• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

  • Home
  • Personal Finance
  • Debt
  • Saving
  • Investing
    • Best Online Brokerages
  • Taxes
  • Credit Scores

car insurance

How to Save Money on Auto Insurance – Easy Ways to Save Money

Published or updated October 23, 2012 by Melissa

Auto insurance is a necessary expense, but one that we often spend too much for.

Many people seem to be much more likely to look for ways to save on groceries by clipping coupons or to save on gas by driving around town trying to find the lowest per gallon price rather than looking at their auto insurance.  Often people choose their auto insurer, pay their premium every six months, and don’t think about it further.

Yet why pay more than you have to? 

There are plenty of ways to trim your costs and save money on car insurance.

Consider the following easy ways to save on auto insurance:

[Read more…] about How to Save Money on Auto Insurance – Easy Ways to Save Money

Filed Under: Insurance Tagged With: auto insurance, car insurance

How Age Affects Your Car Insurance Rate and What You Can Do About it

Published or updated November 5, 2012 by Miranda

When car insurance companies look at your risk profile, they take a number of factors into account. From your driving record, to your coverage amounts, to your credit score, an insurance company wants to get an idea of how likely it is that they will have to pay out on a claim on your behalf.

One of the factors that insurance companies look at when setting premium amounts is your age.

If you want to save money on your insurance premiums, it helps to understand how age affects what you pay.  There might not be a lot you can do about it, since you can’t change your age, but you can compensate for your age.

Let’s take a look at how age affects your car insurance and what you can do about it. [Read more…] about How Age Affects Your Car Insurance Rate and What You Can Do About it

Filed Under: Insurance Tagged With: auto insurance, car insurance

Save On Your Car Insurance With Proper Emergency Savings

Published or updated March 3, 2015 by Glen Craig 15 Comments

We already know the importance of adequate savings don’t we?  Well here’s an additional benefit for having savings – You can save on your car insurance!

You know about your car insurance deductible? This is the amount you have to pay on an insurance claim before your insurance kicks in to pick up the repairs.  Say you have a $500 deductible.  You get into a fender bender and file a claim to have your bumper repaired.  An estimate for the repairs is $1500.  You have to pay $500 and insurance picks up the $1000.  If your deductible were $1000 then you pay $1000 and insurance covers $500.  Get it?

So why not make the deductible as low as possible?

Sounds reasonable. You would rather your insurance pay more and you pay less.  Things is though, the lower your deductible the higher your premium is!  You pay more on your plan when your deductible is low.  This is the insurance company’s way of getting that extra cash layout back before an accident.  The opposite is true too.  The higher you make your deductible the lower your premium payments are. [find out more about saving on car insurance]

Filed Under: Life, Saving Tagged With: car insurance, Emergency Savings, Insurance Deductible, savings

Not Having The Police At A Car Accident Can Cost You

Published or updated February 5, 2013 by Glen Craig

Car crash

As I mentioned in an earlier article, our new car got into an accident on our vacation driving down to Virginia. The weather had recently turned to rain.  We were driving along the highway below the speed limit making sure to keep a safe distance from the car in front.  Suddenly traffic slowed down so we did as well.  Then I saw it coming in the rear-view mirror – BAMM!!  We just got hit from behind. The force was enough to throw us forward.  I moved to avoid the car in front but ended up clipping his fender.  All three cars pulled off to the side of the road.  Thank goodness no one was hurt!  The kids were shaken up (heck, we were all shaken up) but we were OK.  I got out and assessed the damage.  Man I didn’t realize how bad we were hit.  Back door was crunched inward.  At first I couldn’t even open it.  Our front has a small dent as well.  The other two cars – scratches at best.  It was an SUV Oreo and our poor mini van was the creamy middle.

Still a bit frazzled from the accident the other two drivers and I began to exchange automobile insurance information.  The person who hit me was in a rush to leave.  He didn’t think we needed to call the police since no one was hurt and we were exchanging info already.  Something didn’t feel right about this to me.  Thankfully, I listened to my Spidey sense and called the police.  A few minutes later an officer arrived and took all of our information.

