ChaCha Insurance Blog

Turning 18 means that you are officially an adult now and you are responsible for all your life choices and decisions. But when it comes to car insurance, you are still grouped together with 15, 16 and 17-year-old drivers. Therefore your car insurance rates will be almost identical to those of young drivers which are always high.

You may be already driving at 18 or you may own a car or you are planning to buy one. Your goal must always be to have a car insurance policy that matches your life and needs. You can save on car insurance by focusing on the following tips given below:

When purchasing car insurance it is important that you shop around and get multiple quotes from different insurance companies. This will not only give you a sense of what your average rate will be but also give you bargaining power when you finally settle on a provider. Most of the leading insurance companies have online insurance rate generators at no extra cost. You can also get self-quotes on-line.

You should always try to keep your grade point average or GPA as high as possible. Most car insurance companies reward students drivers who maintain A or B averages in high school or a 3.0 average while in college. Car insurance companies know that students with good grades are less likely to have risky behavior that could lead to a car accident. So, if you keep your grades high you can get a 10% discount on your car insurance premiums.

If you go to school or work more than 100 miles away from home and do not take a car, you can usually get a big break on your premiums but still have coverage when you go home for vacation. The reason is quite simple because your car insurance premiums are based largely on where you live and how far you commute to school or work. So if possible choose college or employment locations that are closer to your home. The fewer miles you commute every day will do a lot to help reduce your car insurance premiums.

Wait for driving a fancy sports car until you are 25 years old. You should choose a less expensive and safe car to keep your auto insurance rates under control. Car insurance rates widely range by type of car. A safe car with the newest safety protection devices will save you hundreds of dollars every year on car insurance. You have plenty of time to drive the car you desire after your insurance rates go down at the age of 25. You can check safety ratings at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Insurance Companies favor teens that have completed extra driver education or a defensive driving course through a school or community college. Online classes are also a convenient option. You can reduce your car insurance rates by 10% to 20%. But first, you need to check which insurance companies offer discounts and then find out which school courses are accepted for this discount. You should also determine if the cost of the program outweighs the benefit of the discount as often courses can be costly.

When shopping for car insurance policies a common way to lower your premium is to raise your deductible. You can opt for $ 500 to $ 1,000 deductibles instead of $100 or $200 dollar deductibles. This might cost you more out of pocket if you have an accident but, the savings on your monthly insurance payments will probably be much more than the added deductible amount.

At the age of 18, you may be thinking that putting your car in your own name is a good thing. However, it may cost less if it is added to your parent’s existing insurance policy. This is acceptable as long as you are living at home. By remaining on your parent’s pre-existing insurance policy you are likely to reap the multiple policy discount rewards offered by insurance companies and keep the rates lower than what you may pay on your own.