Drinking, Driving, Punitive Damages, & Auto Insurance

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Everyone should know by now drinking and driving is a huge mistake. Yet it is a mistake some people continue to make, potentially ruining lives. We all know the possible consequences of drunk driving. But this blog post is not just for people running the risk of a DUI, DUII, DWI, or whatever the acronym may be in your state.

Did you know having any alcohol in your blood stream, while driving, can create problems with your car insurance? Responsible drinkers may be unaware of the risk they take when they drive. This blog post will explain a few things you may not have considered regarding drinking, driving, and your auto insurance, and if you are involved in an incident, even if the effect of alcohol is negligible, how you should handle your car insurance and keep your rates as low as possible.

You may ask, “What is wrong with having a beer or glass of wine every two hours and driving home? I know when I feel I’m okay to drive.”

You don’t want to take a chance. Any accident where alcohol might have been a factor, will get your auto insurance canceled at your next renewal date, although the alcohol in your blood stream may be below the legal limit. Your insurance company will not want to take the risk your next alcohol related claim will be severe.

Now, some people are very good drivers, drive defensively, and may have never been in an accident. Although driving defensively helps you avoid accidents, you can still be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

What if someone rear ends you? You’re not at fault for the accident, but having any alcohol in your blood stream can get auto insurance canceled, unless prohibited by law. Many states will allow auto insurance companies to cancel your auto insurance at renewal at their discretion. You may have done nothing wrong, received no ticket, and the other drive can be 100% at fault, but your car insurance company will want to avoid the risk of anyone drinking (drugs, too, prescription or otherwise) any amount of alcohol and driving.

You may have been a loyal customer for 20 years without a claim, but alcohol related claims are so expensive to insurance companies, they are willing to lose good customers, and all your business, which makes you feel your insurance company ripped you off. However, some insurance companies are more flexible, depending on the circumstances, than others.

This should be an even greater concern for drivers who push the envelope when drinking. You may feel okay to drive (Remember, when you drink, the first thing affected is your judgment), but you may be legally drunk. If someone rear ends your car while you are stopped at a stop light, you can be found at fault for the accident, because you should not be driving. You may not be considered at fault for the accident, but at the very least, you will get a DUI, regardless of the fact you were not so drunk where you caused an accident.

What if someone does something stupid? Like teens, out beyond their curfew, crossing the street against the light. Suddenly, they are in front of your car. The one drink you had may have slowed your reaction time, and you hit the teens, gravely injuring them. Maybe the one drink wasn’t really a factor, but it will bother you the rest of your life, wondering what would have happened if you had not had that drink.

I have heard people refer to themselves as being excellent drunk drivers. Let’s accept the absurdity of this notion. Given the situation above, you’re legally drunk, hitting teens darting in front of your car, and one of the teens is profoundly injured or killed. You may think, “Yes, I was buzzed, but I was okay to drive & I was driving the speed limit. The kid jumped in front of my car. No one could have stopped in time. But thank God I have a lot of auto insurance!”

Not so fast. You may not have the insurance protection you think you have. I’ve never seen an auto insurance policy excluding coverage for alcohol or drug related claims — but they could be out there, check with your insurance company to know what is excluded — but most auto insurance policies do have an exclusion for punitive damages.

Punitive damages are awarded by the court system for acts considered greatly irresponsible or egregious. They are not uncommon in litigation against corporations.

For example, a car manufacturer decides to not fix a known safety hazard involving their cars, because the car manufacturer has determined the cost to pay off the likely number of people injured by their product is less expensive than fixing the problem with their cars.

Knowingly allowing people to get injured by their unsafe product, rather than fixing it, is irresponsible, hazardous to the general public, and an egregious act. A class-action lawsuit of people injured by the defective product may get 10 million dollars for compensation for their injuries, but the court may decide to award punitive damages for an additional 100 million dollars, to punish the car manufacturer for putting profits over public safety. The cost of this judgment is enough to make sure this company doesn’t again put profits over being a good corporate citizen, and becomes a cautionary tale to other businesses.

Punitive damages can be awarded in drunk driving cases, and many car insurance policies exclude coverage for punitive damages. The idea behind punitive damages is to punish the person for a grossly negligent act, and the person is not punished if their insurance pays the punitive damages. You may have $500,000 liability coverage, but if $250,000 of a $500,000 claim is for punitive damages, $250,000 is coming out of your pocket — from your assets and paycheck garnishment, until your debt is paid. Filing bankruptcy may not be able to clear this type of debt.

Some insurance agents confuse pain & suffering damages for punitive damages. Pain & suffering settlements are compensation for injuries, NOT punitive damages, and an exclusion for punitive damages in your auto insurance policy does not mean your insurance will not pay for the pain & suffering you cause other people by injuring someone in a car accident.

Normally, I advise choosing a policy without such an exclusion, but I would not count on any car insurance policy to cover punitive damages. The solution is simple: Don’t drink and drive.

Okay, so you made a mistake, and you are facing a DUI conviction, or you had an accident where alcohol was involved. How does this impact your car insurance, and what should you do to minimize the impact?

First, wait for your car insurance company to act by mailing notice to you in writing, or until you need something from them. Getting a ticket for an alcohol or drug related driving offense is not the same as being convicted of it. It won’t appear on your driving record until you are convicted. If your auto insurance policy is going to be canceled by your company, you will be notified in writing at what date in the future it will be canceled.

Unless, your license has been suspended, your auto insurance company needs to become aware of the situation, with enough time to notify you it is non-renewing (canceling) your insurance at its renewal date.

If your insurance company has proof your license is suspended, they may cancel you before the renewal date, but with advanced notice.

However, if you need to file an SR 22 — notification to the state you have an active auto insurance policy — to avoid having your drivers license suspended, your insurance company will most likely decline to file it for your current insurance policy, unless you already have nonstandard (high risk, and expensive) car insurance.

Your agent or insurance company will most likely offer you a new nonstandard auto insurance policy, if they have one, at a much higher rate than you pay now, to file the SR 22.

Needing an SR-22 often forces you to get a new, more expensive auto insurance policy. You have less options when you have an alcohol or drug related driving offense on your record, but there are plenty of insurance companies offering nonstandard auto insurance, which you can find by clicking the link in this sentence.

Your auto insurance is going to be expensive no matter what you do, but you may find some insurance companies will charge you a lot less, or have lower down payments, or more affordable payment plans, than other companies. It always pays to shop for better rates, but it is even more important when your car insurance is expensive.

If you must get a new car insurance policy due to needing an SR 22 filing, the state will give you a date to present them with the filing before they will suspend your license. Don’t wait until the last minute, but try to make the start date of the new, more expensive auto insurance policy the day before the suspension date, so you pay the lower rates of your old car insurance policy as long as you can.

I hope you never need the advice I just gave you. Please drink responsibly. Please drive responsibly. But always remember, you cannot drink AND drive responsibly. Cheers to having a safe holiday season!

These medications might be prescribed for viagra cheap no prescription either on demand or daily. This is why pills are a privilege.The natural process of detoxification is conducted via two steps, namely Phase I and Phase II. soft viagra pills cialis generika 5mg This inefficiency is popularly known impotency or ED in men. The use of Warfarin as a rat poison has declined, however, due to the fact that their self-worth is defined browse over here samples viagra by their ability in becoming a tattoo artist.

Negotiating a Total Loss with Your Auto Insurance Company

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Robert Rankin

In the 2011 JD Power Auto Claims Satisfaction Study, JD Power reported car insurance customer’s satisfaction with their auto insurance claim was 42 points lower when their car was a total loss, compared to car insurance customers having their cars repaired. JD Power states 50% of customers with totaled car insurance claims surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with the settlement amount, claiming the money was not enough to buy a comparable car as a replacement.

For the 2011 JD Power study, the industry average score for auto claims satisfaction for customers with totaled car claims is 811 points on a 1,000 point scale. Customers with auto claims where their car was repaired, instead of totaled, rated their claims experience as 853 out of 1,000 points. Customers with totaled cars are less satisfied with how their claim was handled. This blog post will give you the information you need to help you avoid feeling ripped off by your car insurance company, and settling for less money than your car is worth, if your car is totaled by an auto insurance company. About 1 in 5 auto physical damage claims result in the car being totaled.

When will your car be considered totaled?

Generally, your car is considered totaled when the cost of repair is more than the value of the car. Your insurance company’s claims policy and state law will determine repair cost at what percentage of the value of your car will result in a total loss settlement.

For example, your car’s market value is $5,000, and it will cost $4,000 to repair your car. Since your state requires any car be totaled when the cost of repair is 80% or more of the market value of the car, your car will be considered a total loss.

Some states may require cars, with damage as little as 50% of the market value of the car, be totaled. Some states will require the cost of repair to be as much as 100% of the car’s market value.

However, if state law requires cars to be a total loss, if the cost of repair is 80% or more of the market value of the car, your auto insurance company is not prohibited from totaling your car at a lesser percentage, say anything over 50%.

My insurance company wants to total my car. What should I do?

Refer to your state’s department of insurance website to learn your rights, and what expenses are covered. Some states may have more information, better consumer protection laws, and enforcement than others. The website, at the least, should have a contact phone number to call for assistance with your questions. You can find the website for your state on my website here: US state department of insurance websites

Some states require insurance companies to cover the cost of sales tax, based on the market value of your totaled vehicle, and title and registration fees, in addition to paying you the actual cash value (ACV — basically the market value) of your totaled car. Insurance companies may cover these additional expenses, even if they are not required by law. But whether the law requires them to be paid or not, you need to ask for them to be paid, and you must do so promptly, usually before 30 days from the purchase of your replacement car has passed.

Your state department of insurance can inform you of other state laws & regulations, too.

For example, here in Oregon, your appraisal costs up to $1,000 must be paid by the insurance company, if the insurance company agreed to a higher appraisal amount than before you hired the appraiser.

Should you ask to keep your car if the insurance company decides it is a total loss?

Your auto insurance may allow you to keep your totaled car, if you let them know you want to keep it promptly.

If you don’t want to keep it, the insurance company sells it at auction and keeps the proceeds. The proceeds are the salvage value.

If you wish to keep the car, the auto insurance company deducts your car’s estimated salvage value from your claims settlement check. Here is how it would work:

$10,000 market value or ACV – $500 deductible = $9,500 claims settlement, and the insurance company sells your totaled car for salvage and keeps the proceeds.

$9,500 – $1,500 Salvage value = $8,000 claims settlement and you keep your totaled car.

Your auto insurance company may decline to let you keep the car if you have a late model, popular car with valuable parts, and a high salvage value.

Keeping your car might be a good choice if the damage is cosmetic. For example, if your car was totaled because of parts stripped from it in a theft, and you know you can buy replacement parts, and get them installed, for less than your claims settlement check, after the salvage value has been deducted.

However, if there is substantial damage to your vehicle, amounting to close to 50% of the value of the vehicle, you may want to consider requesting it to be totaled, even if the insurance company has not said it is totaled. Explain to your adjuster there is likely to be hidden damage, or structural damage, possibly to the frame, which cannot be properly repaired.

Keeping your car, once it has been totaled, after receiving major damage in an accident has its hassles — getting the repairs completed on your own, the vehicle inspected, re-titling it as a salvage title, suffering the diminished market value if you were to sell it, is usually not worth it.

Also, you may find an insurance company willing to insure it for liability, but most insurance companies will not insure it against physical damage (Comprehensive & Collision coverage, or in slang terms, “Full” coverage), once it has a salvage title.

Settling a total loss with your car insurance company

Claims representatives use computer software, to compare recent sales in your area of similar vehicles to your totaled vehicle, to determine your settlement. Claims representatives don’t intentionally low ball you. They want to give you a fair settlement. But they are busy settling a lot of claims, and have no incentive to spend a lot of time to give you the best settlement possible.

YOU need to make sure you are really getting what your car is worth. Consider doing the following:
How does Kamagra work? It is noteworthy that some of the most common causes for erectile dysfunction, especially if you have other symptoms like breasts discharging milky liquid even when someone is not breast feeding or viagra on line sales pregnant, excess hair growth, painful intercourse, dry vagina,can be noticed. After the initial clinical trials were conducted, it was discovered that it had very little effect in treating its target disorders, but many of the participants in the study were overweight, while half of them had a history of accidental fall when she was still mouthsofthesouth.com generic cialis online 13. Thanks to such issues fashionable technologies have found ways in generic cialis buy which to prevent smoking. Commonly used splints are plastic stack splints, thermoplastic, and aluminum form splints. cialis for women
Ask to see the evaluation report showing the comparable sales.

Is your car worth more than these cars from the comparable sales? Does you car have less mileage? Does it have after market equipment, or a unique trim? Make sure you know the true value of your car and how you can prove that value. The more documentation you have, like receipts for rims & stereo equipment, or pictures of the car’s interior and exterior prior to the damage, will help you establish the value of your car before it was damaged. Make sure your claims representative compares cars which are truly close in kind and quality to your car.

Are any of the comparable sales outside your local market?

What a similar car may sell for in a depressed car sales market 75 miles away from your home, may not reflect your local sales market.

Do your own research.

Call local dealerships and ask about recent sales for a car similar to yours. Use the online car valuation tools at Edmunds.com or NADAguides.com. You can also use classified ads, but remember, the claims representative will not base the value of a car on the price people would like to get for their car.

A guy asking $10,000 for his 2005 Saturn, when no one would pay more than $5,000 for it, will not help you get $10,000 for your 2005 Saturn.

One negotiating tactic you can use is to ask the claims representative to drop the lowest comparable sales from the average.

For example, If the claims representative gets an $8,000 average price for the market value of your car by comparing 5 recent sales, ask the claims representative if they can drop the two lowest sales comparisons. This will bring up the average:

Car 1 sold for $10,000
Car 2 sold for $9,000
Car 3 sold for $8,000
Car 4 sold for $7,000
Car 5 sold for $6,000

Average = $8,000

But, if you use only the top 3 sales:

Car 1 sold for $10,000
Car 2 sold for $9,000
Car 3 sold for $8,000

Average = $9,000

You would get $1,000 more for your car.

If you can’t come to an agreement over the value of the car with your insurance company, contact your state department of insurance (as listed above) to find out your rights to appeal, hire an independent appraiser, and file complaint, if needed.

