7 On Your Side offers tips for better auto insurance deals

A lot of people have heard about good driver or good student insurance discounts, but it goes well beyond that. 7 On Your Side has a few tips on how to get a better deal on auto insurance.

There are so many great discounts out there, people just need to start cashing in.

Driving down the road, one driver will be paying more than the drivers next to him for insurance even though they have similar cars and similar driving records.

The difference is that one driver has daytime-running lights, the other does not. Some insurance companies now offer discounts to those drivers who have a car with that safety feature.

"Many cars now have daytime-running lights so it's really worth your while to know this discount exists because many people might not be aware of this," Bankrate.com insurance analyst Doug Whiteman said.

For the second year in a row, Bankrate has sifted through the fine print and found auto insurance discounts that people may not have even heard about.

"These discounts can even be a little quirky. If you belong to a bowling organization, some of the bowling groups have partnership arrangements with the insurance companies. The insurers have partnerships with sororities and fraternities, so if you pledged to Delta Delta Delta in college, it is very possible you might qualify for an insurance discount," Whiteman said.

"The list of affiliations that can get you discounts can be very lengthy with some of these companies so it's worth talking with a customer service agent and rattling off all of the professional affiliations or memberships that you may belong to," Consumer Action's Joe Ridout said. "One of them might save you money on your auto insurance."

Ridout said the more a person looks, the more discounts they find.

"There are some very obscure ones as well. For example, if you're a Geico policy holder. If you buy one share of a Berkshire-Hathaway 'B' share, which is about $130, you can get up to eight percent off your policy," Ridout said.

One year of savings would buy that share for many policy holders.