insurance quotes from all the top insurers. You can run the search as many times as you need to get comparative quotes for different levels of cover. Never assume you can cut coverage safely. Never assume you cannot find affordable coverage when you get a good range of car insurance quotes.