How To Lower Auto Insurance Premiums After Small Accidents
During the course of their driving career, almost every vehicle driver will find themselves in an accident. It may be their fault; it may be something they had no chance to avoid. It may result in only minor damage to property and people, or it may cause the loss of a car or necessitate ongoing medical treatment. But no matter the number or type of small accidents and big accidents that a driver is a part of over their years behind the wheel, one thing remains true: accidents will affect an auto insurance premium, and almost always in a direction that the consumer does not want. While there is little that a client can do in many cases to avoid accidents, small accidents do not have to be the end of the world when it comes to auto insurance premiums, and it is possible to lower auto insurance rates after a small accident occurs.
An auto insurance premium is a monthly or yearly amount paid to a provider by a client in order to account for all services rendered, which amount in large part to an amalgamation of the coverage that the provider is willing to offer and the customer has opted to take. These can be essential coverage such as bodily injury or property damage that is mandated in certain amounts by state insurance commissions, or they can be extra or optional coverage for glass breakage or theft. The first thing that a driver can do after a series of small accidents is to remove any unnecessary coverage from their plan and limit themselves only to what is essential, thus lowering the cost of their auto insurance premium. The amount saved can be major or minor depending on the number of coverage that a person has purchased and how many they are willing to drop.
Clients may also save money on their auto insurance premium by choosing to raise their deductible after small accidents. A raise from $500 to $1,000 means $500 more that a client will have to pay before their insurance will consider a claim from them, but it can mean a significant reduction in cost to premiums, and this may be worthwhile if the premium price is beginning to climb.
While there is little that a driver can do to prevent accidents, there are a number of options for lowering premiums after a series of small accidents have occurred, ways that will not limit essential coverage or remove protection but will simply result in lower premium costs. Clients are best to speak to their provider for advice before changing or reducing any coverage or increasing a deductible amount.
