saving money, insuranceThere’s no easy way to sugar coat the situation: Sometimes staying covered with the right kind of insurance means forking over a hefty amount of money. However, are you paying extra on your premiums and payments for no other reason than you haven’t explored all your options? If this is the case, you’re missing out on the potential to cut the burden of insurance costs by a large margin. To find out how, let’s take a look at how working with a single insurance agent, instead of going through several policy providers, can save you hundreds of dollars a year.

Bundling Goes a Long Way When It Comes to Savings

First up, working with one agent instead of several firms opens up the opportunity for bundling plans and saving money. To illuminate this concept, Daniel Myers of Investopedia explains that the major insurance providers price plans and bundles in such a way as to attract certain demographics. The main issue is finding the best fit for yourself isn’t always easy, which is where a trusted agent steps into the picture. By sorting out the options on your behalf, this professional can optimize packages and find the plan that best fits your needs.

Avoiding Duplicate or Unnecessary Coverage

Even if you think you’re with the right provider, the truth of the matter is the world of insurance policies and coverage plans isn’t exactly transparent to outsiders. In fact, if you’re not already an expert in the field, trying to sift through all of the variables and coverage modifiers, while connecting with each agency you work with, can be a virtual nightmare. As Laura T. Coffey of NBC News’ Today blog points out, working with a single insurance agent can help you reduce the risk of duplicate or unnecessary coverage.

By having one expert in charge of all of your different policies, the process of looking for overlap becomes decidedly less complicated. Of course, the best part about finding these unnecessary plans or additional coverage is that your agent can then get to work implementing bundled or reduced alternatives, which in turn saves you more of your hard earned money.

Putting a Price on Your Time

Perhaps the best way working with a single insurance agent saves you money isn’t by reducing the direct fiscal burden of your plans, but rather freeing up more of your time to handle other issues and pursuits. Allison Westbrook explains this concept expertly in her article for the Houston Chronicles’ Small Business blog by noting that keeping your insurance concerns under one roof eliminates wasted time and promotes convenience.

If you’ve ever spent the better part of a morning or afternoon trying to connect with customer service representatives and help line employees at different organizations, you know just how frustrating it can be watching the minutes turn to hours as you slog through the process. While there’s no way to put a dollar sign on this quality of life improvement, there’s no denying that freeing up your time for other obligations by letting a single insurance agent handle your concerns is worth its weight in gold.

The moral of the story is that finding the best coverage isn’t always easy. However, you’re only making it harder on yourself by going through different providers for different plans. By putting what you’ve learned here to good use, you can leave behind this ineffective strategy and work with an insurance agent who knows how to kick avoidable coverage costs to the curb for good.