Your Auto Insurance...

It is absolutely essential to get car insurance in most places. Whilst many people may think that it is a high price to pay, when you think about what could happen you realize it is actually worth it.

To protect yourself as well as you car in the event of an accident, you need car insurance. You may be thinking that you are a careful driver but keep in mind that an accident may not occur because of you. If you or the other driver do not have car insurance you would not be able to get your car fixed.

Many times it is not just the car or the drivers who get injured but the passengers within the car or a pedestrian. If you were a pedestrian and you got caught up in a car accident, if the driver did not have insurance you would not be able to claim anything potentially even though you might be seriously injured. In some countries, in this case, you pay for the rest of your life for causing an accident.

Here's an example: you hit someone with your car and the victim becomes disabled but you do not have a car insurance. The court may order you to pay millions in damages to the victim as well as the court for default of car insurance while you may also incur a prison sentence.

This is why car insurance is not negotiable in most areas.

Before getting car insurance, there are, obviously, essential requirements:

1. A driver's license. If you ensure someone else's car (it is authorized in some countries), you will need their driver's license info. Driver's license will allow the company to determine your insurance risk rating.

2. A car and all details about it, such as:

• Brand and model of the car
• Year the car was built
• Type of fuel used
• Number of doors
• Gearbox (manual or automatic)
• Engine
• Horsepower
• Options/Accessories
• The use you intend to make with the car
• Trailer or caravan
• Number of miles driven per year

Depending on your country of residence, your credit history is also something that car insurance companies will or won't look at.

Now that you got car insurance quotes, you probably decide to go for the lower cost car insurance.

A low cost car insurance rate can save you a lot of money but low cost car insurance rates may be less reliable than higher ones.

That is the reason why you will have to check carefully what is covered by the insurance. Indeed, low cost car insurance does not cover everything. For instance, the insurance may only cover accidents not theft; which means that if your car is stolen you will not be covered.

So in order to find the right low cost car insurance, you will have to read the small prints at the bottom of the contract and ask as many questions as you need, such as:

• What exactly is covered (driver, passenger, theft, etc.)?
• What exactly is NOT covered?
• Does this insurance have benefits?
• Will the price drop down after some time?
• What are the conditions for young car drivers?

Tip: you should make an online simulation; which will allow you to choose the risks covered and then check with the company if the simulation is correct.

Did you know that it can, in reality, be more valuable contracting different types of insurance policies at once? It may seem to make no sense to buy home, family... insurances with auto insurance, but as a matter of fact it could save you a lot of money.

Why buying verious insurance policies together saves you money?

This is because insurance companies want as much business from you as possible. This means that they will provide you various rebates for different things. For instance, you could have a price reduction by just signing up online instead of over the phone. This is because it is faster and simpler for the company and they will also save money by you filling in an online form instead of one through the post.

Another benefit they allow you to have includes a rebate if you purchase more than one type of insurance with them. For example, while you are looking to get auto insurance, if you also considered insuring your home with the same company, they could put some money off. This will allow you to save money over time and it be less expensive than purchasing the two policies individually.

Belgians are not as lucky as other people all around the world.

When I bought my first car, I had to browse the web in order to compare car insurance rates in Belgium and select the best insurance for the lowest price.

Unfortunately, five companies only offer the opportunity to make an online simulation.

One of these five companies does not accept the recently qualified drivers nor the drivers having a temporary driving licence (In Belgium, we can have a temporary driving licence for 18 months before passing the examination in order to receive our definitive driving licence).

Three companies are too expensive.

The last company offers a complete car insurance (basic insurance, driver insurance, legal protection, insurance abroad, etc.) for a very low price.

I requested an online offer; which seemed to be perfect to me. However, when I met their agent, he asked that I pay for the whole year in cash... which I refused. So, I had to make a new search.

While in Belgium customers are considered as the "kings", our country has a lot of efforts to make on the competitiveness subject and services offered to customers.

After having found and paid for my nice Peugeot (a 1995 model), I had to find a good car insurance company. So, I made a search on the Internet and selected - only - five insurance companies whose prices were interesting. Here is the result:

The first company does not ensure temporary driving licences.

The four other companies did not refer to this driving licence temporary and I requested an online offer.

I then chose two more interesting offers and made appointments.

Surprise!!! or call it as you want... perhaps Disappointment

Those two companies don't ensure temporary driving licenses but would agree to ensure my car on condition that my parents join one of them. Guess what? I REFUSED! My parents have their cars ensured by the same company for fourty years and wouln't want to change even to do me a favor! And I personally don't want to have them to change their insurance company.

The two last offers were not interesting at all so I finally decided to apply for insurance at my own bank, the one that deals with all my financial matters. In Belgium, most - if not all - banks are also dealing with insurances even if bank and insurance are two separate fields and if the 2008 crisis proved they should keep those fields separate!

Anyway, my bank already insures my house and my family.

There are no condition to be insured. Despite the 15% off that I profit because I am already a bank customer, the price is very high (49 euros/month - $70/month) but now I have a good insurance and no nasty surprise.

Update on September 2008: now I've got my definitive driving license and the insurance price dropped down to 46 euros/month! Just cross my fingers for not having an accident until the price drops down next year ;-)

When you compare automobile insurance prices on the Internet, make sure that the company mentions all exclusions, net values, extras, etc. as most of them tend to forget to mention those things just to get the highest number of naive people to subscribe to their company.