Everybody likes to save money. “Discount” is becoming a new way of life. Many companies are representing themselves as the exact same thing as larger, more expensive companies, but with lower rates and more reasonable terms. Of course, this cheaper discount price does come with a cost. With auto insurance, the cost is usually unnoticeable until you have a claim.

Discount auto insurance, just like all other insurance companies, have specialized individuals to weed out fraudulent claims. However, the reduced resources that cheap auto insurance companies are saddled with means that legitimate claims may sit for months without their due attention. This means months without the resources to fix a damaged car and months without transportation. In many states, accident damage must be fixed to an acceptable degree before a state inspection can be passed. This means that in the event that the insurance company hasn’t even reviewed a claim after several months, accident damage must either be fixed before state inspection is due or the car will have to sit idle while waiting.

Unfortunately, no states have any kind of mandate on how quickly an insurance company needs to act on a claim, so if you have to wait months for a claim to be done, the auto insurance company is well within their legal right, and you have discovered one of the things that makes that insurance cheap.

Discount auto insurance will do little more than keep a car on the road with the very basic of legal requirements. While everyone wants to save money, the cheapest isn’t always the best value and can often end up costing consumers more in the end than middle priced auto insurance. Getting the most insurance for as little money possible is a natural goal of everyone.

Cheap auto insurance is usually only cheap when sticking to the bare minimum legal coverage. Once consumers start opting for more extensive coverage, often their premium skyrockets and they end up paying more than they would have if they had started with a reputable car insurance company.

A reputable car insurance company devotes itself to customer service and quality while cheap auto insurance companies devote themselves to being the cheapest thing in town, thus their customer service, claims departments, and quality are all based on bare bones staff with bare bones service. They simply can’t provide the resources necessary to offer their customers anything more than a legal car, provided nothing happens to it.

Many cheap auto insurance companies rely more on automation, and getting a live human being on the phone to deal with issues, from claims to billing errors, is about as easy as setting off into the frozen tundra in search of fresh vegetables. They are more prone to error simply because they have as little human input going into their systems as possible.

One of the greatest hidden dangers of dealing with a cheap auto insurance company is security. The information that a driver gives to an auto insurance company is sensitive material. Most require a credit card number and a social security number, address, phone number, and even if the customer takes regular prescription medication. This information is more than enough for identity theft. Cheap auto insurance companies place very little value on the expense of security. While reputable insurance companies are not bullet proof, they do hire security experts to make sure that the sensitive information in their files stays in their files and not in the hands of ill intentioned hackers.

For quality, safety, and reasonable or better customer service, cheap auto insurance companies simply can’t reach the same heights as reputable auto insurance companies. Hands down, the only thing people save when choosing cheap auto insurance is about $50 at the beginning of their policy. After that, there simply isn’t a bargain to be had.




By: Jon Arnold