Into our third topic of this scroll: car insurance. An unavoidable expense when owning a vehicle, yet can vary drastically in cost between individuals.

Insurance is a tricky beast. It is such a hassle, and never gets used. Then, suddenly, it saves us from having to pay a huge amount of money when something goes wrong or gets damaged. To protect themselves from losing money, insurance companies charge everyone quite a bit for their services.

It’s your responsibility to search for competitive car insurance:

I had a very good experience recently with car insurance. I’m part of a family plan so that we can all get a bundled discount. Yet, I was frustrated by how much I was paying because I drove my car around three times per week and all within the city. It made no sense to me to be paying so much to have my car sitting in the driveway. So, I chose to start looking around for different options in car insurance.

I found out about CAA MyPace, which is a pay-as-you-go system that charges per 1,000km. This really clicked with me because I was barely driving, and rarely long distances. My one concern was that it was winter while I was doing this research; even though I presently wasn’t going anywhere, I did not have any data on the summer road trips I usually get up to. Even one far trip would cost a 1,000km payment, and two shorter trips would be around another payment as well. Considering I have not previously tracked my mileage, I wanted to get a trial summer in first to see my regular travelling habits before signing up with a pay-as-you-go option.

Find a business that searches for car insurance quotes on your behalf:

My dad recommended the website kanetix.ca to find the best possible car insurance price. They find quotes from over 50 Canadian companies all through one search. Admittedly, it is a thorough process that will take a few minutes. You’ll need to know yourself and your car, or have the information on hand. Then they use the information to find a top list of economical insurance plans fitting your needs.

From that stage, they set you up with a broker who can dive deeper into the quote you like and trim it up further. It was a great experience. I ended up with a phenomenal quote that was using the CAA MyPace as I expected based on my driving. As I said, I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to that and then decline a bunch of summer activities so that I didn’t spend more than a normal plan would cost. I have been tracking my kilometres since January to see what I end up with after the year, and if it is low enough, I will definitely switch to MyPace next year for extra savings.

Use competition to get a better plan with your preferred provider:

What I did was take that stellar quote to our present insurer and have them try to match it. This would allow me to continue being a part of the family insurance plan. In case I ever need to borrow another car, or one of my family needs to borrow mine. The insurer was able to come close to the quote; saving me a whopping $50 per month from what they had previously been charging me! What a win! And, if all goes as I think it will this year, I’ll drop that expense even lower next year switching to MyPace.

Overall, I saved $600 on my car insurance this year by putting in some effort and being confident there was something better out there. This was a key lesson for me to learn: we should regularly reevaluate our driving habits and our insurance plans. Companies are continually competing for clients; we must capitalise on that by doing research yearly or more to make sure we are coming out on top!

Don’t get suckered by fear!

Finally, not all pieces of car insurance are mandatory, and I opted out of the collision coverage. Why? Because I would have to pay the first $1,000 of damage, and because in my years driving so far I have not had an accident; combined between my parents there has only been one accident where they used it; my sister has never had an accident; actually, no one else comes to mind who has had to use collision coverage. Therefore, considering the almost 100 combined years of driving experience I’m analysing, where only once collision coverage was used, plus the fact that I’m rarely on the road and just for short trips, it seems like a waste of money to pay.

If I owned an expensive car I bet I’d feel more worried about paying for repairs and thus spend extra money on the collision coverage: notch another victory for economy cars.

In conclusion, it is evident that vehicles cost heaps of our precious money. I hope this “Your Car is Leaking Money” scroll has helped put a spotlight on the causes of the costs, so that you can keep an eye on yours. Moreover, hopefully the series provided ideas and practices that you’ll give a shot to lower those vehicle costs as much as you can. Since transportation is a top three treasure thief, it is very important to focus our best effort on diminishing the loses so that we come out with the most money.