I got a speeding ticket a few months back. I was going to fast for the judge to let me go to traffic school, which seems kind of strange. He should’ve made in mandatory at that speed but anyway my car insurance premiums with Century 21 have jumped $320/year which really sucks.[The 6 month polciy jumped from $748 to $907] Considering its the only ticket to show up on my license I think its quite a hike! Also considering the fact that my cars have aged significantly in the past few years, its also quite mysterious as to why my premiums haven’t dropped at all. I called a few different companies like Liberty Mutual and Allstate and their quotes were even higher!

I tried to see if there was any way I could reduce my premiums. It seems the consensus is for a set of common sense principles.

• Shop around
• Increase you deductible
• Drive less
• Don’t use your car for business
• Buy a low-risk[read boring] car
• Move to a rural area
• Garage your car
• Get multi-policy discounts
• Get student/professional discounts
• Get an anti-theft device installed
• Keep your credit clean

So I decided to call up the insurance company and talk to them directly. I changed myself as the driver of the Accord to the Altima.[its the old version thats the size of the Civic]. Since I get a Professional Discount and my wife doesn’t we saved a whooping $2. Then I dropped the annual milages by 2,500 miles on the Accord and 1,500 on the Altima and raised the deductible to $1000 from $500. The premium dropped from $905 to $824. Then for another $14/6months I raised the liability coverage from $100/$300 to $250/$500 which I thought was a sweet deal. So I now have better coverage for $838, saving myself $138/year.