Everyone thinks that it won’t happen to them, but an accident occurs in New York State every 1.7 minutes (source).
Auto insurance is there to protect your family from financial loss in the case of a accident or other loss. It covers injuries to youself and others in your car, and covers your liability for injuring others in an accident, as well as damage to their property. You may choose to buy insurance to cover damage to your vehicle as well.
What if I don’t have car insurance?
As most other states do, New York State requires all cars to be insured for liability. If a person does not carry the minimum required limits on their vehicle, DMV fees will be assessed daily; also, you can be ticketed for driving a vehicle without insurance. But most importantly, if you don’t have car insurance (or don’t have adequate car insurance) you may find yourself in a financial mess when an accident occurs.
What can I do to keep my auto premiums down?
There are many factors that go into calculating the premium of an auto policy. Many of these are not something you can change (like your age or where you live). There are however many factors that you can control.
- Defensive Driver Course – By taking a NYS approved driving course can get you a significant discount.
- Account Discounts – You can receive discounts by having your other insurance policies with the same company.
- Payment options like Paid in Full, or EFT – With many companies, paying your policy in full, or having your payments automatically withdrawn can lower how much you will pay.
- Credit – Most companies use an insurance score to determine premium of a policy. Credit is a factor in an insurance score, so it is important to maintaining a good credit history.