Top 9 Ways to Save Money on Car Insurance in Spokane Valley

Expensive car insurance can drain your personal savings and force you to prioritize other expenses. Shopping your coverage around is a smart way to help make ends meet. Companies like GEICO and Progressive promote their brand names with fancy advertisements and it is difficult to not get sucked in by the cute commercials and do the work needed to find the best deal.

Smart consumers take time to get comparison quotes before your policy renews because prices are usually higher with each renewal. If you had the lowest price two years ago a different company probably has better rates today. There is a lot of wrong information about car insurance on the web, but with this article, you’re going to get the best ways to find cheap car insurance.

If you have a policy now or are shopping for new coverage, you can use these tips to cut your premiums while maintaining coverages. Finding affordable coverage in Spokane Valley is not that difficult. Washington consumers just need to know the proper methods to compare rates over the internet.

Compare Quotes for Spokane Valley Car Insurance

There are a lot of ways to shop for car insurance, but some are less time-consuming than others. You could spend the better part of a day talking to insurance agencies in Spokane Valley, or you could save time and use the internet to quickly compare rates.

Many popular insurance companies are enrolled in a marketplace where prospective buyers only type in their quote data once, and each participating company can give them a price determined by their information. This saves time by eliminating quote requests for each company. To compare rates using this form now click here (opens in new window).

The only downside to doing it this way is you don’t know exactly the companies to receive prices from. If you wish to select individual companies for rate comparison, we put together a list of companies who write car insurance in Washington. View list of Washington insurance companies.

Which method you use is up to you, but compare the exact same coverage limits with each company. If each company quotes differing limits you can’t possibly decipher which rate is best in Spokane Valley.

Beware of misleading car insurance ads

Washington consumers constantly see and hear ads for the lowest price auto insurance from the likes of State Farm and Allstate. All the companies make an identical promise of big savings if you change your coverage to them.

How does each company make almost identical claims? It’s all in the numbers.

All the different companies have a certain “appetite” for the type of driver that earns them a profit. An example of a preferred risk might be profiled as a mature driver, has no prior claims, and chooses high deductibles. A customer who matches those parameters will get very good rates and as a result will probably pay quite a bit less when switching companies.

Potential insureds who don’t measure up to the requirements will have to pay a higher premium and ends up with business going elsewhere. The ads say “customers that switch” but not “drivers who get quotes” save money. That’s why insurance companies can state the savings.

Because of the profiling, you absolutely need to get quotes from several different companies. It’s impossible to know which company will give you the biggest savings.

Don’t pay full price with these nine discounts

Car insurance is not cheap, but companies offer discounts to reduce the price significantly. Some trigger automatically at the time of purchase, but less common discounts must be specially asked for before you will receive the discount. If you’re not getting every credit you qualify for, you are throwing money away.

  • Air Bag Discount – Cars that have air bags can qualify for discounts of more than 20%.
  • Multi-policy Discount – When you have multiple policies with one insurance company you may earn up to 20% off your total premium.
  • Multiple Cars – Buying coverage for all your vehicles on the same car insurance policy qualifies for this discount.
  • Anti-lock Brake Discount – Vehicles equipped with ABS or steering control prevent accidents and will save you 10% or more.
  • Lower Rates for Military – Being deployed with a military unit could mean lower rates.
  • Save over 55 – If you’re over the age of 55, you can possibly qualify for better car insurance rates.
  • Use Seat Belts – Requiring all passengers to use a seat belt can save up to 15% on the medical payments or PIP coverage costs.
  • Discount for Swiching Early – Some companies give discounts for switching policies before your current expiration date. The savings is around 10%.
  • Driver’s Ed – Cut your cost by having your teen driver enroll in driver’s education if it’s offered in school.

It’s important to note that most of the big mark downs will not be given to the overall cost of the policy. Most only reduce individual premiums such as liability and collision coverage. So even though it sounds like you would end up receiving a 100% discount, companies wouldn’t make money that way. Any amount of discount will help reduce your overall premium however.

To see a list of insurance companies with discount car insurance rates in Washington, follow this link.

Additional information can be found on the website for the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner through this link. Washington drivers can read enforcement actions against agents and companies, find disaster information, and find out which companies have the most complaints.

Car insurance policy coverages

Having a good grasp of your policy aids in choosing the best coverages and the correct deductibles and limits. The coverage terms in a policy can be impossible to understand and nobody wants to actually read their policy. Listed below are typical coverage types offered by car insurance companies.

Medical expense insurance

Medical payments and Personal Injury Protection insurance provide coverage for expenses such as ambulance fees, surgery, EMT expenses, doctor visits and chiropractic care. They are often used in conjunction with a health insurance program or if you do not have health coverage. It covers you and your occupants in addition to any family member struck as a pedestrian. PIP is not an option in every state and gives slightly broader coverage than med pay

Liability auto insurance

Liability insurance can cover damage or injury you incur to other’s property or people in an accident. This insurance protects YOU against other people’s claims, and does not provide coverage for your injuries or vehicle damage.

It consists of three limits, bodily injury for each person, bodily injury for the entire accident, and a limit for property damage. As an example, you may have limits of 50/100/50 which means a $50,000 limit per person for injuries, a per accident bodily injury limit of $100,000, and property damage coverage for $50,000. Another option is a combined limit that pays claims from the same limit and claims can be made without the split limit restrictions.

Liability can pay for claims like medical expenses, structural damage and court costs. How much coverage you buy is your choice, but it’s cheap coverage so purchase higher limits if possible. Washington requires drivers to carry at least 25,000/50,000/10,000 but you should think about purchasing better liability coverage.

Comprehensive (Other than Collision)

Comprehensive insurance coverage pays to fix your vehicle from damage OTHER than collision with another vehicle or object. You first must pay your deductible then your comprehensive coverage will pay.

Comprehensive coverage pays for things like falling objects, rock chips in glass, vandalism, fire damage and theft. The maximum payout your car insurance company will pay is the actual cash value, so if it’s not worth much more than your deductible consider removing comprehensive coverage.

Protection from uninsured/underinsured drivers

This coverage protects you and your vehicle from other drivers when they are uninsured or don’t have enough coverage. This coverage pays for injuries sustained by your vehicle’s occupants and damage to your vehicle.

Since a lot of drivers have only the minimum liability required by law (Washington limits are 25/50/10), it doesn’t take a major accident to exceed their coverage limits. For this reason, having high UM/UIM coverages is important protection for you and your family. Normally your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages are similar to your liability insurance amounts.

Auto collision coverage

Collision insurance pays to fix your vehicle from damage from colliding with a stationary object or other vehicle. You will need to pay your deductible and then insurance will cover the remainder.

Collision insurance covers claims such as sideswiping another vehicle, scraping a guard rail, rolling your car and driving through your garage door. Collision coverage makes up a good portion of your premium, so you might think about dropping it from lower value vehicles. You can also bump up the deductible to get cheaper collision coverage.

Final thoughts

When buying insurance coverage, it’s very important that you do not reduce coverage to reduce premium. There are a lot of situations where someone sacrificed comprehensive coverage or liability limits only to regret that saving that couple of dollars actually costed them tens of thousands. Your goal should be to purchase a proper amount of coverage at a price you can afford, not the least amount of coverage.

We just covered many ways to compare car insurance prices online. It’s most important to understand that the more companies you get rates for, the higher your chance of finding lower rates. Drivers may discover the lowest priced car insurance comes from a smaller regional carrier. They may cover specific market segments cheaper than their larger competitors like Allstate or State Farm.