Car Insurance: If Your Driving Record Is Bad, Can You Still Save

by Scott Lunt

We all make mistakes. Unfortunately your car insurance
may be higher because of a bad driving record. There still may
be some things you can do to save money. Think about the
following:

Raise your deductibles. It takes time to improve your
driving record. In the meantime, you may want to see if raising
the deductible on your comprehensive and collision coverage can
get you a lower premium.

Get a less expensive car. With a less expensive car, you
may be able to lower your insurance costs by having only
collision coverage and not comprehensive coverage.

Eliminate some of those features. Extra features like
rental car reimbursement and towing coverage are handy to have,
but they could be adding to your car insurance costs. It's
probably a good time to consider getting rid of features you can
live without.

Boost your credit rating. More often than not, insurance
companies these days use credit scores when they are assessing
how much risk a driver is. They say that there is a correlation
between poor credit scores and higher risk. The higher the risk
you are to them, the more they will charge. In this day and age,
it's just a good idea all around to improve your credit score.

Compare car insurance quotes. You'd be surprised at how
car insurance costs can vary between companies. Spend time
getting comparison quotes from at least three different
companies. To get accurate comparisons, make sure you are
comparing the same coverages and features between companies. And
remember: car insurance companies work hard to combat insurance
fraud and can find out when an applicant is lying. Be truthful
about your driving record; it may seem expensive now, but if you
are canceled because they discovered that you lied, your car
insurance will be only more expensive and more difficult to get
in the future.



About the author:
Scott Lunt is a freelance writer who often writes about car insurance.
If you have a bad driving record, you can compare car
insurance quotes, plus find more tips for saving on
insurance at LowerYourInsurance.com.