Paid In Full Discount
Did you know that your auto insurance policy offers up to a 10% discount if you pay in full? And that usually means that if you have a six-month auto policy or an annual auto policy….if you pay it in full, there is generally a discount up to 10% discount on your annual premium.
Payment Method Discounts
Even if you don’t pay your auto insurance in full, the method that you pay your insurance can save you money. The most affordable opition is EFT or a bank draft. If you pay monthly by EFT, you might not get that 10% paid in fulll discount but you can get discounts based on having your payments electronically drafted directly from your checking account. If you would like to do that, there’s typically about a $1 fee per month for that service.
If you would rather pay monthly by credit card, that can happen as well (POINST!!!) The credit card option has $3 to a $5/monthly charge depending on your carrier.
Remember, each of these is monthly…so the EFT option is $12/yr on a monthly payment option whereas the credit card option will be $36/yr
Bill By Mail
A lot of people like the control of paying monthly by check. They can “determine when” their premium is paid and thus writing a check is their preferred method of payment. Note that this is always an option, but the premium actually has no payment discounts with the bill by mail method.
Paperless Discount
Insurance carriers are typically awarding a 3-5% discount if you sign up to get your documents by email or if you subscribe to the “paperless discount”. This allows you to get payment notices, claim notices, renewals, etc by email thus decreasing the time to mail documents and the cost associated with that. Insurance carriers are willing to pass that savings along to the clients by offering a discount for going paperless in they system.
Driving App That Adjusts Your Premium For Your Driving Habits
Every carrier has a driving app that you can install on your phone and get discounts for your driving habits. The app will track how fast you stop, accelerate, what types of traffic patterns you drive in, and how much you use your cell phone during driving. For more information on the driving apps, check out our blog on the topic.
Married Discount
When people get married, some people keep their auto insurance separate. Make sure to talk to your insurance agent because if someone is living in the home and has access to your vehicle, they need to be listed on your policy. Insurance companies want to reward this by offering a married discount to list all driver and vehicles in the household on one policy.
Low Mileage Discount
Tons of people are working from home more than ever. If you drive your vehicle less than 10K miles per year, you may be eligible for the low mileage discount on your auto policy. The insurance carrier willl want you to fill out a form once a year and they may also require the telematics device to track driving for 90 days…but a low mileage discount can save you money on your auto insurance if you are not driving frequently.
Talk To Your Agent
So, make sure that you talk to your insurance agent about options for you to save money on your monthly payments, whether or not it’s your auto, home, motorcycle, boat, articles, floater, umbrella policy because most of our carriers do have different types of payment structures based on how it is that you want to be able to pay your premium. Call us at (972) 964-4825 for all your auto insurance needs.