The first step many people take to reduce their auto insurance premium cost is to reduce or drop part of the coverage. However, there's only so far you can go with this before you either run out of things you can legally do without, or you end up with coverage that is so sparse that you'd see little benefit if you had to file a claim. While cutting coverage can be a fast way to lower what you owe, another way to deal with premium costs is to try different payment options.

Inadequate Coverage Is Just as Costly

Reducing your coverage to the legal bare bones has its advantages; it's an immediate drop in premium price that could actually get you a bit of a refund if you have already paid for coverage that you're now lowering. And "immediate" is not a joke. For many people, changes like these take effect the day they're requested -- no waiting until the next bill arrives.

But when it's time to file a claim, the coverage could be so skimpy that it doesn't cover all of the repairs needed or all of the medical bills. Maybe your car ends up in the shop for a long time, but you don't have the cash to rent a car in the meantime because you dropped your rental car option on your insurance. So you saved money up front with the premiums, but then you faced a much larger bill later on.

Coverage increments don't cost that much by themselves. The problem is that your cumulative premiums are too big for your budget to handle, so the premiums seem unaffordable.

Yearly, Semiannual, Quarterly, and Monthly

If the premiums you were struggling to pay were yearly or semiannual, you have other options. Quarterly and monthly payments can be substantially easier to deal with. Do be aware that sometimes insurance companies will require you to pay two months' worth of premiums to start a monthly plan, but your insurance agent can tell you more.

Don't Forget Other Strategies

Insurance companies have a lot of tricks up their sleeves that help you afford your insurance. Maybe you can switch to an automatic withdrawal plan and get a couple of dollars shaved off each bill. Or maybe you have other insurance with different companies, and you can get a discount by bundling everything with one agent.

Your agent can tell you about everything you can try. They are no strangers to dealing with tough economic circumstances, and they'll do what they can to create a policy for you that works well.