How to Save on Car Insurance in Florida
Florida drivers pay a pretty penny for car insurance. In fact, the Sunshine State routinely places in the top five for most expensive states for car insurance. You can blame our unique blend of weather-battered coastline and high rate of uninsured drivers — an estimated 20% of Floridians drive around without coverage.
All told, if you’re a Florida driver, you’re probably paying more for car insurance than you would prefer. The good news? You can take some steps to lower the cost of your auto insurance premiums. Here are four ways to save on car insurance in Florida.
Avoid tickets and accidents
The best way to keep your auto insurance rates low is to avoid trouble out on the road. Even something as simple as a speeding ticket can bump your insurance rates up anywhere between 7% and 28%. That’s pretty painful, so avoid the temptation to drive over the legal limit. Make sure you’re always wearing your seatbelt and using proper signals, too.
If you get a ticket, take a driver improvement course
Even if you do your best to avoid a ticket, life happens. The good news is that as long as your ticket is for a noncriminal offense (basically, not something overly dangerous like a DUI), you can probably avoid an insurance rate hike by taking the Florida driver improvement course after. And you can do this online so that it doesn’t have to be a big headache.
If you complete this course, no points go on your license and judgment for your ticket gets withheld. As a result, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (HSMV) specifically mandates that insurance companies can’t ask for a higher premium, nor can they cancel or refuse to renew your policy, in most cases.
You can only take this driver improvement course once every 12 months and five times total in your life. As long as you’re not over either of those limits, this course gives you a way to keep your insurance rates affordable even after getting a ticket.
Check out your options
Insurance companies run so many ads that you might have tuned them out, but they do have a fair point: you could be paying more than you need to for car insurance. If you’ve been with the same insurance company for a while, it’s probably worth getting quotes from a few other companies. You can usually do this online in just a couple of minutes.
If another company can offer you a better rate, make the switch. Your new insurance company will usually help you change everything over to them because they want your business, so this process is often pretty straightforward.
Ask your insurance company about discounts
Another reason you might be paying too much: you’re not getting every possible discount. It can help to look up the discounts your company offers to see if you qualify for any.
Common car insurance discounts include:
- Accident-free
- Low annual mileage
- Bundling (e.g., buying your home/renters insurance and car insurance from the same company)
- Military
- Students with good grades
- Drivers over 55 who take an HSMV course
These are just a few options that can be particularly helpful for Florida drivers who want to save on car insurance. But if you want to look for even more ways to reduce your rates, we recommend checking out this list of ways to save from the Insurance Information Institute (III).