#11: Move to a state where insurance premiums are lower.

I find it shocking but I'm paying less for two cars in MA than I paid for a single car in NYC.

And don't even bother having car in NJ !

The mileage thing is pretty huge. I work 2 miles from my office and my wife is a stay at home mom. A friend tipped us off on low mileage insurance discounts.

In our case, State Farm offers one if you drive <7,500 miles a year - which we do.

It literally cut our 6 month premiums in half.

@astraelraen: Yep. Every time we move, I have to change our address with Geico, which leads to me having to re-calculate our mileage. I've noticed big differences between addresses in the same town where the only thing that I can figure that changed was just work mileage.

@astraelraen: I do the same low-milage thing with State Farm, but it made very little difference for me; something on the order of $20 / 6 months. It may be correlated with having them as my insurance for 25 years without any accidents or claims of any sort along with a whole bunch of other discounts(multiple cars, multiple lines, etc.).

Multiple cars on the same policy usually generate a discount. Consider what your car is worth when buying collision and comprehensive. If you're driving a ten year old car and it's totaled, the carrier will only pay the fair value of the car, not the price of a new car. There comes a point when collision and comprehensive cost more than they're worth. For liability, consider an umbrella policy. It picks up where the liability coverage of the regular policy leaves off. With what courts are awarding these days, it's relatively cheap protection.

@azzie: Oh man. Can you imagine the poor actuaries in NYC trying to figure out the Yellow Cab effect on accidents?

@azzie: Sometimes just moving to a different zip code is enough to make a big difference, for that matter, depending on what the risk profile of the two zip codes is.

@H3ion: +1 on considering the value of the car. I drive old heaps so I never carry anything but PL/PD. The amount I'd pay in extra premiums to carry comprehensive and collision just isn't worth it considering the minuscule value of the cars I own.

@H3ion: It depends on your net worth. If the court awards the plaintiff 100,000 dollars over your policy and your total net worth is a 1,000 dollar hooptie and 500 bucks in the bank. Then umbrella coverage is meaningless. Consult a bankruptcy lawyer and use that 500 bucks there.

@sonneillon: I've been wondering about this, actually. I don't have much of a net worth, but I'm concerned a lawsuit award could consider my future earnings potential as an asset to be tapped. The last thing I'd want is to be stuck having my salary docked for the rest of my life. On the other hand, being too well-insured could make it more attractive to sue me. It's a real puzzler.

@azzie:
I moved from Portland to Boise with a clean record and a new car with full coverage, went from 120/month to 57/month. The one benefit of Boise!

@azzie: Hell, move to a different TOWN. I know so many people who "live" outside the city of Detroit to lower their premiums by HUNDREDS of dollars.

#12. Change state law regarding auto insurance mandates.

@MooseOfReason: Having already been screwed over by an uninsured motorist once, I'm not too sure that's a good idea.

I just went through this.

I considered reducing coverage slightly or increasing deductible, but these items would have saved me a mere $7-$20 per year while significantly increasing my personal financial risk. Frankly, I think it is poor advice to increase a deductible (exposing yourself to hundreds more in risk) just to save $20 a year. And I checked this with my carrier (Liberty Mutual) and others - Progressive, Geico, State Farm.

When it came down to it, I just called Liberty Mutual and said "I saw a lower quote from Progressive, based on a match in the coverage listed on my deck page. I don't really want to switch, but money is tight and price has to be the priority this year." Miraculously, my premium went from $780/year to $620/year, AND they found a discount they applied retroactively to make my amount due for the next 6 months of coverage $501 total (This for $100k/$300k/$50k policy with 2 drivers). The person on the phone at Liberty Mutual actually listened to me and treated me like a human being, too (yay). I got her email address and sent her an email thanking her and praising her professionalism, and expressing that I remain a customer because of her. I hope she forwards it to her boss.

So, I would replace "Increase your deductible" with "Just ask."

@Orv: They can only go after what you have right at the moment of a lawsuit and it is very difficult to collect when the judgment is far more than the persons net value. Often times you can force them to pay pennies on the dollars under the threat of a chapter 7 where they will likely get nothing.

Another good tip is to not make claims for small stuff. Sure, it might seem nice to have your insurance pay to seal that windshield chip or replace a broken headlight, but if you make a claim they're likely to turn around and jack up your rates.

@Orv: Also they will only know if you are well insured if you tell them, your insurance company will not tell them the limits of your coverage only that you are covered, there are also procedural rules in court that will help you in this case too, but I think they vary by state and I do not know these right off the bat.

@astraelraen: Too bad your agent didn't mention this. That's kind of why they got a job

Damn, that picture looks like my old Nissan pickup!

@azzie: the reason you're paying less is b/c the state regulates what insurance companies can charge. MA started doing this b/c insurance had become so expensive that uninsured drivers became a huge problem. interestingly enough, insurance companies threatened to leave MA in droves if the state took this approach, but many companies still insure there (though there are some that held to their word & won't insure MA drivers).

personally, i'm amazed that anyone in that state can get a driver's license, let alone insurance. =P

if you have a history of infractions &/or accidents, pull your CLUE report [www.choicetrust.com] (free pull/year under FCRA/FACTA) & your driving record (usually not free & can often be obtained by visiting your state's DMV website).

when you get to the part of interview where they're asking you to disclose your indiscretions over the past 3-5-7 years, don't disclose anything other than what's in those reports.

Your credit score is significant contributor to how high your premium will be.

@Orv: that pisses me off. i literally moved 4 miles down the road from where i used to live - different zip code, same road. my insurance jumped $300/year.

the funny thing is that before i had on-street parking & now i have a driveway.

i understand the reasoning for the profiling, but the b.s. part to me is that i drive the same roads as i did before, i just get to pay an extra dollar/day to do it.

