Cheaper 2002 Pontiac Bonneville Insurance Rates

Want lower insurance rates for your Pontiac Bonneville? Are you regretting buying an underperforming, overpriced insurance policy? Believe me when I say there are many drivers thinking the same thing.

Many auto insurance companies compete for your insurance dollar, so it’s not easy to compare every insurance company to get the best rates possible.

You need to compare premium rates every six months because prices fluctuate regularly. Despite the fact that you may have had the best price for Bonneville coverage a year ago you may be paying too much now. Ignore everything you know about insurance because we’re going to demonstrate how to use online quotes to buy cheaper insurance.

If you are paying for car insurance now, you should be able to save some money using these tips. Buying car insurance is quite easy. But drivers do need to understand the way insurance companies compete online because it can help you find the best coverage.

Discounts for lower-cost auto insurance rates

Some insurance providers don’t list the entire discount list in an easy-to-find place, so the list below details both the well known and the harder-to-find credits that you can use to lower your rates. If you do not check that you are getting every discount you deserve, you are throwing money away.

• Payment Discounts – If you can afford to pay the entire bill rather than paying monthly you can actually save on your bill.
• Passive Restraints and Air Bags – Vehicles equipped with air bags or automatic seat belts can get savings of 20% or more.
• Low Mileage Discounts – Low annual miles may allow you to get slightly better premium rates than normal.
• Early Switch Discount – Some larger companies reward drivers for renewing your policy before your current coverage expires. This discount can save up to 10%.
• Defensive Driver – Successfully completing a class that teaches driver safety techniques is a good idea and can lower rates if your company offers it.
• Anti-lock Brake Discount – Anti-lock brake equipped vehicles are much safer to drive and the ABS can save up to 10%.
• Driver Education Discount – It’s a good idea to have your young drivers participate in a local driver’s education class in school or through a local driver safety program.
• Seat Belts Save – Requiring all passengers to use their safety belts can save 10% or more off the medical payments premium.
• E-sign Discounts
• Lower Rates for Military – Having an actively deployed family member could trigger a small discount.

Don’t be surprised that most discounts do not apply to the entire policy premium. The majority will only reduce individual premiums such as liability and collision coverage. So when the math indicates adding up those discounts means a free policy, companies don’t profit that way. But any discount will bring down the amount you have to pay.

Larger auto insurance companies and the discounts they provide are detailed below.

• Geico discounts include emergency military deployment, federal employee, military active duty, multi-vehicle, membership and employees, and five-year accident-free.
• Travelers offers premium reductions for hybrid/electric vehicle, save driver, good student, multi-car, new car, home ownership, and early quote.
• Farm Bureau offers discounts for multi-vehicle, driver training, youthful driver, good student, multi-policy, safe driver, and renewal discount.
• Liberty Mutual may have discounts that include new graduate, exclusive group savings, newly married, new move discount, and multi-car.
• American Family has savings for mySafetyValet, Steer into Savings, TimeAway discount, defensive driver, good student, and bundled insurance.
• Progressive offers discounts including multi-vehicle, good student, continuous coverage, homeowner, and online signing.

Check with every insurance company how many discounts you can get. All car insurance discounts might not apply in your area. To locate auto insurance companies who offer free auto insurance quotes, click here.

Compare insurance quotes

When comparison shopping, there are several ways to get quotes from many available insurance companies in your state. The fastest way to comparison shop is to get quotes online. This can be accomplished in several different ways.

• The best way to get the best comparison quotes would be an industry-wide quote request form (click to open form in new window). This style of form keeps you from doing repetitive form submissions for each price estimate. A single, simple form gets you price quotes instantly.
• A more time consuming way to obtain and compare quotes online requires visiting the website for every company you want to comare and repeat the quote process. For examples sake, we’ll pretend you want to compare State Farm, 21st Century and Geico. To get each rate you have to go to every website and punch in your information repeatedly, which can get rather old. For a list of links to insurance companies in your area, click here.
• The hardest method to find cheaper rates is calling or driving to and from local insurance agencies. The internet has reduced the need for local agents unless you require the professional guidance of an agent trained in personal lines coverage. Although, it is possible price shop online but buy from a local insurance agent.

It’s up to you which method you use, but be certain you are entering the same coverages and limits with every price quote. If you use different limits and deductibles on each one it will be nearly impossible to determine the best price for your Pontiac Bonneville. Having just a slight variation in coverage limits can make a big difference in price. And when comparing insurance rates, know that comparing a wide range of rates helps improve the odds of finding a better price.

Five tips to get more affordable insurance rates

An important part of buying insurance is that you know a few of the rating criteria that come into play when calculating your insurance rates. If you understand what controls the rates you pay, this enables you to make decisions that can help you get lower premium levels.

The factors shown below are a partial list of the pieces utilized by car insurance companies to help set rates.

• Annual mileage and car insurance rates – The higher the miles on your Pontiac in a year the more you’ll pay to insure your vehicle. Most companies calculate prices determined by how the vehicle is used. Vehicles that are left in the garage can be on a lower rate level than vehicles that have high annual mileage. An improperly rated Bonneville is throwing money out the window. Make sure your insurance policy correctly shows the correct usage for each vehicle, because it can save money.
• Continuous coverage lowers rates – Letting your insurance expire will be a quick way to bump up your insurance costs. And not only will your rates increase, not being able to provide proof of insurance could result in fines or a revoked license. You may then have to submit proof of financial responsibility or a SR-22 with your state department of motor vehicles.
• Poor credit rating equals high prices – Having a bad credit rating can be an important factor in determining premium rates. So if your credit score leaves room for improvement, you could potentially save money when insuring your 2002 Pontiac Bonneville by spending a little time repairing your credit. Consumers who have very good credit scores tend to file fewer claims than those with worse credit.
• Too many insurance claims and you’ll pay more – If you file a lot of claims you shouldn’t be surprised to get higher rates. Auto insurance companies provide lower rates to people who do not rely on their insurance for small claims. Insurance coverage is intended to be relied upon for the large, substantial claims.
• Poor driving leads to higher premiums – Good drivers get better rates than people who have multiple driving citations. Getting just one ticket can increase the cost of insurance by as much as thirty percent. Drivers unfortunate enough to have multiple tickets like hit and run, DWI or reckless driving convictions may face state-mandated requirements to maintain a SR-22 with their state’s department of motor vehicles in order to keep their license.

