Learn How You Can Lower Your Car Insurance

Great news for students and young people - low cost auto insurance is out there, but you have to look around a bit to find it.

If you're a new driver, you already know that you must have basic coverage to drive, under current laws. If you're looking at car insurance quotes right now, then these tips below can certainly lead you to some money saving choices.

The good news is that technology will make it easy for you to search for and compare policies. Whether you use a comparison site or a search engine, the Internet will save you dozens of phone calls or visits. Before you go searching though, you need a little background on what different types of insurance policies are available.

Here are your basic choices:

  1. Liability - A policy to pay for damages to other cars and injuries to other people involved in an accident if you are at fault.
  2. Collision - This covers damage to your car in a collision, regardless of who is at fault.
  3. Comprehensive - This covers damages to your car or the loss of your car due to vandalism, fire, theft or other non-collision events.
  4. Personal Injury Protection (PIP) - This insurance pays for the driver's medical expenses in an accident, no matter who is at fault. Insurance.wa.gov gives a great explanation.
  5. Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist - This coverage will take care of your expenses if the at-fault driver in an accident has no insurance or doesn't have enough to cover your expenses.

The first step in choosing your auto insurance is knowing what you need to have. An article on How Stuff Works explains a bit about the type of coverage and minimum amount you should expect.

If you have a loan on your car, your lender may have minimum insurance requirements as well. There are sites like Kemper.com that allow for you to customize coverage. In some cases, you will want more than the minimum required coverage.

Once you know the exact type of car insurance policy or policies you want, you need to look at deductibles. Would you rather pay more on your premiums and have less out-of-pocket costs after an accident, or vice versa? It's usually a good idea to set your deductible at about the maximum amount you could comfortably afford to pay in an emergency. With deductibles resolved, you should next look into discounts. You may qualify for discounts based on education, occupation, or a variety of other factors, so it pays to check with each potential insurer.

When come to the actual comparison, make sure that you are looking at the same policy types, dollar amounts and deductibles from each company you look at. If a company offers a cheap premium but the deductible is higher than the others you're looking at, it's not a fair comparison. There are videos on eHow and all over the internet also gives some very solid advice about anything from getting your final quote on paper before you agree to anything to step by step explanations of terms. Just be sure to know your exact terms and costs. Once you have that final quote in hand and you're happy with it, you've successfully found your low cost auto insurance.