Consumer Guide Online

You can certainly economize on collision and comprehensive insurance, even if you decide you can’t do without them entirely. Collision insurance merely pays for repairs to your car in any kind of accident. Because benefits go down in accordance with a car’s age you probably won’t get enough money to matter if your car is more than 3 or 4 years old. Therefore, you can almost surely do without collision insurance on an old car. Looking at it from another angle, even a series of small repairs could cost you less than the amount of the insurance premium. Besides, insurance companies often penalize you for making small claims—even though you have every right to—by canceling your policy. This legal, if immoral, pressure on you to pay for your own repairs makes collision insurance practically useless for small claims.

If you feel it’s too big a gamble to drive without collision insurance, especially if your car is new, you can still make savings by buying $50, $100, or $250 deductible coverage. This means you pay the first $50, $100, or $250 of any repair bill. Take the biggest deduction you can handle, because there is about $60 per year spread between the lowest and highest deductible.

Comprehensive auto insurance covers theft, fire, and damage or destruction of the car by causes other than collision, such as hurricane or flood. It is not an expensive coverage by and large, and can be further reduced,in cost with a $50 deductible policy. However, you may have great difficulty in getting comprehensive insurance if you live in an area where car stealing is common.