Tip #9 – Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance
Welcome to day nine of our roughly 10-day journey, where we are looking at 10 money-saving tips to help save $10,000! This has been a really fun series of posts and it’s garnered a lot of great comments! Keep ‘em coming everyone!
If you missed the introductory post of 10 Money-Savings Tips to Help You Stash $10,000 you’ll definitely want to check it out so we’re all on the same page.
But to sum it up – here’s our mission:
- The Goal: Save $10,000
- By When: This time next year
- How: By implementing 10 money-saving tips
For the last couple weeks we’ve looked at one money-saving tip each Monday through Thursday. We’ll be finishing up our series this week!
If you have a tip that hasn’t been mentioned, or you’d like to add some additional thoughts to one of our existing tips, please let me know your best money-saving tip here!
We’d love to hear your stories of what you did and how much money you saved by implementing your tip! If you’re a blogger and have posted about your money-saving tip, please include a link to your post!
Here’s what we’ve been through so far:
Tip #9: Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance
This is one tip that most people have probably thought of, but perhaps haven’t paid much attention to. For whatever reason, we all get into a rut and so when our renewal notice comes we just pay the premium and on we go for another six months.
For many of us, the thought of getting auto insurance quotes and home insurance quotes isn’t all that appealling right? So what do we do with things that aren’t that fun? C’mon now, be honest – we put them off!
But, this is one area that you can really save some big money with a little front-end effort of getting some quotes!
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How Much Coverage Do You Need?
Before you get carried away and start raising your deductible and dropping coverage, you really need to do a little homework up front to figure out how much coverage you actually need.
Smart Money has a great article on auto insurance that walks you through the different options for your auto insurance and gives an idea of how much coverage you should be looking for.
Shop Around For Home and Auto Insurance Quotes
Ok, now for the fun part. Before you give your existing company a call, you’ll want to give competitor’s a call and start comparing insurance quotes. You’ll also want to check to see if your employer offers any discounts with certain carriers. If you’re a Costco member, you get a discount as well.
Make sure you know all the angles – most companies will offer you big discounts for buying both home and auto insurance – among other things through them! Make sure you check out as many auto insurance companies as possible, to make sure you get the best deal.
Get as much information as you can and write it down. You want to make sure you’re comparing apples to apples. To help get you started here are some toll-free numbers to call so you can shop around:
Geico: 1-800-861-8380
AAA: (866) 539-8033
Allstate: 866 704 9900
Progressive: 1-800-776-4737
Or, you can always go on the web and get some free auto and home insurance quotes as well.
Simple Financial Lifestyle mentioned they recently shopped their car insurance and ended up saving $500 annually! There’s some great potential savings because this type of insurance is very competitive – and companies want your business!
Call to Negotiate
Once you’ve got a pretty good idea as to what other companies will offer, you want to give your existing company a call first.
Let them know that you’ve got a quote for “X” amount and you’re wondering what they can do to retain your business. This works! It’s amazing how many companies scramble to throw you a deal when they realize you’re about to walk.
There are some crazy discounts offered by the competition these days – ask your current company if there are any discounts you’ve been missing out on, like a safe driver discount, or a “I haven’t had a cold in two years” discount. Anything!
If your existing company can’t match or beat the lowest price you shopped around for then it’s time to switch. Yes it’s a pain, but it’s worth it.
Side Note: I don’t advocate going by price alone – you want to make sure you are with a legitimate company that has good claims-paying ability! The last thing you want is to get into an accident and have a company that can’t pay!
Estimated Savings: $25-$100 per month
Don’t Forget To:
1. Check out the other money-saving tips in this series!
2. Leave a comment below letting us know how much you’ve saved by negotiating your home and auto insurance!
Check Out All The Tips From Our Series
Tip #1: Cut Back on Going Out to Eat
Tip #2: Evaluate Your Entertainment
Tip #5: Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan
Tip #6: Get Rid of Your Land Line
Tip #7: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food!
Tip #8: Use Coupons, For Everything!
5 Ways to Get Fit on a Budget
12 Homemade Valentines Day Gifts
Personal Loans Making a Comeback
IRA Withdrawal Rules – When Can You Withdraw Your IRA?
Well Paying Careers: 30 Jobs That Pay $30 Per Hour
10 Money-Saving Tips to Help You Stash $10,000!
Should You Give Money to a Homeless Person?
7 Most Important Habits That Rich People Use to Build Wealth
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Last year we got clobbered by a 25% increase in our auto insurance premiums, however it owed to a change in state law requiring in increase to cover uninsured motorists! Not much that can be done about that.
I see your point about shopping though, most of us would rather go to the dentist and have a couple of teeth drilled before talking with insurance companies. There seem to be too many provisions that are beyond the comprehension of mere mortals.
Lining up competitor quotes before contacting your own company is like money in the bank! I’m going to give that a try–outstanding advice!
.-= Kevin@OutOfYourRut´s last blog ..Build Savings or Payoff Debt – Which Comes First? =-.
Kevin – thanks for the comment! Yeah, it’s funny how badly we want to avoid calling to get quotes, but let us know the results after you call your company…hopefully you can save a pile of cash!!
We did this exact same thing recently and saved around $600 bucks this year alone. We were over insured on our home insurance and got a cheaper rate on our car insurance for the same (if not better) coverage. Plus, our new insurance guy is a much nicer, more helpful, honest dude. We called all of our local reps to see who could give us a better rate. I like working with a person from the neighborhood. They answer the phone when I call, I can go see them, they can get stuff faster with more efficiency usually. And I never have to wait on hold on some 1-800 number. And it stimulates the local economy.
.-= Ted @broketofree´s last blog ..Random Idea- My Car Plan for my Kids =-.
I’ve been meaning to check this out and even got some mail from USAA about it today (I’m with Liberty Mutual). It’s too bad my service only works for life insurance. Maybe we’ll include home and auto in version 2 (or v3).
Ted, great job on the savings! I like your idea of keeping the local economy humming as well!
The facts brought out in here related to auto insurance are true, so we must give great consideration while going for it, here is one site which i can suggest for you that will provide you few more tips of how to have cheaper auto insurance and your free quotes. autoinsuranceplanners.com
What if your wife’s aunt is an insurance agent? I know, as a married couple we have to set boundaries with our relatives, but her aunt was like a mother to her while growing up (wife’s parents’ divorced, absentee dad, mom moved out of state, etc. etc.)
Anyways, she works for an insurance company that is almost double that of Geico’s quotes. And of course as a saver, I cringe at the thought of overpaying for anything, but just to honor the aunt and honor my wife, we’ve been buying the insurance through her aunt. It’s a win for her and my wife… but it’s a total losing proposition for me.
Any ideas?
.-= Walen@Family Finance´s last blog ..Retirement Planning =-.
Walen, that’s a tough spot to be in – on the one hand, the desire to save some cash is a good one, but the desire to give auntie some business is good too. With that much emotional tie to your wife’s aunt, it might be best to just continue giving her the business. Have you ever asked her aunt why their prices are so high? Maybe there’s some shopping around that she can do for you to get the price down even a little bit.
I fully support this step.
I noticed your blog on facebook groups. I just added you to my MSN News Reader. Keep up the good work buddy! Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
I think we should take insurance plane for saving money, its a very nice and i always invest my money in insurance sector.
http://naturacleansesite.com/
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