Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Budget Car Insurance and Direct Car Insurance - 10 Things You Should Know Before Applying

Getting car insurance online from budget car insurance companies is becoming more and more popular, for its competitive price, convenience in getting quotes and applying online directly. Having car insurance is vital for all car owners and drivers, the incentive in having a relatively lower price from direct car insurance companies thus have attracted huge audience.
Yet, you might wonder why these direct auto insurance companies can offer a lower quote than other insurance companies, or if they would be able to provide sufficient insurance coverage, etc...
Here are the top 10 things that you should know before applying for a cheap car insurance online.
1. Find out if the Company is Legitimate
This is the most important thing that you should know - whether the company is legitimate or not - before you apply for anything from them. Online budget vehicle insurance companies are blossoming nowadays and some people just misused the concept to achieve some other goals, such as getting your personal info like full name, credit card details, address, etc, via your online application.
Do a comprehensive research online by Googling the name of the online insurance company, or search for customer reviews of the company. The key thing is the comprehensiveness of your research, as there can be fake reviews written by the illegitimate scammers.
2. Understanding Scope of Insurance Coverage
Almost all of the 'basic' packages from direct auto insurance are really 'basic', which means a basic plan covers the mandatory lawful requirements. That's also why the basic fee for these plans can be bit lower than tradition car insurance plans. Pay attention to which 'law' the insurance plan adheres. For instance, the basic requirement of car insurance in law deviates from state to state in the U.S.. Pay attention if you are still covered by basic coverage if you are driving across states.
3. Understanding Types of Insurance Plans
Since most 'basic' insurance plans only covers lawful required items, like other insurance plans, you would be able to find loads of 'extra' packages available on top of the basic plan, like comprehensive and collision plans or personal life insurance, just to name a couple.
Ask yourself what exactly you need and understand in details if the plans can cover your needs.
4. Get Quotes for all Applicable Coverage Plans
The financial incentive of a low insurance fee often attracts people to go further into the online application procedure, and only realize at a later stage that they need to pay more for extra coverage. Make sure you get quotes for all plans and sum them up, that would be your actual quote for your car insurance.
5. Get Quotes from Multiple Budget Car Insurance Websites Comparing prices is always a smart act for consumers. When you have a summed-up quote from various websites, compare their price and coverage and find out which suits you the best. Different budget car insurance company might have different terminologies in their insurance plans and you should be aware of that. At the end of the day, it is your needs that determine which policy to subscribe to.
6. Contract Timeline & Renewal Procedure
Most budget insurance quotes you a 'monthly' fee, which looks logically lower than an annual fee. Check carefully if the online car insurance company would require a monthly pay or a lump-sum annual payment.
Another thing is if the contract is counted monthly or annually - meaning you need to pay attention if the contract would be ended in a year or 2 years, and how would contracts be renewed. Would they give you notification or the contract renewal, or do you need to ask for it, and if you would be automatically debited for a contract renewal without notice?
You should know all these before your money has gone out of your account without noticing.
7. Flexibility of the Insurance Policy
Increasing the insured amount or adding new insurance plans on top are always welcomed by insurance companies. However, when you want to change to a lower-amount plan, you might encounter restrictions or have to go through complicated procedures. Read carefully in the conditions or call the company directly to understand the flexibility of the car insurance before your application.
8. Cancellation Policy
Nobody likes losing customers and therefore cancellation procedure of some insurance plans can be tedious. Understanding the cancellation policy is very important, as most plans required a month's cancellation notification in advance, or some other restriction applies if you want to cancel your subscriptions.
9. Payment Method
Now you've understand the details of a budget auto insurance plan and decided to go for it. You should then understand the payment methods that the insurance company accepts, and if they incur extra service costs in particular payment methods or if you can get extra discount via some payment methods etc.
10. Claims Procedure
Check careful how the claiming process works with the direct auto insurance company before you apply for it. Very often discontents between car owners and insurance company appear when you need to make a claim. You should also pay attention to the available contacting methods for a claim or for urgent assistance.
In Short...
Afterall, a budget car insurance that allows you to have online quotes is very handy and is economically attractive. As a smart consumer, all you need to do is to get in-depth details before you apply for a direct car insurance online. All online direct car insurance companies have customer hotlines that you can ask for as much details as possible.
So bear in mind the above tips and get an inexpensive automobile insurance online smartly.

No comments:

Post a Comment