All Entries in the "Insurance" Category

How to Save on Car Insurance

You earn every penny you get and it makes you crazy to pay more than you have to for anything. When gas prices exceeded $4.00 per gallon in July 2008, US car owners cut back driving billions of miles, and consequently filed thousands fewer car insurance claims. Although this saved insurers millions, instead of rewarding policy holders with cheap car insurance rates, state regulators asked to raise rates by up to 14 percent nationwide. Happily, there are ways drivers can lower car insurance rates, if they know where to look. Begin by comparing car insurance rates online.

Know Your Risk Factors
The fact is that there are dozens of risk factors insurers consider when assigning your car insurance premium, and many of them are under your control. Younger drivers and male drivers pay more than older drivers and female drivers. Owners of sports cars pay higher premiums than the minivan set. Professions which require use of a cell phone while driving, or those under greater stress on the job will see higher car insurance rates

Car Insurance Savings Tips

· If you want to drop yourself into a lower car insurance rate, lower your risk of being a victim of theft by installing a car alarm. Some anti-theft services qualify you for a hefty car insurance discount.

· Consider assuming a higher deductible.

· Eliminate or lower collision and comprehensive on older vehicles.

· Piggyback your car and homeowners policies.

· Work on improving your credit score by repairing errors and paying your credit cards on time. Insurers use your credit rating as a way to determine your rates.

· Clean up your driving record by attending a Driver Education Course to wipe out minor infractions.

· You can also qualify for discounts for customer loyalty, being a safe driver, being a good student.

· Insurers including Progressive and GMAC offer up to 60 percent discounts for driving fewer miles. Besides, each mile less you drive, prevents the release of one pound of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.

· Some insurers offer discounts for group membership.

The goal of paying less for car insurance is worth achieving but, to do so by sacrificing good coverage is foolish. Make sure you carry more that the minimum coverage that states require. Most states only require $5,000 property damage for accidents you cause. Crash tests have proven that many 10 mile per hour fender benders can cause that much damage.

The best way to save money on car insurance is to never have to file a claim. Take a Defensive Driving Course will not only qualify you for a discount on your car insurance, but will also pay dividends by making you a safer driver. Learn to identify dangerous situations in traffic and take a different route.

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Have You Looked at Your Car Insurance Premiums Lately?

Insurance agents are like subprime mortgage lenders.  Their incentive is based on selling you more insurance, not necessarily the right insurance for you and your family.

So it pays to educate yourself on what your personal needs are.

By understanding:

1. your home state’s minimum requirements, and
2. what you and your family need to be protected,

you can eliminate the chance of over-zealous insurance agents selling you more insurance than you really need.

How much auto insurance do you need?  Your needs will change.  Re-evaluate your policy yearly.  Ask yourself questions like:

• how old are your cars?  At some point your car is so old that collision doesn’t pay enough to cover its cost.
• can you consolidate policies?  It’ll be more expensive for you and your spouse to have separate policies than a joint one.
• is the company you’re currently using responsive?  Some companies provide great service.  Some do not.

If your confused about where to start, Consumer Reports offers this approach:

Start at the Web site of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and click on NAIC States & Jurisdictions to find your state’s insurance department. Most provide comparative premium quotes based on standard customer profiles. If your state doesn’t, you can get quotes from insurers by phone or over the Internet. You can also compare premiums from multiple carriers by using independent Web sites, such as Insweb, Insurance.com, and Insure.com. 

My personal experience:

This spring, my home state of Massachusetts deregulated the auto insurance industry.  Formerly, no matter where you bought insurance, you paid a standard assigned price.  In other words, they could oversell you, but they couldn’t over charge you.

Now, auto insurance prices are unregulated.  Sound familiar?  Having a PTSD attack?  That’s right, insurers can charge whatever they wish.  According to a plethora of advertisements by the auto insurance industry, this was supposed to make my car insurance go down.

But when I started shopping around, I noticed the prices I was being quoted were actually higher than what I was currently paying.  This was even with my spouse and I consolidating our policies.  All this, while huge advertisements kept telling me it would be the opposite.

Go figure.  I guess here in Massachusetts, they still haven’t learned anything about the evils of deregulation.  Or maybe they have.

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“A Living Nightmare” - or “What Happens When You Actually Have to File a Claim With Your Car Insurance Company”

“I Won’t Be Able to Meet You, Honey - A Tree Fell on My Car.”

This is not my car, but you get the idea.———–>

It happened in my driveway, a week ago last Friday. It was a perfect, sunny New England day, 75 degrees, and a clear blue sky.

My house windows were open as I prepared to leave to meet my spouse in Boston for an after-work barbeque. The peaceful quiet was suddenly filled with a loud crack from outside, and down the tree came with a crash. Not the whole tree, but enough of it to flatten my paid for Honda Civic with only 87,000 miles on it. Little did my car know it was about to come to an untimely death.

If I had left the house twenty minutes earlier, I wouldn’t be writing this.

The good news: No one was hurt, and the house and new edition have only minor damages.

The bad news: my car is totaled.

This all happened about a week ago, and I’ve been caught in an insurance nightmare ever since.

Things I’ve learned about dealing with insurance companies:

1 ) You’re guilty until proven innocent.

They immediately took an adversarial position. In the course of 24 hours, I was asked by three different people what happened. I was asked the exact same questions each time. Since it was my neighbor’s tree, there is huge concern over the health of the tree. If the tree is healthy, my insurance pays. If the tree is unhealthy, and my neighbors were negligent in its care, their insurance pays.

When I told them the tree looked perfectly healthy (which it did, though there is internal rot that could not have been known of prior to the accident) repeatedly, they kept trying to cajole me into saying it was my neighbor’s fault.

2) They don’t want to give you as much as the car is really worth.

Their estimate is at least $2000 less than what it would cost me to replace it with the exact same car.

3) They try to wait you out.

After giving me the low appraisal, they encouraged me to settle immediately. I have rental car coverage on my insurance. It states “$15 dollars/ day up to a total of $450 dollars” on my policy. But I have been told I only 5 days of coverage left before I have to start paying for the rental in full. I don’t quite get this, since when I turn in the rental I’ll have had it for only eight days. $15×8 is $120 on my calculator.

5 days is not a lot of time to research and buy a car.

I challenged their settlement offer last Thursday. They were supposed to get back to me within 24 hours. That was Thursday, and this is Sunday. Though I have called repeatedly, the agent handling my case has not returned my calls. They are closed over the weekend, but the car rental time clock keeps ticking, and on Monday it will be 5 days. Think they’ll call me Monday?

What I’ve done to fight back - Being Proactive.

I’ll be picking up my new car on Monday evening (buying the car is a story for another post!) They had 0% financing, so I financed almost the entire purchase. What a deal!

And now, when I speak with the insurance agent:

1) I won’t need the settlement quickly for purchasing the new car.

2) The rental goes back Monday.

3) I have no storage fees for my totaled car, as it’s in my driveway.

With these financial constraints removed, I have no pressure to settle quickly, and can at least negotiate the car value on a more level playing field.

Monday will be an interesting day. And this is only the car insurance. I still have to deal with the house insurance. Wish me luck.

My new car- a red Toyota Corolla LE, 2009-

Here’s a picture.

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