5 Reasons Even a Good Driver May Want to Change Car Insurance Companies

Some drivers seem to have all of the luck. They rarely, if ever, have an accident. They never get a ticket. Their driving record is clean as a new snowfall. Not a spot is on it. Everyone believes that this is the type of driver that insurance companies shower with lower rates and great coverage, but do not be too quick to make this last assumption. Good drivers often do not automatically receive ongoing rate reductions from their current insurer.

Once insurance companies sell a policy, their tendency is to give regular rate increases to their existing customers.

For some reason, insurance companies believe that their customers will never shop for new car insurance. Unfortunately, this is usually true. Most people hate to shop for new car insurance and will just assume that their current company is taking care of them at the best possible rate. Until these good drivers begin to look at other insurance options, their rates will keep escalating on roughly an annual basis.

Small increases add up over time.

Generally, car insurance premiums are only raised a couple of percentages per year. For a driver who pays $500 or so per year per car, this amounts to a ten or fifteen dollar increase every year. If the driver pays a monthly premium, the increase can be hardly noticeable at about a dollar a month. However, after ten years with the same company, this increase will have amounted to a forty or fifty percent increase in insurance costs.

Frequently, changing companies can lower the premium by 25 percent.

In some cases, the savings can be even greater. If the driver happened to have purchased the policy at a young age or at another time when a high risk rate may have been assigned, the savings can be a lot more than this. If you're this kind of good driver and you switch car insurance companies, it might cut your premium by more than half.

Other factors may have changed in the insured person's life.

Getting married can bring a significant reduction, even if you are not especially young. If you have bought a house, sometimes packaging your auto insurance with your home owner's policy will make a big drop. Driving fewer miles per year or fewer miles to work can positively impact your car insurance premium as well. Having young drivers exit the home and the policy can save a good driver big bucks. Any of these or other similar factors are reasons for a good driver to look at getting a change in insurance.

Unfortunately, many times your current insurer will not give you the amount of discount that you deserve based on your clean driving record and significant changes to your insurance needs.

Switching companies is about the only way to be sure that you get the best insurance rates possible for the same coverage. By shopping around with various agents, you can soon discover if it is time for you to make a move and get a new insurer for your vehicles. The worst scenario is that you discover you are, in fact, already getting the best rates and do not need to change. On the other hand, you may save enough money to take a short vacation and celebrate after the switch.