Four Tricky Auto Insurance Choices

If you are shopping around for car insurance, and kind of confused by all the choices that are offered, read on to discover some ways to be more decisive about what you buy and how you drive.

We tend to think of car insurance as all about cost or a very basic budget item that you need if you're going to drive legally, but we don't always think about some of the questions that can really make you consider what you want in a policy. Here are some of those items where you do have to make a concrete decisions about your philosophy of policy building, and what you want as an insurance customer.

Collision and Comprehensive Coverage

Do you take out the collision and comprehensive policy? If your vehicle is paid off, you don't have to. You choose whether you want to spend money each month to cover unanticipated damage to your car, or if you prefer take a chance and save a few dollars. This question can be a really thorny one for people who overthink it, who try to look into their crystal ball and predict whether they'll have a claim in any given year. You pretty much have to just decide whether you want this kind of coverage, or whether you're okay to go without it and pay your money if something comes up.

Pay-as-you-go Insurance

One of the things you have to do in a negotiation with an auto insurance company is tell them how much you drive. But we don't know how much we drive -- that's why we have a car in the first place, to take us anywhere we want to go on a whim. Yes, there is an odometer in the car, but we can't predict where that odometer is going to be six months or year down the road. It's just not possible. One of the most aggravating aspects of car insurance is talking to insurance reps about future mileage. So when companies offer pay-as-you-go insurance, customers can really end up scratching their heads over whether this is a good deal or not. It's recommended that you try to estimate your future mileage as well as you can, but don't stay up all night doing it.

Road Assistance

Road assistance is another one where you have to decide if this feature is worth it as part of the policy. Try to get the insurance company to itemize how much you will be paying for road assistance services, especially if you have the option of skipping it as part of the policy. Then think about how much of a hassle it will be to get where you need to go if your car breaks down. Do you have a spouse with another vehicle? Are they going to be able to come and help you? This is another one of those big questions that you just don't always know up front, but you can just make the decision whether you want the company to offer this specialized service or not.

Teen Drivers

Another nail-biting question is whether to add a teen driver to your family policy. So your kid's old enough to drive -- congratulations. If you haven't noticed, though, insurance rates for teen drivers are sky-high because teens tend to not drive very safely.

You can agonize over how often your teen is going to be driving the car -- is it once a month or once a year? But the bottom line is that you have to pick a decision and go with it. Don't just let your teenager drive without being on the policy, or you could be in for unpleasant surprises in a claim situation.

For car insurance, contact a company such as TLC Associates.