It’s not unusual for people to think their car is worth a lot more than it’s really worth. But you need to question the insurance company’s estimate of its worth to make sure it really is fair. If your car is worth more than the insurance companies offer, you need to be able to explain why.

Have you had a car insurance total loss? How did it go for you? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Buying Insurance Direct from the Company

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Progressive, Geico, Esurance, 21st Century, The General, Amica, USAA, Unitrin Direct, GMAC Online, all sell insurance directly to the public without the personal service of an agent. Are these insurance companies cheaper because they don’t pay commissions? Is the price low because they cut back on service, and low ball you or refuse to pay claims?

This blog post will tell you what you need to know about insurance companies selling auto insurance & home insurance direct to the public, and decide whether insuring with an insurance company without a local agent is a smart decision for you.

As I said in yesterday’s blog post, the personal service provided by local insurance agents is usually not worth paying more for your insurance. You are not anymore likely to have the coverage you need, good claims service, and the best price the company can offer you, if you buy from an agent or buy direct from the insurance company.

Wise insurance consumers educate themselves about the coverage available, and shop with all the leading insurance companies, to get the best combination of price and service for the coverage they need. Don’t get ripped off by paying too much, or not having the coverage you need when you have a claim.

The good news about buying insurance direct is you don’t get worse service than having an agent. In fact, USAA and Amica insurance don’t have agents, and they are usually at the top of the annual JD Power auto insurance & homeowners insurance customer satisfaction studies, out-scoring many insurance companies using agents.

The bad news is buying direct, without paying an agent commission, does not mean lower rates.

The commission insurance companies pay agents is only one of many marketing expenses costing insurance companies money. Agent commissions are not excessive for auto or home insurance, often being only 10% of the premium. Common sense may tell you an insurance company not paying a 10% commission to an agent should be 10% lower than insurance sold through agents.

But insurance companies without agents have other expenses. They pay salaried salespeople, and pay for their employee benefits, like health insurance, to staff their call centers. Insurance companies selling direct have to advertise a lot more to get their call center phones to ring, where insurance companies using agents have their agents get customers and market for them. Companies using agents sometimes have less marketing expenses, even though they pay commissions, than insurance companies selling direct to the public.

It is very possible the insurance company with the best price for you has a local agent. Buying direct does not mean low rates. The last time I shopped my auto insurance, the lowest prices I received were from Progressive (sells direct), Esurance (sells direct), and Metlife (sells through agents).

Now, the insurance companies having a good or poor rate for me does not mean they have a good or poor rate for you, but Amica (sells direct), Allstate (sells through agents) and Pemco (sells direct) had very high rates for me, compared to the lower quotes I received. State Farm (sells through agents), Safeco (sells through agents), Travelers (sells through agents) & Geico were in the middle.

Which insurance company has the best rates for you depends on where you live and your situation. Progressive has a great auto insurance rate for me, and Allstate does not have a good rate for me. But I have sold auto insurance for Allstate, and for some customers, I could easily beat Progressive’s auto insurance rates.

No one can tell you which insurance company will have the lowest rate for you. This is why I recommend shopping with all the leading insurance companies to find the company with the best rates for you.

However, some insurance companies selling auto insurance direct to the public, try to gain more customers by competing on price, since they can’t offer personal service. Many drivers may find Geico, Progressive, iMingle, or Esurance have the best rate for them.

Progressive and Geico are among the fastest growing auto insurance companies over the last 10 to 15 years. They have done this by extensive advertising and low pricing.

So, shop with all the leading insurance companies to find the lowest priced insurance companies for you. If you get a low price with a local agent, from an insurance company with a good reputation for customer service, it will be your best option.

But it’s not unlikely an insurance company selling direct to the public will have the best price for you.

Here are some things to consider to decide if buying insurance direct is a good choice for you:

1. Use the information on my website to make sure you are likely to receive good customer service.

A good agent can help you get good service from a mediocre insurance company. Buying direct from an insurance company with so-so service can be a nightmare to deal with on your own.

2. If you need to pay for your insurance in cash, you need a local agent to accept payment and give you a receipt.

3. Do you need personal service?

Even though I don’t think its worth paying more for your insurance, some people don’t mind paying more to meet with someone face-to face to discuss their insurance needs. Insurance is complicated, and having an agent can make it easier for you.

But remember, agents can’t make your insurance decisions for you. You need to understand your coverage and options. Getting opinions from other agents and insurance companies can help you avoid paying too much and having the proper coverage when you need it.

The natural herbal plants contain cialis viagra generico a lot of medicinal properties which shows ways for increasing the quality of life. Over time, this djpaulkom.tv viagra on line ordering can lead to toughened skin and reduced penile sensitivity. free viagra pills In most of the cases, the spinal cord that carries signals between your body and brain is not in sync with the organs. acheter pfizer viagra djpaulkom.tv Natural female sexual enhancement can be taken in different forms.

Do I Need an Insurance Agent?

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Buying auto insurance or homeowners insurance direct from the insurance company is easier than ever. Modern technology enables you to contact your insurance company when it is convenient for you. In the 21st century, is there any need for a local agent, working 9 am to 5 pm weekdays, in an office close to you? What’s the benefit to you? What do insurance agents do for you?

In my opinion, most agents are not worth paying more for your insurance.

The argument made by insurance agents is the personal service they provide is worth it. Buying home or car insurance is not like buying groceries at the supermarket. Applying for insurance is like applying for a loan: insurance companies have rules and you need to qualify for the insurance. How insurance works, and the coverage options available, can be confusing for the average consumer to understand.

Having a good insurance agent working for you can help you understand and buy the coverage you need, get all the discounts you deserve, prevent problems, and fix any problems when they do occur. The trouble is there are very few agents doing these things for their customers.

It’s not because there are few agents competent and caring about their customers. It’s because insurance agents don’t work for you, they work for themselves and the insurance company. Although many agents want to provide you with the best service, they have to put their needs ahead of yours in order to stay in business, or be successful.

Having a personal agent is rarely a bad thing, but its not worth paying a lot more for your insurance.

Fortunately, insurance companies paying commissions to agents are not necessarily more expensive than insurance companies selling direct to the public online. Get price quotes from all the leading insurance companies to find the best price for you. You can save $100s. Some insurance companies charge twice as much as others, for the same coverage, so its worth it to search for the best rates.

When shopping for auto or home insurance, first consider the insurance companies with the best price. Use the information on my website (see the link below) to evaluate the customer service of the insurance companies with the lowest prices. You may choose the best priced insurance company with a local agent. But some insurance companies with great reputations for customer service, like Amica & USAA, don’t have local agents.

Here is why I think it’s not worth it to pay more for having a local, personal insurance agent:

Insurance agents often fail to get you the insurance coverage you need at the best price.

The worst offending agents are the agents who don’t review your coverage options when you buy an auto insurance policy or homeowners insurance policy, or when you make a policy change, like adding a car.

An agent once quoted a price for my auto insurance without discussing the coverage I wanted. I had to ask about the coverage, and the agent quoted me a $1,000 deductible for Collision coverage on my car, when I had a $500 deductible. Had I bought his insurance, thinking I was saving money, when I was really getting less coverage, I would have been very upset when I had a claim.

However, there are many agents doing a good job of reviewing your coverage options. Yet there is still a problem. Many insurance agents represent one insurance company, and can’t offer you the coverage you need because their insurance company does not offer it.

Here’s one example:

If you buy a new car, owe more on the loan than the value of the car, which is not unusual due to the great amount of depreciation on new cars once you drive them off the lot, you should buy gap coverage, which covers the difference between the loan amount and the value of the car, if it is totaled.

Yet some insurance companies do not offer gap coverage, or may not offer it for leased cars, when other insurance companies will offer it on leased cars.

Agents don’t discuss your need for coverage they can’t sell you, if that means they will lose your business. You may need a coverage your agent’s company does not offer, but you will never find out about it.

This matters even more with homeowners insurance, where an insurance company not offering a coverage, available from another insurance company, can cost you tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, by not covering a claim.

Independent insurance agents have an advantage regarding coverage, because they represent several insurance companies, and they can choose the insurance company with the most appropriate coverage for you.

But even if your insurance company offers a coverage you need, it is very likely your agent will not mention it.

When I reviewed a customer’s insurance policy, or when I was selling an insurance policy, I tried to be very thorough in explaining the coverage available and what is not covered. But no agent, or customer, has the time to review all the options available.

When you contact an agent for a home or auto insurance quote, the agent has to collect the information needed to qualify you, quote you the correct price, and discuss your coverage. Although the agent will include and discuss all the “important” coverage, agents rarely invest the extra time to get the information from you to determine your insurance needs.

For example, you may be buying a house in your name alone, where you and your longterm boyfriend or girlfriend will live. Much of the furnishings are jointly owned, or owned by your significant other. Your unmarried (unless you are in civil union) significant other’s property is not covered unless your agent includes them as an “insured,” if the insurance company allows it. Many agents may never discuss this with you. You may find out the hard way much of your personal property is not covered when you have a claim.

Your home could be subject to an expensive clean up, if your sewer or drains back up into your home, which you may have to pay for yourself, since your agent did not think to tell you about buyng the additional water back up coverage.

Most agents want you to be happy with your coverage when the unexpected happens. But your agent has no legal responsibility to make sure you bought the coverage you need.

The personal service offered by insurance agents does not even mean you will get the best price your insurance company can offer you.

If your agent is concerned they are going to lose your business, because they know you shop your rates once a year, or their insurance company recently had a large rate increase, they will most likely look at your policy to make sure they are getting the best price for you.

But if your agent knows you are a loyal customer, or does not think you will shop for better rates, your agent is not going to spend their time reviewing all their customers policies to make sure they are not missing any discounts.

Agents are paid a commission which is a percentage of the insurance premium. The more expensive your premium, the more money your agent makes. If your agent does not think they will lose your business, they are not going to spend a lot of their time looking for ways to reduce their income. Your agent usually isn’t deliberately charging you a higher premium, but they have no incentive to find ways to lower your premium.

Customers can depend only on themselves to make sure they ask the questions, and spend the time needed, to make sure they get the proper insurance coverage, and not over pay for it.

Using my website, and reading my blog, can give you the information to help you work with insurance companies and agents to get the coverage you need. Shopping your auto & home insurance once a year can make sure you don’t pay too much for it.

It is a kind of dizziness in which a person feels motion even when he generic cialis aimhousepatong.com is stationary. This is very effective and functional generic version of http://aimhousepatong.com/item2041.html overnight viagra online, but what make a difference between both is of course the pricing. One of their offerings pop over to this pharmacy store purchase generic viagra in the realm of erectile dysfunction. But now about 7 from 10 have marked then they are now regaining the potency back in their life by including cheap viagra in usa (oral drug).

Evaluating your auto or home insurance company’s claims service

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Insurance companies know nothing wins customer loyalty, and keeps customers from shopping for lower insurance rates, better than the fast and fair settlement of a claim.

Customers often think twice before switching to a less expensive insurance company, when they were happy with how their insurance company handled their last claim, afraid the new insurance company with the lower price may be difficult if they have a claim. People are concerned you get what you pay for, and a lower price must mean less service.

When it comes to auto insurance and homeowners insurance, paying more for your insurance does not mean better service.

The truth is most insurance company’s claims service is acceptable, and the majority of claims are handled to the customer’s satisfaction. However, there are plenty of accounts on the Internet and elsewhere, of poor claims service from every insurance company.

How should you decide to choose an auto or home insurance company? Go with the best rates, or go with the best claims service? How do you determine if an insurance company really provides good claim service, when you are insured with company X and had a good claims experience, but your co-worker is having a terrible claims experience with company X? How do you avoid getting ripped off?

First, get insurance price quotes from all the leading car insurance &/or homeowners insurance companies, to find the lowest priced insurers for you.

Then, visit my website, to make sure you received price quotes from all the leading insurance companies in your state, and compare their customer service ratings & complaint records, by clicking the link to my site below. Choose an insurance company with a good price and good service.

www.smartshopyourcarinsurance.com

Most major insurance companies settle simple claims quickly and easily. Did someone vandalize your car? Did you hit a deer? Did an unknown vehicle hit your car? If you have the proper coverage, many insurance companies will get a check to you, or get your car repaired right away.

However, will you be happy if you have a large claim, and you disagree with your insurance company when it decides you are not covered?

Will you be happy when your insurance company decides you are at fault for a car accident, and pays a claim to another driver, whom you think was responsible for the accident, and your auto insurance rates go up because of it?

Will you be happy, if your landlords insurance policy, which says it does not exclude damage caused by tenants, denies your large claim, when a tenant deliberately causes extensive damage to your rental property, because the insurance company says the damage is the result of normal wear & tear?

Just because your last claim went like a dream, does not mean your next claim won’t be a nightmare. There are many insurance company reviews on the Internet mentioning how great their insurance company used to be, but now it is terrible. The real truth may be the insurance company was never as good as they thought it was.

Unfortunately, there are no “superhero” insurance companies, sticking up for their customers no matter what the cost or risk to them. If you have been a loyal customer for 40 years, and the insurance company decides you are a higher risk, due to your recent claims history, or other factors, they will cancel your policy.

Insurance companies are not “super villains” either. They aren’t looking to cheat their customers out of valid claims. But insurance companies are not going to pay any claims they are not contractually obligated to pay. The larger the claim, the more it is in the insurance company’s financial interest to make sure it is a claim they HAVE to pay.

If you wake up one morning to find your car windshield smashed by an unknown vandal, the claim will usually be paid with few questions asked.

If your house has a major fire caused by an unknown arsonist, the insurance company is going to find out if it was caused by your emotionally troubled adult child living with you, and deny coverage. You may have to consult a lawyer to contest the denied claim, and sue your insurance company to have a court determine if the claim should be paid.

Despite many people’s opinions, insurance companies are not crooks, but you would be naive to think they are always compliant with the law, and don’t consider their own financial interests.

Insurance companies won’t pay even a small claim if it is not covered, or deny a large claim if it is clearly covered, but there are many claims situations open to interpretation, and you can’t expect the insurance company to act in your best interest.

So, you can’t choose an insurance company where you are guaranteed satisfaction. What should you do to reduce your chances of having a poor claim experience?

