Car Insurance Hacks: Save Hundreds

I've been in one accident while I was driving. I was on the freeway in Utah, at the S-curves between Provo and Orem. There was construction going on (when isn't there construction going on there?). I rounded the curve and traffic was at a complete stop. I slammed on my brakes. I hit the car ahead of me. It wasn't a bad hit. I got mostly stopped. I crumpled my hood, but didn't damage any of the internal components. The car ahead of me had some white paint on his bumper from my car. He was driving an SUV. His car was just fine.

Or so I thought. I learned after the fact that the guy had his alignment fixed from the accident, and had a couple other things done on his car. Luckily, my insurance paid for it.

In most places you are required by law to have some level of car insurance. If you have a car on a loan they require a certain level of car insurance, generally above what is required by law. 

Last year I switched my insurance company. 

Geico really did save me 15% or more.

They saved me about 25% actually. Geico really ought to be paying me for this. Since they're not, and to be candid, it took a little longer than 15 minutes. Part of that was because I got quotes from a lot of different companies. I had been with state farm, and they were good at taking care of us when we had accidents, but I wanted to save more money. I was paying about 200 dollars per month to insure our two vehicles. I switched to Geico, added renters insurance, and now we pay about $150 per month. Geico was the cheapest big company. I hear Bear river mutual has better insurance prices, but you have to have a stellar driving record in order to be approved for coverage by them. From my first story, you can tell I've been in an accident. I didn't even apply. Maybe in a year or two.

Things I learned:

1. Get a few quotes. I tried a few and found that Geico was the best for our situation. Some are better for different situations. Try a few.

2. Have you moved recently? Get a quote, even from your same insurance company, on your new zip code. When we were moving to Indiana, I compared those two things and it turns out that, nothing else changed, Indiana has cheaper rates by about $20 per month. 

3. It's worth it to take the time to change insurance! My best paying job to date paid me $30/hour as a private high jump coach, so that's what I'll compare this to. I spent two hours learning about insurance, getting quotes, and talking to agents. Yes, it was a little bit of a hassle. I made it more difficult than I needed to, because I wanted to learn more about the system. I ended up saving about $50 per month. I switched insurance about one year ago. That equates to about $600 I've saved so far. Just for this year, that comes to about $300 per hour, and I'll keep saving more.

Any other good insurance hacks? Leave them in the comments below!