High Risk Auto Insurance

Auto insurance is expensive enough when you’ve been accident and ticket free, let alone when you need high risk coverage. But fear not, if it’s high risk auto insurance you need, then we’re going to walk you through the process of shopping, buying, and keeping your rates as low as possible.

Mitigating Expense

The first step is to do everything we can to keep your rates as low as possible. If you have outstanding tickets, pay them. This will not only give you a chance to put them behind you, but will save you from further fines and penalties. This will also keep you from getting additional tickets, which can further increase your rates.

Next, if you have a luxury car or sports car, then ditch it. Getting a nice budget priced used vehicle will save you a ton of cash when you buy high risk auto insurance.

Lastly, find yourself a driver safety course approved by your state of residence, and take it. Doing this can sometimes remove points from your record, and can also entitle you for a policy discount.

Look at Alternatives

Do you really need to own a car? Is public transportation available? What about a service like Zipcar, do you have those in your area? If you can get away from owning an automobile, you might be able to save cash by instead borrowing a vehicle and getting an insurance bond, rather than maintaining high risk auto insurance.

This isn’t always ideal, but it might be something to look at until your record improves.

Shopping for High Risk Insurance

The best place to start is online, by checking rates of every auto insurer you can think of. Here is a list to get you started:

• Geico
• USAA
• Progressive
• esurance
• State Farm
• Nationwide
• Allstate
• Safe Auto

You might find that a few of these will be much more expensive, and some might not offer insurance to you at all, which is fine. The goal here is to get rates to compare, and see where you stand.

Once you have a few rates that look better than the rest, call those companies and ask them what you can do to reduce rates. Ask them about driver discounts, and see if you qualify for any. If you don’t, find out if you can in the future. The goal here is to see a) if someone will give you a trick or two to lowering your rates, and b) to see if someone might help you out and give you a discount in advance. You’d be surprised what can happen when you are polite and show a bit of humility.

Buying High Risk Auto Insurance

Once you get to this point, you should have an idea of what you’ll pay now, and what you’ll pay in the future, based on initial quotes and talks with insurance agents. When buying high risk insurance, take the best rate you can, and then consistently check every 4-6 months to see if you can find better rates. Take as many safety classes as you can, qualify for as many discounts as you can, and continue to drive safe and pay your bill on time. Eventually, you’ll get out of the hole and finally qualify for standard coverage.