What Auto Insurance Discounts Are Available In Georgia?

Is your car safe? It doesn’t have to be as safe as this little car, dodging flying cows and avoiding tornadoes, but a certain degree of safety should be expected from any vehicle, and the standards are only getting higher. Not only will a safe car aid in avoiding accidents, but if you have one then you can also expect a  auto insurance premium discount. People with safer cars file fewer claims, so they naturally are charged less on their car insurance premium. However, the more safe your car is, the more expensive it usually is as well, and more expensive cars do cost more. The auto insurance discount is higher for safe cars, but to get the best deal you should check in with a car that’s at least a couple of years old.

Here are a few things you should look at in regards to safety when you’re trying to buy a good car that will have a low auto insurance rate.

• How well does it wreck?

A big factor in a car’s insurance quote is its crash worthiness, which is determined by government crash tests. To find out how well your future vehicle does on these tests, you can go to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety website, where they have crash test results for side impact, front impact, injuries, and more.

• How is it built?

There are two factors under this category that will affect your vehicle’s safety and as a result your insurance quote, and they are

• Restraints.

These tend to be a given on any car, but they should be taken for granted. Restraints have caused the largest decline in injuries and deaths from car accidents, and it is unlikely to see anything that will work as well as a simple seat belt.

Other types of restraint devices include air bags, which can be placed in various areas of the vehicle. They work best when they are combined with seat belts, especially shoulder restraints which protect the person from the force of the air bag as well. Georgia auto insurance companies are actually required to have discounts for seat belts and air bags, even though almost all cars have them.

Active head restraints are also helpful. They protect your neck from breaking by being jerked back from the force of the crash. They can usually be adjusted according to height.

• Anti lock disc brakes.

Anti lock disc brakes are part of a new wave of panic compensation technology that help you from getting into an accident when conditions cause you to panic. For example, if you’re driving on an icy road and the person in front of you stops suddenly, then you might hit the brakes quickly as well to avoid crashing. In a normal car, this action could cause skidding and you might end up worse than if you hadn’t hit the brakes at all. With anti lock disc brakes, though, the system keeps the wheels from locking up and allows you to make sudden stops safely. Aside from that, many insurance companies provide discounts for them.

• Daytime running lights.

Many people might not realize the impact of these lights, because they don’t see why someone would need lights during the day, but daytime running lights help set a vehicle apart from its background and thus make it more noticeable. They do, in fact, lower the incidence of daytime car accidents.

Are Your Georgia Auto Insurance Rates Rising?

Reader question:

What’s the point of a stupid renewal discount if my Georgia  auto insurance rate stays the same or is higher every time I renew?!

Beth

Great question, Beth.

It’s frustrating, isn’t it? I’ve been getting my auto insurance coverage with the same company here in Georgia for a couple of years, and while I have been tracking what effect other discounts have on my auto insurance premium, the so called renewal discount has been pretty elusive. My auto insurance rate goes up every time, never down unless I apply a new discount to it or get a safer car; all things staying the same, my insurance quote will rise.

There are several reasons for this that neither we nor the car insurance company can control, such as:

• Cost of vehicles. As each year passes, it costs more to buy a car. A more expensive car will have a higher auto insurance rates.
• Cost of repairs. As vehicles become more expensive, so do their parts. The higher the cost to repair a car is, the higher the quote will be.
• Cost of health care. I went to the emergency room once and was given some aspirin and told to go home. A month later, I got a bill in the mail for five hundred dollars. I think you can see for yourself how that would affect your rate.
• Lawsuits. The number of lawsuits has stayed the same even as crashes with injuries have decreased, and the amount of money awarded is phenomenal.

On the bright side, while your auto insurance rate has a good chance of increasing each time you renew it, premiums as a whole are increasing less and less every year. The last year that the estimates were on record for, 2004, nationwide premiums only went up 3.4%, part of a trend of lower and lower increases that should be even better this year and in 2008, if the trend follows through.

People aren’t filing as many claims as they used to, and this is part of the factors that temper the rise of your insurance rate. Another thing that helps out is that cars are made more safely with features that both prevent accidents and make them less damaging when they do happen.

However, since even with the lower number of claims, car insurance companies are spending more on each individual claim, you will likely only see your  rate rise for years to come, although we could have an actual decrease in our future.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Does My Credit Score Affect My Auto Insurance Rate In Georgia?

Reader question:

Does my credit score affect my auto insurance premium?

Max

Atlanta Georgia

Thank you for your question, Max.