You may need specialized car insurance coverage

When buying the best car insurance coverage for your personal vehicles, there really is no best way to insure your cars. Each situation is unique so your insurance needs to address that. For example, these questions might help in determining whether your personal situation will benefit from professional help.

• Does coverage extend to my business vehicle?
• Is pleasure use cheaper than using my 2002 Pontiac Bonneville to commute?
• Why is insurance for a teen driver so high?
• Do I pay less for low miles?
• Is my custom paint covered by insurance?
• Do I have newly-aquired coverage?
• Will I lose any money if I cancel my policy before it expires?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then you may want to think about talking to a licensed insurance agent. To find an agent in your area, fill out this quick form or you can go here for a list of companies in your area.

Insurance advertising tricks

Companies like State Farm, Allstate and Geico endlessly run ads on TV and radio. They all seem to say the same thing of big savings just by switching your auto insurance coverage to their company. How do they all lower your prices? This is the way they can do it.

Auto insurance companies require specific criteria for the type of customer that earns them the most money. An example of a profitable customer might have to be over the age of 45, has no prior claims, and has great credit. Any driver that hits that “sweet spot” will qualify for the lowest premium rates and is almost guaranteed to save some money.

Potential insureds who don’t meet those criteria may receive higher prices and ends up with business going elsewhere. If you pay close attention to the ads, they say “drivers who switch” but not “all drivers who get quotes” save that much when switching. That is how insurance companies can confidently state the savings.

Each company has different criteria, so you should get price quotes at each policy renewal. It is impossible to guess the company that will give you the biggest savings.

What car insurance coverages do you need?

Knowing the specifics of your policy can help you determine appropriate coverage and the correct deductibles and limits. The coverage terms in a policy can be impossible to understand and coverage can change by endorsement. Listed below are typical coverages found on the average car insurance policy.

Liability insurance

This provides protection from injuries or damage you cause to other’s property or people. It protects YOU from legal claims by others. Liability doesn’t cover damage to your own property or vehicle.

It consists of three limits, bodily injury for each person injured, bodily injury for the entire accident and a property damage limit. You commonly see liability limits of 25/50/25 that means you have a limit of $25,000 per injured person, a total of $50,000 of bodily injury coverage per accident, and $25,000 of coverage for damaged propery. Alternatively, you may have one number which is a combined single limit that pays claims from the same limit with no separate limits for injury or property damage.

Liability insurance covers things like medical services, medical expenses and pain and suffering. How much coverage you buy is up to you, but it’s cheap coverage so purchase as large an amount as possible.

Comprehensive coverages

Comprehensive insurance coverage will pay to fix damage that is not covered by collision coverage. You first have to pay a deductible and then insurance will cover the rest of the damage.

Comprehensive coverage protects against claims like fire damage, hitting a deer and falling objects. The highest amount a car insurance company will pay at claim time is the actual cash value, so if the vehicle is not worth much consider dropping full coverage.

Uninsured and underinsured coverage

Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist coverage protects you and your vehicle’s occupants from other motorists when they either have no liability insurance or not enough. Covered losses include hospital bills for your injuries as well as damage to your Pontiac Bonneville.

Since a lot of drivers only purchase the least amount of liability that is required, it only takes a small accident to exceed their coverage. So UM/UIM coverage should not be overlooked. Most of the time your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages are set the same as your liablity limits.

Coverage for collisions

Collision insurance pays to fix your vehicle from damage from colliding with another vehicle or an object, but not an animal. A deductible applies then the remaining damage will be paid by your insurance company.

Collision can pay for claims such as driving through your garage door, colliding with a tree, crashing into a building and sustaining damage from a pot hole. This coverage can be expensive, so consider removing coverage from vehicles that are older. Drivers also have the option to choose a higher deductible to save money on collision insurance.

Coverage for medical payments

Med pay and PIP coverage reimburse you for short-term medical expenses for things like funeral costs, chiropractic care and rehabilitation expenses. They can be used to fill the gap from your health insurance program or if there is no health insurance coverage. It covers both the driver and occupants and will also cover getting struck while a pedestrian. PIP is not universally available but can be used in place of medical payments coverage

Do the work, save more money

We just showed you a lot of ways to compare 2002 Pontiac Bonneville insurance prices online. It’s most important to understand that the more rate comparisons you have, the more likely it is that you will get a better rate. You may even discover the biggest savings come from an unexpected company. Regional companies can often provide lower rates in certain areas compared to the large companies like Allstate, Geico and Progressive.

As you go through the steps to switch your coverage, it’s very important that you do not buy poor coverage just to save money. There have been many cases where an insured cut full coverage and learned later that the few dollars in savings costed them thousands. The ultimate goal is to purchase a proper amount of coverage for the lowest price while still protecting your assets.

Even more information is available in these articles:

• Auto Theft Statistics (Insurance Information Insitute)
• State Car Insurance Guides (Geico)
• Vehicle Insurance (Wikipedia)
• Distracted Driving (Insurance Information Insitute)
• Auto Insurance Basics (Insurance Information Insitute)