Pay your bills by their due date. If you have overdue payments, pay them! Check your credit reports regularly to make sure there are no problems. Dispute problems (e.g., incorrect accounts on your report) if there are any. You can check all three bureau reports for free every 12 months, so check one every four months. Another way to potentially save some money is by allowing the insurance company to do an automatic withdrawal when your bill is due. This is called an electronic funds transfer (EFT), and some insurance companies offer a discount if you pay this way. Your insurance company may also offer a discount if you pay the premiums in full. One last trick is to ask your insurance company to rerun your insurance score. If your credit score has increased, or old accidents, driving violations, or claims have reached their time limit and are longer on your record, your insurance score will probably go up, meaning your premium will probably go down. Modern technology can also play a role in your insurance premiums, although in a more indirect way than the other things I’ve listed so far. I’m sure you know texting while driving is dangerous, but do you know it’s the same thing as having a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that over 3000 people are killed each year due to distracted driving, and if you text while you’re driving, your possibility of being in a crash is 23 times more likely. This is why so many states have either partial or total bans on texting while driving. For example, Utah classifies texting drivers in the same way as drunken drivers. If you injure or kill someone because of driving while texting there, you can spend up to 15 years in prison.
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