Car insurance is compulsory and depending on your specific situation, it can be quite pricey. This leads drivers who don’t make a lot of money to choose limited liability and not full coverage. This could be just fine, but if you happen to be one of those clumsy drivers who provoke lots of small accidents, you may end up paying more to get your car fixed than a full coverage auto insurance policy premium.

This article aims to provide you a few tips for getting cheaper auto insurance. Although it’s not written by an authority in auto insurance, it will hopefully offer you an useful starting point in your research for insuring your car. You don’t have to be an expert to get a better deal for insuring your car. A little bit of attention would do just fine.

More powerful cars are more expensive to insure: the bigger your engine capacity, the more you’ll have to pay. This is why, before buying one of those extremely powerful cars you have to make sure you can afford the collateral expenses that come with it. Fuel and insurance are the main expenses which go up, but others could increase too.

Advance full year payment may bring you a discount: this discount could be anything between 2% and 10%, but there’s no general rule. Each company has its own policy, so ask before committing into paying such a big amount in advance. It may not be worth the benefit if the discount is too low.

Buy only what you need: full coverage insurance policies usually contain clauses which the client can cut, thus leading to a total premium decrease. Check your agreement thoroughly and try to give up anything you are almost sure you’re not going to use. A good example would be the coverage when driving off road. If you never drive off road, it doesn’t make sense to pay for that. The same, if you won’t let others drive your car, it doesn’t make sense to pay for multiple drivers insurance.

Increase the deductible: the deductible is a fixed amount you agree to pay in case of total damage or thievery, or in case you file a claim for partial damage. The bigger your deductible, the lower your premium, so if this would enable you access to full coverage insurance, just do it.

Ask for multiple quotes: there’s no law to force insurance carriers to adhere to certain pricing policies, so they are free to set their own limits. Before deciding for a company, require quotes from as many as you can find in your area. Some insurance companies give additional discounts to women or to people of a certain age. You may have the pleasant surprise to be in one of those categories and pay less to get your car insured. This is not discrimination, it’s only a decision based on statistical facts that show, for example, that women are involved in less accidents than men, or that people with bad credit history file more claims than the ones with no bad credit records. If you had a DUI conviction, you have one more reason to ask for as many quotes as you can, but don't forget to specify that to insurers.

Stick with the same company for more than one year: if you didn’t file any claim during the previous year of insurance, most companies would give you a discount for the following year. This can be as big as 15%, which can result in sticking with the same carrier as being the cheapest option at a given time. Nonetheless, before renewing your agreement, you still could spend some time and get some free quotes from other companies, just for a routine check.

Car insurance for young drivers is most of the times more expensive than the same insurance for older individuals. That’s not fair, but what’s fair in life after all? Insurance companies are here to make a profit, so they make the rules on how much various categories of clients have to pay to get their vehicles insured. Fact is that statistic research has shown that drivers under 25 years of age are a higher risk group of drivers, therefore they are more prone to filing a compensation claim.

From this point on, it’s simple math: if a certain percentage of the customers pay for example an average premium of $1000 per year, the insurance company gathers that much money: $1000 times the number of customers. They have to pay salaries, rent, utilities and claims and still make a profit at the end of the fiscal year. If you’re a client and you’ve been through an accident with total car damage, claims will be much more than the $100 you’ve paid. If 90% of the clients are like you, the insurance company will be in financial trouble.

Of course insurance companies are re-insured, but fact is they want to have as much profit as possible, so if statistics indicate young male drivers as a high risk group, they’ll have to pay more for their car insurance.

Tips for getting cheaper car insurance when under 25

These are a few ideas young drivers could use for getting better insurance rates:

• College students may benefit from cheaper car insurance: some carriers have this special policy to offer discounts to college students, especially to those who pass all their exams on time. Obviously, this shouldn’t be your main reason for going to college but if you want to study, then you should be aware of this advantage that comes with the student status.
• Your parents are older than 25, so get one of them add you on her car insurance policy. This can save you some money, but I suppose you have to share the car with your parent. Anyway, before following this tip, be sure to check with your local insurance companies to see what’s the law saying in your state.
• A good credit history can be a money-saver. There are auto insurance companies which check on their potential customers’ credit score before calculating their premiums. A bad credit score could attract bigger insurance rates, so try to stay out of that as much as you can. Not all auto insurance companies have the same rules.
• Always make sure to find multiple quotes before purchasing insurance for your car. This is very easy to do, as there are lots of websites where you only need to submit your zip code in order to get quotes from carriers that operate in your area of residence. Such services are fast and free of charge, so they are a good point to start from.

If none of the above suits your particular case, then all you can do is be very careful not to get involved in accidents that require filing a compensation claim, and you'll get a bonus for each year without claims. This bonus depends from company to company and it can be as high as 15% of the total annual premiums. Another useful tip, which some of you may disagree with, is to buy a smaller, less powerful car. This decreases your premiums from start and it may place you in another risk group of drivers, with smaller rates.