6 Money Saving Ideas Guaranteed to Save Money on Car Insurance Costs in Mckeesport, PA

Are you intimidated by the wide range of car insurance companies in Mckeesport? Lot’s of other consumers are too. You have so many options available that it can easily become a ton of work to locate the lowest price.

You should make it a habit to price shop coverage quite often because rates trend upward over time. If you had the best price a year ago you may be paying too much now. So just ignore everything you know about car insurance because it’s time to teach you one of the best ways to find better rates and still maintain coverage.

Vehicle Insurance Comparison

Most major insurance companies quote insurance quotes online. The process doesn’t take much effort as you just type in your required coverages as requested by the quote form. When complete, the system obtains your credit score and driving record and provides a quote determined by many factors.

Online price quotes helps simplify price comparisons, but the process of having to visit many different websites and enter the same data into a form is not the best way to spend an afternoon. But it’s absolutely necessary to perform this step in order to get better prices.

The better way to compare rates

An easier way to compare rates utilizes a single form to get prices from multiple companies. This type of form saves time, helps eliminate reptitive entry, and makes comparison shopping much more efficient. Once the form is submitted, it is rated and you can choose any or none of the price quotes you receive.

If the quotes result in lower rates, you can simply submit the application and buy the policy. The whole process just takes a couple of minutes and may save quite a bit of money.

To compare pricing, click here to open in a new tab and input your coverage information. If you currently have coverage, we recommend you replicate just like they are on your policy. Doing this guarantees you will have a price comparison based on identical coverages.

Discounts are basically free money

Car insurance is not cheap, but there are discounts available that you may not know about. Some trigger automatically at quote time, but a few need to be specifically requested before you will receive the discount.

  • Discount for Good Grades – Performing well in school can save 20 to 25%. The discount lasts well after school through age 25.
  • Sign Online – A handful of insurance companies give back up to $50 simply for signing over the internet.
  • One Accident Forgiven – Some insurance companies will allow you to have one accident without raising rates if you are claim-free for a particular time prior to the accident.
  • Seat Belts Save – Drivers who require all occupants to wear their seat belts could save 15% off your PIP or medical payments premium.
  • Senior Discount – If you’re over the age of 55, you can possibly qualify for a small decrease in premiums.
  • Claim Free – Drivers with accident-free driving histories pay much less when compared with frequent claim filers.

A little note about advertised discounts, some of the credits will not apply to the overall cost of the policy. A few only apply to specific coverage prices like physical damage coverage or medical payments. Just because it seems like you would end up receiving a 100% discount, companies wouldn’t make money that way. But all discounts will bring down your premiums.

To choose insurers offering car insurance discounts in Pennsylvania, click here.

Much more information about car insurance in Pennsylvania can be found on the Pennsylvania Insurance Department website located here. Consumers can discover disciplinary actions, find out industry alerts, find disaster information, and download brochures.

Save 15 percent in 15 minutes? Is it for real?

Car insurance companies such as Allstate and Progressive constantly bombard you with ads in print and on television. They all seem to have a common claim of big savings if you switch your coverage to them. How can each company say the same thing? It’s all in the numbers.

Insurance companies can use profiling for the right customer that makes them money. For instance, a desirable insured could be over the age of 40, has no tickets, and drives newer vehicles. Any driver who matches those parameters gets the lowest rates and therefore will save when they switch companies.auto insurance image

Potential insureds who don’t qualify for this ideal profile must pay a more expensive rate which usually ends up with the customer not buying. Company advertisements say “customers who switch” not “everyone that quotes” save that much. That’s why insurance companies can confidently state the savings.

This illustrates why drivers must get as many comparisons as possible. You cannot predict which insurance companies will have the lowest rates.

Coverages available on your policy

Having a good grasp of car insurance can be of help when determining which coverages you need at the best deductibles and correct limits. The coverage terms in a policy can be difficult to understand and nobody wants to actually read their policy.

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM)

This coverage protects you and your vehicle’s occupants from other motorists when they are uninsured or don’t have enough coverage. Covered losses include hospital bills for your injuries and damage to your vehicle.

Since a lot of drivers only carry the minimum required liability limits (Pennsylvania limits are 15/30/5), it only takes a small accident to exceed their coverage. This is the reason having UM/UIM coverage is very important. Normally the UM/UIM limits are similar to your liability insurance amounts.

Collision protection

Collision coverage pays to fix your vehicle from damage caused by collision with a stationary object or other vehicle. You have to pay a deductible then the remaining damage will be paid by your insurance company.

Collision coverage pays for things such as damaging your car on a curb, rolling your car, crashing into a ditch, scraping a guard rail and sideswiping another vehicle. This coverage can be expensive, so analyze the benefit of dropping coverage from older vehicles. Another option is to raise the deductible in order to get cheaper collision rates.

Med pay and Personal Injury Protection (PIP)

Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and medical payments coverage provide coverage for immediate expenses like chiropractic care, dental work, prosthetic devices and rehabilitation expenses. They are often utilized in addition to your health insurance plan or if you do not have health coverage. They cover both the driver and occupants in addition to being hit by a car walking across the street. PIP is not universally available and gives slightly broader coverage than med pay

Coverage for liability

This coverage protects you from damage that occurs to other people or property by causing an accident. Split limit liability has three limits of coverage: bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident and property damage. Your policy might show values of 50/100/50 that translate to a $50,000 limit per person for injuries, $100,000 for the entire accident, and $50,000 of coverage for damaged propery. Alternatively, you may have one limit called combined single limit (CSL) which provides one coverage limit with no separate limits for injury or property damage.

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Liability insurance covers things like structural damage, medical services, funeral expenses, legal defense fees and repair costs for stationary objects. The amount of liability coverage you purchase is a decision to put some thought into, but you should buy higher limits if possible. Pennsylvania state minimum liability requirements are 15,000/30,000/5,000 but drivers should carry higher limits.

Comprehensive insurance

This coverage will pay to fix damage from a wide range of events other than collision. You need to pay your deductible first then your comprehensive coverage will pay.

Comprehensive can pay for things like hitting a bird, damage from flooding and damage from getting keyed. The maximum payout a car insurance company will pay at claim time is the actual cash value, so if it’s not worth much more than your deductible consider removing comprehensive coverage.

Summing up your car insurance search

When shopping online for car insurance, it’s very important that you do not skimp on critical coverages to save a buck or two. There are too many instances where someone dropped liability coverage limits to discover at claim time that the savings was not a smart move. Your strategy should be to buy enough coverage for the lowest price, not the least amount of coverage.

The cheapest car insurance is possible on the web and also from your neighborhood Mckeesport agents, so compare prices from both to have the best selection. Some companies may not provide online price quotes and usually these small, regional companies provide coverage only through local independent agents.

In this article, we presented a lot of tips how to get a better price on car insurance. The key thing to remember is the more quotes you get, the better chance you’ll have of finding lower rates. You may even discover the lowest rates come from the least-expected company.