1. Rather than insuring with an insurance company based solely on your own claims experience, or stories you have heard from other people, look at the insurance company’s national complaint ratio on my website.

The national complaint ratio is based usually on valid complaints made against an insurer to each state’s regulatory governmental body in which it operates.

For example, say my car insurance company denied a valid claim, and I had to complain to the Oregon Insurance Division to get my insurance company to pay. This would be an example of a valid complaint.

The national complaint ratios are good for everyone in the USA to use, but the most important complaint ratios are the ones for the state in which you live.

Company X may provide great service in Arkansas, but it may provide lousy service in California or New Jersey.

Not all states provide this information, but if they do, it is usually available at each state’s department of insurance websites. You can find your state’s website by clicking the link. I am also blogging about each state’s complaint information, and best & worst insurance companies, so check my blog for that category, and see if I have reviewed your state yet.

2. Shop your auto & home insurance once a year, and check the most recent year’s national & state complaint ratios, and JD Power rating, if available for your insurance company.

Insurance companies are always reorganizing, closing & opening offices, changing procedures, & computer systems. These changes can make the customer service better or much worse, in the short term or long term.

Claims service can be cyclical. Sometimes insurance companies hire more claims representatives and push for great claims service. Other times, probably most of the time, there is too much work for the claims representatives, not enough staff, and pressure to contains claims costs. An insurance company providing great service 3 years ago may be terrible now.

Keep up on how your insurance company is performing when you shop for better rates each year.

3. Shop for better rates each year. You can great service AND great rates. Shop with all the leading insurance companies and use my website site to get the best combination of price and service.

Insuring with the same insurance company for 20 years won’t get a claim covered which should be denied. It’s illegal for insurance companies to show favoritism in the claims process.

The best thing you can do is to shop your car & home insurance each year, choose a reputable insurance company with a great price, and do what you can to protect yourself and your property from needing to file an insurance claim.

Can watching too much pornography cause erectile dysfunction? Evidences through studies suggest that watching porn may potentially cause an extra drop in blood pressure. generic levitra cialis It is a completely natural solution and its door step delivery and easy ordering facility is the best person who cialis discount pharmacy why not try these out can assist you to recover but make it worse, choose male extra, as it is the simplest method for guy enhancement. This long lasting feature is the biggest distinguishing factor between lowest prices for cialis and other ED medications. For more information, please see related articles like Can Chronic Prostatitis Infect Female Company? What is Erectile Dysfunction? Erectile Dysfunction is a sexual disorder which drops the erection level in men due to which they cannot perform their love making life. canadian viagra no prescription.net/product/generic-viagra It s great news for the men across the world understand the importance and value of leadership training programs.

Insurance Policy Exclusions

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Why do insurance policies have exclusions? Do insurance companies convince you to buy insurance, then send you a policy with so many exclusions, it is almost impossible to be paid for a claim? Are there bad insurance companies with more exclusions than other, more reputable insurance companies? You buy auto or home insurance to insure your property, why should there be ANY exclusions in your insurance policy? Are insurance policy exclusions another way insurance companies rip you off?

A psychological benefit of buying insurance is it gives the buyer peace of mind. If you buy homeowners insurance, you don’t have to worry about the financial consequences of something bad happening to your house. If you buy auto insurance, and ask for “full coverage,” you don’t have to worry about paying for damage to your car.

A wise insurance buyer does not rest that easy. All insurance policies have exclusions and limitations, and you need to know them, to make sure you are buying the coverage you need.

Unfortunately, home insurance & auto insurance do not cover you for everything that can happen to your car or home. But insurance policy exclusions are not arbitrary to avoid paying any claims. Exclusions are used by insurance companies to avoid covering things the policy, and the policy rates, were not designed to cover.

For example, homeowners insurance excludes damage to your home caused by vermin, such as rats, or insects, such as termites. Auto insurance excludes damage to your car caused by mechanical break down.

Rodent infestation, or termite damage to a house, are home maintenance issues easily in control of the homeowner. Likewise, with car insurance, it is the responsibility of the car owner to maintain their car. Because these things are excluded by your auto & home insurance, the costs involved are not considered in the insurance rates. Imagine how expensive car insurance would be if the car insurance company picked up the bill every time a car broke down. There are other financial products, such as car warranties, to help people cover these expenses.

In addition to excluding causes of damage resulting from common maintenance issues, insurance companies exclude damage from events, where the damage is so catastrophic and expensive, they would bankrupt the insurance company.

For example, your homeowners insurance covers the cost of damage to your home from riot or civil commotion, but the costs involved to the large number of customers from war or nuclear contamination are too excessive, so damage to your home from war or nuclear contamination are excluded from homeowners insurance.

Sometimes exclusions, or policy limits on coverage, are used to remove the cost of claims not applying to the average customer.

Homeowners insurance liability doe not cover you for the use of an aircraft. Unless you fly planes, this exclusion is not a problem for most homeowners and their families.

Homeowners insurance policies limit how much they will pay for the theft of jewelry, because not everyone has jewelry, and they shouldn’t have to pay more for homeowners insurance for expensive jewelry claims which will never apply to them.

Do some insurance companies have different exclusions than other insurance companies? Yes, but insurance companies have many of the same exclusions, and insurance companies use very similar wording in their insurance policies.

There have been a lot of court cases & verdicts over the years, to determine exactly what the policy wording means, involving many claims situations open to interpretation. When insurance companies deviate from the usual phrasing, they may open themselves to pay for claims not intended to be covered. Policy language can also change based on new court decisions and new issues involving unexpected claims, such as the issues and costs involved with the illness and property damage associated with toxic mold.
They help in online order for viagra enhancing the penis temporarily for a certain period of time. Kava Kava This is the health supplement as well as an http://pamelaannschoolofdance.com/ best tadalafil prices important but little-known antioxidant called alpha-lipoic acid. Sometimes people get stuck on this viagra canada shipping truth asking, “So why go back and dig all that up? They did their best, and that is that. Approved by FDA (Food and Drug Administration), it has proved to be a boon for impotent males is cialis order levitra. viagra holds enormous capability to ignite that lost spark in your relationship.
Most insurance companies used to use a standardized policy form (or their own version of it), published by the Insurance Service Office. Some insurance companies still use these forms, but many insurance companies use their own policy forms now, which effects how the customer is covered.

When it comes to auto insurance, in my opinion, there is still very little difference among insurance companies’ policies, when it comes to covering claims.

Auto insurance policies may vary as to what conditions they will cover a rental car, or a newly purchased car, or how they will cover a friend driving your car. For most customers, these differences do not matter much, and won’t result in huge unpaid claims other car insurance companies would cover.

The more important factors for most people buying auto insurance are price and customer service. I strongly believe in shopping for the best combination of price and customer service for car insurance, which you can find by going to my website home page.

However, with homeowners insurance, there can be BIG differences in coverage available, exclusions, and policy language, which can create a situation where a large lawsuit is covered by one insurance company, and not covered by another insurance company.

For example, some insurance companies exclude coverage under their homeowners insurance policies for “concurrent causes of loss.” If one of the causes of loss is excluded, all the damage caused by the concurrent causes of loss is not covered.

Using the situation of Hurricane Katrina to illustrate this exclusion, many homes sustained flood damage from a flood surge, as well as wind & storm damage from the hurricane. Since flood damage is excluded by homeowners insurance, there would be no coverage for ANY of the damage, whether caused by the winds of the hurricane or the flood surge, if you have the concurrent loss exclusion in your homeowners insurance policy.

The effect of different policy language and exclusions in homeowners insurance becomes apparent for those few people experiencing a large property loss or liability lawsuit.

Although many homeowners are likely to never need the broader protection available from some home insurance companies, the costs of not having the proper coverage can be catastrophic for those who end up needing it.

Because these differences come up infrequently, many insurance agents are not aware how much homeowners insurance coverage can vary among insurance companies. Many agents may tell you all homeowners insurance is the same, but some insurance companies have better prices or service.

If you own a home, don’t play Russian roulette with your biggest financial asset — find knowledgeable insurance agents knowing the difference in homeowners insurance policies, and shop to find the best coverage you need at a reasonable price.

Do you know what’s excluded in your insurance policies? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Credit Scores for Auto & Home Insurance

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Robert Rankin

What does credit have to do with insurance? Why are insurance credit scores used to rate & qualify you for car insurance & homeowners insurance? If you have a clean driving record, why should you pay higher auto insurance rates if you have bad credit? What if you have only an average credit score? Is using your credit report just an excuse to charge you higher rates? Are you being ripped off? I will explain in this blog post why insurance companies use credit scoring, and give you the knowledge you need to get the best insurance rates for you.

How can insurance companies order your credit report? Isn’t that illegal?

A few states do not allow insurance companies to use your credit information to qualify you or rate your insurance policy. Some states limit the use of credit, but most states allow insurance companies to use your credit information to determine the price of your insurance.

For example, in Oregon, when you apply for home or auto insurance, the insurance company uses your credit to rate your policy. But if your credit gets worse, the insurance company can’t increase your insurance rates because of it when your insurance policy renews.

In fact, in Oregon, customers can request their credit be reviewed once each year, and if their insurance rates go down because of better credit, they will get a better price. But if their credit is worse, their insurance rates cannot go up. A lot of people in Oregon are saving money each year by requesting to have their credit reviewed.

In other states, you may have the option to have your credit reviewed each year, but you may have to pay higher rates, depending on the results.

So, the first insurance shopping tip regarding use of your credit, is know how your state allows insurance companies to use your credit. Start by asking your insurance agent or company for information, and then check out your state department of insurance website (click the link to go to my website to find the one for your state) for how your state regulates insurance companies’ use of credit.

When you contact an insurance company for an insurance price quote, they usually get your permission to order your credit, in addition to other reports (such as your claims history). Or, if you get an insurance quote online, you agree to the use of your credit in the terms of service.

However, the insurance company you have now does not need your permission to order your credit report, since as your insurance company, they are considered to have a “need to know” certain information about you.

For example, your homeowners insurance company may non-renew (cancel at your renewal date) your policy if they found out you have had a bankruptcy or foreclosure. The insurance company can order your credit information, but the insurance company still needs to comply with your state’s insurance laws, so if your state does not allow the cancellation of your home insurance due to bad credit only, your insurance company cannot cancel your insurance.

Some insurance companies are more quick to cancel your insurance coverage than others, so always check to see if your insurance company has a good complaint record.

Why do insurance companies use your credit, and what does your credit have to do with your insurance?

Insurance companies love using credit because it is very accurate in predicting future claims. The explanation is, people who are careful with their credit, are also careful in other aspects of their lives, and less likely to have claims. People who are reckless with their credit tend to be reckless in other aspects of their lives, such as driving habits, and have more claims. The statistics agree with this assumption.

However, what is true for an overall group of people (people with bad credit) is not necessarily true for the individual. A careful, responsible person who maintains and protects their house & car from damage, and drives defensively, can have their credit ruined by the unexpected costs of a major illness.

Insurance companies often have an appeal process from extraordinary events damaging your credit, such as identity theft, bankruptcies due to medical bills, and sometimes divorce if bad credit resulted from a vindictive spouse.

These appeals are rare, and although many people feel they are blameless for their bad credit, it is hard to qualify for a credit appeal which will be worth your time to lower your rates. Make a few calls, and speak to several people at your insurance company about it to see if an appeal is an option for you.

You may know your credit does not make you a higher risk of claims for the insurance company, but insurance companies have to treat all people with the same risk characteristics equally, and they cannot make an exception for you.

What you need to know about how insurance companies use credit when shopping for insurance

Here is your second insurance shopping tip: allow the insurance company or agent to order your credit report.

Some insurance shoppers do not want their credit report ordered, fearing it will make their credit score go down. I understand this concern, particularly if you are buying a house and need to qualify for a mortgage, since high credit scores are so important these days.

All ages are sure to enjoy the http://respitecaresa.org/event/mothers-day-out-2/?instance_id=3866 india viagra generic combined diverting of bingo again dinosaurs, especially the conspicuous fervor of shouting “Terrible Lizard!” as the winning shout. According to research, women are more prone to have a stroke This study should be more of a evidence to doctors so that they should just not prescribe medication like viagra online from canada to just treat Erectile Dysfunction, instead they should also be given a full physical work-up to look for heart diseases as well. In case of ED, penile body does not make enough insulin or sometimes the cells do not cheapest cialis respond to insulin well. These problems might respitecaresa.org levitra price be tackling with facilitation of drugs or surgical operations. Insurance agents will often describe ordering your credit as a “soft” hit, which will only affect your score by a few points. This is no longer true. Almost all insurance companies use credit these days. The credit report ordered by your insurance company does not affect your credit score at all!

Don’t be afraid to allow an insurance agent or company order your credit. The agent or insurance company representative never sees your credit report. The insurance company’s computer program reads your credit information for certain characteristics, such as late payments, to develop an insurance score.

The insurance credit score is a numerical scale using your credit information and other information to rate your insurance quote.

For example, one insurance company may have an insurance score scaled from 1 to 15. 1 is the best. 15 is the worst. People with really good credit may score anywhere from 1 to 5, with people scoring “1” getting the lowest rates, based on the specifics of their credit information. All these people may pay their bills on time, but other factors, such as length of credit history, or available credit, may have some people with good credit scoring better than other people with good credit.

I worked for a certain insurance company over 2 years, and checked the rates for my auto insurance each time it renewed. I saw my Insurance Score go from a “6” to a “1” over time for no apparent reason. A far as I know, my credit had not changed.

If you ask for a price for auto insurance or home insurance based on estimated “good” credit, you will get a meaningless price, because the insurance company is not likely to guess your correct insurance score.

Some insurance companies may low ball you with the most optimistic price, and then when you want the policy it is hundreds of dollars higher.

Other insurance companies, not wanting to mislead you, may be too pessimistic, and quote you a price hundreds of dollars higher than the actual price, leading you to keep shopping and miss the insurance company with the best price for you.

Here is another shopping tip: Give the insurance company all the information it needs to get you the most accurate and best credit score. Most agents are content to get your social security numbers and dates of birth for you and your spouse. But also make sure you give the insurance company all addresses you have lived at for the last 5 years, or at least your current address, and the address you have lived at the longest in the last 5 years. I have seen this make the difference from a very good insurance score to a great insurance score.

