Car Insurance, and the $84,000 Question

There’s nothing quite like a good old fashioned wake-up call to shock people into action. A recent report by Insurance.com sent pulses pounding, blood pressures skyrocketing, and dreams of early retirement fading when it announced that the average American will spend approximately $84,000 in a lifetime on car insurance. That’s not including home insurance or health insurance. That’s car insurance alone. And if that’s not enough to send you scrambling to the nearest insurance website to compare auto insurance prices, you could be slow on the uptake. Either that, or wealthy.

Car insurance comparison websites are suddenly abuzz with consumers looking for ways to lower their premiums, but industry experts say that there’s much more to finding affordable auto insurance than simply pricing out the cheapest policy. Sometimes, paying more for insurance now can save you from having to go into bankruptcy later on—especially if you underinsure yourself, cause an accident, and get sued above the limits of your insurance policy.

In order to compare auto insurance policies accurately, consumers should look at three major factors: level of coverage, size of deductible, and an insurer’s customer satisfaction ratings. If the first two are in order but the third shows a company that leaves its customers cold, you could be looking at a nightmare scenario if the time ever comes to actually put your insurance plan into action.

The best piece of advice for keeping car insurance premiums low, however, remains the same: drive safe and obey the law. Drivers who do both stand to save the most amount of money, regardless of who their insurer is.