Just Reading Your Insurance Policy is One of the Best Things You Can Do For Your Car Insurance Rates

Do you remember when you were in college and your entire life revolved around the next chapter in the textbook you had to read? Did anyone REALLY enjoy spending days slumped over a book, trying to decipher information that really wasn't going to make any sense until you got to class and heard the professor explain it anyway? No, probably not. Chances are, you rejoiced when you got to kiss those days goodbye after graduation-only to discover that you were going to feel the exact same way every time you picked up your car insurance policy!

Let's face it, your car insurance policy isn't exactly a light evening read. In fact, if yours looks anything like mine it's not a light anything! And once you can work up the willpower to pick it up it's almost impossible to decipher all the insurance-ese and legal-ese that seems to take over every other sentence without a dictionary in one hand and a trio of car insurance agents in the other! You can admit it-you usually just get the highlights from your agent and run with that, don't you? That's what most of us do!

Unfortunately, knowing what's going on with our car insurance is actually pretty darn important. Why? Because this isn't something that's just going to sit around on a shelf and look pretty. Imagine getting into an accident and not knowing what your insurance would cover. You're going to find yourself either filing a car insurance claim only to discover that your insurance company isn't going to cover it or spending plenty of nights lying awake counting the pennies in your savings account until you find out one way or the other.

Either way, it's not cool.

Along with knowing what your insurance policy will cover, reading the packet from cover to cover can also give you the inside track on how to find ways to cut your rates dramatically. For example, most policies list out the discounts you qualified for. Are they all there? Or are you missing a few? Common car insurance discounts include (but aren't limited to):

a) Low mileage

b) Low risk cars (check with the National Highway Loss Data Institute to see where your car falls)

c) Good driving history

d) Age

e) Job

f) Location

That's just scratching the surface! Does your car have anti-lock brakes? How about a car alarm? All of these things can help you save big on your car insurance rates, but if you don't know you're not getting them how can you possibly know if you're paying too much? And the only way to figure that out is to read through your car insurance policy.

So take a deep breath, grab your car insurance policy and dig in. You might be surprised at what you're going to learn-and your bank account will thank you.