Save on Auto Insurance
![]() My approach to saving money in general is to leave no stone unturned.
And often, what I've discovered is that significant savings can be found in less-than-obvious places. When it comes to buying or renewing auto insurance, the more obvious ways to save on your premiums are: - comparison shop policies from different insurance companies based on similar coverage levels - ask for the typical discounts for multiple lines (such as combing home with auto)/multiple vehicles, good driver records, low mileage if you don't drive your cars much, or discounts based on safety equipment you have on your cars - in some cases, people may also look to cut costs by reducing coverage levels, e.g. by increasing deductibles, or by lowering the coverage for older vehicles However, one discount that is often overlooked is the Group Insurance discount, which in my personal experience can be the single largest source of savings. Simply defined, Group insurance is basically a discounted rate based on your affiliation with a specific employer, professional or business association, or alumni group. In particular, the alumni affiliation (based on an official membership in an alumni association) can yield big discounts with certain insurers. What I found when I did a comprehensive comparison across insurance companies a few years ago was that different insurers provided different discounts for different groups. That is, one insurance company might provide a discount for a particular university alumni association, but another company may not have any discount for that same alumni association. Or in some cases, two companies may provide a discount for the same alumni association but the percentage savings may be very different. What this means is that if you want to save the most money possible, you should look to do a true comparison that includes all of the applicable discounts for all potential group affiliations. In my own case, while this was a bit more work than the typical comparison shopping most people will do for auto insurance, I was able to save more than 15% from my prior policy using this approach. The company that I selected was GEICO which provided a 40% discount for my undergraduate alma mater that no other company could beat, even with other applicable group discounts applied.
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