Georgia auto insurance companies have been looking at the credit reports of prospective customers for years, but it is only recently in the past twenty years or so that, with the advent of computers and the internet, they have been able to gather that information into a final number, called an insurance score, which is used in the calculation of your auto insurance premium. This insurance score, based on information in your credit report, can be the difference between a person with a good driving record but a high insurance premium, and another person with the same record and a much lower premium.

• Is it legal?

In some states, the question has come up as to whether or not credit scoring with car insurance premiums is discriminatory against low income and minority groups. While it does affect people who fall into these categories more than most, it doesn’t anymore than credit scoring affects people when buying a car or doing anything else that requires credit.

As great as it would be for auto insurance companies to give out premiums that are low cost regardless of risk, that is simply how business works. In order to make money, they need to charge the people who will cost them more money higher premiums, so that the people who are less likely to file a claim don’t have to pay enormous premiums. Insurance companies make a lot of money, but the profit margins aren’t as consistent or large as with other types of companies, so it is a kind of tightrope walk.

• Why do they do it?

Now that we’ve covered the fact that insurance companies need to charge more to people with higher risk, how are people with bad credit histories higher risk? After all, your credit score doesn’t affect your driving, does it?

Technically, it doesn’t, but there are a lot of factors that don’t necessarily affect your ability to drive, such as your grade point average, which auto insurance companies consider when figuring out what your premium will be.

What companies have figured out is that people with bad credit history tend to file more claims than people with good credit history. One of the reasons is, for example, that people who live in dangerous areas are more likely to have bad credit, and thus are more likely to have their car stolen, which would raise comprehensive insurance rates.

Some people claim that this credit report shouldn’t be used by Georgia auto insurance companies, because correlation is not the same as causation. That means that just because people who have bad credit scores file more claims, it doesn’t mean that the credit score had anything to do with it.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Atlanta Auto Insurance Payment Plans?

Atlanta auto insurance don’t exactly accept cows and vegetables in exchange for car insurance policies, but they do offer a wide variety of payment methods that allow modern drivers to keep up and find a method that fits their circumstances.

• When do I pay?

There are two basic options for paying your Atlanta auto insurance premium, and those are

Both have their perks, and the truth is that you have to make your decision based on where you are financially, and try to work your way from one to the other. There is, actually, a difference between your Atlanta GA auto insurance rate if you pay all at once than when you pay in installments, because if you pay in installments you are charged an installment fee. This isn’t a huge fee, but it does save you a few bucks to avoid it, and not only that but paying all at once will save you the headache of monthly Atlanta GA auto insurance premiums.

If you don’t have the money to pay an entire six month premium up front, then the trick is to work your way up to it. Put a few dollars aside here and there, and it might take a couple of years, but once you get there it will be much more easy to save. It’s best to at least try to pay the entire premium at once, especially for those of us who are trying to get their Atlanta auto insurance premium as close to zero as possible, or those who are high risk and need all the help they can get.

• How do I pay?

Atlanta auto insurance companies are online, or at least most of them are. While some companies have very basic sites with perhaps a location and phone number, most of the decent sized companies these days are really putting on the glamor with their websites. They contain information on coverage and instant auto insurance quotes, but most of all, they contain the option for paying online.

In addition to paying online, you can also pay more traditional ways, such as through direct debit, mailing a check, paying at the office, or paying over the phone.

How Can I Lower My Georgia Auto Insurance Rate?

Usually there is some kind of catch to lowering your Georgia auto insurance rate, and you don’t simply get a discount or a better rate for free. If you want to pay less on car insurance, then you have to drive less, or make better grades, or do some other thing that might not be hard but is ore than nothing, and lowers your risk.

High deductible auto insurance is one of the prime examples of these catches, and many people avoid it because, they say, they are buying auto insurance to cover them. Why do they have insurance at all if they have to cover themselves?

Let me rewind. The deductible, first of all, is what you pay towards injuries and repairs and the like whenever you make a claim before your car insurance coverage kicks in. So, if I were to get into an accident and the damages to my car amounted to three thousand dollars, and I had a thousand dollar deductible (which I do), then I would pay that amount and the car insurance company would pay the other two thousand in repairs. The amount of the deductible never changes, even if the damages are only about five hundred dollars or fifty thousand. Deductibles are only paid when you are found to be at fault for the accident.

Raising your deductible from the bottom $250 can lower your auto insurance rate significantly, because it allows the car insurance company to pay less. Instead of avoiding this, raise it and start saving money for whenever you do get into an accident and have to pay a deductible. Most people only file a car insurance claim once every five years, so it’s likely that you won’t need your deductible much and you’ll probably save up way more than that amount by the time you have to pay it out if you just save the difference between your auto insurance rate with a low deductible and your auto insurance rate with a high deductible.

