15 Insurance discounts you need to know

 you sure you're getting all the discounts that you want on your insurance do you deserve more is there something you're missing you just know they're charging you too much if you want to see most - all of the discounts that you can possibly get grab pen and paper and get ready because we're gonna go through it I'm just gonna jump right into it you've got tons of discounts you can save up to 50% in your car insurance just through discounts a lot and these companies want to give them to you they're out there it's just a matter of them know that you qualify for them not all companies are really focused on giving you all the discounts it's not that they're trying to hide them from you it's just they don't think of them at the time or they've done a lot of other things in you know through different throughout their day they've done different calls and they didn't think of that one discount or those three discounts that you were supposed to get I am guilty of it myself I've done quotes for people and I get near the end and like well what about if I took a safe driver course like oh I completely forgot about that first off if you're married that is a discount being married is a lower risk than being single or divorced or anything like that being a student if you're under the age of 25 then you can get a discount for being a student if you're under 25 then you may be qualified for discount as well now that's typically called the good student discount that means you have either a 3.0 or better which is a beyond average you can prove that because they are gonna require your last grade report so make sure that you have the document to back that up homeowners insurance if you're a homeowner just the fact that you're a homeowner I'm not talking about the combination the multi-policy discount I'm talking about home ownership just being a homeowner is a lower risk than being someone that rents if you drive lower mileage on your car and when I say low mileage that's anything below 5,000 so 5,000 or below 5,000 miles is considered a low mileage driver the less you drive the less risk there is on the road so make sure that your insurance person knows hey I drive this many miles and then they'll be able to determine how much that risk is not all companies use mileage as far as a rating factor so you may get some that don't you know don't particularly careto know that part of it which is fine I mean it's okay to mention it to them so that least they know about it the security system in your car if you have an alarm system there's two versions there is the standard alarm system I believe they call it pass it if I'm not mistaken but that is if you have an alarm someone breaks in the car they open the door the alarm goes off you don't sirens the other one is LoJack it's like a vehicle recovery system the easiest way to think of if you have it is if it's like an on star or a blue type shield and it's something that you typically pay a service for basically if somebody steals your car then they're able to track the vehicle and find it and then recover it it's gonna give you a pretty good discount if you have a LoJack system your typical vehicles would be any GM that has Eon starts usually in the in the rearview mirror or any vehicle usually a lot of BMWs have the LoJack system not really a lot of Toyotas or Honda's unless you purchased it separately being a safe driver that's another discount it cleans free renewal they call that if you have been driving and you don't have enough in the experience period which is typically three to five years depending on the state that you live in so if you have no accidents no tickets no violations things like that you're considered a safe driver that will give you a pretty large discount with insurance one of the largest discounts is called the multi car discount if you have two cars or more on a policy then that will give you a very large discount now a lot of people think if I have three cars that will give me a bigger discount it doesn't matter typically once you add that second car adding the third doesn't really make much of a difference although you'll probably get a little bit but it's not good it's still gonna go up in a pretty good increment if you live in a house with let's say you got mom and son or daughter whichever you prefer so mom has her own policy here daughter has her policy here the best way to do it if you live in the same household is combine the two have mom the primary and daughter the secondary so what that'll do is it'll take not only the multi car and put them together but it'll also have mom's experience because she's likely driven a lot more

hope so she's like we've got a lot more driving history than daughter and because of the age depending how old the daughter is if she's under 25 that's going to raise the risk if she was on her own she'd instantly have a high risk right there where she's on your mom it's gonna be a lot lower of a risk the negative to that or the downfall is if either of you get into an accident you are both liable for

