Wis Solo Small Firm Conference

Keeping Your Insurance Current

There’s nothing worse than letting your insurance lapse and then having an accident. You should get into the habit of paying all your bills on time, but when you’re short you should also have other ways to stay current, like using a cash advance. Whether it’s health insurance, car insurance, or life insurance, you want to stay current on insurance policies so that you don’t inadvertently have a gap in coverage.

Learn to Manage Risk

Life insurance is about managing risk to your family. If a breadwinner passes away, how will the surviving family members get by? If you pay your life insurance diligently up until a few months before you have an accident, all those premiums mean nothing if your policy has lapsed. If you’re going to take the trouble to manage risks, you should also find a way to manage the possibility that you may be short some months and find ways to pay the premium, regardless.

Automatic Withdrawals

One of the best ways to make sure your policy premiums are always paid on time is through automatic withdrawals. Of course, you have to have the money in the account when the bill is due, but even that can be managed with some creative financing. Once you know what date the automatic withdrawal is to take place, you can move funds from other accounts, schedule a payday loan, or borrow money to make sure the bill is paid. It’s better to make the premiums a priority than to risk the potential for a lapse in coverage. While an insurance policy is optional, other types of insurance coverage, like car insurance, are mandatory. In that case, if you don’t pay your insurance you not only risk loss of coverage, but also the DMV can pull the registration. Before you decide to opt out of insurance, think about the consequences if you do. It’s almost always better to pay the premium, than it is to have the policy canceled due to non-payment.

Insurance is not the most pleasant thing to deal with as it always tends to be quite complex and full of hidden stones you’ll break your neck with. And by breaking your neck we mean paying more of your money than you would want to. Many people tend to make the very same mistakes when purchasing insurance just because they aren’t quite aware of the hidden catches behind it. To make things a bit easier for you here is a list of 10 most common mistake people make when shopping for insurance coverage on their vehicles. Keep them in mind next time you quote online or contact an insurance company. It will save your time and money!

1. Don’t get only a single quote from a single insurance company bothering that multiple requests may damage your credit rating. They won’t! So get as much auto insurance quotes from different companies as you can!

2. In most cases a standard insurance policy does not include rental car insurance coverage. So if it’s crucial for you to have a ride every day make sure you get one.

3. Getting the lowest rates doesn’t mean you’ll get the best value with your policy. Get quotes for same amounts of insurance coverage from different companies.

4. Call the toll free number every insurance company has if you want to learn more about the services provided by this carrier.

5. Most people forget about modifying their coverage amounts after paying off their car loan or when its value has decreased. If you have an older car always make sure that the amount of collision coverage is adequate to the car’s real value with respect to depreciation.

6. Most car owners do not have enough liability coverage with their auto insurance that would cover the cost of repairing a luxury car or a fancy convertible you see quite often these days after an accident. Get enough liability coverage if you do not want to pay from your pocket for that Bentley you hit.

7. Most car owners do not search for cheap car insurance by opting for discounts. Read your policy carefully or ask your agent to explain the terminology in your policy. Sometimes you won’t even know about possible discounts because they aren’t clearly spoken of so it’s better to ask about them.

8. Regular payments quite often include additional hidden fees.

9. A large part of insurance providers use credit rating for calculating your rates. So if your credit rating has dropped it would be better that you change or purchase insurance coverage later, when your score improves.

10. Car owners who drive without any insurance coverage for a long time before getting a policy usually get quite expensive policies, because insurance providers tend to consider such drivers as a high risk.

Hopefully, you won’t make these mistakes when purchasing your policy or switching insurance providers. It’s not that hard to follow these tips so make sure you get the most competitive and cost-friendly policy out there. You will be surprised by how easy it may be.