You can save a lot of money this way, and not just on your auto insurance rate. A couple of years ago, when I first raised my deductible, I started putting the money I was saving on my  auto insurance rate into a high interest savings account, and now let’s just say that it’s a lot bigger. So why wait? If you’re a safe driver and the likelihood of you getting into an at fault accident any time soon is pretty low, start saving money as soon as possible.

Tips To Find a Great Georgia Insurance Agent

As much of a proponent as I am of doing your own work and finding out about the best GA car insurance quote online, many people still prefer to go through agents. This is understandable, because there are a lot of us who do not have enough time on our hands to be able to go through the process of researching, gathering a selection of GA car insurance quote, and picking the right company, even if it only takes a few hours. In these cases, an agent comes in hand. If you think you might need an agent to get a GA car insurance quote and policy, think about who they are and what they do before you make the decision not to go it alone.

• Who does a car insurance agent represent?
  • The company. Car insurance agents work with several different companies in some cases to get you the best GA car insurance quote. For these companies, they attempt to get more customers with heavy coverage.
  • You. The car insurance agent also works for you, picking from his or her folder of companies to come to the one that will provide you with the cheapest GA car insurance quote.
• What kind of car insurance agents are there?
  • Captive car insurance agents. These agents work for only one company, so it is a lot like going through the company itself. They can only give you a GA car insurance quote from that one company.
  • Independent car insurance agents. These agents work for several companies, usually five or six, and can offer you a car insurance quote from each. This is better when you want help deciding which car insurance company to go with.

Before you start doing business with your agent, you need to find out what the fee for services will be. Some don’t charge any at all, because they get commission. However, if you don’t ask beforehand, that car insurance quote might be bigger than you expected.

Like car insurance companies, car insurance agents need to be licensed with the state. To determine if your agent is, you should check the Georgia Department of Insurance website. If they aren’t licensed, then they don’t have the right to provide you with an authoritative GA car insurance quote from the company they claim to be representing.

Georgia Student Car Insurance Discounts

Reader question:

What kind of deal can a busy college student get on her Georgia car insurance premium?

Maggie

Great question, Maggie.

I guess it all depends on why you’re busy! Georgia car insurance companies are both very punitive towards students because of their age, and at the same time pretty kind to them. Although your initial car insurance rates might be twice as much as those of someone twenty years older than you, companies offer you a variety of breaks that allow you to purchase your  car insurance premium at a more reasonable price.

A favorite break of mine is the good student discount, which is offered by most companies and allows students to get a certain amount off of their insurance premium if they make certain grades. The requirements differ depending on the state and the  car insurance company, so to be certain of how you will benefit, call your agent first.

Here’s a list of companies and how they treat the good student discount.

• GEICO offers a car insurance discount to students between the ages of sixteen and twenty five. In some states, you have to be unmarried and under the age of twenty one to benefit, but they don’t offer state specific details. In order to get the discount, you have to get a B average or above. The amount of the discount can be as much as fifteen percent off of your car insurance premium. GEICO has a lot of discounts, as a matter of fact, and if you think you might be eligible for more than just the good student discount, you should consider checking out their website and/or calling an agent to see where you stand and how that would affect your rates.
• Farmer’s Insurance is a little more strict in its requirements. In order to qualify, you must be unmarried; under the age of twenty five; you must be a full time student in either high school or college; you should be in the top twenty percent of your class; you need to have a B average or higher; and, if your school has a Dean’s List or Honor Roll, you need to be on it. Tougher, but if you’re as a busy a student as you say, you’ll probably be able to make it.
• Esurance also has a deal for good students who are enrolled full time in either high school or college. For these dedicated young people, qualification for the car insurance discount requires you to be under twenty five and have a grade point average of at least 3.0. Some states have additional requirements.

I hope this information was helpful to you, Maggie. Of course, these aren’t the only three companies that offer the good student discount, but looking at their requirements does give you a good idea of what to expect even if you’re going to go with a different car insurance company.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

How To Lower Atlanta Car Insurance Rates

I found this video on YouTube earlier today. The man in here is talking about discounts for driving less, and this is definitely a good example of a Atlanta car insurance discounts. Most companies, and I could probably say all companies without risk, offer the low mileage discount, although not all companies consider ‘low’ to be the same thing. While some Atlanta car insurance companies will require five thousand miles a year or less for you to be able to qualify for the discount, others only require that you drive fewer than forty miles each day. I know that second sort wouldn’t be hard for me to live up to, but I suppose it depends on what part of Atlanta you live in, whether you’re closer in or further out.

Still, for many people those thresholds are extremely low, and they couldn’t imagine driving so little each year, especially when they work every day. If you try hard enough, however, most people can do it, and even if you can’t get low enough for the Atlanta car insurance discount for low mileage, driving fewer miles will still lower your rates.