@Orv: Comprehensive is usually cheap, especially on an older car - my company charges about $30/year on a car that's 12 or 15 years old, for a $100 deductible. I'd keep comprehensive just for windshield replacements.

11. Have a sex change operation.

@Orv: I meant mandating that auto insurance policies include certain things, and therefore raising the cost.

@astraelraen: Yep, I get the low-mileage rate, it's good stuff.

@Orv: true enough, when i first moved to where i am now i was given a choice classifying my insurance location because my zip code had a possibility of being the larger main city or the name of the former township that was there before the city swallowed it.
the difference was $187 a year less for choosing the township classification

@mac-phisto: oh that helps to know. i think i will look at that to see when my speeding tickets are due to drop off so i can try to renegotiate!

F*** the insurance companies that use a person's credit score to jack up rates. That should be more illegal than redlining.

Tell them that you are married. I am single and the agent asked me if I said I was married I would save money, I ended up saving $10 per month.

@catastrophegirl: yeah, i think i explained that backwards, though, so for clarification:
*CLUE - keeps track of claims made against your insurance policies.
*driving record - lists all vehicle infractions you were ticketed for & paid.

@not_a_virus.exe.vbs: you have to be careful about outright lying to insurance companies - if they discover your lie, they can use that as grounds to refuse payment on claims.

something as simple as "are you married?" may seem trivial, but that can give them leverage to cancel your policy & refuse to pay when you need it most.

another tip: how old is your car? in most states, 25 years or older qualifies you for a classic car plate & there are insurance programs that are insanely cheap for these vehicles.

before you go buying a beater 1983 olds 88, make sure you read all the fine print. some of these plate/insurance programs restrict your driving considerably to qualify.

Anyone notice that most of the list are silly expensive suggestions?

Drive a different car.. A.K.A. buy another car.

Drive less, even says to move closer to work. Yea, most people move to save car ins. money.

Buy a vehicle with an anti-theft device (again... who can't afford a car right now). Even having one installed. Unless you install it yourself, it's usually about $200+ for a cheap system.

Reduce your Ins. levels isn't accurate either. I increased my coverage from the state minimum to a nice middle-high range of coverage...my rates dropped. Apparently, profiling people by the coverages they elect is fine. They told me that most people who get minimum coverage are more likely to have accidents.

Good comments section for real world tips. But that article is a little brainless.

I gotta take issue with #9 - Be a loyal customer.

I was with Allstate since I could drive at 16 (I'm now 30) and I finally decided to stop being lazy and see what the company discounted offerings through Liberty Mutual could get me for both my car and homeowners insurance. I went from a total of $2700/year (2 cars, 1 detached single family home) to $1500/year with the same coverage levels. I called Allstate to give them a chance to counter since I've been with them so long and my agent told me there was nothing he could do...he couldn't even come close.

I mean he didn't even try, there was no "well the best I can do is $2200/year" or something like that.

Make sure your insurance matches where you live and go to university especially for college or graduate school students. If you attend a college in a cheaper insurance state than your parents home is in, make your insurance and registration match that state.

I'm looking at you Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) medical students driving around with NJ and NY license tags...

@mac-phisto: Yeah, classic car insurance stated value plus alot of those policies require a lockable garage for the vehicle plus pictures of the vehicle...

@azzie: If you have car insurance in NJ and move away to a completely different region (other than NYC or California) you need to call the insurance company upon establishing a new address. Often they are able to refund you on the difference of your new lower rate and the former NJ rate...

There are no "loyal customer" discounts. I was with Allstate for years with a clean record and no claims. Then they jacked my rate 50%. It was obviously a broad corporate decision that the local agent had no control over. He made up all sorts of bogus rationales but obviously didn't have a clue as to why it went up. I switched to 21st Century (old AIG) and now pay less than my original rate with Allstate.

@not_a_virus.exe.vbs:

Insurance agent here. You just gave your company the only reason they need to deny any claim you ever file with them. Good job.

@chaoss13:

A lot of insurance companies offer a "coverage discount." In some cases, bumping up your coverage can lower premiums.

I've seen people schedule items on their renters or homeowners policy and drop the rate as well.

I feel the need to point one thing out here. This wasn't in TFA but I get this allllll the time.

Insurance companies *cannot,* I repeat *CANNOT* "haggle" prices. The most they can do is find discounts you qualify for that weren't on the policy, and add them.

There is no "well what can you do for me, XXXX company offered me 10$ lower per month." Rates and discounts are filed with the state and are *not* able to be altered except through overall rate increases/decreases filed through the state.

So the next time you call up your agent and try to pit a lower quote against your current policy, he's not telling you "sorry nothing I can do" to be a jerk... there really is nothing he can do short from lying on your policy and adding discounts on you don't qualify for.

Grow up....ALL insurance companies use a person's credit score to rate their customers. It's a statistically proven fact that people who have crummy credit make more claims for higher amounts that people with good credit. Caveat emptor....pay on time.

@mac-phisto: Really? Can you provide some sort of link that talks about that policy? It's not that I don't trust you, I'd just like to see for myself.

Which insurance companies give a low mileage discount? I have Allstate, and they don't give a discount for that.

@startertan:

I had switched from State Farm to Allstate over 10 years ago, and the switch saved me about 50% on my rates back then. But now my Allstate rates are high, even after discounts, and my agent can't get it any lower. He even tried to talk me into dropping my current plan and switching to the Allstate plan where you pay to keep your rates lower! And then I tell him I'm going to switch and he gives me some BS about I can't switch insurance mid-coverage-year. What is that crap? I'm going to jump ship.

@astraelraen: that applies only in certain states. In TX State Farm doesn't rate based on mileage, so no discount for us here. :(