Buy a Sensible Car

While most teens hope for a brand new car on their birthday, from an insurance standpoint it is a bad idea to buy a new car for a new driver. Teens are statistically most likely to have an accident during the first 12 months of driving, so at the very least it is recommended that you wait to buy your teen his/her own car until after the first year.

Another insurance concern with new cars is that if you have a loan or lien (or otherwise don’t technically own the car), you may be required to carry more comprehensive insurance, which will increase premium costs significantly.

Consider Policy Types Carefully

Teen drivers are subject to the same insurance requirements as all drivers in their state, however, you may want to consider increasing your coverage beyond the minimum requirements. All states require liability coverage, which covers damages you cause to another vehicle and injuries to the other driver and his/her passengers. Collision coverage, which covers damages to your own car if you cause an accident, is not required in most states, but it can prove invaluable for high risk drivers. Even though everyone is statutorily required to have liability coverage, there are a lot of circumstances in which a driver is left to pay his/her own costs after an accident, regardless of who was at fault. For example, if your teen runs into a tree in a parking lot, liability insurance will not cover the damage but collision coverage will. Even though you’ll save on your premiums by buying only the minimum required coverage, it may cost you a lot less in the long run to shell out the extra money now and buy optional insurance coverage. Read the rest of this entry »

Teen drivers fall into the high risk category for insurance because teens are statistically 4 times more likely to have an accident in the first 12 months of driving than any other age group. Parents who are adding a teen driver to their policy should be prepared to pay much higher premiums. Typically, adding a teenage driver to an existing policy will increase the premiums by 50-100% for at least the first year.

Building a Safe Driving Record

The only good news about adding a teen driver to your insurance policy is that if your teen has started to build a safe driving record, you may begin to see a reduction in rates after only a year. This is partly because the risk of accidents for teen drivers is the highest during the first 12 months, and partly because after a year, a new driver has begun to build a driving record that can indicate to insurance companies a pattern of safe driving. Without any kind of driving record, new drivers must be assumed to be in the highest risk group. After the first year that your teen is on your insurance policy, you should ask the company reassess your rates and see if you qualify for a rate reduction. Read the rest of this entry »

Most Common Policy Types

• Liability Coverage: Pays for damage you cause in an accident

• PDL (Property Damage Liability): Pays for damage to the other driver’s vehicle and any surrounding public or private property

• BDL (Bodily Damage Liability): Pays for injuries in the other vehicle

• PIP (Personal Injury Protection): Pays for injuries to yourself and your passengers if you cause an accident

• UMC (Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage): Pays for your damage and injuries if you are in an accident caused by an uninsured or inadequately insured driver

• Collision Coverage: Pays for damages to your car if you cause an accident or your vehicle is damaged by any accident other than a multi-car accident

• Comprehensive Coverage: Pays for damages to your vehicle caused by non-traffic factors such as acts of nature or vandalism

• Tow Coverage: Pays towing fees if your vehicle has to be removed from an accident scene or driven to a repair shop for any reason

• Rental Car Coverage: Pays the cost of having a rental car while your car is being repaired Read the rest of this entry »
  

1. Compare Rates

The easiest and most obvious way to make sure you get a good deal on auto insurance is to compare rates. Nowadays, it’s much easier to shop around for insurance without spending hours on the phone repeating the same information. Leading Insurance Quotes allows you to compare the rates of 12 companies at once. It is recommended that you use third-party companies like LIQ to compare rates, because these companies aren’t concerned with what company you choose and will provide a more objective rate comparison. Insurance company sites with comparison features will almost always profess to have the lowest rates themselves, which could be because their quotes of other companies are inflated. Read the rest of this entry »

No single company always has the lowest rates for auto insurance. However, across the board you will save money by buying your policy online. The biggest disadvantage to this process is that you don’t sit down with an agent and have the opportunity to ask questions.

Why is Online Auto Insurance Cheaper?

Imagine you run a bank. In order to stay in business you have to cover the cost of your impressive lobby, decorations, tellers, security guards, desks, computers, fixtures, administrative offices, copiers, office equipment, and much more. Running the same bank online might require a less fancy building, much less staff, no security, no decorations, and a lot fewer fixtures. The same is true for auto insurance. A standard insurance company has a lot of overhead, including the space, the agents and their offices, the office equipment, a complete staff, and maintenance costs. All of these costs are figured into the cost of what a company sells, in this case insurance. When you buy insurance from an online company with much lower overhead, the savings are passed on to you in the form of lower premiums.

Adding an Additional Car or Driver to Your Insurance

Even though you may have shopped around and diligently compared quotes when you originally got your auto insurance, that doesn’t mean your current company will always have the best rates or coverage. If you really like your company because of its superior customer service, you may decide it’s not worth taking a chance with a new company. But if you feel neutral about your current provider, you may want to switch at any time. Read the rest of this entry »

Most states have hundreds of insurance companies that provide auto coverage. Before the internet age, consumers had to call each company for quotes in order to choose the best company from which to purchase insurance. This also meant providing your personal information several times, spending hours on the phone, and waiting up to a few weeks for each company to come back with a decision and a quote. Thankfully, those days are over.

Now, it is much easier to access multiple companies at once and obtain rate quotes and details about what types of coverage are offered. For example, when you request a quote from Leadinginsurancequotes.com, we search 12 reputable insurance companies and provide you with the best options for coverage in your state.

Not all companies operate in all states. When you are researching a company online, be sure to verify that it is available to drivers in your state.

