Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.
Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.
Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.
We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.
Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
How to get cheap auto insurance
Everybody wants cheap auto insurance. But saving money on auto insurance isn’t always as simple as finding the best deal. In fact, getting cheap auto insurance requires juggling multiple factors to get the most mileage out of your budget.
Understand what you’re buying
Knowing the ABCs of auto insurance is the best way to find a deal because informed buyers can gauge their needs and properly compare multiple auto insurance quotes. There are six parts to a basic auto insurance policy: bodily injury, personal-property liability, personal-injury protection, uninsured motorist, collision and comprehensive. While components like bodily injury and personal-property liability are must-haves, other components like collision and comprehensive can drive up costs without much benefit. For example, drivers with older, less expensive cars might not need comprehensive and collision coverage, which reimburses the cost of repairing or replacing the car in the event of any kind of accident, theft or natural disaster.
If you need help understanding a policy, try working with an agent. If you want to know how to find a savvy car insurance agent, ask your friends and look for someone with experience in underwriting and claims, not just sales.
Go online
Getting cheap auto insurance often means buying the policy online. Typically, drivers can save up to 10 percent on their premiums if they buy online because processing Internet applications costs less for providers. But before you buy online, remember that the Internet is also a great tool for comparing prices, so be sure to get auto insurance quotes online, too.
Be vigilant
While the price you pay often reflects your location, the type of car you drive and your driving record, there are some innocent ways to drive up car insurance costs. Certain types of tickets, such as those for not wearing a seat belt or texting while driving, will drive up your costs. But even seemingly unrelated factors like a low credit score, missing a credit card payment or paying your premium in installments will make it harder to find cheap auto insurance.
Share