• Car pooling.

Probably the cheapest way to cut your driving is to carpool to work instead of driving your own car every day. If you take turns with different friends and co workers, then you can also avoid chipping in on gas, so long as everybody is contributing the same amount in regards to driving.

• MARTA.

Okay, nobody likes it, but MARTA, Atlanta’s bus system, is also an option. Even if you have to drive to a park and ride to go into town, you’ll still save a lot of gas and thus some money on your Atlanta car insurance premium. The downside is that it takes a long time, and doesn’t go everywhere you need it to go. You could end up doing a lot of walking, but hey, that’s good for your health.

• Riding your bike.

This isn’t an option for all jobs, but it is for many. If you have to wear a suit to work, for example, then you might feel a little silly pedaling down the road. It also only works if your job is close enough. If you’re a little out of shape, then this is both a good way to lose weight and save a little on your Atlanta GA car insurance.

• Become a hermit.

The absolute best way to save money on your Atlanta car insurance premium through the low mileage discount is to stop driving. Not period when necessary, but whenever you don’t need to. Limit your outings, walk more. If you need to do errands, do them all on one trip and plan out your schedule so that you spend the fewest miles.

RAISE Your deductible amount, that is the easiest way for you to save a considerable amount of money in the long term on insurance premiums.

What Happens If You Are Late Paying Your Car Insurance Payment?

Reader question:

What happens to my car insurance policy when I make a late payment?

Oswald

Atlanta

Thanks for your question, Oswald!

Many people, at some moment in their lives, come to a point where they have to choose between paying their Atlanta car insurance premium, or paying something else much more important. Most, though, skip payments out of forgetfulness and poor money management, and realizing what the consequences of your actions could be might make you a little more cautious about paying your car insurance payment on time. If you think about it, failing to pay your premium can actually be more expensive than paying it on time at the expense of something else.

Responsibility and timing are necessary when dealing with your car insurance premium, especially if you think of the consequences in one of the most dire, but very common, cases. Consider if you pay your car insurance premium through the mail, and you send it in a couple of days before it is actually due. It might arrive on time, and then it might not. If it doesn’t arrive on time, in many cases you might not even realize it. You could be driving around without proper car insurance coverage and be hopelessly unaware of this fact.

Even when they eventually get the check in the mail, they won’t for certain turn your coverage back on. Some might return the check to its sender, and others might use the check to pay off any other money that you owe on your car insurance premium. You will get a message in the mail eventually, but there will be a window of a few days in which anything can happen and you have no idea that you aren’t covered.

Even if the car insurance company does not cancel your payment outright, it is possible that once you have made one or more late payments, they decide that you are an unreliable payer and choose not to renew your car insurance policy. This gives you some more time to think, as you’ll have until the end of your current policy period to find a new company, but neither option is desirable.

• What happens if you crash?

One of the worst consequences of your car insurance policy being canceled thanks to a late payment is that you will get in a crash. If the crash is not your fault, then you won’t have to pay for damages, but you will lose your driver’s license. If it is your fault, not only will you have your own damages and injuries to pay for, but the other driver’s as well, and with no insurance coverage to fall back on, you’ll be taken to court and sued for a lot of money.

• What happens with the next company?

If you get your premium canceled with one company, then the next  insurance company that you go to will consider you higher risk. Not only does that mean that you have a chance of getting your policy denied altogether, but if it is approved then your car insurance rates will be higher.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Where Do You Find Georgia Car Insurance Company Ratings?

Reader question:

How do I know that my Georgia car insurance company will be able to settle my claim?

Megan

Thanks for asking, Megan!

That is actually a very good question, and I think the best way to address it would be to go back to square one. When you are figuring out whether or not an  car insurance company will be able to settle your claim if filed, you should not be to the point where you are calling it your own company yet. This is a step that you should take while you are still in the process of shopping around for an insurance policy.

• Georgia car insurance companies have ratings, too!

That’s right, they can’t just rate you–other companies rate them as well. There are several companies which rate car insurance providers on standards ranging from customer service to financial stability. An insurance company might quote you some fantastic low ball quote, but that’s a perfect incentive to check its financial rating and make sure there isn’t some tricky reason behind that low quote. Unless you’re getting involved with a national  car insurance company that obviously has enough money to cover you, then you should check.

There are two main companies that provide you with the information you need on insurance companies:

One thing that these companies use to rate the  insurance companies is the length of time that they have been in business. If the company just started up last week, then there won’t be any information, and that right there is a good reason to avoid it.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

« Previous Page — Next Page »