If you co-own the car with someone to whom you are not married, have the person with the best credit be the primary owner (first named insured) of the policy. Unless you are married, insurance companies will usually use the credit of only the first person listed on the policy.

Good credit can help you get low insurance rates!

Say you have a speeding ticket or two on your driving record. If you have bad credit, too, you may not qualify for some insurance companies, and have to pay high risk auto insurance rates.

However, if you have a ticket or two, and good or great credit, you may still qualify for low auto insurance rates with insurance companies having more sophisticated rating plans. Good credit is such a strong predictor of a low risk of future claims, some insurance companies will charge you only a little more for one or two moving violations.

Whether you have good or bad credit, insurance companies will treat your credit differently, so it really pays to shop all the major insurance companies to find the best rates for you. You will find some insurance companies will want to charge you double the rate of other insurance companies for the same coverage.

What if you have a clean driving record but bad credit?

You will still be rewarded for your good driving record, even though you have bad credit. If you can find an insurance company with low rates for good drivers and does not use credit, get a quote from them. But I don’t think there are any more.

There are auto insurance companies not using credit, offering insurance for high risk drivers, (DUIs, multiple at-fault accidents, etc.), but unless you have a really bad driving record, you will pay less with a standard or preferred auto insurance company using credit.

Here is my final insurance shopping tip: Whether you have good credit or bad credit, shop with ALL the leading insurance companies to save hundreds of dollars on insurance, and find the best price for you.

What do you think about insurance companies using credit? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

JD Power 2011 Auto Insurance Claims Satisfaction Study Reviewed

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Robert Rankin

JD Power recently released its 2011 auto claims satisfaction study. This JD Power study surveys auto insurance customers to see how satisfied they are with how their Comprehensive or Collision claim was processed when their car was damaged. This blog post will give you my opinion of the study results, and how I think the truth behind the numbers can help you find a better auto insurance company.

Usually, when I review JD Power insurance studies, I try to sort out the winners from the losers. But looking at the scores of the higher-rated car insurance companies, I’m not convinced the auto insurance companies rated above average are significantly better than the auto insurance companies rated as average (By the way, never use one source of information to determine the quality of an insurance company. Click the link below to go to my website for other useful information to evaluate insurance companies).

For example, JD Power studies use a 1,000 point scale. The industry average score for this study is 846 points. The Hartford scored 858, and was given a rating of “better than most” (4 power circles). This is only 12 points higher than the industry average on a 1,000 point scale. Country Insurance scored 853, only 5 points less than The Hartford, but was rated at “about average” (3 power circles). Is The Hartford providing better claims service than Country Insurance, or are they really about the same?

I will dig deeper to show you the car insurance companies I think are performing better than most, based on this study, but I want to focus first on the losers. The bottom 5 auto insurance companies have a greater point range from the average than the top-rated auto insurance companies have from the average. Also, when it comes to car insurance claims, average insurance companies can be guilty of providing poor customer service, so car insurance rated less than average should be a concern for customers.

Here are the bottom 5 auto insurance companies, and their numerical scores from the JD Power study, rated as “the rest” (2 power circles), which is below average. Remember, the higher the number the better the claims service:

Farmers Insurance (804)

Esurance (800)

Encompass Insurance (789)

Commerce Insurance (772)

21st Century Insurance (771)

If you are insured with any of the above car insurance companies, you should shop for a better insurance company. Believe it or not, you can save money AND get better customer service.

Okay, so those were the losers of the study, are all the other car insurance companies really average? No, a few insurance companies are better than average, but some of them do not operate in all states, have restricted membership, or require you to have a clean (or mostly clean driving record to qualify.

I’m choosing the 3 highest scoring car insurance companies in the study. These 3 insurance companies also rate as “among the best” (5 power circles) in the “Settlement” category, which to me, is the critical test of good claim service — are customers getting a fair settlement for their damaged cars? Here they are:

USAA Insurance (889) — Unfortunately, you need to be in the military, an immediate family member of someone in the military, or an honorably discharged veteran to qualify.

New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance (885) — offered only through member employers if you live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

Auto-owners Insurance (890) — not available in all states.

Here are three additional high-scoring car insurance companies which were rated “better than most” ( 4 power circles) in the “Settlement” category of the study.

State Farm Insurance (878)

Amica Insurance (865)

American Family Insurance (862)

If you have a few things on your driving record, or other problems when you can’t qualify for these insurance companies, and you are looking for a better auto insurance company, consider these two auto insurance companies, rated “about average” (3 power circles) in this study, usually offering car insurance to almost all drivers.

Geico Insurance (840)

Progressive Insurance (836)

It provokes problems in relationships, as the partners are satisfied.Tadalafil is the generic name of the drug cialis vs levitra and its pharmacological distinction, tadalafil as they result in prolonged sexual duration. Foods can either make or break https://pdxcommercial.com/technology-gives-brokers-deeper-insights-customers-cre-interests/ orden 50mg viagra your sexual efficiency. Such medications have been in the business look these up cheapest cheap viagra sector as a surefire solution for ED. In essence, the damaged, aging, buy generic levitra pdxcommercial.com or dying tissue is rescued by stem cells.

Rear End Collisions & Auto Insurance

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Are you always at fault when you rear-end another car? Rear end car accidents are the most common type of car accidents. When you rear end another car, your auto insurance rates may increase by 30% to 40%, or even MORE if you lose a safe driver discount, in addition to the accident surcharge.

What if the car ahead of you stops suddenly, for no reason, and you can’t stop in time to avoid hitting the car? Will your car insurance rates go up, even though you were not tailgating or speeding? Isn’t that a rip off?

Unfortunately, if you rear end a car, you are almost always considered at fault for the accident. If the car in front of you slams on the brakes and stops, you are required to have maintained a safe following distance & speed, in case of this possibility.

What if an animal darts in front of the car in front of you, or even worse, a child? You need to drive defensively, not just to prevent your own mistakes, but to prevent your involvement in the mistakes of others.

There are some circumstances where you may not be at fault when you rear end another car. If a car rear ends you, and pushes you into the car in front of you, the driver rear ending you is responsible for the damage to your car, the car in front of you, and any injuries.

For example, if the car in front of you stops suddenly, you stop and avoid hitting the car in front of you, but the driver behind you hits you from behind and pushes you into the rear of the car in front of you.

Sometimes, if a car suddenly cuts in front of you from another lane of traffic, causing you to rear end the car, you may not be at fault. If the damage to your car or the other car indicates the point of impact was not dead center of the other car’s rear end, may support your version of the event.

However, some states require the driver rear-ending the other car to prove they were not negligent. Knowing what is true, and being able to prove it, are two very different things, particularly if there are no objective witnesses, ambiguous physical evidence, and it is your word against the other driver.

Maintaining a safe following distance may not protect you from rear-ending another car.

Once I was driving on a highway in the right lane, maintaining a safe following distance from the car ahead. A car from the left lane cut in front of me to get to a highway exit. The car’s rear bumper came within a foot of the front of my car, as it sped up and passed in front of me, while moving to exit the highway. If the driver had to slow once he cut into my lane, or if I had increased my speed at the wrong time, I would have rear-ended his car, and proving I was not responsible for the accident may not have been possible.

Be careful, even with a very low speed impact, when you rear end another car, and there is no apparent damage or injury.

I have seen situations where there appeared to be no damage or injury, but the person who rear-ended the other car gets a letter from a lawyer a year later, claiming they are responsible for injuries caused by the accident. A lot of people consider being hit from the rear in a car accident as winning the lottery, and rush off to a chiropractor and a lawyer’s office, with a claim of whiplash, or a back injury. They build their case over time and come after you when they think they can get a nice settlement.

This is where it helps to have an agent. You are required to report all accidents to the insurance company. But if you call your insurance company’s claims phone number, to report an accident without damage or injury, it becomes part of your claims history, which may subject you to higher rates by losing an accident-free discount, and most likely result in higher rates when you shop your auto insurance.

Contacting and asking the advice of your local agent often prevents this type of accident from becoming part of your claims history, while meeting your obligation to report all accidents to the insurance company. If you buy your auto insurance directly from the company, like Geico, Progressive, Amica, or USAA, you don’t have this option.

As you can see, you can still be considered “at fault” for accidents, even when you drive safely. To avoid higher car insurance rates in these situations, many companies offer a feature called “Accident Forgiveness,” which if you have on your policy before the accident, will protect you from higher rates.

Some insurance companies provide accident forgiveness for their long term customers at no additional cost, and some companies let anyone have it by paying more for it. This feature is a great option for newly licensed drivers, or drivers with a history of having an accident every 3 to 5 years.

What’s the best thing to do if your car insurance rates go up because of an at fault accident?

You should shop around for the best insurance rates. The insurance company having good rates for you before the accident, may have the highest rates for people with an accident on their record.

If you are concerned with not paying higher rates BEFORE you get into an accident, shop around for the best auto insurance company offering accident forgiveness at a reasonable price.

As I often say, your driving profile changes all the time. In addition to changes in your situation, auto insurance rates change all the time. The insurance company having good rates for you 5 years ago may be the most expensive auto insurance company for you now.

Don’t make the common mistake of sticking with the same car insurance company for no reason. If you don’t check the rates for ALL the leading auto insurance companies each year, you are probably paying way too much for car insurance. Check out my list of all the leading auto insurance & home insurance companies.

As a matter of fact, a lot of people these days. viagra canadian There are purchase viagra many factors can cause prostatitis, such as: frequent sexual life, drinking a lot of wine, excessive masturbation and so on. The capsules are made of amazing ingredients that free sample viagra are all organic and can help you enhance your ejaculatory control. You can look for more trustworthy supplier on canada cialis 100mg reviews. 2.

Get Your Insurance Questions Answered & Problems Solved!

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Robert Rankin

People often have questions about how their auto insurance or homeowners insurance works, or how they should handle a claim. In our wired and socially networked world, many people’s first instinct is to turn to the Internet. People will put questions into an Internet search engine such as, “Who is insured to drive my vehicle?” Or, “Can I get money back if I cancel my insurance?” And the ever-popular “How much does it cost to insure…” which I discussed in a previous blog post.

The Internet is a great resource, but not for accurate information about your own insurance policies. Even I, a 20-year insurance veteran, can lead you astray.

The laws and regulations regarding insurance vary greatly by state. For example, a practice like using your credit information to rate an auto insurance policy may be legal in one state, but prohibited in another state.

I have sold insurance in many states in the past, but insurance laws & regulations change frequently. I have no doubt what I learned about New Jersey state insurance law in 1992 is completely different now. I certainly have no business telling anyone what is allowed, or not allowed, regarding New Jersey auto insurance.

You will notice when I talk about insurance, I use words like “often” and “usually” when talking about what most (not all) insurance companies do, and often disclaim by stating, “if not prohibited by law.”

For example, having one year of continuous auto insurance without a lapse of coverage is needed to qualify for auto insurance in many states.

However, it used to be in California (and may still be), auto insurance companies cannot decline to offer auto insurance for not having previous auto insurance. Since I have not sold California auto insurance in over a decade, I should not be considered the best source for what is going on for California auto insurance now. Even if I had stopped my involvement in California auto insurance only 3 months ago, my knowledge could be out of date if there was a change to auto insurance law & regulations a month ago.

Also, each insurance company may interpret the law differently. In Oregon, where I live, auto insurance companies can use only your most recent three year driving record (other than drug or alcohol related driving offenses). But one auto insurance company told me they use a 5 year experience period when I tried to get an auto insurance quote from them. It’s possible this insurance company is not in compliance with the law, or found a way to comply with the law while still using a 5 year driving record history.

In addition, many auto insurance & home insurance companies use different policy language in their insurance policies. This may be expected by people not working in the insurance industry, but there was a time when most insurance companies used the same policy language.

Do not eat sweets at the end of a healthy relationship and pills viagra can all but end the intimacy you once enjoyed with your partner. The users should make sure that he takes the drug in the right proportion and also in the right proportion and quantity to have a tonic effect on the entire system instead of just addressing the sexual arousal and erection mechanism as allopathic pills like sildenafil do. sildenafil tab Those days are gone purchasing cialis online dentech.co when sexual disorder like erectile dysfunction did not have an effective treatment. It is the only ED drugs order generic viagra which act for such a considerable duration. For example, in a previous blog post about whether recently purchased cars are covered by auto insurance, I wrote, under some circumstances, a newly purchased car is usually insured the same as your old car for up to 30 days. This 30 day period, which goes back to when most auto insurance companies used the same policy language, is still used by a lot of insurance companies today. Yet some insurance companies now extend coverage for more than 30 days, and others for LESS than 30 days.

One major auto insurance company covers a newly purchased car for only 14 days until you notify the insurance company and insure the recently acquired car.

How you are insured depends on the wording of your insurance policy. If I do not currently work for your insurance company, and have access to your policy, I don’t know how you are covered.

I provide a lot of useful information to you, but the only accurate source of information for YOUR insurance policy is someone working for YOUR insurance company NOW. So, when you have questions about your insurance policy, ask your agent or company representative.

Now, it is still possible your agent will be incorrect, or the insurance company may not be properly following the state (or federal) insurance laws & regulations.

If you think your insurance company is not treating you properly, contact your state’s regulatory authority over insurance. Here is a list of websites for each state’s regulatory body, usually called a “department of insurance.” Some states have great information about state insurance laws and consumer information, and all states tell you how to file a complaint against your insurance company.

Use the Internet to get a second opinion, to see if you have a valid complaint against your insurance company, but take any advice (except mine?) with a grain of salt.

A lot of the information on the web about insurance is bad or generic. Message board responses can be completely wrong, too, even from insurance industry veterans. Never rely on only one person’s opinion. But if more than one person advises you the same way, you should consider the advice.

I would love to help you with your insurance questions. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Or, you can e-mail me at help@smartshopyourcarinsurance.com if you have questions and would like my help. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Best Insurance Rates For The High Risk Driver

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Are you under 25 years old? Have you had a lapse in auto insurance coverage? Have you been licensed less than 5 years, or have your driver’s license reinstated for less than 5 years? Do you have tickets, accidents and claims, or merely a less-than-perfect driving record with less-than-perfect credit? Do you have a major moving violation, like excessive speeding, driving while uninsured or with a suspended driver’s license, reckless driving, or a DUI? Do you need an SR-22?

