Recommendations to help you avoid the common car insurance mistakes

It's hard to blame people for wanting to get cheap car insurance at any cost. Seeing how car insurance rates increase year after year and having to spend thousands of dollars on it, more and more people are finding it rather expensive and incompatible with their budget. It even comes to situations when it's actually cheaper to buy a decent used car than to insure it. That's exactly why people are looking for different methods that would allow them to obtain cheap car insurance. But in this pursuit for economy too many car owners end up dealing with the disadvantages of cheap car insurance, which can sometimes result in additional spendings and inconveniences. If you don't want to become one of such drivers, you should carefully plan your insurance purchasing and avoid the most common mistakes associated with cheap car insurance: Stripping down the policy to bare essentials One of the most widespread practices that allow having cheap car insurance is striping down the insurance policy to the bare minimums required by law. This usually involves dropping all types of optional coverage such as comprehensive, collision, uninsured motorist and so on, and on top of that, reducing the limits of third party liability to the minimums required by local legislation. Sure, this will definitely bring down the cost of insurance for you but it will also make you financially vulnerable in case of an average or serious accident. The problem is that state minimum requirements do not reflect the actual state of affairs in the insurance market and aren't sufficient for covering repair or medical costs in case of a serious crash, so you will end up paying much more out of own pocket than you'd pay the insurer. Buying according to rates, not contents Another very common mistake a lot of car owners commit is shopping around and judging only by the rates. Sure, the rates will tell you exactly how much the insurance will cost you and that's really important. But the contents of the policy are important too, and you will be surprised to learn that they differ significantly from one company to another. For example, a particular insurer is offering you cheap car insurance but their policy has so many exclusions that you will end up paying out of own pocket in most situations, while another insurer is offering average rates but with much less exclusions and special provisions. The overall financial advantage is often on the side of the latter insurer, and that's why you always have to check the contents of the policy as well. Buying from unreliable or shady providers When shopping around for insurance you may run across very cheap car insurance policies offered by insurers you're not particularly familiar with. The offer may look very tempting and the contents of the policy may be outstanding, but are you really sure that you'll be able to get all the coverage if disaster strikes? That's why checking the background of the company you're looking forward to buy is also important. Check if there are any complains coming from other car owners, read the financial market reports, see if the company is financially stable and try to learn how they handle claims. You can start by browsing the web or addressing your local state insurance department to see if the company is blacklisted or not. Remember, when it comes to insurance you always have to work with a reliable and financially stable provider even if it results in having a slightly costlier policy. Getting separate policies for each car Having two or more cars in the household is nothing strange for the US and it's easy to imagine the insurance costs implied with such convenience. However, too many car owners simply vanquish their chances of getting cheap car insurance by getting separate policies for each of their cars. Remember, insuring all of your cars with the same single policy is always cheaper than having separate policies, any insurance expert will tell you this. Unless, of course, each of your cars is a collectible vehicle that requires a special customized package. But in such case, you probably don't need to worry about insurance rates much. Purchasing the first policy offered The importance of comparison shopping is stressed in every piece of information you will find about cheap car insurance. Still, there are many people who simply avoid it either because they don't like doing so or simply because they are lazy. But the golden rule of insurance shopping is still the same: you can always find a better deal if you shop around. So don't rush buying the first policy even if it looks very attractive and get least 3-4 more quotes from other providers to see if it's really competitive.