that claim because you're on the same insurance they could not only sue daughter but they can also sue mom if you do do that make sure that you have the correct coverages personally I would do it that way mainly because I would make sure that I have enough coverage that way if if daughter had an accident she's covered enough but I would also have her pay her portion that she's raised my insurance that much you know within within that parameters decide what you guys prefer in that situation it really depends on you know how much you want each other to pay typically I would say the parent is only gonna pay about thirty to thirty five to forty percent of the insurance and then the child would pay the rest of it just because of the risk that it raises up you know it differs so talk with your agent if you have questions on that credit does make a difference in insurance and I know you say I don't I hate that fact I hate that fact but you know it's it's one of those things where it's not so much your credit score it's the actual it's called a consumer report so what they're looking at is your ability to pay things if you have multiple bills that are passed to or in collections that's gonna hurt your consumer report it's easier for somebody to just say you know up times are tough I'm just gonna first think I'm going to cut out with insurance because that's usually the first thing that people

think about is if I can't afford car insurance and can't afford in car insurance I'm just gonna drive the way it is what no one's gonna sue me for nothing you know that's really the thought process it's a really broken thought process but it's true so they do a consumer report even if it's bad don't stop quoting with a company because it's not that big of a rating factor one discount that you cannot get later on is called the early shopper discount most companies give this discount so the way it works is if you purchase a policy typically seven days in advance so if I know that my insurance ends a month from now and I purchase it today or at least seven days before that month ends a week in advance give me up to a three percent or more discount on my insurance I didn't do anything different except for prepay for the policy the nice thing about that is some companies let you post date it so I can even though I'm checking the month ahead they'll let me post put it up put my credit card on file put my account on file and then it won't take the payment till that date that's seventh day in advance occupational discounts those are really good discounts it's not to say that you're a cute a patient doesn't matter if you don't qualify for it but typically you got to think about the what the insurance company is thinking of so doctors nurses teachers engineers degrees typically that type of occupation is going to get a Disney don't have your own medical insurance medical insurance is a very large part

of insurance in some states like Michigan New Jersey New York and there's several other ones they actually require that you carry medical however if you have your own medical insurance then

they're gonna allow you to do what's called the coordinated medical benefits so that means you can say you know I've got my own medical insurance put me as the primary so if I get injured my medical is gonna take care of me first and then if it loses if it runs out of money then the insurance is gonna come in secondary so that way you're satisfying the state's requirement to have medical but you're also saying I'm paying for it over here don't charge me for your medical on top of it that willlower the rate as well and that's actually a pretty good considerable discount if you've taken a defensive or amateur driving course in order to take amateur driving course you have to be 55 years or older that is typically done through the DMV's website it lasts for about three years and this is the same thing for the defensive driving the defensive driving course it's a it lasts for three years you get a certificate

keep that because they will need a copy of that for your insurance just to prove that discount they will give you these discounts based on you saying them but don't try to trick them because they're gonna want proof of stuff like that if you're an engineer they want a copy of your degree showing you're an engineer because they're giving you mug discount if you're a good student they want proof that you've got good grades if you're safe drivers they already know that because they're gonna your DMV records you get the gist of it if you're a defensive driver they're gonna want the certificate showing that your defensive driver it's easy to take it's cheap look up your local government's website you can usually take them online how you pay makes a difference in the cost of the insurance so if you pay monthly if you pay quarterly if you pay every every six months in some companies let you pay a year each step you go is typically going to give you a discount so you're gonna get charged the most for monthly especially for using a credit card you're gonna get charged sometimes a

little bit less sometimes it's the same as monthly if you do quarterly but if you pay six months or more in advance that's usually the best way to do it how you pay also makes a difference not  just how much you pay so if you're going to use a checking account some companies actually give you a lower rate because you're using the routing and account number instead of an actual credit card because when they swipe those cards it's it's all done electronically but it's

still the same thing a swipe enough they get charged their two percent or whatever percent fee and they're gonna add that into the price of your of your insurance affinity discounts those are really good ones you may not know that you're part of an affinity group if you have even you're your local bank if you're part of a credit union they may be attached or affiliated with an insurance company so check with them ask them say hey are we affiliated where I can get a discount on any type of insurance with you guys or triple-a membership any type of membership gun memberships those usually give you a

discount if you're part of it like a Chrysler employee different companies Honda they usually partner with companies so anytime you buy a new vehicle see if they're partnered and you get discounts the only thing is those aren't big enough discounts to make a major difference they can save you some good money especially if you're part of a union I hope that helped guys .