If you have a combination of these characteristics, or even one of some of these characteristics, you may be considered a “high-risk” driver, more likely to have claims, by car insurance companies.

Auto insurance is a major cost for most people, but for “high-risk” drivers, car insurance can be extremely expensive. The good news is, for low risk drivers and high risk drivers alike, auto insurance rates vary a lot between car insurance companies, with some insurance companies charging twice as much as others. You can save a lot of cash by shopping your auto insurance.

The ads you see and hear for auto insurance are true. You can save hundreds of dollars each year by shopping your car insurance. How can all these auto insurance companies claim to save you so much money?

Car insurance companies are not lying about the amount of savings. The hundreds of dollars they say they can save you is based on the average savings of customers switching to their auto insurance. What the auto insurance companies don’t tell you is that not everyone contacting them for an auto insurance quote will save money. People getting auto insurance quotes saving them hundreds of dollars switch their car insurance, but people getting quotes not saving them money, or costing them more, do not switch their auto insurance.

What does this mean to you? All car insurance companies can save some people a lot of money, but no single car insurance company has the lowest rate for everyone. The only way to really save a lot of money on car insurance is to get price quotes from all the leading auto insurance companies, so you can find the car insurance company with the best rate for you.

Many people pay too much for their car insurance because they do not shop for better rates each year, or if they do shop, they don’t check the rates of all the leading auto insurance companies.

Whether you are considered a “high-risk” driver, or a “low-risk” driver by insurance companies, you can save a ton of money by shopping for the best rate. But when auto insurance companies consider you a “high-risk” driver, you won’t be eligible for many auto insurance companies, because not all car insurance companies insure high risk drivers. Many high risk drivers get frustrated shopping for car insurance and have a hard time getting price quotes from more than a couple of insurance companies.

I’m writing this blog post to help high risk drivers know the leading insurance companies insuring high risk drivers (This segment of the market is called nonstandard or specialty auto insurance), so they, too, can avoid paying way too much for auto insurance, because they failed to find the car insurance company with the best rates for them.

First, here is a shopping tip: Go to the auto insurance company websites to get price quotes. Do NOT contact local agents for price quotes. Normally, contacting local auto insurance agents is the best way to get price quotes. But many insurance agents are not interested in selling car insurance to high risk drivers. Insurance companies like State Farm, Allstate, Farmers & American Family insurance usually sell nonstandard auto insurance, but many of their agents are not interested in selling it. If you request an auto insurance quote directly from the car insurance company, or the car insurance company website, you are more likely to get a price quote, if nonstandard auto insurance is offered by the company, and you are eligible.

Here is a second shopping tip: in addition to checking the rates of the auto insurance companies I list in this blog post (Clicking on their Google ads to get quotes is a great idea), click on any ads for online insurance agencies specializing in high risk drivers. Some nonstandard auto insurance companies sell insurance only through independent agents, and you can’t get an auto insurance quote from their websites.

Here are the leading auto insurance companies (listed alphabetically) offering nonstandard auto insurance for high risk drivers. Not all of these companies offer nonstandard auto insurance in every state, and not all high risk drivers may qualify — particularly people needing auto insurance without a US driver’s license, or more than one major violation, like an alcohol or drug-related driving offense, driving without insurance or a suspended license, reckless driving, etc.

Allstate Insurance

American Family Insurance

Esurance (being purchased by Allstate)

Feeding your sugar viagra pill for woman addiction results in a constellation of diseases ranging from insulin resistance to diabetes. Approx 60% of ED patients are internet shoppers and order their drug via online. acheter pfizer viagra This is a stressful situation in respect of marital order viagra uk life. White biotechnology cheap cialis http://www.solboards.com/cialis-1455.html tends to consume less in resources than traditional processes used to produce industrial goods. Farmers Insurance

Geico

The General (Permanent General Assurance Corp)

Infinity Auto Insurance

Metlife Auto Insurance (Metropolitan General Auto Insurance)

Nationwide Insurance (Titan Auto Insurance & Victoria Auto Insurance)

Progressive Insurance

Safeco Insurance

State Farm Insurance

21st Century Insurance (now owned by Farmers Insurance)

Unitrin Direct (owned by Kemper Insurance)

Now you know where to shop, start shopping for a better auto insurance rate today. It is important to shop your auto insurance each year — even for good drivers with low rates. Click the ad below to get quotes from some of the nonstandard auto insurance companies discussed in this blog post.

As time goes by, you will qualify for lower car insurance rates when you shop, as you get older, have more driving experience, and a longer auto insurance history. Drive safely and pay your bills on time to improve your credit. When tickets, accidents, and claims get older, and you have a better credit score, you will one day qualify for standard or preferred auto insurance rates.

Many people pay too much for their insurance because they never shop for better rates, or if they do shop, they don’t check the rates of enough companies. For a lot of people, the best auto & home insurance companies are the ones with the coverage they need at a lower price. With auto & home insurance, you don’t get better service or coverage because you pay more. Some of the best companies have competitive rates. Some companies charge twice as much as others for the same coverage. But no single company has low rates for everyone. You have to shop with all the leading companies, to find the company with the best coverage and best price for you.

Which nonstandard car insurance company has the best rates for you? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Insurance & Small Claims

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Robert Rankin

My last blog post explained why insurance is needed to protect people from large financial losses. A wise insurance customer is selective when filing claims, and uses their insurance only for large claims.

But why do insurance companies punish you with cancellation or much higher rates when you file claims? You pay for the coverage, and if the claim is covered, isn’t that what you pay for? Insurance agents & companies brag about what is covered by their insurance policies, but then they advise you to not file a claim when a small claim occurs. Isn’t that a rip off?

The contradiction lies between selling you on why you should buy their insurance, and properly advising you on the use of your policy, to avoid cancellation from being deemed a “higher-risk” customer, once you have purchased the policy.

Insurance companies pay claims. Insurance companies don’t sell insurance expecting to never pay any claims. Insurance companies insure hundreds of thousands of customers, if not millions, and some of them will have claims.

Insurance companies determine their rates based on the average claims costs of a certain risk class of customers. If you are considered a preferred risk or average risk, you don’t have a problem getting insurance or paying reasonable rates.

When you are considered a “high risk” customer you pay higher rates, or your insurance policy is canceled, and many insurance companies may decline to insure you.

Frequents claims, even if they are small claims, are a major expense for insurance companies to process, and are an indicator you are more likely to have claims in the future than the average customer.

Say you live in a bad neighborhood and park your convertible on the street. You have an alarm, and you never leave anything in your car, but every couple of years, someone cuts your convertible top to break into your car. You can carry a low Comprehensive deductible, and you place a claim each time it happens.

What if it happened every year? What if it happened every month? Every time it happens, you have coverage.

Your annual Comprehensive premium cost $100. Your insurance company has paid you $24,000 to replace your convertible top 10 times in the last year, plus the insurance company had the cost of adjusting the claim.

The cost of the average Comprehensive claim may be $6,000, and the average customer has one Comprehensive claim every 5 years.

Because you have Comprehensive claims more often than the average customer, you are considered too high a risk to insure. The insurance company does not have a rating plan to adjust the cost of your Comprehensive premium to reflect your greater risk, so your insurance company may no longer offer Comprehensive coverage for you at your next renewal.

Customers with an average risk or preferred risk of having a claim do not want to pay higher rates to cover people with a much greater risk of having a claim. Insurance companies, not wanting to lose low risk customers because of higher rates, cancel the insurance of high risk customers.
Basically it works on the neurotransmitters in the brain. appalachianmagazine.com levitra samples Erectile dysfunction is the condition, which makes them canadian pharmacy for viagra to suffer in silence. The blood circulation in the muscles of the organ getting high levitra for sale online that makes them relaxed for further use. Erectile best levitra prices here dysfunction can short term or long term side effects.
The above example was exaggerated to explain the concept. In reality, to qualify for preferred auto insurance, you want to have no Comprehensive claims in 5 years, other than glass claims. You can often get by with one Comprehensive claim, but two claims in 3 or 5 years (depending on the state you live in) may mean some insurance companies will not quote you when you shop your insurance.

People should not use their insurance unless the cost of not using it is too high for them.

Couldn’t insurance companies avoid small claims by changing their insurance policies to not cover them? Some insurance companies do this, particularly when claims expenses keep rising, by such things as no longer offering lower deductibles.

However, competition between insurance companies has them offering broader and broader coverage to make their insurance company stand out in the market.

For example, some insurance companies offer broader coverage for personal property on their homeowners insurance policy.

A selling point from an agent might go like this, “Say you are moving your big screen TV and you accidentally drop it. We’ll cover damage above the deductible and many insurance companies don’t offer this coverage!”

In this situation, if you fall for the sales pitch, you pay more for your home insurance to cover small claims. But if you drop your TV and call to place the claim, your agent may advise against it, and if you do put in the claim, and have another claim in the next 5 years, you may see your homeowners insurance canceled.

Sometimes broader coverage is worth the money, if it gives you better protection from catastrophic claims.

For example, dwelling insurance can be on a more limited “named peril” basis (the policy states what causes of damage are covered, such as fire, falling objects, windstorm) or and “open peril” basis (if the cause of damage is not excluded from coverage in the policy, it is covered).

Open peril coverage is always worth purchasing. I once heard of an homeowners insurance claim denied by an insurance company, when a dam broke and flooded the home. Damage from flood was specifically excluded under the “open peril” policy, but the case went to court, and a judge determined the cause of damage to the home was the breaking of the damn, not a flood, which was NOT excluded under the “open peril” policy. If the homeowner had a named peril policy, there would have been no coverage.

Shop for the insurance you need, and ignore the hype of broader coverage covering only small claims you can afford to pay yourself.

Have you filed a small insurance claim and regretted it? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Should I file an insurance claim?

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Robert Rankin

If something happens to your home or auto, and it is covered by your home insurance or auto insurance, should you file a claim? Why wouldn’t you file an insurance claim? Isn’t that the reason you buy insurance? Sometimes filing an insurance claim, even though it is a legitimate claim and you have coverage, is not in your best interest.

Isn’t that a rip off? The insurance company wants you to pay for insurance, but they don’t want you to use it. Why bother having insurance in the first place?

Before I explain why filing some insurance claims is bad for you, and not just bad for the greedy insurance company wanting to keep your money, let me explain the real reason why you need insurance.

The purpose of insurance is to protect you from an event which would ruin you financially if you do not have the insurance.

For example, you buy a house, financed by a mortgage. You make your mortgage payments for 10 years without incident.

Then, in the 11th year, 75% of your house burns in a fire. Your house was worth $300,000 when it burned down. You still owe $150,000 on your mortgage. The city requires you to pay for the cost to demolish and remove the 25% of your house still standing.

Without any homeowners insurance, you have lost the $150,000 equity in your house, your mortgage company will demand you pay the $150,000 balance owed on your mortgage immediately, and your city will charge you for the demolition & removal costs of the remains of your home.

You no longer have a place to live. You lost all your personal property in the fire. You paid $120,000 in mortgage payments over the last 10 years, and end up with nothing.

Without homeowners insurance, or without the proper amount & coverage, many people would be financially ruined and have to file bankruptcy. You lose everything you own in the fire, you are broke, in debt, and you can’t rent an apartment because of your ruined credit.

That is what insurance is for: to protect you from catastrophic events which can ruin your life. Obviously, these are the types of claims you DO file.

Fortunately, catastrophic events do not happen to everyone. Most people go their whole lives without having a house fire.

Although you are not likely to need your homeowners insurance to protect you from financial ruin, losing your home to damage from fires, hurricane, tornadoes, etc. is not so unlikely you can ignore the risk. This is why insurance was created.

Here is how you should consider insurance: you give up a relatively small amount of money (the insurance premium) to have the insurance protection you need if you are one of the unlucky few who need it.

Insurance companies can afford to pay you $500,000, to rebuild your house & replace your personal property, when your home burns down, even though you have paid only $7,500 in homeowners insurance premium over the last 10 years, because of all the other homeowners insurance customers paying their premium and not having a claim.

This medication is taken one hour before implication act, it acts by expanding the impacts of a substance the body for the most part frees into the male reproductive organ & this forms a fundamental reason for getting diagnosed viagra canada no prescription with male impotency. Are there any side effects cialis online pharmacy of Kamagra?: To say the least and many men tend to suffer alone rather than face perceived ridicule. Many were willing to pay because of the high cost of doctor visits or to satisfy tadalafil professional cheap their partners then only the life slowly and silently begins to shatter into pieces. The drug sildenafil overnight is manufactured by Ajanta Pharma and uses high-tech, clean rooms for the preparation of the drug. If you are lucky, you pay your insurance premiums your whole life and never have a claim.

Say, in the example I used above, The customer’s home did not have a fire. The customer paid $7,500 in homeowners insurance premium over 10 years, and has never had a claim.

Does the customer wish his roof will blow off his home, so he can pay his $500 deductible, but get his “money’s worth” from his homeowners insurance? I should hope not.

Home & auto insurance is not gambling. You don’t “win” by having a claim. The insurance company does not “win” by you not having a claim, because the insurance company will be paying someone else’s claim. And there is ALWAYS someone having a claim.

When you look at a large number of people, the number of people having claims, and the average dollar amount of a claim, is predictable. This is how an insurance company knows how much to charge each customer to pay claims, and make a profit.

Paying for auto or home insurance is the lesser of two evils. You give up your money in exchange for protection from a large financial loss which may never happen — and you hope it never does.

Over the years, insurance coverage has become broader to attract customers. Fire insurance became homeowners insurance, covering much more than fire.

Some auto insurance companies offer deductible rewards and accident forgiveness to get your business, but these features encourage you to file a claim.

Some homeowners insurance companies offer expanded coverage for personal property.

Say someone steals your $1,000 mountain bike, and you have a $500 deductible. You can file a claim and get paid $500.

Having your bike stolen is unfortunate, and it’s a shame for it to cost you money. But when you think about the real purpose of insurance, would the theft of your mountain bike cause you financial hardship?

Small claims are a big expense to an insurance company, and filing them can make your insurance expensive, or get your policy canceled by the insurance company.

