Here’s the Easiest Way to Save on Car Insurance

According to data from insuranceQuotes.com, Americans can save around 9% on their auto insurance premiums just by making a simple change to their policies.

That’s the average amount saved by raising your deductible from $500 to $1,000. In many cases, this change can be done online, in just a few minutes.

However, the amount of savings varies quite a bit by state: if you live in Massachusetts, for instance, the average saving from making this change rises to 19%. Residents of South Dakota (14%), Kansas (13%), Wyoming (13%) and Iowa (13%) can also enjoy double-digit savings.

Drivers in Michigan (4%), Florida (5%), Louisiana (6%), North Carolina (6%) and Nevada (6%) receive the smallest savings.

Keep in mind that raising your deductible makes you responsible for the first costs of any damage or loss covered by the policy. Raising it increases the amount you have to cover. Most insurance policies allow you to raise the deductible on different aspects of your policy (e.g. Liability, Collision and Comprehensive) – with different amounts saved/added for each change you make.

We recommend that you sign up for online access to your policy (if your carrier offers the option, and you haven’t already done so), since doing so makes it easy to “play around” with changes to see how different adjustments can save you money.

Incidentally, insuranceQuotes.com said that raising the deductible from $500 to $2000 brings the average savings up to 16%. Of course, those who drive in “double digit” states can save even more.