How Do You Afford Car Insurance When Unemployed?

You’re not working but Federal law states you must have car insurance. How in the world do you do that? It’s hard enough to survive, let alone pay for an expense that now doesn’t look all that worthwhile keeping up. The risks far outweigh the benefit of not having auto insurance. If you are uninsured and get in an accident, you could lose everything so having auto liability insurance is a necessity, not a financial choice.

When faced with this type of dilemma, it is extremely important to find cheap car insurance. Get as many low cost car insurance quotes as you can so you can select the best priced one. Many insurance companies add up to 8% in rates for those that are uninsured so finding ways around that can save you some money. Also, you can remove ‘business driving’ from your auto insurance policy and save a few bucks there. Once you get quotes, you’ll want to compare car insurance rates from all the companies you’ve checked into.

One of the ways you can save some money, and possibly avoid the 8% increase by being unemployed, is to list yourself as either a househusband or housewife. This generally only works if your spouse is employed so be careful before adding that on your policy. Car insurance companies can be very picky and get nasty if they think you’re trying to pull a fast one on them. But if your spouse is employed then you have a legitimate claim and can probably get cheap car insurance.

Also, another way to save money, unless you’re financing the car, is to lower your insurance to your state minimums. Find out from your agent what the minimum liability coverage you can get is and still be legal on your car insurance policies. Cutting out all the unnecessary liability coverage will lower your car insurance premium and make it somewhat easier to get by until you are employed again. Also, putting ‘unemployed’ in the occupation box can alert some car insurance companies that you are just temporarily out of work and not long term. This might make a difference in them adding a higher cost to the car insurance policy.

It doesn’t make sense for insurance companies to actually charge more at a time when people can least afford it, but some do. A person without an ‘occupation’ covers a lot of area when companies are determining rates. As an example, most drug dealers are not going to put down what their occupation is and insurance companies know this so they are at liberty to charge higher rates. Car insurance quotes quite often reflect this if you read through the fine print. This is not to say, obviously, that unemployed people are drug dealers, but the insurance industry has a clause for everything to get as much money as they can.

If you’re unemployed and getting insurance for the first time, such as a student who just received their license and bought a car, getting a car insurance policy can be extremely costly. And there are those who chose to drive later in life and have never had to pay a car insurance premium. Once they get on board their going to pay more until they’ve been driving for a while or pass a certain age. In these cases, it might be prudent to be added to someone else’s policy, like parents or close family or friend. This could save some substantial money for a first timer getting car insurance policies.

When looking for car insurance compare everything available and cut every corner you can. If you have a good agent, if you’re using one, they can let you know how to cut corners and still be covered legally. Of course the more they sell you the more they make, but many agents nowadays are aware of the financial crunch and will help you. Getting a lot of companies to give you a car insurance quote will insure you find the rate. This will make your car insurance premium a little easier to fit into your know reduced budget.

Another way to slightly reduce your insurance premium is to raise all of your deductibles. The lower the deductible, the higher your auto insurance premium is. Raising your deductibles means you will have to pay more out of your pocket if you are in an accident, assuming it’s not the other driver’s insurance company repairing your vehicle, so you’ll have to take that into account as well. Hopefully it’s only a temporary trend but in today’s economy it could be quite some time before you become employed again. Not a good scenario, but in the position you’re in now, every penny needs to be accounted for so you can survive through this ordeal.

Car insurance generally is an expensive proposition, especially if you are a young driver or have past accidents or tickets. Finding the best driver car insurance you can get for the lowest price will help you get through until you are back on your feet and able to once again get the coverage you want. In the meantime, become a moneysaving super fan and get the lowest rate available.

If there is any possibility of getting some items put on your car to enhance its security, such as a car alarm, or what’s called an immobilizer, it can also lower your cost. An immobilizer stops the car from being driven if it isn’t started up by the right key or remote and keeps the possibility of theft much more unpractical for possible car thieves for your vehicle. Make sure you let them know when comparing car insurance so the proper discounts can be added to your policy.

Car insurance for the unemployed is a difficult proposal with a lot of the requirements from insurance companies and the government, but if you shop smart and compare car insurance costs before making a decision, you should be able to benefit. Don’t risk doing without insurance, it could ruin your life if you get in an accident and get sued, you could lose it all.

I’ve found a few sites that offer excellent auto insurance deals but a lot of them are big corporate comparison sites that I don’t trust. Some of the less know auto insurance deals sites are worth checking out like this one: http://www.cheapautoinsurance.net/