If you are planning to get car insurance, you need to know that there are many ways in which you can save money in this process. The rates of insurance policies are not the same from every service provider and when you compare different options, you will be able to get inexpensive deals for your car. It is also important to pick the right plan that can provide optimum benefits for your vehicle. In this regard, you need to understand that choosing the wrong policy or choosing options that will not provide many benefits for your situation will make the entire deal expensive. In this article, you can get to know the simple ways in which you can save money spent on a car insurance policy. Follow these guidelines wherever possible and also help your friends and family members to select the right policy that provides complete value for the money.
Tip 1: Always give preference to multi-year insurance plans
- The best option you can choose for your car insurance renewal is the multi-year insurance plan. Earlier, there was no such option to choose a single plan that covers for many years at a time. However, it is now possible to get coverage for nearly 3 years at once by choosing the multi-year insurance plan.
- The permission to provide such options to customers was recently granted by IRDAI and insurance companies are more than happy to offer such plans at good rates.
- As the insurance companies also get to benefit with such options, they are willing to offer some discounts on such plans. This will ensure that the companies need not worry about reaching out to customers for annual renewals and they can stay secured for three years once the policy is sold to the customers.
- This will also reduce the need for paperwork on an annual basis for the car insurance policy as the policy is renewed once in three years. The companies will save a lot of time and effort and they require less manpower to process such insurance plans.
- Considering all these reasons, the companies offer good discounts to attract customers towards such plans. You can also take advantage of this situation and choose the multi-year insurance plan in the future. When it comes to getting car insurance for new cars, it is mandatory to get this coverage as per the new guidelines of IRDAI.
- Your biggest advantage as a customer comes with the discount you get on such plans. Apart from that, you will be spending less time on the renewal and there is no need for frequent annual renewals.
Tip 2: Choose third-party coverage in case of old vehicles
- The most expensive option for buying car insurance is the comprehensive plan. This can be many times expensive than the third party cover and you may not need this in every case.
- The coverage offered by a comprehensive policy is no doubt better than the 3rd party car insurance. However, it comes with an expensive price tag and it is not a basic requirement. In some cases, insurance agents try to sell additional covers along with the comprehensive plan making it even more expensive.
- You can go for the simple third party cover when you are not having an expensive vehicle and when you can manage the repairs in the future with your own expenses. This type of plan is ideally suited for cars older than 6 years in the market.
- If you are buying a used car, you need to choose this option unless you have a higher budget for the insurance policy. Remember that the overall value for which the car will get coverage will depend on the age of the vehicle.
- In this regard, you will notice that cars older than 6 years would have lost more than half of their original value and this can come down further when the car has met with some accidents in the past.
- Considering all these factors, it makes sense to choose the simple third party cover in that situation. This will serve the basic mandatory requirement of having insurance for your vehicle and you will get to save lots of money in the long run.
- Many customers having more than one vehicle choose this option for the older vehicle and this will cut down on the insurance expenses by a huge margin.
Tip 3: Agree for higher voluntary excess to save money
- You can opt for a higher voluntary excess at the time of car insurance renewal to save money. This will reduce your premium drastically and you will be getting the same coverage without much difference.
- The only difference will come with regards to getting compensation in the event of claims. When any damage has happened to your vehicle, normally the insurance company will pay the complete compensation as agreed in the policy and it will usually be close to the sum assured coverage offered in the policy.
- However, with voluntary excess, you agree to take the burden of the compensation in some part and this will reduce the burden of the insurance company by some margin.
- As a customer, you will have complete flexibility with regards to choosing the percentage for voluntary excess. In this regard, you can discuss the feature with the insurance agent or your insurance advisor to arrive at the best figure.
- You can always go for a higher voluntary excess especially for old cars as this will get you the double benefits of having comprehensive coverage and third-party coverage without too much increase in premium.
- The insurance company will increase the discount as you increase the voluntary excess percentage. In this way, depending on your budget for the task, you can choose the appropriate figure and get the best deal for your car insurance policy.
Tip 4: Install security gadgets to get discounts on premium
- It is interesting to know that the insurance company offers the policy at different rates depending on the overall risk involved in ensuring the car. In this regard, you can get some discount on the premium by improving the safety features of the vehicle.
- You can easily install anti-theft locks that will provide additional security for your cars in the long run. Apart from that, using ABS brakes will reduce accidents by a huge margin and it will give you better control over the vehicle when you have to apply brakes suddenly during an emergency situation.
- Apart from improving the safety of the vehicle and providing security for your life, it can also help you save money in the long run as the insurance company will provide some discounts on the premium for such secure vehicles.
- You can also consider installing the GPS tracking device in the vehicle and this will help you to locate the vehicle in the event of theft. In most cases, this tracking device will be concealed appropriately inside the vehicle so that it is not obviously visible.
- All these safety features will help you to reduce the premium of the car insurance policy. You can check this yourself by using the online car insurance calculator and see how much money you can save on the policy with such safety gadgets.
Tip 5: Choose online sellers to get the best deal
- Getting your car insurance directly from the insurance agents can be slightly expensive. They may not offer any additional discount and you will not be able to compare the plan with other offers in the market.
- On the other hand, you can save a lot when you buy insurance from the online aggregators. They are insurance brokers who have permission from IRDAI to sell products from different companies. This provides a lot of advantages for the consumers as they can choose any policy from any company from a single source.
- You can even use the online car insurance calculator and get to know the rates of various policies which is not possible when you buy the policy directly from the agents. The insurance agents also have restrictions with regards to selling policies and they can only advertise their own company products.
- In this way, you may miss out on better deals offered by competitor companies in the market. For this reason, you should always buy the insurance policy online to save money. Apart from that, this will also help you to save lots of time as everything can be completed online in quick time.
- Yet another advantage of buying insurance online is that consumers can buy the policy at any time of your choice which is a huge relief for busy working professionals who do not get enough time to visit the office of the insurance company.
When you follow these tips to the core, you can easily save money spent on the insurance policy. It can be used for new car insurance as well as renewals depending on your individual needs. Use the online calculators and see how much difference these tips will make to your insurance policy. You will be surprised with the savings you can get with such simple strategies.