What A Police Officer Does At The Accident

  • The officer took all of our pertinent information and heard separate descriptions of what happened from each of us. This was good because the officer gave us each a Driver Information Exchange Report which listed car insurance information, driver’s license #, address, phone number, car description VIN, and more.  After an accident it’s easy for a driver to forget to get a piece of information or write something down incorrectly.  Getting this from a police officer helps to prevent that.
  • I didn’t know it at the time but you could be given a ticket for driving too close and causing an accident (at least where I was). This may have been one of the key reasons the driver who hit me wanted to leave.  It ends up the officer gave him a written warning.  This is very important in that it gives official evidence that the officer felt it was the driver’s fault for causing the accident!  This will help in determining the fault for the insurance companies which will lead to me getting back my car insurance deductible from repairs on my accident claims (my deductible is $1000).
  • The officer filed a police report for the accident. The insurance companies will use this as well in determining the fault.  Without getting a police report you run the risk of a driver changing his story after the fact and it becomes an issue of his word against yours.  Again this will help in getting my deductible back.
  • Having an officer there helps keep everyone’s heads level. Things can get heated when there’s an accident.  I’d rather have the officer do the peace keeping than worry about it myself.  Also, I want to believe in the best in people but I don’t know the person who hit me from Adam.  An officer can confirm that this isn’t a criminal.  A little paranoid?  Yes.  Does it give me additional peace of mind at a stressful moment?  Heck yeah!

As you can see calling the police was important. With the written warning and the police report the automobile insurance company should see that the fault was on the other driver.  This will save me my insurance deductible of $1000.  Had I not called it could possibly cost me that $1000!

Creative Commons License photo credit: Mr Wabu

Filed Under: Insurance, Life, Money Tagged With: automobile insurance, car accident, car insurance, police report

Primary Sidebar

A Little About Me

Glen CraigI'm Glen Craig - I used to live paycheck-to-paycheck, drowning in credit card debt. I turned that all around and now I build wealth rather than debt.

My goal is to make personal finance easy for you.

More ABOUT me.

Join our email list (FREE) and never miss an article!


Free From Broke as seen on

Follow Us

FacebookGoogleTwitterRSS



Follow @freefrombroke

Top Articles

  • Use Google Calendar To Pay Your Bills On Time
  • 9 Things to Do When You Retire
  • Side Hustle-Make Extra Money Cleaning Homes
  • Four Ways You Can Pay Off Your Home Mortgage Faster
  • Don’t Forget Your 401(k) When You Leave Your Job! Here’s What You Can Do With It
  • Your 4 Step Guide on How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
  • What Is A Mortgage Escrow Account?
  • This is Why Your House Isn’t Selling – Here’s How to Finally Get Your House Sold
  • 7 Ways to Get Rich Quick
  • What is Renter’s Insurance and Why You Need It
  • What Is a Probate Lawyer and When Would You Use One?

Recent Articles

  • Money Market Account VS Savings Account – What’s the Difference?
  • Five Ways Fantasy Baseball is Like Personal Finance
  • Tools to Help Organize Your Taxes
  • Don't Let Your Goals Fizzle Out! - 5 Reasons Goals Fail, and What You Can Do To Make Yours Succeed
  • What Do You Think of New Year's Resolutions?

Tools to Improve Your Finances

  • Online High Yield Savings
  • All About Online Checking Accounts – Why Pay More Fees Than You Have To
  • Personal Capital Review - A One Stop Financial Center
  • Online Brokerages That Won't Break Your Bank
  • Credit Karma Review - Get Your Credit Score and More
  • CD Rates
  • Savings Rates
  • Mortgage and Refinance Rates
TurboTax Review HR Block Review Shoeboxed Review

Follow Us On Pinterest!

Follow Free From Broke's board Most RePinned and Popular {Free From Broke} on Pinterest.

Footer

More

  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact Us
  • Get Our Newsletter

More Recent Articles

  • Think Long Term When Shopping Black Friday and Cyber Monday
  • 10 Essential Tips For Shopping Black Friday And Cyber Monday That Will Save You Money
  • How to Improve Your Credit Score Fast
  • What is a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL) and is it Worth It?
  • Paying Taxes with a Credit Card: Pros and Cons

Disclaimer

Free From Broke is for general information or entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional financial advice. Be smart and do your own research or contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your specific situation.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, we state that we have a financial relationship with companies mentioned in this website. This may include receiving access to free products and services for product and service reviews and giveaways.

© 2007–2023 Free From Broke A Personal Finance Blog For Regular Folks – All rights reserved.

No content on this site may be reused in any fashion without written permission from FreeFromBroke.com | Privacy Policy | Sitemap

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Go to mobile version
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.