Florida is not easy on the pocket when it comes to car insurance. Just
about every state will charge more for a newly insured person, but rates
then come down after six months in most cases. Florida residents don’t
always have it easy when searching cheap auto insurance in Florida. It
takes a few more steps and sometimes more money up front to save in the
long-term view.

Unless you have been told otherwise by the court
or state, you are only required to carry Personal Injury Protection and
Property Damage Liability for cheap auto insurance in Florida.

•    Personal Injury Protection,
or PIP, covers your medical expenses up to the limit you choose for
injuries you sustain in an accident. Anything over is on you. If you hit
someone else and they are seriously injured and you are sued, you have
no protection under PIP. The minimum requirement is $10,000.

•    Property Damage Liability,
or PDL, will pay up to the limit you choose for any damage you cause to
personal property in an accident. So if you sideswipe four cars and
crash into a storefront, your insurance company will pay to repair or
replace damage. The minimum requirement is $10,000.

Cheap auto
insurance in Florida doesn’t mean adequate coverage. You should not
settle for just the minimum requirements. If that is all you have and
cannot afford more, concentrate on cleaning up your driving history then
re-quote with better coverage.

If you continue to only keep
minimum PIP/PDL, you are forever keeping yourself in a high-risk rating
tier even if you have a good driving record. In order to build up good
insurance history, you must include Bodily Injury Liability (BI). The
lowest you can choose on this is $10,000 each person, up to $20,000 each
accident.  

If you start with the basic requirements and the BI
for $10k, on each and every renewal, check for cheap auto insurance in
Florida for better rates. Once you maintain BI, it gives you better
ratings as a financially responsible insured.

When you start
seeing the benefits of better coverage with lower rates, increase your
liability limits to the next level. This will give you $25,000 each
person, up to $50,000 total, and up to $25,000 in PDL. As you can
imagine, this will give you better protection. However, the real bonus
is you are building your financial responsibility. This will help you
find cheap auto insurance in Florida that doesn’t compromise protection.

The
next step will be to increase to 50/100/50 and keep it for at least six
months. When you hold higher limits, you will get higher discounts for
being financially responsible and soon you will notice your $100,000
policy is cheaper than when you started with PIP/PDL of only $10,000.

It
will take a few years and several steps of really paying attention to
your insurance and tweaking your coverage. But if you follow these steps
and maintain a good driving record, you will see the reward of great
coverage for less than what your tiny PIP/PDL cost. Now you will have
cheap auto insurance in Florida and great protection at the same time.