Hidden Car Insurance Discounts That You Should Know About
insurance has jumped over 30% since 2023 and some states more than that. Most people are leaving thousands of dollars inside their current policy that they're missing in some hidden discounts. here, we're going to go over the 10 most overlooked discounts in your home and auto insurance policy.
The average car insurance policy is $2,500 per year. So, if you look at every state everywhere, some are 1,200, some are 4,000, some are 12,000. It depends on the person, the situation. And the way that insurance works is they take all of your data, your age, the number of drivers, the location risk of people around you, how often you drive, things like that matter.
And when that plays into a factor that creates this profile, when you take that profile and look at different companies, each one is going to have a different fit. And that's why people shop so often with their home and auto insurance because sometimes those companies change the fitment and you're no longer a fit because you added a car, you're teenage driver is now old enough to drive or some situation happened, a life event that changed the rates of that policy that no longer fits your situation.
In this instance, if you don't want to leave the company that you're with, let's start diving in and see some of the discounts that you might be missing.
1. Telematics
The first most common and larger discount of the group is something called telmatics. A lot of us are afraid to give our data out. And we are taught, yes, the big brother is watching us. And honestly, I've given up. My cell phone over here, I think it tracks everything I'm saying right now. I'm gonna see 12 ads about car insurance in a minute.
And just in general, I just I feel like I can't track all of it and block it all. Anyways, if you're that type of person, you're not going to like the Telmatics. It's giving up your data for usually 90 days, saying, "Watch me drive. Watch my habits. Watch my braking. Watch my acceleration. you can watch me become and show that I'm a good driver and that's a huge discount. That can be 30% off your current auto policy just like that.
Typically, you get 10% off upfront and then you can do better over the next 90 days.
Be careful. There are a few companies out there that do the opposite. Most of them, they'll take away the 10% so you never netted any loss or gain if you're a really bad driver. Some companies, they'll go opposite and say, "You're a bad driver. We're going to charge you more." That's not common for most companies. Most commonly, you're either going to net a 5 to 12 to 25% off. And that's going to be the benefit of why you would want to do something like that.
2. Low Mileage Discount
The second is your low mileage discount. If you are driving lower miles, normal mileage is between 7500 and 10,000. If you're driving 12,000 or more, honestly, it's not going to matter. Most companies don't care past 12,000. So, you can drive 80,000, 60,000, 50,000, whatever the case is, and they're not going to care so much.
But when you start getting below 7,500 miles, they start lowering the cost of your insurance because they know if you're a fit, you're their typical customer, that mileage plays a factor to you and you're not as high of a risk because you're not on the road as often depending on the location that you're in. So those that drive less than 5,000 miles, you're going to get even better discount. And for those that drive less than that, you need to look at specific policy types.
Now, this is actually switching your policy because there are pay per mile companies that charge less on a base rate and then you pay per mile that you drive. If that's the case and you're constantly going to have low mileage, you may want to talk to the agent to find out if there is a better fit company that has that pay per mile option.
By the way, you're going to save about 5 to 15% depending on the mileage. So, there's a pretty good discount that
you can save there.
3. Defensive Driving Course
The third most underlooked and underseen discount is going to be a defensive driving course.
Make sure that your state offers this because not all states do this. Some will let you take the course, but it doesn't affect your insurance. So, talk to your agent first to see if this is even worth it. But you can save around five to 10% if you take a defensive driving course. It's simple. You get online, you watch the car drive around something and you click, should I turn left here to who has the right of way? And you just prove that you understand insurance or you understand driving in general and they're going to give you a certificate.
When you get that certificate, it typically lasts a few years and then that gives you a discount on your insurance, which is pretty significant. I have seen it be small where it's $5, $10 off. And I've seen it be huge where it knocks off a $100 a month and it was significant for the right type of driver. So, check first if it's worth doing the defensive driving course versus not having it available. a tiny little asterisk. There's also one for mature drivers. So, you can do a mature driving class to show that you have good eyesight, all those things. And that can also give you a discount as well.
4. Multi-Policy Discount
The fourth is the largest. and it's having a multi-policy. It's very shocking when you tell somebody that they should add a renters's policy.
How they don't want it. I don't want renters's insurance. I don't want it. They feel like they're getting cheated or scammed. But half the time it makes your whole policy cheaper. So, if you're paying, let's say, $200 a month for car insurance and the renters is going to be $20 a month, but it knocks off $30 a month on your car insurance, you've now saved $10 additional a month for having more coverage.
Keep in mind, that's not the reason you should want renters's insurance. The main is because it has liability coverage. So, if you get sued for some reason, you've got some protection there. It covered your contents in your home or your rental dwelling.
And there's just a few other things that you can include in there. So, there's benefits to it, but some people don't realize that a lot of times having a 30 to 40% discount on your auto because you add a renters's or a home insurance. Bundling that together is one of, if not the largest discount in insurance.
every agent will jump over the moon to try to talk to anyone that's looking to bundle because if they get it, want it, and need it, those are our three main things that most agents look for.
Do you understand insurance a little bit, right? Do you want it? Do you want advice from the agent and then do you need it?
If there's no reason for it, the agent shouldn't be recommending coverage. It's not a give you as much aswe can to make as much money as we can. It's a give you the right coverage so you stay as long as you can because we took care of you properly.
5. Multi-Car Discount
The fifth discount actually in lines with this last one, which is a multi-car discount. That's usually an 8 to 20% and honestly, I think it leans more towards the 20% having a multi-car discount.
in general it's probably going to be cheaper to have the two cars than it have the one car. So if you have multiple cars just be careful because a lot of people in the same home or around the same location tend to bundle their policies together. If one person gets in an accident and it gets involved in a lawsuit you're part of that policy. So, don't just add people and drivers and cars to your policy that you don't want to necessarily be tied to in the long run if there is a major claim.
