Make the most of your insurance discounts
Insurance companies may advertise attractive discounts but they don't always apply them to your bill. Hamm explains how to know if you have received insurance discounts and how to make them count.
Insurance companies may advertise attractive discounts but they don't always apply them to your bill. Hamm explains how to know if you have received insurance discounts and how to make them count.
We鈥檝e all seen the insurance advertisements where they laud all of the discounts you can get if you鈥檙e a safe driver over a certain period or your children have good grades or other such things.
Those discounts can save you significant money, but there鈥檚 a catch.
The catch is that the insurance company may or may not tell you when you鈥檝e received a discount. Some companies will let you know and start applying them to the bill, while others won鈥檛 add them until they鈥檙e requested. This costs you money.
So, what can you do?
The first step is to occasionally study your insurance policy. Use the policy itself as well as any summary documentation to find out which rate reductions you should be eligible for.
Interestingly enough, I鈥檝e found the most success by starting with the insurance company鈥檚 website. Often, they describe all of the discounts you can get right up front as a way of attracting new customers.
Once you鈥檝e found all the discounts, check your most recent bill to see which ones you鈥檙e already receiving. As I鈥檝e mentioned before, some companies actually do apply them as soon as you鈥檙e eligible, while others won鈥檛 apply them until they鈥檙e requested.
If you think you should be receiving a discount that you鈥檙e not seeing on the bill, call your insurance provider.
Know the facts of the situation first, of course. What specific discount are you talking about? Why are you eligible for it? Are you sure you鈥檙e not already receiving the discount? Know these questions before you call.
Most of the time, customer service representatives will add the discount to your bill as soon as you call them on it and can demonstrate that you鈥檙e eligible for the discount.
Do it right now. It鈥檚 worth a minute or two to make sure that you鈥檙e not missing out on any insurance discounts you should be receiving. Finding one or two puts money right in your pocket.
This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.