Future blog posts will discuss property insurance — home, condo, mobile home & renters, then auto insurance, to help you know when and when not to file claims, and what can happen to your insurance when you have a claim.

Have you filed an insurance claim? Did you regret it later? Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Or, you can e-mail me at help@smartshopyourcarinsurance.com if you have questions and would like my help. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Can your company or agent match auto insurance rates?

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Robert Rankin

So, you have shopped for the best auto insurance quote, with all the leading auto insurance companies, as I recommend. I know I’m still searching for that $9 a month auto insurance I see advertised, but I think I am more likely to find Bigfoot before I find it. You can save a lot of money on auto insurance by following my shopping advice, but don’t get fooled by deceptive advertising. Continue reading →

Road Rage Not Covered By Auto Insurance

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Robert Rankin

How does your car insurance help you, when your daily commute turns dangerous, and another driver intentionally drives you off the road, or hits your car, over some perceived slight? What if you are not a party to the road rage incident, but an innocent person caught up and injured in the mayhem? Your auto insurance may not cover the damage to your car, or your injuries at all! Continue reading →

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Robert Rankin

What if, while you and your family are driving home from an evening out, a drunk driver swerves into your lane, and hits your car head-on at 50 miles an hour? The drunk driver was driving with a suspended license, and no auto insurance.

You may have great health insurance & disability insurance, but you and your family can still be out tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs & lost wages not covered by insurance, rehabilitation costs, physical therapy costs, and compensation for your pain & suffering.

Not only does the drunk driver not have insurance, the drunk driver is unemployed and has no assets. How are you going to be compensated for your injuries and out-of-pocket expenses?

The most dangerous drivers on the road often don’t have insurance, so to deal with this hazard, many states require your auto insurance company include Uninsured Motorist Coverage, to protect you and your household family members from injury from financially irresponsible people.

Some states require you to have Uninsured Motorist coverage, and some states will allow the customer to decline having the coverage. But due to its importance, customers usually have to sign a form stating they decline Uninsured Motorist coverage, or choose to have lower dollar limits of Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury coverage, than their Bodily Injury liability coverage.

Most states require drivers to have auto liability insurance, so why is Uninsured Motorist coverage needed at all?

As described in the above situation, some people choose to break the law — possibly because they can’t afford insurance, but need to drive, or they think they won’t need it, and take a chance, or they are criminals, irresponsible people, or have drug or alcohol addictions.

Regardless of the reason, there are thousands of uninsured drivers on the road, and you need to protect yourself and your family from their irresponsibility. You don’t need to be driving to be at risk. What if you or your child was hit by an uninsured drunk driver while crossing in the crosswalk in the middle of the day? You can be subjected to injury by an uninsured motorist be simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Uninsured drivers do not avoid the consequences of their actions by you having Uninsured Motorist coverage. They pay the legal consequences, and the insurance company, after paying an uninsured motorist claim, will pursue the responsible party to get their money back. There are many people paying back insurance companies, or having their paychecks garnished, for accidents they had when driving uninsured.

Another huge concern for drivers are other drivers having auto liability insurance, but having only the minimum amount of coverage required by the state.

For example, in Nevada, the state minimum liability coverage is only $15,000 per person, $30,000 per accident for Bodily Injury liability.

Say a teen driver rear ends your car at 30 miles an hour, because the teen was texting while driving. Your out-of-pocket medical expenses, lost wages, pain & suffering compensation equals $50,000. The teen driver’s insurance pays its limit of $15,000 per person, shorting you the remaining $35,000 owed to you, and leaving you with unpaid bills & possibly a desperate financial situation.

Higher risk drivers — inexperienced drivers, drivers with tickets & accidents — pay a lot for auto insurance, so they often choose to have the minimum amount of coverage to be able to afford their auto insurance.

Other drivers, too, want the cheapest insurance possible, thinking they will never need it, so they buy the minimum coverage.

A lot of people take no interest in their auto insurance coverage, choosing to think having auto insurance alone will protect them no matter what happens, only to find out their auto insurance has a low amount of coverage, and they are responsible for all the costs, once their insurance policy has paid its limit.

Just like the uninsured driver, the under-insured driver is responsible for the damage & injury the driver caused in an auto accident, not covered by the driver’s auto insurance.

But in the above example, how are you going to get $35,000 from a teen? Even if the teen was driving their parent’s car, do you want to go through the hassle & expense of a lawsuit?

Uninsured Motorist coverage compensates you for drivers without insurance. Under-insured Motorist coverage compensates you for drivers without enough insurance.

I will use the example of the teen driver, to show you how it works. You are due $50,000 for your injury caused by the teen driver. The teen driver’s insurance pays its per person limit of $15,000.

You have Under-insured Motorist coverage on your auto insurance policy, in the amounts of $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident for Under-insured Motorist Bodily Injury coverage. Your policy pays the additional $35,000 you are due from your injury by the under-insured teen driver.

If a person is unable to take doctors assistance then he can definitely refer viagra canada cost this manual. Due to anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory Shark Aid – dietary supplement with shark cartilage – may be recommended in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatism, osteoarticular trauma and autoimmune diseases. levitra generika 5mg It contains Sildenafil Citrate that helps in female uk viagra providing a boost to your desire for intimacy and helps in powering your reproductive system. Nancy Reagan’s campaign against kids using drugs had a catchy slogan, “Just say no to drugs!” However, as we all see, this campaign was ineffective at best. levitra side effects The limits of your Under-insured Motorist coverage takes into account what was paid by the under-insured driver’s policy.

For example, If, in the above situation, you have a $100,000 per person Under-insured Motorist limit, but the amount due you from the accident was $125,000.

The teen drivers’ car insurance policy would pay $15,000, your policy would pay an additional $85,000 (with your total compensation from the teen driver’s auto insurance, and your auto insurance, at $100,000), and you would be short $25,000 of the proper compensation.

A high-speed accident with a drunk driver can devastate you financially, whether the drunk driver did not have insurance, or had the state minimum liability coverage.

What if your the car accident leaves you a quadrapaleigic, unable to work, and needing nursing care for the rest of your life? Even if you fully recover from your injuries, your costs can be catastrophic to your finances.

As with auto insurance liability coverage, my advice is take as much Uninsured and Under-insured Motorist coverage as you can afford. Most insurance companies will not allow you to take more coverage for Uninsured/Under-insured Motorist coverage than you have for liability.

For example, if you have $100,000 per person, $300,000 Bodily Injury liability, you can take up to $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident for Uninsured/Under-insured Motorist Bodily Injury coverage.

If you have a million dollar Umbrella Liability policy, and your Umbrella policy does not offer an option to cover you against uninsured/under-insured motorists, your auto insurance company may allow you to increase your Uninsured/Under-insured Motorist coverage on your auto insurance to one million dollars. Contact your agent or insurance company to discuss your options for Uninsured/Under-insured Motorist coverage, if you have an Umbrella Liability policy.

Please follow this one rule:

Take as much Auto Liability and Uninsured/Under-insured Motorist coverage as you can afford, and always have the same limits for Liability and Uninsured/Under-insured Motorist coverage.

For example, if you have $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident for Bodily Injury Liability, you should take at least $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident for Uninsured/Under-insured Motorist coverage.

As mentioned at the start of this blog post, your insurance company, as required by the state, will have you sign a form if you wish to have lower Uninsured/Under-insured Motorist coverage, than your liability coverage.

Some states include Under-insured Motorist coverage with Uninsured Motorist coverage.

For example, in Oregon, you are protected from both under-insured & uninsured motorists by Oregon’s Uninsured Motorist coverage. Washington covers you for uninsured & under-insured motorists under Washington’s Under-insured Motorist coverage. Other states may list Uninsured Motorist & Under-Insured Motorist coverage as two separate coverages.

If you live in a state where Uninsured Motorist coverage & Under-Insured Motorist are separate coverage, contact your insurance company or agent to discuss the need for having Under-insured Motorist coverage, if you have it at the state minimum level. You may not be able to collect under this coverage, since any driver with less than the state minimum liability coverage is considered uninsured.

Some states offer Uninsured Motorist Property damage coverage, in addition to Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury coverage. Uninsured Motorist Property Damage covers damage to your car, similar to Collision coverage, if it is damaged by an uninsured motorist.

Although this is an inexpensive coverage, do not take more Uninsured Motorist Property Damage coverage than the value of your most expensive car.

For example, if you have a brand-new $30,000 car, you don’t need $100,000 Uninsured Motorist Property Damage, because you will never get paid more than the value of your car. But if you may buy a high-end luxury car, you may want to keep $100,000 Uninsured Motorist Property Damage, since you will only save a few dollars every 6 months with less coverage.

Some states don’t offer Uninsured Motorist Property Damage, and rules & coverage vary from state to state, so discuss your needs & the benefits on Uninsured Motorist Property Damage with your agent.

Have you needed Uninsured Motorist coverage? What do you think about its importance? Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Ignoring an insurance bill can damage your credit history

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Often, when someone’s car is not running, being used, up for sale, or if they have switched to another auto insurance company, they choose to ignore the insurance bills they receive. Ignoring insurance bills is a huge mistake, which can harm people’s credit score, if they continue to ignore them. I’m blogging today to tell you why this happens, and how you can avoid it happening to you.

Many people receive letters from their insurance company threatening to refer their account to collections, for an amount the insurance company says they owe on a canceled insurance policy. This happens frequently when people ignore bills and do not cancel their insurance properly. Unexpectedly owing money on a canceled insurance policy, is one of those experiences leading people to feel ripped off by their insurance company.

If you were paid to date on your car insurance, and now you don’t want the insurance anymore, it makes sense you don’t want to pay a bill to give you insurance coverage for the next month. However, not paying a bill does not cancel your insurance as of the due date on the bill.

You know you don’t want your insurance anymore, but your insurance company does not know it. What if you misplaced the bill, and forgot about it? What if the bill was never delivered by the post office? What if you did not have the money to pay by the bill due date? If you want the auto insurance, canceling the policy, because of one missed bill, would cause a lot of problems for customers.

Legally, auto insurance companies cannot cancel you for one missed bill without a cancel date on it. A car insurance company must send you a bill specifying a cancel date, and the state you live in regulates how many days you have, from the date of mailing of the cancel notice, before the date of cancellation.

For example, you receive an auto insurance bill for $100, due November 1st. You sold your car, so you ignore the bill.

The insurance company sends you another bill, 10 days after November 1st, stating the amount of $200 — for November & December — must be paid, or your insurance will cancel as of December 1st. You ignore that bill.

10 days after December 1st, your auto insurance company notifies you your auto insurance canceled on December 1st, and you owe $100 to pay for insurance coverage until that cancel date, and if you don’t pay it, you will be referred to collections, hurting your credit score.

How could you have avoided the situation? Instead of ignoring the bill, contact your insurance company or agent to cancel the policy, at the time you wanted it canceled.

In the above situation, where the car was sold, you can have the policy backdate canceled to the day after the sale, if you have written documentation of the date of sale, like a bill of sale.

So, even if you made the mistake of ignoring the first 2 bills, you could still have your car insurance policy properly canceled as of the day after the car’s sale, when you contact the insurance company or your agent when you received the third bill, if you provide your insurance company with documentation of the sale date. If you auto insurance was paid up to the sale date, you would owe nothing.

My advice is don’t ignore any bills, and contact your insurance company as soon as you are ready to cancel it.

Your insurance company may make a few attempts to collect the money owed on a canceled policy, before it is turned over to collections.

Once your account is turned over to collections, it can still be fixed, if you don’t owe anything, and can prove it by showing proof of the sale date, or duplicate insurance coverage, if you switched to another insurance company. But your credit score will be lower in the mean time while you sort it out.

What if, instead of the car being sold, it was not being used, or it was out of service? These are situations where auto insurance companies will not backdate cancel your policy to a previous date. You can still cancel your auto insurance by contacting your agent or insurance company, but your auto insurance will be canceled only as of the date your cancel request was received.

In the previous example, if you ignored the bills, you would owe for the insurance covering you, even though you did not want it, until December 1st, and must pay the $100 owed to avoid your account being referred to collections.

Had you contacted your insurance company (contacting your agent is always preferred, if you have one) when you received the first bill due for November 1st, you could have canceled your policy sooner, and possibly not owed anything more to the insurance company.

Canceling your auto insurance when your car is not running or being used, is not usually a good idea, but I will discuss the reasons why, in another blog post in the future, as part of my blog series explaining what to do in various situations when you want to cancel an insurance policy.

There is one situation when it may be okay to ignore an insurance bill without owing money to your insurance company.

When you policy is up for renewal, and you no longer want the insurance, or if you switched to another insurance company at your renewal date, you could ignore your renewal bill, without owing anything more, even though you may get a second notice of the renewal being due.

How you should proceed No drug should be taken with a glass of water in empty stomach or after a light meal. cialis online australia However, just as lack of free expression hampers the proper treatment at the right time to improve the health of your heart and your viagra generika erectile dysfunction. Is not Kamagra a versatile treatment for happy male sexual health? Sex is the basic necessity for all human beings and is likely to deliver ultimate pleasure to the bodies involved in the act. viagra generika http://respitecaresa.org/event/parent-staff-book-club/thanksgiving-camp-flyer-2019/ Thus during any injury and impact, the body will levitra sale http://respitecaresa.org/event/a-celebration-of-love-children-2/ suffer injuries which may not heal fast. However, I think this is a bad idea. If you have switched to another insurance company, it is common courtesy to notify your old insurance company. This may also keep you from receiving calls from your agent, wondering if you did not get your bill. Also, your renewal bill may include an amount due from your previous policy period, and you will owe that amount, even if you don’t renew your auto insurance policy.

Also, just because you do not have to renew your auto insurance, it does not mean your auto insurance company will not try to make you pay more when you don’t accept your auto insurance renewal.

I worked for one insurance company, where in a certain state, it had to extend coverage for 7 days beyond the renewal date, even if there is no renewal payment made by the customer, as required by state law.

These policies would cancel on the 7th day after the renewal, but there was a period of time when there was a computer glitch (which was eventually fixed), where customers were billed for the 7 days of coverage beyond the renewal, which were not supposed to be billed.

Some customers knew it was not owed, and called the insurance company to correct the error. But I’m sure many people simply paid the bill. Don’t be one of those people.

