It’s pretty clear why looking for the right auto insurance quote is crucial. The cost savings and peace of mind are reasons enough not to settle for just any old quote. But that brings the question of how to go about finding the right quote. How do you navigate the oftentimes-stealthy insurance waters
Well, we’re going to take a look below.
Auto Insurance Coverage Inclusions
According to the Wall Street Journal, your auto insurance policy is basically a set of policies that offer coverage in a variety of ways. These are:
- Liability coverage. If you get in an accident and you happen to be at fault, then this coverage will help you cover the liability of the accident. Liability coverage payment goes to the people you hit. Keep in mind however that anyone in your car won’t be liable for coverage.
- Bodily injury liability or BIL. If you’re at fault in an accident that puts people in the hospital, this coverage takes care of that. With this coverage, you’d have some much-needed assistance in trying to shoulder all injured parties’ medical expenses.
- Property damage liability. If it’s your fault, then this coverage will help you pay for the property damages of the other driver involved in the accident.
- Personal injury protection. This is the coverage you need if you or anyone in the car with you sustained any form of injury in an accident.
- Uninsured motorist coverage. Also include underinsured ones. Many drivers take to the road each day either without insurance or without enough of it. This protects you from these drivers.
- This takes care of repairs for your car.
- Rely on comprehensive coverage if your car gets stolen. It also helps if your car is ever damaged through means other than an accident.
Looking for the Right Insurance
After running through a list of what your auto insurance policy could include, here are a few tips on how you can find a good insurance provider, culled from U.S. News:
- Go with recommendations. Ask friends and family. Pump your network for information. However, don’t discount the advice and counsel of strangers. Write them down and check them all out. Leave no stone unturned. That way, you can verify the claims of both people you know and don’t. If you get lucky, you’ll find a keeper in your pile.
- Use a comparison portal. Another way to go about finding the right insurance provider is to check with an insurance shopping portal.
- Crosscheck your list. Check the list you generated from asking around and the one you got from an online comparison portal. Now, instead of focusing on the rate, consider other features of the policies as well. What are the inclusions? Are there any discounts?
- Pick a customer service team. If you happen to end up with a few names on the list of your insurance provider, one easy way to filter it down to one is to pick the company that offered you the best in terms of customer service. See how the staff treat customers and you’ll find your answer. After all, who wants to keep sending business to an unfriendly or unhelpful team of people? Not you, that’s for sure.
- Look at add-ons. When you finally come up with the insurance provider of your choice, hurray! But, that’s still not the end of it. You can still look into a couple of add-ons and see if you’d like to have those added to your policy.
- Think about rental coverage. If you find yourself renting a car occasionally—for those days when your own set of wheels is in the shop—then you might find it helpful to add rental coverage to your policy.
- Get extra-liability insurance. This is extra coverage should you find yourself in an accident. For instance, an athlete will buy insurance to have his or her assets covered and secured.
Other Tips
Here are a few pointers from AutoBlog to help you in finding the best quote out of the many insurance providers you asked:
- Don’t go for minimum coverage. Legal minimums might not cut it in case an accident happens. It’s better if you get more than the minimum.
- Examine your coverage. Do you have comprehensive coverage along with your collision coverage? Your comprehensive coverage involves damage to your car that’s non-crash related.
- Don’t go uninsured or underinsured. Insurance can help you get back on your feet faster and better in case an accident happens. That’s going to be tough to do, though, if you haven’t got insurance in the first place or don’t have the right coverage.
So before you drive anywhere, consider the risks carefully. Be sure you’re covered before you get behind the wheel. Follow the above tips to know how to find just the right coverage for the right policy quote.