Easy Ways For Maine Drivers to Save Money on Gas and Find Cheaper Auto Insurance

Easy Ways For Maine Drivers to Save Money on Gas and Find Cheaper Auto Insurance

If there's one thing that the recent recession has taught us, it's that finding ways to cut costs without sending our entire social structure plummeting to the ground is important. That's why cutting back on life's essentials to make way for other spending habits is so incredibly important.

Wait. Are these people for real?

It's every shop-a-holic's dream-being given permission to cut corners on unimportant things like food and bills to have more money to give their favorite retailer. Or put into a savings account. Or hide in their mattress. Or whatever it is that they do with funds that aren't being sucked dry by their daily living expenses. Now Maine drivers can cut those corners even farther by saving money on gas and auto insurance.

If there are two things that are on every Maine driver's "must have" list, it's gas and auto insurance. Let's face it, without gasoline you're not getting very far, and being caught in a ten car pile-up on I-95 without auto insurance doesn't bear thinking about! (Then there's that pesky little issue of state insurance laws…) Just because they're necessities doesn't mean they have to cost you a fortune, however. In fact, gasoline and auto insurance are two of the easiest places for Maine drivers to cut costs if they know where to look!

If you want to save money on gas in today's petroleum based world you have four options:

1) Drive less, walk more. Good for the environment, good for your heart and good for your pocketbook, walking is the environmentally and fiscally sound choice.

2) Hitch a ride on public transportation. Yes, you're still burning gasoline and spending money on bus fare, but when you consider that most buses can carry more passengers than 50 single passenger cars and you're all sharing the cost you still get to save money on gas.

3) Drive less. Spending less time on the road and more time might save money on gas, but it's not always possible or practical to minimize the amount of time you spend cruising the friendly highways. After all, you have to get to work somehow-and most towns in Maine aren't supporting a vast, multi-county bus system for commuters! That's why many people are choosing to go with option 4…

4) Buy a hybrid. Hybrids are a combo electric/petroleum powered car, with the electric picking up and giving your car a boost rather than your gasoline motor having to carry all the weight. You save money on gas by getting nearly double the mileage (in some cases)-and hybrids save you money on your auto insurance too!

Many Maine drivers believe that maintaining the level of coverage they need to safely cruise the northeastern highways is going to make it difficult to find cheaper auto insurance. Guess what? It just ain't so!

 Much like finding ways to save money on gas, finding cheaper auto insurance premiums is easy if you know where to go-and how to make the system work for you.

3 Steps to Cheaper Auto Insurance

Step One: Clean up your driving record. When you're in bumper to bumper traffic outside of Augusta or stuck in the throes of another Manic Monday it's easy to "bend" the rules of the road a little, but every ticket you get and/or accident you're in is going to send your insurance rates flying through the roof. On the plus side, almost nothing stays on your driving record longer than five years, and once it's off the DMV's record books it's off your insurance premiums as well! Stay out of trouble for five years and you'll be amazed at how low your premiums will go.

Step Two: Shop around. The first offer you get usually isn't going to be your best, so keep hunting. With over 50 nationwide auto insurance providers and who knows how many local agents operating throughout the northeast there are plenty of options at your disposal. Don't limit your potential savings by going off with the first reasonable rate that blinks its pretty little dollar signs your way.

Step Three: Haggle for discounts. You'd be amazed what insurance companies will cut you a discount for these days, but since every insurance company has its own policies when it comes to discounts it's going to be up to you to see what your provider is willing to put on the table. And you're not going to know unless you ask.

Admit it. With summer right around the corner, isn't there something you'd rather be doing with your money (in the name of helping the economy, of course!) than paying for gas and auto insurance?

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• Easy Ways For Maine Drivers to Save Money on Gas and Find Cheaper Auto Insurance - Apr 22, 2009 - 9:18:55 AM