Is it wise to accept the maximum deductible to get cheap auto insurance?
When you start off on your tour of the internet, one thing becomes clear almost immediately. If you use the free online search engines, you can get a flood of quotes into your inbox. All the major auto insurers are tied into one or more of the search engines and they all respond to searches with their quotes. This buries you under a mountain of information. There just is not enough time to follow up every quote on every changed variable. Assuming, of course, that you got quotes using different factors, e.g. changing the amount of the deductible, how many miles a year you drive, and so on. The only way you can work out how to get the maximum discounts is to play with the system. So, if you are starting the process of finding a new vehicle to drive, first check out the premium rates on all the makes and models you are thinking about buying. You will be surprised by big the differences are. Then look at payment methods for the insurance. There are discounts available if you pay the premium as an annual lump sum. Should you bundle the home with the auto insurance? This can save at least 10%. Insure more than one vehicle? There are so many options giving you a discount, you need to work your way through multiple searches to understand how much money can be saved.
Talk to your friends and there is likely to be one suggestion they all make. Go for the maximum deductible. This gives you the biggest single discount. OK. So they are advising you to self-insure. Instead of looking to the insurance company to pay all your claims, big or small, you are signing up to a deal where the insurer only pays the big claims and you pay all the small claims. Look back over your driving career and talk to your family and trusted friends. Find out how many accidents they have had and roughly how much damage was caused. [...]