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When buying car insurance, there are many important things to consider. In order to become a smart and savvy car insurance consumer, and get the best rates possible for your policy, you need to understand what insurance companies do, and how to best communicate with them.

Insurance companies are in the business of taking risk. The amount of risk they take to insure you and the rate they will charge you are based on a number of variables. Your driving experience and history, where you live, your age, how many drivers and vehicles are on your policy, what discounts are applicable to you, and numerous other variable are all used to determine the rate or cost for your policy.

There are numerous discounts available for the consumer on car insurance policies today.

A multi-car discount will lower the premium on each vehicle on the same policy. Some companies will sell you a separate policy for each vehicle and still give you the multi-car discount. Keep in mind there can be overhead or additional cost for each policy, so having all of your vehicles on the same policy could save you money.

Most insurance companies will give full time high school or college students with a 3.0 or higher grade point average a discount. This discount could be as high as fifteen percent on the primary vehicle that the student drives. If the premium for the student driver is one to two thousand dollars per year, a good student discount could be a savings of one hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars per year. Multiply that by the number of years in school, and that will add up to a huge savings.

Some insurance companies will give you an occupational discount depending on your educational background and job title. Teachers, Medical Professionals, Scientists, Engineers, Computer Professionals, and other jobs that require a college degree, license, or certification.

An anti-theft discount can lower the comprehensive (theft & vandalism) portion of the policy premium. This is generally considered to be a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) based system where your car can be located via a satellite if it is stolen.

Department of Motor Vehicle certified mature driving courses are available for senior citizens and can lower your premium as much as ten percent.

And of course, maintaining a good driving record will allow your insurance carrier to give you a good driver discount and keep your rates down.

All car insurance policy owners should check with their current carrier to see if they are getting all of the discounts that apply to their policy.

Copyright 2006 Barry Brenner