A few companies offer a small discount to their policyholders who agree to receive their documents by email or see them on their online account, instead of getting them in the post. However, the way you can qualify for these paperless car insurance discounts and the amount varies considerably from one carrier to the other and often you may need to sign your documents online or pay electronically to qualify for this saving but you may get a bigger discount in the process for auto-pay or digital signing.
Some companies enroll their customers automatically into email delivery of vehicle insurance policy documents and give paperless discounts. In that case, policyholders will need to opt-out of email delivery if they want to get their documents and renewal notice by post. In that case and if the email delivery fails due to bad email, the customer loses the discount.
Several companies offer paperless discounts with auto-pay and you cannot qualify for it independently. Also, you may have to pay back the savings if you cancel auto-pay or miss a premium payment. Although it may not be clearly indicated on the insurers’ websites, motorists can save around 3 – 4 % with auto-pay and paperless discounts. American Family is one of the companies confirming the discounts on their website.
In many cases, customers may need to sign up to an online account either on the insurer’s website or app to sign and manage their documents digitally. However, even if you sign up to an online account and can see your documents, coverage and print proof of insurance from the account, you can still call the company and talk to one of their agents.
Progressive is one of the companies that tie the paperless vehicle insurance discount to online signing. When you sign up to an online account and sign your documents digitally, you can get up to 9% discounts from progressive, as well as getting an undisclosed amount of savings for paperless email delivery of your documents.
Getting your automobile insurance quotes and buying your policy online is very popular and qualifies motorists for discounts. Besides, many people may actually prefer to access their policy online so that they can have a look at it quickly, show their proof of insurance digitally or print it and make changes whenever they like. Such people shouldn’t miss out on paperless discounts by ticking the relevant box to confirm they don’t want to be sent anything in the post.
Once you opt-in, you should make sure that you have a valid and active email in the account and you regularly check that email, which shouldn’t be overfilled with spam and many other subscriptions and email opt-ins to avoid an important auto insurance email getting buried in them.
Some companies allow mid-policy switch in and out of paperless by either calling the company or signing into their account and canceling or accepting paperless. They adjust the premiums accordingly if the change is mid-policy. But many others may only allow opt-in and discounts at the start of every policy term. If you miss it, you may need to wait until the next renewal.
Overall, paperless car insurance discounts may offer a further 1 – 2% savings independently or on top of the other discounts you qualify for auto-pay or online signing. Once you prefer to receive your documents electronically anyway and you can get the discount, it isn’t difficult to make sure you don’t miss-out. It may be as simple as signing into your account and ticking a box.
Actually, many people would go paperless even if they don’t get paperless auto insurance discounts. Furthermore, it isn’t a big sacrifice not to get printed policy documents. Email delivery is much faster and always there whenever and wherever you need to access them so it is usually a better option. You get your confirmation within seconds of paying for a new policy and you can comfortably drive once you see it in your inbox.