Automobile bills account for one of the largest spending for a typical American. A large part of this bill can be attributed to your auto insurance premiums. If you are looking to purchase a vehicle, you may want to look for an affordable car that your insurance company would look upon with favor — not just a fuel economical car.

Auto insurers seriously consider the make and model of your vehicle when calculating your premiums. If your car is highly attractive (eye-catching) and has a high chance of being stolen, it’s likely to attract higher premiums. This is especially true if your car model has track records of being stolen frequently.

Generally a vehicle with larger engine capacity will command a higher price tag and larger auto insurance premiums as well. If the vehicle happens to be a high performance sports car, its insurance will increase astronomically.

Other than those obvious factors, there are more subtle features that can put your car in a better light. Getting a four-door sedan as compared to a two-door model helps. Installing anti-theft and safety devices in your car is certainly important to some insurers. And even the cost of repair and the safety rating of your car affects how the auto insurance companies are going to charge you.

If you’re buying a second hand car, make sure you check the odometer reading too. Lower readings indicate less wear and tear (generally) and also saves you some auto insurance cash. On top of this, your car commands a higher price (and will be in better demand) if you need to get rid of this car later.

The value of your vehicle will also influence the price of your car insurance. Generally, the less your car costs, the less you will pay in premiums.

In order to protect yourself and your family from financial burdens, you owe it to yourself to choose a suitable car that is affordable to maintain. While doing so, don’t forget that your auto insurance bills must also fit into your budget.

If you want to have maximum savings on your car insurance premiums, get a functional car with normal, unexciting (or dull) look. Cars that can rev and burn rubber on the road, or roar down the street at lightning speeds attract the highest car insurance premiums. Needless to say, those ultra-luxurious brands like Rolls Royce leaves you equally broke.

But don’t take my word for it – get a few quotations online to see if what I say is true. Compare premiums for different car models. Then and only then can you know how much more cash you’ll be burning on the flashy darling automobile that’s sitting at car showroom.

When you’re ready to compare your car insurance quotations, you’re most probably at the stage where you know the coverage you asked for is suitable and sufficient for you. What you’re going to compare are mainly the premiums that different car insurance companies charge for similar benefits. This little extra time spent to obtain and compare quotes from different insurers can do wonders for your wallet, because you can get the best deal.

You can get quotes by calling different agents, or simply punch in your basic vehicle, personal and current car insurance details into an online quote site. These sites provide you with free quotes from five or more insurers per request and you’re not obliged to purchase from them. You will save a cart-load of cash if you take time to visit more than two or three quotes sites.

The two important things you have to take note as you compare those online quotes are as follows:

1. Premiums and Benefits. Make sure that the premium stated in the quotations corresponds to the benefit that you require. Human errors do occur from time to time. Although it may sometimes be difficult to get quotes for (exact) similar benefits from different companies, the coverage limits and deductibles, as well as exclusions clause and conditions should not differ much. Otherwise we’ll not be evaluating these quotes fairly. This takes a little more time than the next point.

2. Ease of Claim. What good is it if you can get the cheapest auto insurance yet when you need to make any claims, the insurance company takes days to respond to your requests… And when you finally get through their hot line again, the answering machine puts you on hold for endless minutes before you can speak to an actual person who’s outright rude?

Once you’ve identified a suitable low-cost insurer to purchase from, do yourself a favor by dialing in to their customer service hot line and their claims services hot line. Speak to their service officers and see if you’re comfortable with how they treat their customers.

Before you finally sign up for any auto insurance, do a quick (final) check to see if there are discounts you qualify for and what the eligibility requirements are. After you have done your due diligence by going through the two points above, you will very likely get an auto insurance that can serve you for many months to come – regardless whether you need to make claims or not.

Vehicle insurance is not getting any cheaper, as any American can testify. This is of course due to inflation. And as insurance costs are driven higher as the years go by, insurers also get smarter by the day. Fortunately they’re not using their wits to squeeze the last dollar out of us this time. They’re actually helping some of us who are underutilizing our cars save up on our vehicle insurance.

Currently we car owners have to pay for our vehicle insurance coverage even though some of us seldom use our cars at all. Essentially, we are paying for what we don’t use – yet we still have to bear the same burden of paying the full auto insurance bills, month after month.

All along, car insurers have rewarded drivers who keep their overall mileage low. However, mileage is just one of the many factors that they use to calculate our vehicle insurance premium. It’s true that we actually pay less, yet we’re still paying for days that our vehicles are kept in the garage. How nice would it be if your insurance bills only start when you start driving, and stop whenever your car stops moving?

Enter Pay-As-You-Drive policy. This new idea is also called “usage-based” insurance. The premium for this type of insurance is based on the number of miles that you drive. Finally, you can pay to insure the exactly number of miles you drive. But how will the insurance companies know how many miles each vehicle covers?

A device that’s installed in your vehicle records the mileage covered by your car and this information allows your rate to be calculated – purely based on the mileage your car covers. The less you use your automobile, the lower your premiums or payments will be.