How to Compare Auto Insurance Companies

Company Stability

Especially with the recent economic turmoil, it is more important than ever to be careful what companies you entrust with your money. Many consumers want to find out about the financial stability and longevity of a company before they make a final decision on insurance. A.M. Best is a great resource for researching insurance companies, and includes such information as how long the company has been in business, its yearly earnings, and what percentage of ownership belongs to policyholders. A.M. Best’s yearly report, Best’s Insurance Reports, provides an overview of insurance companies that is updated every year. A.M. Best rates companies on a letter grading system, the highest rating being A++. Read the rest of this entry »

To insurance companies, teens fall into the category of “high risk drivers.” High risk drivers are statistically more likely to have an accident or become a victim of car theft or vandalism. Teen drivers between 16 and 20 years old (especially males) have 4 times more accidents than any other age group, and car accidents are the leading cause of death in that age group. Teens also have no driving record to demonstrate to insurance companies whether they are safe drivers, so they are assumed to carry the average (high) risk level of a person in their age group. All of this translates to high auto insurance premiums for all teens.

When you add a teen to your insurance policy, be prepared for your rates to jump significantly. Figures range from a 50% to 100% increase in premiums after adding a teen driver to an existing policy. The first mistake many parents make is assuming that they’re getting the best deal by staying with the same company they’ve used before. In truth, the company you chose for your individual insurance policy may not be the best or most competitive company for insuring a teenage driver. Anytime you need to add additional coverage to an existing insurance policy, it is a good idea to shop around and see if you can find a better rate somewhere else. Leadinginsurancequotes.com offers a free insurance quote service that will allow you to compare the rates of several companies, and you only have to enter your information once. With a 5 to 10 minute investment, you can quickly check to see if another company can offer you a better deal.

Laws Governing Teen Driving

Teen drivers are subject to the same state minimum insurance requirements as adult drivers, but some states have even more laws governing how teens must transition into fully-licensed drivers. Drivinglaws.org contains helpful information about recent changes to several states’ laws surrounding teen drivers. Some of these laws are extensions of Graduated License Programs, in which teens must undergo a probationary period before they can obtain a full driver’s license. These programs usually include limited driving hours (no night driving), limited passengers, and a required amount of supervised driving. Read the rest of this entry »

There are a lot of websites where you can obtain online auto insurance quotes from several companies at once. Leading Insurance Quotes searches the rates of 12 companies and presents you with the most affordable options. It is very important, however, that when you compare insurance quotes online, you pay attention to every aspect of the policies you’re choosing from.

Premium Amount

The premium is the monthly charge for your auto insurance. It is based on various factors, including your age, gender, location, driving history, vehicle, levels of coverage, and even your personal credit rating. While comparing premiums may seem like an easy way to choose the “best” insurance, you may be surprised to learn the other differences between your policy options.

Basic Auto Insurance

Every state has its own requirements for auto insurance, ranging from $40,000 to over $100,000 in total coverage. For your convenience, leadinginsurancequotes.com has a state-by-state auto insurance guide to help you determine what levels of coverage are required in your state. When you request insurance quotes online, your quotes should include all the required coverage, but it is a good idea to verify that with your own research because state laws change from time to time and it is your responsibility, not the insurance company’s, to verify that you have all the required coverage. (For reference, here is another handy tool for finding the state-required insurance in your state.) Read the rest of this entry »

No single company universally has the cheapest auto insurance rates, because auto insurance costs depend on multiple factors:

• Age
• Gender
• Location (state, city, and neighborhood)
• Driving history
• Type(s) of vehicle
• Average miles driven per year
• Levels of coverage
• Deductible

When you request a rate quote on Leadinginsurancequotes.com, we search several companies and offer you a range of options. You have the choice of selecting the cheapest option, but before you do that, you should pay close attention to what will be included in your policy.

Higher Deductible = Lower Premiums

As a rule, if you choose a higher deductible, you can get lower premiums. This is true for any type of insurance, because choosing a higher deductible reduces the amount the insurance company will have to pay if you make a claim. When you get quotes from a specific company, ask them to provide various options for your deductible. You may find that the amount you save over a year on lower premiums adds up to much more than the additional deductible amount. Read the rest of this entry »

What is a High Risk Driver?

High risk drivers are drivers that are considered to be more at risk for an accident. This can include:

• Young drivers with little or no driving history (especially males)
• Elderly drivers
• Drivers who have gotten multiple moving violations (including DWIs or DUIs)
• Drivers of sporty or fast cars
• Drivers living in high-crime areas, especially those without off-street parking

The high-risk designation for young drivers may decrease as they build a solid driving history, provided that they don’t have accidents or moving violations. But for some categories of high risk drivers, waiting it out won’t make a difference. All states require drivers to carry auto insurance, and although they are the most expensive to insure, high risk drivers need insurance more than anyone.

Compare Rates Before You Buy Insurance

The most important step for any driver when obtaining insurance is to shop around and compare rates. You may also be able to find companies that specialize in high risk drivers and have very competitive premiums. Progressive, The General, and Geico have special programs for high risk drivers, and these companies are included when you request a rate quote through leadinginsurancequotes.com. Although you will pay a higher price for auto insurance as a high risk driver, you are still obligated to carry all state-required coverage. As a general rule, it is cheaper to buy a policy online than through an agent, and the price quotes you receive through our service are “buy now” prices available only to drivers who purchase a policy online. Read the rest of this entry »