Reader question:
How do you keep the cost of collision coverage down?
James
That’s a good question.
Car insurance costs a lost of money, and it costs even more if you go for fuller coverage by adding such options as collision or comprehensive coverage to your policy. These will automatically give a jump to the price of your premium, and cost much more than the minimum state requirement that you might be used to. Unfortunately, there are about only two ways that you can cut the high costs of collision insurance on your premium.
- Raise your deductible.
- Get rid of your collision coverage.
The second one doesn’t seem very reasonable, because if you have collision coverage, you probably want to keep it, so the only way to keep your coverage as it is and get lower prices for your collision part, is to raise the deductible. Raising the deductible cuts down on costs for car insurance companies, and thus on costs for you on your premium, because it means that if and when you should get into a car accident or collision, you will be paying out more and they will be paying out less, and because of this they can charge you less.
You might want to ask yourself, though, if you really need collision coverage of your car insurance policy. If you have a car that’s on the older side or has very high mileage racked up, it might be a better idea just to drop the collision coverage, because in the case of a crash, with a car like that, your insurance company will probably just declare the vehicle a total loss. They’ll do this because the vehicle has a low market value, and so it’s cheaper to just replace it completely than it is to repair it.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.