Take a Defensive Driving Course to Lower Your Rates

Do you wish your car insurance payments could be lower? If so, it might be time to take advantage of a guaranteed way to lower your rates: take a defensive driving course.

How Does it Help?

A defensive driving course teaches all of the basics that ensure safety while driving. Once it is completed, you will receive a certificate that will instantly make you eligible for a discount on your insurance policy from almost all providers in the country.

However, the certificate does need to be from an approved institution. Thus, if this is something that interests you, first check with your insurance provider to make sure they recognize the validity of a specific driving school’s certificate of completion. This is even more important for online defensive driving courses as only some of the companies offering them are considered to be reputable.

The specifics of each course will differ from state to state since each state comes with its own set of rules. However, you can expect the course to cover topics such as:

• Safety features of a car
• Right-of-way
• Environmental hazards awareness
• Stopping distance awareness
• Passing and clearance distances
• How to travel over railroad crossings
• Sharing roads with other vehicles
• Crash statistics
• Dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol
• Risks of driving while angry, stressed or tired
• Your state’s traffic laws

You may feel you are already familiar with all of these subjects, but getting certified will mean that you will have the papers to prove it.

How Much Can it Impact my Rates?

In order to see the benefits firsthand, let’s look at a real example.

The American Safety Council offers classes for the state of New York that have been approved by the state’s DMV.

Completing such a course will get you a 10% reduction for your insurance premiums for 3 years. This reduction is mandatory, guaranteed and applies to all premiums relating to liability, collision and no-fault coverage.

The changes are applied automatically on your current policy so you will not have to change policies or providers. Furthermore, you can also erase up to 4 points on your license. The course is done entirely online and is also available in Spanish.

This is just one example. Each state and insurance company will have its own standards but, as you can see, taking a defensive driving course can be quite beneficial. They are not expensive, can be completed in a short amount of time and can save you a lot of money in the long run.