Entries Tagged 'Car insurance' ↓

It’s not always easy to pay insurance premiums. There are always more expenses and never enough money. Use these hints to squeeze extra cash from your budget and afford premiums. Even if one tip alone doesn’t generate the savings, several combined will.

#1 Carpool to work and to do shopping

Gasoline costs most households nearly $1500 a year. Monthly, there is a national average of $368 spent on gas. If you reduce your gas use by even a third, you will have saved a big portion of your premiums.

The easiest way to do that is to share the commute to work and/or do your grocery shopping with a friend or neighbor. Two commuters halves the price you pay for a ride to work. Three commuters means you only pay a third. Load up those vehicles to really save on money.

The less you drive, the less you pay in premiums. If by carpooling you reduce your annual mileage significantly, you could really reduce your premium levels.

Find carpool partners online using these nonaffiliated sites:

• GoLoco (the Facebook of carpooling)
• Craigslist
• eRideShare

You can also just post something on the boards at work.

#2 Cut back on luxury expenses

By luxury, we don’t mean beach resort vacations or diamond rings, although you could definitely cut back if you are buying that stuff willynilly! What we are talking about are non-essential purchases.

For instance, rather than going to see a movie on a Friday night, have a night in with family and friends. Play a board game or tell stories. To save money, make it a potluck dinner, rather than paying for it all yourself.

Are you a big coffee drinker? Maybe you don’t need to drink so much. In fact, green tea can be cheaper than coffee and better for your digestion and blood pressure as well. If you usually hit Starbucks at some point in the day, bring your coffee from home in a thermos instead.

You can definitely eat in more, and get more calories from nutrient-dense staple foods, such as brown rice or whole grain bread and pasta.

#3 Part Time Work

Extra income never hurts, and it doesn’t even have to mean taking on a shift at the local fast-food restaurant or anything. Some people make a lot of money by picking things from garage sales or thrift stores and reselling them online for more. You’d be surprised by the quality of things that people get rid of and how much it can go for on eBay! Continue reading →

Let’s start off in New Hampshire. The first question is whether the design standards in modern vehicles make annual safety checks unnecessary. If you said, “yes”, you are with the thirty states that do not require any safety checks. The theory seems to be responsible drivers maintain their vehicles and are not a hazard on the roads. If there’s an accident, they pay more for their insurance – it’s a stick and carrot approach to social responsibility except it forces up the premium rates for all drivers. In states where there are annual checks, vehicles are better maintained, there are fewer accidents, and drivers pay lower rates. New Hampshire has just decided to move from one to two-year inspections. Now there will be thousands more vehicles on the road with poor brakes and defective front ends. Guess what will happen to the premium rates.

In Mississippi, there’s a bill to enforce the mandate by requiring drivers to produce proof of insurance before the tax collector issues a tag. Governor Haley Barbour is currently considering whether the new database will be open to the police to check the status of all drivers. If he does sign this bill into law, it will potentially reduce everyone’s insurance premium rates. The more people are forced into paying for the basic minimum liability policy, the less the law-abiding people will pay.

In New Brunswick, the Insurance Board is refusing to release a report into whether local insurers have been overcharging drivers for the last seven years. The lawmakers established an arms-length board in 2004 but, for some reason, they are less than enthusiastic about forcing disclosure of this board’s investigation. In the meantime, New Brunswickers continue to pay higher than average premium rates. Continue reading →