With soaring costs to own a car, drivers are seeking ways to save on auto insurance. Insurance agents say that drivers can save money on their policies by taking a few relatively simple steps.

By Kim Tae-jong

Non-life insurance firms lowered car insurance premiums by 2.5 percentage points on average last month. But with a few relatively simple steps, motorists can find themselves a cheaper policy and save more on insurance.

The first and easiest way is to shop around by searching online.

You can compare companies by getting two or three quotes from multiple sources, and find cheaper rates through online contracts because most insurers are now selling Internet-based policies.

The General Insurance Association also offers quick and easy comparisons at http://ccs.knia.or.kr/index.jsp where drivers can find the best deal after entering key information.

Another way to cut your premium is to use all available discounts.

If you don’t drive that often or long distances, you can take full advantage of low mileage auto insurance discounts.

Most insurers launched mileage-based policies last year, believing that the fewer miles you drive the less likely you are to be involved in an accident.

Discounts are offered for travelling less than 7,000 kilometers a year with savings between 5 percent and 13 percent.

Discounts can vary but you can also save about 9 percent a year on average if you join a program in which you promise to leave you car at home on a certain day of the week.

Another way to lower your premium is to limit the number of beneficiaries who drive your car and claim insurance benefits.

Or you can limit the number of people covered based on their age as the older a driver is the lower premiums are.

If you belong to the low-income bracket and meet certain requirements, you can also apply for discounts of up to 17.3 percent.

You can also lower insurance costs if your car features the latest technology.

If your car is equipped with a car accident data recording system, known as a “black box,” you can get a discount of up to 5 percent.

Some insurance companies are also planning to offer additional savings on cars with the Mobile Telematics System, which automatically reports accidents to insurers, in the latter half of the year as vehicles with the technology will soon hit the market.

But most importantly, it is crucial to maintain a clean driving record.

One of the quickest ways to increase your car insurance costs is to have an accident or receive a ticket for speeding or traffic signal violations.

Tickets add points to your license and increase your insurance costs. Under the current law, the points are kept on the license for two years and are taken into consideration when calculating premiums.

You can reduce the policy price by 5 to 10 percent from your current or next potential insurer if you avoid accidents for the insured term. If you have an accident-free driving history for 18 years or longer, you save up to 70 percent.