Despite what certain geckos would have you believe, the art of saving money on car insurance goes beyond doing whatever television commercials tell you to do.

Better to follow the ways of the Gekko from movie Wall Street and stick with the mentality that greed is good — aim to get the most coverage you can for as little as possible. A World of Money and Markets blog post provides 10 ways to out-greed your insurance agent, half of which we’re fair-using here:

1. Get Several Auto Insurance Quotes and Compare

You will want to start out by getting several auto insurance quotes. You can easily get these in just a few minutes online. Once you have your quotes, then you can compare auto insurance policies and see which one really is the best deal for your needs.

2. Avoid Most Wanted Cars by Car Thieves

Every now and then you will see lists in the news that talk about the Top 10 Most Stolen Cars in America – or something like that. By not buying one of these cars, you can keep your auto insurance lower than what someone will experience who buys one of them. The auto insurance company has to dish out replacement money when one of these is stolen and you can be sure that they will try to recover some of their money in the premiums on the owners of those cars. While the cars may be nice – the costly premiums are not.

3. Have More Than One Policy with Same Insurance Company

You can usually get reduced rates when you have more than one policy with an insurer. So, if you have a homeowner’s insurance policy with a particular company and have had it with them for some time, you want to ask them for an auto insurance quote. Be careful about transferring to different insurers too often, however, because by staying with an insurer over the years you can get another discount.

4. Keep a Good Driving Record

Keeping your car under control – and yourself – can bring rewards like decent auto insurance payments. Keep a clean record and it will help you enjoy the benefits each month.

5. Keep Your Credit Score High

Around 90% of auto insurers will look at your credit report in order to determine your costs. If you have not seen your credit report lately, you may want to get a free copy from the credit bureaus and look it over. Mistakes are often found on credit reports and it could cost you plenty. Besides, fixing a bad credit report may also enable you to get better interest rates on other things when you need them, too.

A drawback to having several agents running your credit score while competing to offer you low rates is all that action shows up on your credit report and may temporarily ding your score, depending on whether the company does a “hard” or “soft” pull on your credit. Car insurance companies should be doing “soft” (won’t affect your score) pulls because they’re not making a lending decision, but you never know, so its something to keep in mind if you’re about to make a big purchase (like a house) in the next few months.

Previously: 10 Things Your Auto Insurer Won’t Tell You.

10 Ways to Reduce Your Car Insurance and Save Money [World of Money and Markets]
List of Institutions that pull HARD credit inquiries when opening a NON-CREDIT account [Fat Wallet]
(Photo: stirwise)

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