6. Occupational Discount
Number six can vary very heavily. It's your occupational discount and it's between 6% and 15%, sometimes more.
I've seen it a little bit higher than that. It depends on the occupation. So, if you are an engineer, if you're a CPA, these are certificates that you'll hold and you have to show proof. If you are a credit union member, that's usually a 5% 6% discount. If you are a member of a club like the Harley-Davidson club, that helps. If you're an A or P member, sometimes there's a discount for that.
It depends on the company, right? That fit the right company. Even age plays a factor. 50 and older, there's a discount. And if your agent knows what they're doing, they're going to automatically add that type of discount to your policy.
When you're doing these quotes and you're talking with the agent, make sure that they understand some of the discounts or clubs that you might be a part of. Might be a waste of time. And yeah, it's not a membership that any of these companies work with, but in the end, it could save you 10 to15% off your current policy.
How come all these clubs are discounts? it's because what they do is they come to insurance carriers and say, "We want an affiliate. We have 10,000 people that we're going to promote you to and get insurance for. We want a group discount." And that group discount is what's happening to where that group is going to get a deal with those companies.
If they're a smart group,which a lot of them are, they're going to say, "Every company we want to discount." And sometimes they exclusively work with one company over another, and they get a bigger discount because they're not promoting it to other companies.
7. Good Student Discount
You're going to save between 10 and 20%, technically, yes. In this case, you're going to be paying 10 to 20% already higher because being a younger driver, being a student, anything under 25 and younger, you're going to have a higher price.
So, a good student is going to give you that discount back. So, it eats up some of the extra cost that you're paying just from being a higher risk. In this case, you have to have an average of a B or better. So, if you have a 3.0 or better on your last grade report, you can submit that to your insurance and they're going to give you anywhere from 10 to 20% off the policy. I've got several friends that I've done this with and it's made a huge difference on their price.
8. Homeowner's Discount
Whenever you're a homeowner, this is a dying discount. It's something that a lot of people say, "You can't charge me for not being a homeowner." So, this one is falling off for the most part. Most states aren't doing this anymore, but you can get a 5 to 10% discount if you're a homeowner. The benefit is really honestly for the agent. When agents are quoting homeowners, these companies are tracking everything.
The data is worth more than the sale half of the time. And these companies want to know how do we price our product to be perfectly aligned where we're competitive, but we're not getting the wrong customer and we're doing X, Y, and Z. And knowing that information from an agent that's quoting you is what they're really looking for. Yes, they want to sell it the right customer and the right fit, but at the end of the day, they also want to know the information so that they can get the right product created at the right price
that gives them the best edge, but also gives you a policy that you're happy to have. And the reason that discount has fallen off for the most part is cuz a lot of people that don't own houses, sometimes they're doctors, they rent, and they don't want to be a homeowner. then that is something that technically doesn't make you a higher risk even though in insurance's eyes it does make you a lower risk if you own a home because it's more liability more restrictions on I don't want to lose my house things like that so there technically is a correlation but the reason that is not counted most often is most states don't count it because they don't feel like the renter should be penalized for not getting that discount so in general you'll probably see that discount disappear if not already gone
9. Vehicle Safety Features
the most common hidden discount account that I see is something about your vehicle. Now, most agents are just going to do this automatically. Hopefully, every agent is doing this automatically,
is your vehicle safety features. Usually, when they plug in your VIN, that vehicle identification number, that's going to tell them all of the features of your car. It loads the 2018 Toyota Corolla, has Intel brakes, it has an alarm security system with this model that it came with. If you've added a different security system or you've added some sort of safety feature, let your agent know because that is possibly a better discount.
There's different levels of safety features and different levels of security that your car can have. You have active arming, which means the car out actively arms itself after 30 seconds or x amount of time when you walk away from the car.
You have passive arming where you have to push a button. There's little discount percentages that give you better deals based on the security features. You've had a tracking device where it's like an OnStar where if someone stole your car, then they can find out exactly where it's at. Oh, it's over on the street. Let's have the police go get it. And then those features are going to give you better deals on top of are there airbags everywhere? Seven airbags in this car. Is there two airbags? Just the passenger and the driver.
Those are going to give you a better deal based on the safety features. More so the crash rating, which that you can't control, but it's in general the vehicle that you purchase. That symbol of the vehicle is essentially the file or the profile of how safe and likely it is to have that car be a good overall car to ensure versus something that if you get an accident more people get injured. If you get an accident the airbags don't commonly go off. All of those things are different ratings for different companies.
10. Paperless Discount
You can save 3 to 5% which could be a fee that you're paying and it knocks that off. Usually, I see about $5 a six-month policy come off.
But if I don't need paper, then there you go. You're not paying the company for the paper to print, to mail to you. Typically, when you do paperless, they'll still mail your ID card and mail you an update if there's anything you have to sign. I just go paperless in general. I want everything digital so that I can sign it through my email. I can not have to worry about any of that. If I want to print my own ID card, I can. Otherwise, my app on my phone has all of my information just in case I need to get that out if I get pulled over.
Bonus Tip
So, here's the bonus tip. All of these discounts can be stacked on top of each other. So, 10% here, 30% there, 50% here, 20% here. No, you're not going to have 100% off your policy. There are limits. So, when insurance looks at that policy, they give a percentage of that discount. So, they break them into categories. And when that category maxes out at a 10 or 15% discount, you just get the max.
In general, you will save at least 20 to 30% if you're a fit for most of these options. .
