What Are the Benefits of Multicar Insurance Discounts?
Multicar insurance discounts can offer drivers savings in both time and money.
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If you own multiple vehicles, insuring each one individually can be pricier and take more time to manage than having a multicar insurance policy.
Such a policy may offer significant financial savings without requiring you to make any changes to your driving habits.
Understanding Multicar Insurance Discounts
If you have multiple cars insured by the same auto-insurance carrier under the same policy, many providers will offer you a discount. This discount varies by insurance provider, but could mean hundreds of dollars in savings per year, depending on your current premium.
Some multicar insurance discounts are also not limited to married policyholders or families. If you live with roommates and have multiple vehicles at the same residence, you may be able to bundle your vehicles under a single policy.
For some auto-insurance providers, such as Nationwide, these discounts increase as you add more vehicles to your multicar policy. This means the advertised top-end savings could require more than two vehicles, so check with your agent before factoring advertised discounts into your budget. Each provider will likely have different qualifying criteria and discount limits that you will need to follow, making a direct quote beneficial to your financial planning.
Additional Benefits of Multicar Insurance Policies
Multicar insurance policies can offer other helpful benefits beyond direct savings. Having all your cars on a single insurance policy makes it easier to address tasks such as making monthly payments or completing paperwork. Your policy will also likely be handled by one agent who's aware of your insurance needs. A single policy could mean a single deductible, which can simplify claims that cover multiple vehicles.
Some states allow you to stack your coverage on a multicar policy, specifically uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage (UIM). For example, if you have two vehicles with $50,000 in uninsured motorist coverage, you could potentially stack your coverage to have $100,000 in UIM for any vehicle on your policy. This stacking can double your coverage without doubling your premium.
Examples of Multicar Insurance Discounts
Your exact multicar discount savings will generally vary based on the cars covered under your policy and your current insurance plan. However, as of October 2023, some of the larger insurance companies offered these estimates:
- Geico: up to 25% off
- Progressive: about 12% off
- State Farm: up to 20% off
Things to Consider for Multicar Policies
Although multicar policies could provide hundreds in savings to policyholders, you may want to consider a few factors before contacting your insurance agent. If you are bundling your policy with another driver, their driving record could affect your overall savings. If they have an accident on their record, you could risk losing any safe-driver discounts currently applied to your policy. Combining coverage also means an accident involving any of your vehicles could lead to a premium increase for your entire policy.
Another factor that could affect your choice to bundle is the ages of the drivers on your policy. For insurance companies, drivers younger than 25 are considered a high risk, which means you will likely increase your overall premium by adding them to your multicar insurance policy. However, this could be an opportunity to offset some of those costs using a multicar discount by balancing higher premiums with your additional discount savings.
It's also important to consider where your vehicles are stored. Some multicar insurance policies require all covered vehicles to be primarily stored at your main residence. This means if you have multiple homes where you store your vehicles, especially in multiple states, you may not be eligible for a multicar insurance discount.