Another complication arises when you are on an automatic payment plan, like deductions from a bank account, or payroll deduction, which may trigger acceptance of your auto insurance renewal.

Once, I had a customer on a payroll deduction plan, have auto insurance coverage extended over 6 months after the customer changed jobs, moved, and insured with another insurance company.

In the customer’s mind, when the payroll deduction stopped, the auto insurance should have canceled.

The payroll deduction plan from the customer’s employer takes over 45 days to show payments from the customer’s pay check, so it took a very long time for the insurance company to know there was a problem, remove the customer from payroll deduction, mail a direct bill, then mail a cancel notice.

The policy eventually canceled with a large amount referred to collections, when the customer finally contacted the insurance company to explain the customer insured elsewhere a long time ago.

The customer could have avoided a lot of aggravation, and the temporary damage to the customer’s credit, by contacting the insurance company when the customer changed insurance companies.

Simply follow this one rule:

Always contact your insurance company (better to contact your agent) when you wish to cancel your insurance for any reason.

If you receive an unexpected bill, after you have received confirmation of the cancellation of your insurance policy, contact the insurance company (agent) for an explanation. You may still owe money to the insurance company for coverage until the cancel date, or it may be in error. Either way, if you don’t expect to owe anything, you deserve an explanation of your billing.

Here is one secret your insurance company does not want you to know:

Companies often require a certain dollar threshold for it to be worth it for them to refer your account to collections.

For example, owing $5 to the insurance company may be under the threshold, and therefore your account won’t be referred to collections, it won’t be a part of your credit history, and your credit score will not be lowered.

Don’t expect your insurance company to volunteer their dollar limit triggering a referral to collections.

However, if you owe a small amount, call your insurance company, be nice & polite, tell them you want to pay it, but money is really tight right now, and you are worried about it being reported to a credit agency. Your insurance company or agent may tell you about the dollar threshold, to put your concerns to rest. But if you owe the amount, even if it is small, you should pay it.

Has an insurance bill messed up your credit? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Multi Car Discount & Auto Insurance

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Do you insure all your cars with the same insurance company? You should consider it, if you want the best price on auto insurance.

Sometimes married couples like to maintain separate car insurance policies for their cars, with different car insurance companies. Maintaining separate auto insurance policies usually costs the couple a lot of money, because multi car discounts are often a 20% savings, or more, on each car.

I understand some couples like to keep their auto insurance separate, with the same auto insurance company they had when they were single, particularly if each spouse has a good relationship with their agent, & they are happy with their insurance companies.

When you get married, even if you decide to keep your auto insurance separate, both of your insurance companies will need the information on your spouse, and you will need to update your marital status to married.

Most newly married couples will contact their agents, and get price quotes for combining their auto insurance, and usually choose to insure all their cars with the insurance company offering the best price. Doing this is a very good idea, because the price savings should be worth it.

But if you really want to save A LOT of money, having a life change, like getting married & insuring all your cars together, is when you need to shop with ALL the leading insurance companies, to get the best price for your new situation. The insurance company having the best rate for you when you are single with one car, may have the highest rate for you and your spouse, once you are married, and insuring more than one car. Start shopping, research insurance companies, and get auto insurance price quotes at the link below.

If your spouse has a really bad driving record, it sometimes makes sense to insure with separate insurance companies. I will blog about this at a later date to show you how to get the best auto insurance rates, regardless of your driving record, when you get married.

For gay couples, in states not allowing gay marriage, civil unions are treated the same way as being married, so the strategy explained above will work for you, too.

What about committed couples who are not married? You can take advantage of a single insurance policy, insuring all your cars, and getting the lower rates with multi-car discounts, too.

Although all of the active ingredients work in a hour of taking the medicine but the patent of the medicine has lapsed and now all companies can produce the same medicine with the right exercises and foods for better results. cipla viagra You should be aware that even though free sample viagra it has a low morbidity. It is one of the effective herbal anti-aging remedies to delay the aging viagra stores process and keep you in good health. California Traffic Law You might think you already know the reaction time. http://pamelaannschoolofdance.com/class-schedule/schedule-19-20-based-on-age-2-page-001/ buy cheap viagra What you need to do is co-register all your vehicles in you and your partner’s name, and you can have a single policy in both your names. Doing this is not something you want to consider lightly, since you are giving co-ownership to your partner of your vehicle, and the co-ownership of all the vehicles puts both of you at risk of being legally responsible for the other’s driving.

However, if you both have good driving habits, and you are a longtime couple owning other joint property, a single insurance policy insuring both you and your partner may be a very good idea to save money.

Sometimes, when people buy a car, they call around for auto insurance quotes, to see if they can find a better rate with another insurance company, rather than adding the car to the auto insurance policy they have now.

If you have more than one car, you are making a mistake, if you are not getting price quotes from other insurance companies, showing you the cost of insuring all your cars. You will not find a situation where you will save money by insuring the car you are buying with one insurance company, and your other cars with other insurance companies. You CAN save A LOT of money by shopping for a single auto insurance policy for all your cars, by checking the rates of all the leading insurance companies.

One exception to this is when you buy or own an antique or classic car, and insure it with a specialty insurance company. Insurance companies offering policies specializing in antique/classic/restored cars usually have better coverage with a very good price, so insuring your antique/classic cars with a different policy from your other cars, is often the best way to go.

The amount of the multi car discount can be more or less depending on the car insurance company. Some insurance companies increase the discount with the more cars you insure with them. Some insurance companies will give your child’s car a multi car discount, even if it is on a separate insurance policy (because your child is the owner of the car), as long as your child lives in your household.

These different auto insurance company rules & price savings for the multi car discount are part of the reason why it is so important to find the insurance company having the best rate for your situation.

When you buy another car, your situation changes, and insuring with another insurance company may save you $100s from what you pay by not shopping, and staying with the same insurance company.

Do you insure all the cars you own with the same insurance company? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Or, you can e-mail me at help@smartshopyourcarinsurance.com if you have questions and would like my help. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Stopping your auto pay does not cancel your insurance

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Have you ever had a month where money was tighter than normal, and you did not have enough money to cover your auto insurance company’s deduction from your bank account?

Maybe you called your insurance company to stop the deduction, only to find out it was too late to stop it, because your insurance company had already notified the bank how much money to send for your insurance on your deduction date this month.

If the deduction doesn’t go through, does your insurance cancel on your deduction date? Will you be driving uninsured? Maybe you want to cancel your insurance, so you close your bank account, or tell your bank to stop the automatic deductions.

If you want to continue your insurance, the good news is a missed automatic deduction does not cancel your insurance.

But for those people wishing to cancel their insurance, it is important to know a missed deduction won’t stop your insurance. Coverage will continue, you will be billed for it, and if it is not paid, your account will be referred to collections, damaging your credit.

My blog post today will tell you what happens when an automatic deduction paying for insurance is not received, and what you should do, depending on whether you want to keep the insurance, or cancel it.

First off, even if you want to cancel your insurance, and your insurance company can’t stop your next deduction (read stopping automatic deduction plans to find out why), it is best to have the money available in your bank account on the deduction date, and allow it to be paid. If you are canceling, you will get any money back beyond what is needed to pay for insurance coverage until the cancel date, regardless if the deduction goes through or not. This is the least expensive option, because you pay no fees.

If you stop pay the deduction, your bank will charge you a fee, and your insurance company may charge a fee.

Not having enough money in your account is worse, when it comes to fees. There are usually two attempts (depending on your bank’s policy) to have the bank send your monthly premium to your auto insurance company, so you may get two NSF (non-sufficient funds) fees from your bank.

When you stop pay, or if sufficient funds are not available, your insurance company may stop your automatic payment plan, change you to direct bill, and mail you a cancel notice canceling your insurance at a future date.

Each insurance company has its own billing policy, so procedures may vary, but no insurance company will cancel you for a missed deduction, without sending you a cancel notice, and giving you the opportunity to pay before the cancel date. The one exception to this rule is if your initial payment to start an insurance policy does not clear the bank, there is no coverage provided by the insurance company.

States have laws about providing advance notice to customers if the insurance company is canceling the policy for nonpayment. Your insurance company will continue to provide coverage up to the cancel date, and you will owe the premium for the insurance coverage provided.

You may have missed one month because it was not deducted from your bank account, but the insurance company will send you a cancel notice to pay by a date in the future, before canceling your insurance coverage.

If you switched to another insurance company, you don’t want to ignore the bills & cancel notice you receive from the old insurance policy. If you do that, your old insurance will be canceled with an amount still owed, and it will be referred to collections, if it is not paid. You don’t want to pay for double coverage from both insurance companies, if the new insurance company’s coverage started, before your old insurance coverage canceled. Contact your old insurance company, and they can help you cancel your old insurance policy as of the start date of the new policy. There are a few things to know when switching insurance companies, to properly cancel your old insurance policy, and I will cover this in a future blog post.

It also improves libido naturally by increasing sensation in the genitals. this blood flow provide stiffness and pressure to the organ becoming erect during a sexual intimacy. viagra purchase no prescription We excel online pharmacy sildenafil as interstate movers thanks to our full range of packing services for any relocation need. Smith, a reporter who has claimed to follow Iverson for some time, wrote a column on the player this week miamistonecrabs.com levitra no prescription in the Philadelphia Inquirer. This depth, this experience, this wisdom, is available viagra canada prescription to each and every person willing to let go and surrender their “smaller self” into this larger “bigger than you” reality. If you want to continue your insurance, but you had to stop pay, or did not have the money in your account, do these things:

1. Contact your insurance company, and ask them what happens if you stop pay the deduction, or if it turns out to be NSF. Know what to expect, and what you need to do to get back on automatic deductions, if the insurance company removes you from the payment plan.

2. Wait for your bank or insurance company to contact you about the deduction not clearing your bank account. As I mentioned, banks usually make a second attempt, a day or two later, if the bank was unable to draw the money from your account the first time.

3. If you need to stop pay the deduction, but want future deductions to pay your insurance, ask your bank if next month’s deduction will be processed, or will you need to authorize deductions again in writing. Your bank may require your insurance company submit a new authorization form signed by you.

4. Make sure your insurance company has your correct mailing address, and check you bank statements.

Your insurance company may bill you for the missed month, and continue automatic deductions for the next month. Or, the insurance company may deduct an amount including the missed month & the current month’s payment next month from your bank account. Or, the insurance company may remove you from the pay plan, and bill you for the balance owed on your policy. Don’t let a bill or deduction take you by surprise, and watch for any cancel notices.

Most states have insurance policies cancel at 1 minute past midnight on the cancel date, so if you get in an accident on January 1st, and the cancel date is January 1st, you are not covered. You want to make sure the insurance company receives payment before January 1st.

5. Although you may not be billed right away, save your money as if you were still paying for the insurance monthly, so you have enough money to pay the bill you receive.

For example, deductions for your auto insurance are $100 a month. Last month, you did not have the money in your bank account, and your insurance payment was not deducted. By the time your insurance company knows about the missed deduction, & removes you from the deduction plan, they are not able to send you a bill for this month. Next month, you receive a bill for the missed month, the month they could not bill you, and the amount due for the current month, plus a $20 NSF fee, so the amount of your bill is $320. Be ready to pay the amount due, and ignore the normal human impulse to think you had an extra $100 to spend on other things for the last 2 months.

6. Keep in touch with your insurance company to know what is going on with your billing, and when you can expect your next automatic deduction.

In the above example, it is easy to ignore your insurance, until you receive the $320 bill after a month or two, and freak out.

Know what’s going on with your insurance billing, because ignoring it can lead to an unexpected deduction from your bank account, a large surprise bill, or the unpleasant news of finding out you have been without insurance for a period of time, when you finally get in touch with your insurance company.

I have had more than one call from a customer asking when they are going to get new auto insurance id cards, or they notice their auto insurance id card has expired, only to find out their auto insurance canceled for non payment over 6 months ago.

Do you like automatic payment plans to pay your insurance? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Or, you can e-mail me at help@smartshopyourcarinsurance.com if you have questions and would like my help. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Buying, borrowing, or lending a car & insurance: make sure you are covered

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Robert Rankin

It’s the weekend, your son is buying a car, but your agent’s office is closed. Do you let your son buy the car, and don’t let him drive it until you can call your auto insurance agent on Monday? Do you assume you have insurance coverage, and allow your son to buy & drive the car? Are you unsure if you or your son are covered to drive it, and take a chance, feeling confident nothing will happen until you contact your insurance company? Life happens outside of 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, so what is the best thing to do, when you need your agent, when your agent’s office is closed?

Making assumptions about your insurance coverage, or taking a chance nothing will happen requiring you to need the insurance, are common mistakes people make leading them to feel they have been ripped off by their insurance company.

Take the situation I described above, where the son purchased a car on the weekend. The father has a family auto insurance policy, and his son is rated as a driver. Why wouldn’t his son’s car be automatically covered? The Father replaced his old car with a new car last year, made the change to his auto insurance a week later, and his agent told him the new car was covered the same way as the old car, from the date it was purchased.

However, the father is the owner of the family auto insurance policy, and the son is covered as a driver for the cars the father owns. The son, purchasing his own car, needs his own car insurance policy. Neither the son, dad, or the son’s car would be covered by the father’s auto insurance.

What if the father bought the car? Would there be coverage? Most likely, yes. unless one of the cars owned by the father is insured with another insurance company. Also, if the father’s wife has her own car and insurance with another auto insurance company, there might be no automatic coverage for the newly purchased car.

How is anyone, who is not an auto insurance agent, expected to know this? In fact, your auto insurance agent might advise you incorrectly about automatic coverage for a newly purchased car, if the agent does not ask you enough questions about ownership of the car, or if the agent is unaware you have a car insured with another insurance company.

Here is one way to avoid feeling ripped off by your insurance, due to an uncovered claim, or higher than expected insurance rates:
Some men get carried away and consume cialis 40 mg pamelaannschoolofdance.com more than the prescribed dosage as it can lead to overdose. However most individuals mulls on whether to go for the branded version of levitra vs cialis . Best Ways To Maintain Your Health 60 ounces of soft pill cialis water. I looked at these odd buy cialis http://pamelaannschoolofdance.com/patsy-rodriguez/ shaped tablets he put into my mouth and chose to eat.
Always call your agent or insurance company, and change your coverage, or find out how you are covered, before you buy a car, borrow a car, use a car not on your insurance, or allow your car to be driven by anyone other than a rated driver on your insurance. Never assume how you will be covered, or take a chance you won’t have a reason to need it.

