Everybody wishes they could have cheaper car insurance, but many people do not take the necessary steps to reduce their monthly payments.  While you may think that finding the cheapest policy is the best way to save money on your car insurance, it can be a bad decision to sacrifice quality in the name of cheaper auto insurance rates.  Here are a few tips to help you lower your car insurance rates without having to have a barebones policy.

Purchase multiple insurance policies from the same company – Many insurance companies will offer a discount to their customers who have more than one type of insurance with them.  If you also need homeowners insurance, it is a good idea to get both your auto and homeowners insurance with the same company to take advantage of any discounts they might offer.

Raise your deductible – Raising your deductible, or the amount you need to pay in order to take out an insurance claim, is a great way to lower your monthly payments.  Of course you will have to pay more out of your pocket should you need to cash in on your insurance policy, but if you do not think you will get into any accidents this can be a good way to significantly lower your insurance premiums.

Avoid tickets and accidents at all costs – While this tip may be easier said than done, if you make a conscious effort to limit the number of accidents and traffic tickets you receive, you will be able to lower your auto insurance rates.  Some insurance companies will reward good driving behavior such as never receiving a traffic ticket with lower insurance rates.  Just keep in mind that as soon as you do get a ticket your insurance rates will spike, so make sure to drive as carefully as possible.

While it has been long thought that insurance companies would never give consumers a discount, Progressive is changing the way the industry works by allowing its customers to receive up to a 30% discount just for using its driving monitoring system known as Snapshot.  Snapshot is a program that involves consumers plugging a computerized transmitter into their car so that the insurance company can monitor their driving habits and award discounted prices accordingly.  Once the insurance company collects a driver’s information, they will then assess the safety level of the person’s driving habits and award insurance discounts if the driver is deemed to be a safe driver and therefore less likely to get into an accident.

When using the electronic transmitter in your vehicle, Progressive will provide you with charts, graphs, and analysis on your driving, so that you can see what areas you need to improve.  While the Snapshot program is a great way for many drivers to receive a discount on their auto insurance if they are safe drivers, Progressive insists that the driving analysis program cannot lead to increased rates.

So far, the Snapshot program has been a success for Progressive and is active in thirty three states across the country and one out of every four drivers that is offered the possible discount install the device in their car.  Progressive expects the program to become more popular as younger, tech savvier consumers learn of the program and want to become eligible for a possible discount.  Other insurance companies are also planning their own programs to follow suit with Progressive.  State Farm, GMAC, and Allstate have all said they are working on their own equivalents to the Snapshot program pioneered by Progressive.

In an effort to boost its online presence, Allstate Corp. agreed to purchase auto insurer Esurance and insurance agency Answer Financial from White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd. For an estimated $1 billion.  By acquiring Esurance, Allstate will be able to keep up its ongoing competition with Geico and Progressive Corp. in the online auto insurance market.  Currently, Allstate is the nation’s largest publicly traded home and auto insurer, but has been lagging behind the other two insurance companies when it comes to online car insurance customers.  While Esurance is one of the smaller players in the online auto insurance game, the 545,000 policyholders will help boost Allstate’s numbers when comparing the insurance company to its rivals.

The other part of this acquisition for Allstate is Answer Financial, which is an online middleman that matches consumers looking for home or auto insurance with insurers for a commission.  When taking into consideration the new online presence created by the acquisitions of Esurance and Answer Financial, Allstate will see its online market share climb to 4%.  Allstate plans to keep the Esurance brand around and increase spending on advertising to drive more customers to its website.

The timing of this acquisition could not have been any better for Allstate as they had already been spending money on building their own online insurance platform.  Rather than continue to spend money building their own system, Allstate decided it was a better idea to leverage the market share Esurance had already created and purchase their company and online insurance program as well.

Residents of Nevada received a bit of bad news earlier when Assembly Bill 299 was defeated in a vote today.  Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson of North Las Vegas had sponsored Assembly Bill 299 to help residents struggling to pay their mortgage and medical bill be able to afford their car insurance.  It is been found that those who are struggling financially will often make sure to pay their mortgage and medical bills but will have to forego their car insurance premiums simply because they cannot afford them.

Currently, Nevada state law requires a vehicle owner to purchase an insurance policy that includes coverage of bodily injury or death in the amounts of $15,000 per person or $30,000 for two or more people per accident.  Atkinson’s bill would lower those amounts to $10,000 and $20,000 respectively.  Assembly Bill 299 would set forth the requirements a low income car owner must meet before being granted access to the cheaper auto insurance policy.  While the state insurance commission would set the rates for the low income car insurance policies, it is known that an extra fifty cents would be added to all auto insurance policies in the state of Nevada to help cover administrative costs.

Even though the bill fell to a 26-16 vote today, which was only two votes short of the two-thirds majority required, the bill did receive enough votes and nominations for re-consideration.  This means that the bill will continue to be worked on and improved so that both sides can come to an agreement regarding low income car owners being extended lower car insurance rates.

State Farm Insurance has recently released a new iPhone App that is designed to rate a user’s driving ability, using data from the phone’s accelerometer and GPS.  After the application collects this information it then presents it to the driver in the form of a score and advice on how to become a better driver.  Driver Feedback monitors different movements of your car using the phone’s sensors to rate a driver’s acceleration, braking, and cornering abilities.  At the end of your drive, the app will then give you a score from 0 to 100, with the goal of trying to get the highest score possible.

State Farm hopes that drivers will be aiming for a high score, making them better, safer drivers in the process.  The app also offers advice on how to better your score by showing spots on your route where points were deducted from your score.  By knowing where and why you received a point deduction along your route can help you understand what aspects of your driving you need to improve in order to become a better driver.

