In Florida, you have to buy auto insurance if you want to drive on any public road. You can't get around it. When an insurance policy is cancelled for any reason, the state of Florida is notified. If a new policy isn't bought right away, the state can take away the vehicle's registration tags, making it illegal to drive the car.
All of this adds up to the fact that almost every driver in Florida wants to get the best deal on car insurance. The good news is that lowering your car insurance rates isn't as hard as you might have thought.
If you are financing your car, your lender will require that you not only have insurance on it, but that you carry much more than the state-required minimum. If you are thinking about buying a new car, you should talk to your car insurance agent first and find out how much it will cost to insure the make and model you are interested in.
Remember that some new cars are very expensive to insure compared to others.
More than almost anything else, how well you drive can affect how much your insurance costs. Do everything you can to keep your record of driving as clean as possible. Your insurance will go up if you get a ticket for speeding or any other moving violation. Your monthly premium will go through the roof if you are convicted of DUI or DWI, and a second conviction will put you in the high-risk insurance pool, where premiums are too high for most drivers.
You are also at high risk if you are young. If you're under 25, there's not much you can do about your age. However, if you stay in school and keep at least a 3.0 GPA, you can get at least a 5% discount on your monthly premium for being a good student.
If you have other types of insurance with the same company, like life insurance, homeowner's insurance, or health insurance, you should be able to get a nice discount on your monthly premium. This is called a "Multi-Policy Discount."
If you've been insured by the same company for 5 years or more, you may be eligible for a discount on your car insurance called a "Long-Term Discount." In fact, most insurance companies have discounts they don't advertise, and you can save a lot of money just by calling your agent twice a year and asking straight out if there are any weird discounts you might be eligible for.
If you are at least 55 years old, you may have noticed that your insurance rates have started to go up. If you take and pass a special driver's refresher course, you can keep them in check and even cut them by about 10%. Not all insurance companies offer this discount, so you'll need to check with your agent to see if you qualify.
If your car is so old that it has no Kelly Blue Book value, don't waste your money on collision and comprehensive insurance. If your car is damaged, your insurance won't pay you more than the Blue Book value. If your car doesn't have a Blue Book value, you won't get anything, even if you've been paying for insurance.
Last but not least, how big of a deductible can you really pay? The higher your deductible, the less your car insurance will cost each month. But don't make your deductible higher than you can really pay, since you'll have to pay this money out of your own pocket every time you file a claim.
O.K. Now you know everything you need to know to make an insurance policy that fits your needs and has as many built-in discounts as you can find. So, it's time to go online and start comparing the prices of your dream insurance policy at every Florida insurance company.
Remember that if you want to compare every insurance company in Florida, you can't stop after comparing on just one site. You'll need to take the extra time to compare on at least 3 different sites. Once you've done that and found the best auto insurance rates in Florida, you can relax and enjoy the money you're saving every month and year.
