On The Road Again
It has been a long road for me. Due to unforeseen circumstances, life for me and the two HoundsGood hounds changed dramatically about a year ago. For that entire time, I have not been able to physically participate in volunteer transport. I just couldn’t justify borrowing someone else’s car to do so, as well. Now, I am back on the road.
It took me quite awhile to save up for a car. I had the money for awhile, but had to also factor in the expense of automotive insurance. I called around and figured that it would be about $800-1000 for a late model car for six months, which was a little higher than I thought. I just wanted cheap liability auto insurance because I am not exactly driving cross country, and the price point of the car. If the worst case scenario happened, it would probably be a bit less expensive to buy another car than to fix. Maybe the reality was that I would just have to get any insurance I could and switch later when I found something that was a better fit.
When I did put the down payment on the car, I went to a couple of sites that gave me a comparison. Cheap-autoinsurance.com is one such portal. I was very surprised to find out that the big name insurance company that I went with years ago did not have the best price. In fact, it was on the high end. At first, I was suspicious that I was able to get something for half to two thirds of that price. Often, one is warned that lower prices are deceptive. You can get that lower price, but the coverage is lower. They are not truly comparable. In my case, I might not need the complete menu of coverage that any given company packages together. I was surprised, however, to learn that I was able to get fairly comparable coverage at a lower rate just from shopping around.
Another tip that I have learned from this process is to prepay your initial coverage if you can. Policies that offer installments usually ad a few dollars to the bottom line for administrative fees. Also, if you are starting over in life, like I did, and have a possible mark on your credit, the insurance company may view you as a payment liability and charge you a higher rate. After you have paid the first policy period, usually lasting 6 months, they may see you in a different light based on your history.
You might be in a different position, where you had existing insurance. If so, you have nothing to lose by shopping around for a better deal. If this is your first time getting car insurance, or you have not had it in a long time, don’t feel like a captive. There are affordable choices out there if you look around for just one more day.
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