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How to Find Affordable Tires, Batteries, and Insurance

May 27, 2021 By Justin Weinger Leave a Comment

A car is a major investment, not just in the money you pay upfront, but also in the money it takes to maintain it. Tire quality, battery longevity, and insurance coverage can all take a major bite out of your budget. Fortunately, there are ways to lower these costs without sacrificing quality.

From discounts on tire maintenance to the ins and outs of insurance rates, here are some of the ways to get the least expensive offerings for your automotive needs.

The Potential Savings of Auto Insurance

There are many ways for consumers to lower their auto insurance bills, and one of the most obvious ways involves adjusting the policy to have only the offerings most necessary for a specific situation.

There are two main auto insurance types that protect your vehicle in the event of an accident: collision and comprehensive. Collision covers you in the event of an accident involving your car and another vehicle or object, while comprehensive covers non-collision damages. But what is the cost difference between collision and comprehensive auto insurance?

If you have both collision and comprehensive auto insurance, then you have full coverage. As a general rule, if you don’t fully own your car, you will be required to get collision or comprehensive car insurance.

Collision insurance handles damages from hitting a parking post, bench, tree, curb, or vehicle, regardless of who is at fault. It is often cheaper than other options, but once your car’s value surpasses what the insurance will pay out in the event of an accident, you should probably drop it.

Comprehensive auto insurance covers any damage to the vehicle that isn’t caused by a collision, such as accidents involving animals running into the road, property damages, falling trees, floods, fires, and projectiles. It often covers theft and vandalism as well.

However, comprehensive insurance doesn’t cover regular wear and tear or the value of the car’s contents. In most cases, collision and comprehensive car insurance are bundled into one offering by an insurance company, but often you can choose to purchase only one or the other to save on money.

Opting for comprehensive coverage alone is, on average, under $200 a year, whereas choosing collision alone bumps average rates up to around $360.

Liability insurance, which is for covering the other driver in an accident you cause but not yourself, often is more expensive than both of the former together. Full coverage, including liability, often costs over $1,000 per year. To see exact numbers for your situation, you should request a variety of quotes from different insurers.

The auto laws in your state may also dictate which insurance you are required to have, and often liability is required. Understanding what different types of coverage mean will allow you to choose the best option for you.

Many choose to keep the necessary liability coverage and then have to decide between comprehensive, collision, or neither.

However, if your car is of a high enough value, it may be more cost effective to opt for full coverage so you don’t have to recoup the loss of the whole car in the event of an accident.

The Cost of Tires

Tires can be an expensive investment, ranging from $50 for cheaply made ones to $1,000 for specialty premium ones. Most people will buy tires in the $100–$500 range in addition to the mounting and balancing costs. Most auto shops will charge a standard fee for installing tires that ranges from $15 to $45.

Fortunately, you can save a bundle on the cost of tires by shopping in April or October, which are the two months when tires are most likely to go on sale (in preparation for winter roads and summer trips). Shopping online or at warehouse stores can also give you access to much more affordable tires.

In addition, many tire manufacturers offer rebates throughout the year, so look into what your tire manufacturer may be offering. Having an older car may impact the cost of your tires, too.

Depending on the quality of your tires, you should inspect them after five or six years and absolutely replace them after 10. The amount you drive and the quality of the tires will affect how long they last, however, so be sure to get them checked regularly.

Another thing that affects the cost of tires is air pressure. Properly inflated tires save up to 11 cents on the gallon, and improperly inflated tires will not only impact your mileage but also weaken your tires. This will force drivers of low-pressure tires to need to replace them earlier.

There are plenty of ways to save on air refills, however.  In 2013, Nissan implemented a new feature on the 2013 Nissan Altima called the Easy-Fill Tire Alert. This feature warns drivers when their tires need to be refilled. Technological advancements like this can help the savvy consumer save more over the years.

The Expense of Car Batteries

All car batteries have a limited lifespan and will eventually lose their charge. Although it takes only a tiny amount of gas usage to charge the battery, maintaining it properly can take a lot of horsepower. This, combined with the fact that gas prices have risen astronomically since 1979, means that it’s important for car owners to improve battery life.

Often, you can get cheap batteries at local stores like Walmart and Costco, but it can also be dangerous to opt for the cheapest option, as they can often corrode or wear out more quickly. The easiest way to have a cheap battery is to maintain and care for your current one so it costs less to replace.

Turn off your lights when the engine is off, and make sure that nothing drawing on the electrical power is running when you exit your car.

You should also try to keep your battery fairly cool. While cold weather makes it harder to start your engine, the real reason why batteries struggle is due to the wear and tear of heat. Heat increases water evaporation, sapping the battery cells. This then results in the car struggling to start once cold weather arrives.

To combat this, park your car in the shade or in a garage whenever possible and try to keep your engine from overheating. Taking care of your car battery can help you both save money and help the environment.

