Here’s How You Can Make Sure Your Personal Auto Insurance Perfectly Matches You and Your Family’s Needs
If you have a registered vehicle in the state of Ohio, you’re legally required to have auto insurance. Driving uninsured is not only dangerous, but it could leave you with more costs than you can handle financially. Personal auto insurance is a flexible policy that you can customize to meet your needs, and since everyone has to have it, there are plenty of options to choose from.
In fact, there are plenty of options. You can get auto insurance almost anywhere, from over the phone, to online, in some cases even from your bank. You’ve probably seen several different advertisements saying they offer the best coverage, the cheapest coverage, the easiest, the fastest. How do you cut through the clutter and find the right policy for you?
Protecting yourself and your car while you’re on the road is imperative, and without the right policy, you could find yourself in deep trouble. From the cost of the amount of coverage, there are plenty of questions that people have when they’re looking for a personal auto insurance policy. The best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to fully understand how your policy is created and what impacts the type of coverage you receive.
Auto insurance is coverage that, at a high level, covers damage to you or someone else’s vehicle, or injury to you or someone else sustained in an accident. This type of personal insurance can also cover you if your vehicle is stolen, if someone other than you is driving your car and gets in an accident, if someone who is uninsured damages your vehicle, or if your car is damaged by a force of nature like a fire or hail.
These things are all typically covered in a basic personal auto insurance policy, but you can decide with your insurance agent if you need more or less coverage, or additional policies added for more protection.
How You Drive Affects Your Policy, Here’s What to Pay Attention to
To find the right personal auto insurance policy for you, you have to recognize the different personal factors that are going to influence the cost of your policy. Many people are curious about how much they’ll have to pay each month for an automotive policy, but it fully depends on your situation, so a generalization is hard to define.
One important thing to remember is that with so many options for auto insurance out there, the one that advertises the lowest prices might not be the lowest for you. What you can determine about your cost is what factors in your life are going to impact it. Here are some different things you can look at:
- Your age — if you’re under 25, you might be paying a little more, but the good news is that when you turn 25, your premium will likely go down
- Your driving record — most people know that drivers with a history of tickets and accidents are going to pay more, but some insurance companies might not even want to take on the risk of insuring bad drivers. On the other hand, that might be specifically what another company is looking for
- Where you live — Insurance companies are looking at where you live, too. Some companies don’t want to insure someone who lives in the city
- The type of car you drive — If you drive a luxury vehicle, your costs might be higher than if you drive an economy vehicle
- The number of vehicles on your policy — Having more than one car on your policy is going to affect your cost; while you’ll pay more to insure multiple vehicles, most insurance companies provide a multi-car discount so the cost per vehicle is actually less than the cost would be to insure a single vehicle
- How many drivers will be on your policy — If you’re looking for auto insurance for your entire family, you’ll have to consider everyone’s driving record as they’ll all impact what you pay
- How many miles you drive — If you don’t drive very much, you may be able to obtain a cheaper policy because you could fall under the average limit of miles. This goes the other way too, where if you’re driving more miles than average, you may have to pay more.
Your factors are going to determine the amount of risk an insurance company is going to take on when they provide you with coverage. Some companies aren’t looking for people who bring a lot of risk to the table, yet other companies specialize in clients who are high-risk.
Not sure where you fall? Working with an independent insurance advisor will help you determine the best options for you. Because they offer insurance from more than one carrier, they’ll be able to tell you who will provide the best coverage for your situation. Sometimes, the commercial you see on TV advertising low prices might not be the truth for your policy, but an independent insurance advisor can assist you in finding the right choice.