While the figures collected in the application will not be used to influence your insurance car rates, one can only wonder just how far off that reality is.  It will probably not be too far off where insurance companies are able to asses our driving abilities through computer chip placements in our car and adjust our insurance premiums accordingly.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is working with the insurance advocacy group Fraud Costs NY to get lawmakers to make it a felony when people stage fraudulent accidents in order to cash in on the no-fault insurance policies.  Also, Hynes is trying to go after medical providers who are convicted of no-fault insurance fraud as well, and wants them to be barred from receiving future payments under the system once they gain a conviction.

The state of New York is the third-highest when it comes to average car insurance rates, with citizens paying roughly $1,200 per year for coverage.  One of the main reasons for this high insurance rate is the large number of fraudulent accidents that are reported, as well as the medical claims that are received after people receive treatment at corrupt clinics.  With most of New York’s fraud cases occurring in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, insurance industry experts believe that these fraud cases cost New Yorker more than $241 million last year alone.

In fact, the number of suspected no-fault auto insurance fraud complaints rose to 12,807 last year, up from 10,117 five years ago.  To make the matter worse, as the number of fraud cases continues to grow so does the average no-fault payout.  This payout currently sits at $8,800, up almost 50% since 2004 and well above the national average.  It is because of these two factors that lawmakers have decided to try and address the issue of no-fault auto insurance fraud in the state of New York.  The state Senate Insurance Committee has set a hearing on the no-fault fraud issue for April 26^th.  Hopefully something can be done about these rising fraudulent cases so that insurance companies and motorists in the state of New York can start to see their insurance premiums reduced.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker recently signed a bill that will repeal the auto insurance minimum coverage mandate.  This new law will eliminate the recent increases to auto insurance that were passed in the 2009 state budget.  Walker is trying to send a message to both consumers and employers that Wisconsin is a good state to live in and do business in with the passage of this new bill.

The bill that was passed back in 2009 mandated that auto insurance liability coverage increased to $50,000 for injury of one person, $100,000 for two people, and $15,000 for property damage.  The new bill, known as Act 14, will reduce those mandatory minimums to $25,000, $50,000 and $10,000 respectively, which will ultimately lead to lower insurance costs for consumers.

Governor Walker has been in the news a lot recently with the way he handled the state’s budget proposal and stripping Wisconsin’s public service employees of their right to negotiate their labor contracts, but this recent bill should be popular among all Wisconsinites as every motorist in the state is required to carry auto insurance.  By decreasing the mandatory minimum auto insurers must have on their policies, Walker is enabling auto insurance companies to offer lower premiums to consumers in order to try and attract their business.  These lower insurance rates should be welcomed by all of the people in the state of Wisconsin, as they will now have a little extra money in their pocket each month.

When renting a car it can be possible to get car insurance through your credit card company if you charge the full price of the rental and decline the rental company’s insurance coverage.  While this may be a good way for some people to insure their rental car, it is important to read and understand the fine print of your credit card agreement to make sure you are fully covered.

One problem consumers come across when using their credit card’s car rental insurance is assuming that the credit card company will cover their long term rental.  Depending on which credit card you own, the car insurance coverage offered by these companies typically ranges from 15 to 30 days.  Fully understanding the limitations of your agreement will help you avoid any major charges down the road.

Another item to look for in your credit card statement when trying to get insurance for your rental car is the types of vehicles covered.   Some credit card companies will not cover vehicles that are valued at more than $50,000 or $75,000.  This issue really only comes into play when you are looking rent a high end vehicle, but being aware of this potential problem could save you a lot of money if you were to get into an accident.

Policyholders who have catastrophic auto insurance coverage in the state of Michigan can expect to pay a little bit more each month.  Starting July 1^st, Michigan auto insurance policyholders will be forced to pay an additional $1.91 each month to cover the costs associated with the lifetime medical expenses of people seriously injured in car accidents.  The $1.91 fee increase is a direct result of the catastrophic auto insurance fee rising 1.3%.

The lifetime benefit is a part of Michigan’s no-fault insurance law.  As a part of this law, the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association reimburses insurance companies when they have to pay out personal injury protection benefits over a certain amount.  That specific amount is set to rise on July 1, 2011 all the way up to $500,000.

All auto insurance companies in the state of Michigan are required to be members and pay premiums for the insurance provided by the MCCA.  The increase in premiums auto insurance companies are facing with this policy change is being passed along to the auto insurance consumer.  Michigan is the only state that requires unlimited lifetime medical benefits for people injured in auto accidents.  So, in a way it is nice to know that you have that extra coverage as a consumer should you be seriously injured in a car accident, but having to pay extra money can rub people the wrong way.  Hopefully consumers will be able to realize that the small extra amount that they will be forced to pay starting in July is well worth receiving the additional catastrophic insurance coverage.

According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics latest addition of its Consumer Price Index, the average auto insurance policy rose by about 0.3% between January and February.  This marks the eleventh time in the last year that the monthly price to price difference has been an increase.  The latest increase in insurance rates leaves February of 2011 4.2% higher than February of 2010.

When looking at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners most recent data, the average price of auto insurance in 2008 was roughly $903. After factoring in the newest information from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, that same auto policy would cost about $989 today.  Even the Bureau of Labor and Statistics is showing that the average cost of an auto insurance policy has increased it does not necessarily mean that consumers are paying more money for their policies.

Consumers are able to shop around for the lowest policy price and adjust their coverage to maximize savings.  They can also take advantage of various discount opportunities provided by insurers that will also help reduce the costs of their auto insurance.  In fact, it is recommended that every consumer do these very things in order to save as much money as possible when it comes to their car insurance.  Holding multiple policies with the same insurance company is probably the easiest way to save money on your car insurance.  If you already have renters or homeowners insurance with a particular company, taking out an auto insurance policy with the same insurer will almost certainly save you money in the long run.