Car Insurance Deductibles

If you’ve done any research on what impacts the price of car insurance, you probably know that your auto deductible is the largest controllable factor, aside from coverage type, affecting the premiums you pay. Most drivers are also aware that if they raise their auto insurance deductible, their premiums will drop as a result. While many policyholders can benefit from higher deductibles, others may be better served by either keeping the same deductible or lowering it. Read on to determine which strategy best suits your financial status and driving habits.

What Is a Deductible?

An insurance deductible is the portion of the bill for which you are responsible in the event of a covered loss, such as an accident or a theft. Your insurer deducts the amount from the settlement you receive, which explains its name. Common denominations for deductibles include $0, $100, $500, $750, $1,000, and $1,500. Because you assume a larger share of financial responsibility with a higher deductible, insurers offer lower premiums to policyholders with more substantial deductibles.

Pros and Cons of Higher Deductibles

On the bright side, if you adjust your deductible upward, you will see a considerable drop in your annual premium. The higher you set your auto insurance deductible, the lower your premiums will be. Another factor that militates in favor of a higher deductible is that having to pay a deductible is not a certainty because you may not ever have an accident or other claim. On the other hand, premiums are an absolute certainty—you have to pay your premiums in order to maintain coverage. Thus, it may make sense to take more of a financial risk with your auto deductible than with your premiums by erring on the high side.

Conversely, setting your deductibles too high can have disastrous consequences if you’re not financially equipped to pay them after a covered loss occurs. You may have saved money on your premiums by setting the deductible very high, but you will probably lose all those savings and then some if a loss actually happens. If you’ve set your deductible so high that you cannot afford to pay it, you will not be able to get your car replaced or repaired until you can come up with the money.

Insurance Deductible: To Adjust or Not to Adjust

Two factors will determine whether you should adjust your deductible: your finances and your driving patterns. Financially, look at your monthly budget and savings and realistically assess if you could pay the deductible you’ve chosen comfortably. If not, the financially sound decision is to lower your deductible to protect yourself in the future. If you can, you might want to further examine your finances to see if you could absorb an even higher deductible. Also consider your driving record in setting deductibles. If you have accidents fairly regularly, a high deductible is more dangerous than if you’ve had a clean driving record for years.

Car Performance and the Cost of your Insurance

When you renew your car insurance, do you ever think about the factors that impact on the price you pay? This can often be very interesting as many people don’t stop to consider why they pay the price that they do. For instance, one factor that has a big impact on the cost of car insurance is the performance of the car itself.

It can be tempting to think that the better a car performs when you are driving, the less your car insurance will cost. Of course, while things such as how quickly a car comes to a stop when you brake are taken into account, factors such as acceleration and speed also play a role.

This means that even if your car performs well when it comes to braking, any cost benefits on your car insurance can be cancelled out if it has a high top speed and accelerates faster than most other cars – and it can even push the cost of your insurance up considerably.

This is because most cars that have a high top speed and accelerate extremely quickly are high performance cars, and statistically speaking they are more likely to result in insurance claims than cars with a lower top speed and more sedate acceleration. The car insurance companies build this into the insurance that you pay, so if you own a high performance car you are likely to have to pay more to insure it even if you never make use of your car’s capabilities.

Similarly, if you own an old car where the performance has been affected by age and deterioration, you might find you have to pay more to insure it, too. All of this is based on the likelihood of accidents in various types of cars: the higher the risk your car is seen to pose, the bigger the impact on your insurance costs.

SUV Insurance Coverage

The sports utility vehicle is quite expensive to purchase and maintain due to high fuel and insurance charges. The high-speed sports utility vehicles are quite risky to drive and the chances of their involvement in accident are high so the car owner has to buy heavy insurance premium policy to protect the car. You can compare car insurance premium prices online to get the best deal suitable for the vehicle.
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The auto insurance coverage offered for SUV differs in terms of charge and protective cover. The comprehensive car isnurnce coverage protects the SUV from damage caused by weather changes like fire, theft, hail, floods and tornado. The auto insurance coverage of comprehensive type can be lowered down by increasing the deductibles. It is good to keep your deductibles in low range to get the needed support from the insurance company in the event of any natural calamity. The collision coverage for SUV will protect you against any physical car damage either due to lamppost collide or with another vehicle.

This coverage is voluntary but the SUV owner must take it, as the high speed of the vehicle always risks the car collision and proper coverage will avoid hefty invoice of any car repair. The compulsive insurance cover for the car is liability coverage, which covers the damages caused by the vehicle to other people or to your possession. The damage caused to other people might leave them in lurch so the government has made the driver liable to pay off for the losses incurred.

While driving the SUV if damage is caused to you or anybody else vehicle, your insurance company will reimburse for the damage. The insurance provider of that SUV pays even the medical expenditure of anybody injured or hurt. The SUV owner with small liability will have to pay fewer premiums next year but if you have claimed high liability then you will be forced to pay high premium.