Top Secret Ways to Make Sure You're Choosing the Right Car Insurance Company

If you were to pick three of the most important decisions you're going to make in your lifetime, what car insurance company you happen to be using probably isn't going to make the cut. Whether you consider it to be a big deal or not, however, making sure you've got the right insurer in your corner when you've been in an accident is one of the most important steps you can take to insure your financial security. Why It Matters Let's take a second to look at the costs and expenses involved with causing a car accident. You've got the damages to your car and the other driver's, of course. That number goes up if there are more than two people involved. Then you've got the cost of the trip to the emergency room, which may be done via ambulance or Medevac, the cost of the care received at that emergency room (most hospitals charge you $500 or more just for stopping in to say hello), any ICU care involved and follow-up therapies. You've also got the cost of any additional property damage, and you may be held liable for lost wages for the other driver while they're recovering from their accident. Total that up and that's probably much more than you have sitting around in a bank account gathering dust and waiting for a rainy day. You can spend years paying off the cost of an accident, which is going to hold your finances in limbo for a very, very long time.
How to Make the Right Choice Since your car insurance company is going to be the ones to pick up these costs you're going to want to make sure you've got a reliable one that's going to hold up their end of the bargain. Here are some great insurance shopping tips from the pros to make sure you're picking the right car insurance company the first time, every time. 1) First and foremost, car insurance rates aren't everything. Most of those "lowball" quotes are for coverage purchased at the bare minimum required to hit the state highways. Since that's probably not going to be enough to pick up the tab for your accident you're going to want one that offers you great rates but also offers enough insurance to cover you regardless of what happens.
2) Check out the car insurance ratings published by companies like J.P. Morgan. These are drawn together using surveys gathered from drivers all over the country and evaluate not only their car insurance rates but also the quality of their coverage, the quality of their customer service and the speed of their claims response.
3) A company on the brink of going under itself isn't going to be able to protect you from the hazards of being in an accident, so take some time to check out their financial ratings. Reporting agencies like A.M. Best, Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's track the financial stability of car insurance companies all across the country. This is a great way to make sure your insurance provider is going to continue to do business for a long, long time rather than going bankrupt in the near future, leaving you holding the bag on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of repair bills.
Whether you realize it or not, what car insurance company you choose to work with is going to have a long lasting effect on your finances. It's important to make sure you're choosing the insurer that's going to work for you.