Even if you are not injured, experiencing a car crash can be a traumatic event. However, even a minor accident can have ramifications: your auto insurance premiums may skyrocket, representing a significant financial burden, if you find that you are at fault in any way. Fortunately, if your monthly premiums do increase, there are a few things that you can do to help reduce them again without losing your policy.
Driving Courses
Check with your insurance company to see if they offer discounts or incentives to take driving courses, especially defensive or poor-weather driving courses. Companies will look favorably upon drivers who are actively trying to improve their abilities on the road as being lower risk, and the cost savings associated with taking a course, or even a series of courses, is often repaid several times over in premium reductions.
Deductible Increases
While this will mean that you will be financially responsible for a larger amount of the damage if you experience another accident in the future, raising your deductible can be a good short-term solution. Increasing your deductible can reduce your monthly premiums if you do not want to risk losing the policy entirely but cannot handle the monthly financial burden.
Make sure that you are able to afford the increased deductible in the event that you do experience another accident in the future, and weigh that against the premium decrease to determine if such a course of action is financially sound for your situation.
Aggressively Pursue Discounts
Beyond taking driving courses, you should read over your insurance policy and check with your insurance company to see what standard deductions they offer. Sometimes these discounts are very easy to achieve, such as getting an oil change at a predetermined distance or time marker, or it can involve changing who is registered as a primary driver on your vehicle.
Doing your research into what discounts are available and then pursuing the most cost-effective ones (i.e. regular oil changes can be done yourself at home for very little money or for a slightly higher cost professionally) can drastically reduce your monthly insurance payments.
Professional Help
Finally, beyond the above three methods, all of which you can do yourself, you may want to consult with a lawyer. Taking an accident to court and ensuring that the outcome places no blame on yourself, if possible, can eliminate any potential premium increase that your insurance company was going to give you. It may also help remove demerit points from your driving record, depending on the nature of the accident.
If you need more information about reducing your insurance costs after a collision, contact an auto insurance company such as Nelson Insurance Agency. They can give you personalized tips and advice.
Share24 June 2018
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