These are just a few of the ways to lower the cost of auto insurance, tires, and batteries. Consider your vehicle’s needs and compare offerings to get the best possible deals.

 

 

About The Author: Deborah Goldberg is an insurance expert who writes and researches for the auto insurance comparison site, AutoInsurance.org.

 

Filed Under: Beating Broke Rules

Beating Broke Rules: Certificate of Deposit

April 28, 2016 By Shane Ede 1 Comment

What is a Certificate of Deposit?  Certificate of Deposit (commonly called CDs) are basically a savings account that pays a set rate over a set term.  The rate tends to be higher than a normal savings account rate because the money is locked into the CD for a set term. If you choose to withdraw your money before the term ends, you pay a penalty.  The penalty is usually a preset number of months interest on the CD. At the end of the term, you can renew for another term at another set rate or keep your money.

Rules: Certificate of Deposit
Safe and Stable Investments

CDs are a very stable investment. They are also a very liquid investment. As such, they make for rather poor returns on the long term and they carry a penalty for withdrawal before the “maturity”.  However, there are several uses that can make them a valuable part of your financial portfolio.

6 and 12 month CDs can be a great place to keep your emergency fund.  Chances are you won’t need the money, so you might as well invest it.  The key here is that the CD is a safe, stable, and easily accessible form of investment.  You’ll still get the higher interest rates that you would expect from a high-yield savings and, depending on the term length, sometimes better.

As you get older, CDs can play an important role in your retirement accounts as a small percentage of your portfolio.  Again, the stability and reliability of the nature of CDs makes is the key.  As you age, a growing portion of your retirement portfolio should be in stable cash investments.  Many will recommend something like a money market account or a high yield savings, but CDs are in that same group.  And with a retirement account, you can usually tie the money up a little longer and get better returns.  Look for something in the 2-5 year range for maturity.

As I mentioned before, one of the major drawbacks to CDs is the early withdrawal penalty.  In most cases (consult your CD paperwork) the penalty is 3 months interest.  So, if you were to withdrawal the money after only three months, you would only be able to withdrawal the original amount.  If you withdrawal the money at only one month, you would get less than the original amount.  Anytime after 3 months and you get the original amount plus any interest above the three months penalty.

While the penalty can be bad if you need the money early in the term, if you need the money for an emergency, it can be overlooked pretty easily.

Beating Broke Rule: CDs can be an important part of your investment portfolio

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: Beating Broke Rules, Saving, ShareMe Tagged With: Beating Broke Rules, CD, certificate of deposit

Beating Broke Rules: Bonuses

December 8, 2010 By Shane Ede 11 Comments

Beating Broke Rule: Spend your Bonuses wisely.

Every year, many of us are lucky enough to receive some sort of bonus from our employer.  (If you’re self employed, that’s bonus enough. 😉 )  And when we do, the inevitable question arises.  What do I do with the money?  And then, how to budget for it?

The simple answer is to spend it wisely.  In a more complex answer, it depends on what your goals are for your financial life.  Using your bonus to buy Christmas presents may make you feel good for a month or two, but will you feel guilty afterward?  You’ll feel much better, in the long run, if you spend the money wisely towards your goals.

198/365 - paydayHere’s the downside to that, though.  You’ll also feel guilty if you use it all for debt repayment.  Each of you will have a different situation, but here’s how we usually use our bonus here in Beating Broke.

Consider taking 10% of the bonus and blowing it.  Buy some presents.  Take your family out to dinner and a movie.  Whatever you want.  Give yourself 10% in cash and free rein to do whatever you want with it. You’ll feel better when you do.

With the remaining, take a look at your situation.  Do you have a purchase that you’ve been saving up for, or putting off until you could afford it?  I’m not talking about those gifts, or the television upgrade, but things that you really need.  Maybe some costco eyeglasses? For example, a portion of my bonus (if I get it) will go towards buying new tires for one of our cars and paying for a repair that one of them needs.  It won’t take the whole bonus, but a good portion of it.  And it will be extremely relieving to not have to come up with that money out of my normal paycheck.  If the bonus doesn’t come, I’ll still have to pay for those things, but it might take a little longer to pay for them.

Maybe your situation doesn’t have a purchase like that that you need to pay for.  But, maybe you’ve got some debt that it could help retire.  What we don’t spend on tires and repairs, will likely go towards paying off a debt.  It won’t pay off any of them all by itself, but it will cut the payoff by several months.  And, while that doesn’t give me the same feeling that just blowing the money on stuff does, it will leave me feeling much better for a far longer time.

The bottom line is this.  Think about how you spend your bonus and spend it wisely.  You’ll feel much better for it.

photo credit: jypsygen

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: Beating Broke Rules, budget, Debt Reduction, ShareMe Tagged With: Beating Broke Rules, Bonus, budget, debt repayment, paycheck, rules

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