Here’s an interesting, unintentional discovery I made recently to save on my monthly car insurance premium with Geico.
My debit card number was compromised recently so I had to get a new one and update all of my accounts setup on auto bill pay. While I was on the phone with Geico updating my card info for my monthly car insurance bill, I decided to update my billing address to my PO BOX which is in the next city over and I ended up saving $34.52 per month! That’s an annual savings of $414.24 which is an insane savings.
My payment before was $138.76 and after updating my billing address, it went down to $104.24. And yes, although I have a flawless driving record, my premium is somewhat high because I carry the maximum allowed coverages for California with a fairly low deductible.
PRO TIP – When driving for Uber, you don’t have to worry about getting car insurance that covers you as an Uber driver because if you’re involved in an accident while driving for Uber, Uber insures all it’s drivers while they’re on the clock. You should call Uber and make sure this is the same for your location because I know it works differently in some places. But I discovered this when I had trouble finding an insurance carrier that would sell me a policy that covered my Uber driving. All the companies I called, including Geico, would not insure me as an Uber driver which is why I ended up calling Uber to ask them for a list of companies that would cover me. That’s when they told me that I didn’t need to worry about Uber specific insurance in California because they insure their drivers here. Rad. This company literally does everything in it’s power to eliminate or reduce all barriers to entry to get started as an Uber driver.
My PO BOX, which is hosted at the UPS Store, costs me $360 annually so the amount I’m saving on my car insurance more than overs the cost of the PO BOX.
It probably wouldn’t make sense to get a PO BOX solely for the purpose of saving on your car insurance premium, but in some situations it might.
When getting car insurance quotes, I would check the premium differences using the billing addresses of my friends, family, or work to see which is the cheapest. I think you’ll also have to have a debit or credit card with that same billing address so you can go and buy a prepaid debit card from Walmart or something and then sign up for it using that billing address. And then simply load enough money on that card, or setup a monthly automatic transfer through your online banking, so your car insurance bill is paid using that card.
Setting this up is a bit of a process but it’s not very difficult and saving $414.24 annually is a pretty decent chunk of change in my opinion. If you ever need a PO BOX for infrequent use, I would definitely research a nearby city that reduces your car insurance premium the most and then get the PO BOX there. For a PO BOX that you need to check daily, driving out of your way would obviously eliminate the savings so this wouldn’t make sense but if you just need a PO BOX for registering a business or something, it might make sense.
If you’re really determined to make this happen, you could even get a PO BOX anywhere and simply use the mail forwarding service from the USPS to set up any mailing address situation you want. For example, you have all your mail forwarded from your PO BOX to your home address so you can use the PO BOX as a billing address but still receive all your mail at your home, as long as it’s being forwarded by the USPS. I’m not sure how long the USPS will forward your mail for you but you can look up that info on their website.