Insurers estimate that drivers who utilize their cars below 15,000 miles would experience the greatest benefit. This will encourage drivers to change the way they commute – by taking public transport or by car-pooling. Environmentalists also love this idea since there’s a potential that emission levels may go down.

Unfortunately this new idea is not as popular as it ought to be. The technology used to implement this concept needs to be reliable and tamper-proof. Drivers who adopt this policy must also be willing to allow their driving behavior to be observed (and possibly recorded) by their insurance companies. So far it seems many drivers are not willing to give up their privacy in exchange for some savings.

Obviously, the ones who really benefit from this policy are drivers who live in the city, because they do not have great distances to cover in order to commute to work. On top of that, these urban dwellers would likely be living near train stations or along public transportation routes so can utilize these avenues to get to their work place while they use their vehicles for other purposes.

When you purchase an automobile insurance, the insurance company has to assess the amount of risk they’re undertaking by considering a variety of factors. These factors determine the risk you represent and the likelihood that you will experience an accident or loss.

Knowing the factors that impact your automobile insurance premiums can help you lower the amount you have to pay. Not all companies use the same criteria to determine your premiums, yet there are common factors that influence your automobile insurance rates:

Driving Record

If you have a driving record that includes motor vehicle violations, suspensions or at-fault accidents, the price you pay for your automobile insurance might be higher. Insurance companies consider you to be a high-risk driver and thus charge you a higher rate.

Fortunately the effect of a tainted driving record is not perpetual. Incidences that happened a long time ago are usually not considered seriously.

The Make, Model And Value Of Your Vehicle

Generally a high performance or luxury car will cost more than an older vehicle to insure. Insurers may also offer discounts for vehicles with safety features, so check with your local insurance company when you are purchasing a vehicle.

The cost to insure different makes and models of vehicles can vary among insurers so be sure to check with several insurers to get the best price and coverage for your needs.

Geographic Area

The number of claims filed by policyholders in your territory will affect your auto insurance rates.

Gender, Age and Marital Status

Statistically, males and young adults have a higher incidence of accidents. Young married couples tend to have a lower accidents and claims rate.

Vehicle Use

The more you use your vehicle, the more risk you’re exposed to. Therefore the distance you live from work or school may affect the cost of your insurance. Whether you use your vehicle for personal or business use may also affect your insurance premiums.

Credit History

Some insurers will use your credit history as one of the factors in determining risk. Therefore it may be beneficial to maintain a good credit score.

Finally, policy changes affect your premium. Changes may include:

• Adjusting your coverage limit
• Changing your deductibles option
• Relocating to a new area (territory)
• Adding or removing a vehicle or driver from your policy

As different insurance companies determine their premiums differently, you are advised to shop around and compare different automobile insurance plans before committing to a purchase.

In an auto insurance policy, Limits and Deductibles are the two components that greatly affect your policy premiums. Therefore you can benefit most by understanding what these are, and how you can strike a balance between the limits of your coverage and what you pay for.

Definition of Limits and Deductible

A Limit is the maximum amount that an auto insurance company will pay for in the event of an accident.

A Deductible is the amount of money which you (the insured) must pay before the insurance company’s payout begins. For example, a typical auto insurance policy may carry about $500 deductible. If the car owner gets into an accident, he has to foot the first $500 of the damage while the rest of the cost is borne by his insurer.

Insurance companies include a deductible in their auto insurance policy to avoid paying out on relatively small claims. This is only practical as the administrative time and cost of small claims far outweigh the benefits of payout.

Deductibles also vary by company and type of coverage. Different auto insurance companies offer different deductible options, and the amount you save by selecting a higher deductible will also vary by company.

How Do Limits and Deductible Affect Auto Insurance Premiums?

With higher Limits, your auto insurance company bears a higher risk. This is because the insurance payout is higher — therefore your insurance premiums will increase. Similarly if the Deductibles are lower, the insurance company (instead of the driver) has to pay more during claims. Obviously they’ll have to increase the insurance premiums too.

If you feel you need a high level of coverage but want to reduce your premiums, you can save money by agreeing to a higher deductible. However you need to understand that you’ll be paying more out of your pocket in the event of a claim. Therefore you’re also advised to set aside a similar amount of money so that you can pay for the deductibles amount in order for your auto insurance company to compensate you.

Deductible is only characteristic to some types auto insurance. You’ll only need to decide your deductible options for Personal Injury Protection (PIP), Comprehensive coverage and Collision coverage. Deductibles are not applicable to Liability Insurance, Uninsured Motorist Coverage and Underinsured Motorist Coverage. Therefore there’s no need to evaluate your deductible options for these types of auto insurance policies.

By understanding your auto insurance needs, you’ll be able to derive a plan for your auto insurance limits and deductible options. From this, you can easily find a balance between the limits of your coverage and what you pay for.

Finally, it may also be helpful to know that you have the right to adjust your auto insurance coverage and policy limits at any time, even if you’re not near your renewal date. If you adjust to a lower policy limit or cancel non-mandatory coverage, you can request your insurance company to refund for the unused premiums.