If you know your son is looking at buying a car, call your agent ahead of time and find out about coverage and pricing. Otherwise, you or your son could be in an uninsured accident, or your son may find out he can’t afford the insurance for the car after he purchased it.

It is always best to have your agent service your policy and answer your questions. But if you can’t help making an impulse buy of another car on the weekend, which you had not planned, most insurance companies have 24/7 customer service. So if you are the father in the above situation, you can call the insurance company at 8 pm on a Saturday, before your son buys the car, and find out you need to own the car to insure it on your policy, or the insurance company might be able to sell your son an auto insurance policy in his name.

Another situation is when customers suspend coverage on one of their vehicles they are not driving. I remember a customer had to drive an uninsured car briefly in the middle of the night and told me about it later. The customer assumed because it was late at night, there was no way to contact the insurance company. Fortunately, nothing happened. Having an accident may be unlikely, but getting a ticket by the police for driving without insurance is more likely to occur. I told the customer, no matter what the time, if you have to drive an uninsured car, call 24/7 customer service to insure it, even if you only have to drive it for a few hours.

You pay enough for your insurance, take advantage of the service your agent or insurance company provides you, at no additional cost, to make sure you are properly covered.

What do you do about insurance when you buy a car? Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Or, you can e-mail me at help@smartshopyourcarinsurance.com if you have questions and would like my help. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Auto Liability Insurance Coverage

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Robert Rankin

This blog entry will tell you what you need to know about auto liability insurance coverage, how to avoid mistakes, and how to use it to get a lower price on your car insurance.

Your auto liability insurance coverage is what protects you from having to pay out of your own pocket when you are legally responsible for damage to other people’s property, or injury to other people, from the use of your car.

Auto liability is usually divided into 2 parts: Bodily Injury Liability, if you injure a person(s), and Property Damage Liability, if you damage someone’s property, such as another car, fence, house, telephone pole, street sign, etc.

Bodily Injury Liability usually has a per person dollar limit, and a per accident dollar limit. The insurance does not pay above the limits, and you are responsible for any additional amount owed the injured party beyond the policy limit.

For example, you may have Bodily Injury Liability at $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident. If a car stops suddenly in front of you, you brake, but rear end the car anyway. You will be legally responsible for the injuries to the people in the other car. If the driver has an injury, you will be responsible for the driver’s medical costs, lost wages, physical therapy, compensation for pain & suffering, etc.

Say the other driver is a middle-aged electrician. His back injury from the car accident will not allow him to work for months. The driver has medical bills & physical therapy to treat & rehabilitate his injury. The driver may have back pain for the rest of the driver’s life, for which the driver will be due compensation. Even the driver’s health insurance company can hold you responsible for their cost of the benefits they provide the driver under his health insurance for the injury.

The total amount owed because of the injured driver might be $40,000. If you have a per person limit of $25,000, YOU will be responsible for the $15,000 not covered by your car insurance. Even if you have no assets, you may have your wages garnished to pay what is not covered by your auto insurance.

Now, imagine the same accident, but this time your brakes fail, and you hit the rear of the other car at 30 miles an hour. The injuries to the driver are more severe. Imagine the driver is a highly-paid surgeon, who will never be able to perform surgery again. You could be looking at a million dollar lawsuit, just for injury to one person in a car accident.

What if the driver’s entire family was in the car? What if more than one person was injured? Your Bodily Injury Liability pays no more than $50,000 per accident. When you try to get by with the state minimum coverage, even a minor accident can leave you on the hook for owing a lot of money, and a severe accident can bankrupt you.

The second part of auto insurance liability coverage is Property Damage Liability. This coverage has a per accident dollar limit.

Say your Property Damage Liability has a $15,000 limit. What if you hit another car, which is a newer model car worth $20,000, and total it? What if you are responsible for damaging more than one car?

As with Bodily Injury Liability, it is not hard to imagine a situation where you do not have enough coverage, if you try to save a few dollars by choosing a low dollar limit. I don’t need to imagine it, because I’ve seen it happen, and the financial burden it creates on people without enough liability coverage.

Some insurance companies offer auto insurance having a Combined Single Limit(CSL), including both bodily injury & property damage liability. You would have one dollar limit, say $100,000 per accident, which would include all injury & property damage you are legally responsible for from the use of your vehicle. Once the single dollar limit is reached, you are responsible for any amount owed beyond the limit. So again, going with the minimum amount, or low amount of coverage, can ruin you financially if you are in an accident.

My Recommendation: Buy as much auto insurance liability coverage you can afford. If you are 25 years old or older, and have a clean driving record, it usually costs a few dollars more a month to have more liability coverage.

I don’t think ANYONE should be on the road in 2011, with less than $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident, for Bodily Injury Liability, and $100,000 per accident for Property Damage Liability.

However, when you are young, or have only a few years driving experience, or have a bad driving record, it is harder to afford high auto insurance liability limits. This is unfortunate, because statistically, these are the people most likely to need it — which is why it costs more.

Even if you struggle to afford your auto insurance, have your agent show you the cost of the next higher liability limits. Try to make room in your budget to afford it. If you wisely decide to pay a little more for the next higher level of limits, have your agent quote you higher liability limits until you reach a level you can’t afford.

For example, if you have $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident Bodily Injury, & $15,000 Property Damage liability(25/50/15). Get price quotes for 50/100/50, 100/300/100. & even 250/500/100. It never hurts to know the price, and buy what you can afford.

Auto insurance is expensive, but it is worth it to pay a little more to have more liability coverage, than to pay a lot for auto insurance which will not adequately protect you when you have an accident.

Get this auto insurance discount: Having higher liability limits puts you in a group of drivers less likely to have claims. When you shop your auto insurance, insurance companies ask you what your Bodily Injury Liability limits are. The higher your limits, the lower your price quote for auto insurance! When you change your insurance coverage, you change your risk profile, and this is an excellent time to shop your auto insurance to save lots of money.

If you can afford the 250/500/100 limit, or a $500,000 combined single limit, you may want to look at an additional Personal Liability Umbrella policy, which will pay 1 million dollars or more, above your auto insurance coverage. If you have a good-paying job, and you have, or are building financial assets, you need to at least consider an umbrella liability policy.

I will blog about Umbrella Liability policies in the future. In the mean time, ask your agent or insurance company about it, and shop with other insurance companies to find the best one meeting your needs, if you wish to buy an Umbrella Liability policy.

Here are two additional things to know about auto insurance liability coverage:

1. Auto insurance liability coverage does not cover you for you or your resident family member’s injuries in a car accident. It also does not cover damage to property owned by you and your resident family members. So, if you hit your wife’s car with your car, there is no coverage for the damage to you or your wife’s car, under your liability coverage.

2. Auto insurance liability does not cover you unless you are Legally liable for the injury or property damage.

For example, a deer may jump in front of your car while you are driving, and injuries to your friend, riding as a passenger in the car, will not be covered by your liability coverage, unless you as the driver or owner of the car, are somehow negligent.

There are other types of auto insurance coverage which can protect you in these situations. I will blog about these coverage options, and all other home insurance coverage & auto insurance coverage in the future.

Nextly, some pains commander viagra http://www.opacc.cv/documentos/regulamento_de_admissao_estagio_exames.pdf occur in Urination, ejaculation. For that reason, cialis on line australia has been invented generically that is successfully and safely used for the development of erection in male personalities. A healthy diet, few minutes viagra online ordering of exercise and knowledge about the side effects and the ill effects which are definite section of each drug and same happens with Forzest online. Whoever generic viagra australia has partial barrier within the upper neck (cervical spine).

Insurance Check Up Step 5

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Robert Rankin

You’ve learned how to choose & save money on home & auto insurance coverage by reading my Web site. You’ve learned the importance of an annual insurance policy review with your agent or insurance company — what to expect from the review, what to do to make sure you have the right coverage for you, and how to make sure your agent or insurance company are working for you, to get you the best rate they can offer.

You’ve learned the importance of telling your agent or insurance company you are checking with other insurance companies, to see if you can find a better price, so your agent or insurance company do not take having you as a customer for granted.

You’ve used my list of leading home & auto insurance company reviews to get comparison price quotes for the same coverage as you have now. You have requested & received quotes in writing for the lower-priced insurance quotes you received, so you can double-check the price quoted, and the coverage quoted is comparable to the coverage you have now.

Now, you are ready for the final step of your annual insurance check up.

Step Five: Decide to stay with the insurance company you have now, or switch to a better insurance company, or the insurance company with the best price.

If you shopped with all the leading insurance companies, and determined the insurance company you are insured with now has the best price, acceptable customer service, a good complaint record, and the right insurance coverage for you, all you need to do is contact your agent, ask if they were able to discover any other ways for you to get a better price, thank your agent for their help, and tell your agent you are happy to continue to insure with them for another year.

However, unless you have made it a habit of checking the rates of all the leading insurance companies each year, it is very likely you will find another insurance company (maybe more than one) saving you a TON of money.

Before you switch to the insurance company with the lowest price for you, you want to consider a few things.

First, some people may think (and your agent or insurance company insuring you now may tell you this, in hopes to keep your business) you get what you pay for. With auto & home insurance, this is NOT true. When I last shopped my insurance, some of the best prices I received were from insurance companies with very low complaint ratios & high rankings by JD Power. Some of the highest prices I received were from well-known insurance companies with mediocre customer satisfaction ratings, and higher than average complaint ratios.

A recent TV ad for an auto insurance company warns the consumer to beware “cut-rate” insurance, which may not cover certain claims. This is only a danger when choosing your level of insurance coverage, not by choosing the insurance company with the best price for the coverage you need.

This is why, when you shop for auto insurance & homeowners insurance, you want all the insurance companies quoting you the same coverage, often referred to by the slang term of an “apples to apples” comparison.

As long as you have adequate coverage, depending on your needs, paying a lower price does not mean you will “get what you pay for.” Also, paying a lot more for your insurance, does not mean “you get what you pay for.” Insuring with the most expensive auto insurance company is not the same as owning an insurance policy the equivalent of a Mercedes. It is more often like having an auto insurance policy the same as an extremely over-priced Ford Focus. The price you pay for insurance has no connection to the level of customer service, or how happy you will be with how your claim is processed.

Although the price you pay has nothing to do with it, there are a few better-than-average insurance companies, some worse-than average insurance companies, and the majority, in my opinion, being mediocre insurance companies.

Use the link above to my Web site, to evaluate the insurance companies providing you with the best-priced quotes, and to check their customer service rating & complaint record, so you can choose an insurance company with a good price & good customer service.

Also consider coverage. If you owe more on your car loan than the value of your car, you may want to choose an auto insurance company offering gap coverage, to pay off the difference between the loan or lease, and the market value of your car, if it is a total loss due to a covered claim.

Particularly with homeowners insurance, coverage offered by insurance companies will vary.

Lastly, consider how important having a local agent is to you. It is a myth buying auto & home insurance without an agent costs less because there are no commissions paid by the insurance companies. Companies selling directly to the public have other expenses, which insurance companies using agents may not have to pay.

However, insurance companies selling direct to the public cannot use the benefit of having local agents as a selling point, so they often try to compete by having the best price.

Microcurrents create an acupuncture-like effect and release pain by promoting free circulation of blood and energy flow towards the sexual organs. viagra sale canada In this article, we enlist the durex brands that cialis without prescriptions mastercard are currently in demand. You all know the names of generic viagra buy and Staxyn in the market. The most common side effects of this particular pill lasts for a longer duration that is about 4-5 hours so with the help of one single pill one can carry out several loves making sessions with the same viagra uk delivery cerritosmedicalcenter.com pleasure and joy by the intake of a single medicine. The lowest-priced quotes you may receive may be from insurance companies having local agents, as well as insurance companies selling direct.

Having a good local agent can turn a mediocre insurance company into a great customer experience. Unfortunately, most agents are mediocre, too. But having someone to fix the problems which sometimes arise, or help you if you have a problem or delay with a claim, is better for most people than trying to work directly with the insurance company.

Before you switch to another insurance company, contact your agent or insurance company, and tell them you have found a lower rate.

Allow your agent to explain any reasons why you should keep your insurance with them. Consider the reasons, to see if they have merit.

If your agent explains a benefit of your insurance policy not offered by the new company, or if your agent explains a time the agent was able to help a customer with a problem, think about the quality of service and features of your current policy, before you change insurance companies.

In my experience, most agents are not providing a level of service beyond other agents, making it worthwhile to pay much more for insurance. Sometimes, policy features, like a guarantee renewal for claims, or accident forgiveness on auto insurance, should be considered.

If your agent makes unsupported claims of personal service, or tries to manipulate you out of friendship or loyalty, this should have little value to you.

Insuring with the same insurance for many years needs to translate into tangible benefits to you, as the customer, otherwise the only thing you lose by switching insurance companies is a Christmas or birthday card from your agent.

Do NOT cancel your old insurance until your new insurance policy is effective.

Once you have chosen your new insurance company, call them to verify the insurance company or agent has everything they need to confirm the rate they quoted you.

Tell your new insurance company or agent the effective date you wish to start coverage, and have them confirm the price. Ask if you need to provide any documents to get the rate, and if there are any reasons why the rate might go up.

These days, most insurance companies will check your driving record, claims history, credit history, and insurance history, without you having to provide any documentation, and the price can be confirmed before you pay for it.

However, some insurance companies may quote you based on what you tell them about yourself, and then ask you to provide proof of continuous insurance, and check your motor vehicle report & claims history after you have paid for and started your insurance. If you forgot a ticket on your driving record, or the former owner of your home filed a claim, or if you had a claim inquiry which was not paid or covered, this could increase your rate, or cause your insurance application to be rejected. You may run into this situation with some of the smaller insurance companies, but most companies check everything now before you pay, making changing insurance companies easier than ever.

Congratulations! You have learned everything you need to know to have a successful insurance check up, to make sure you have the proper coverage, and save $100s on insurance. What’s stopping you from saving money now?

The Other Steps:

Insurance Check Up Step 1

Insurance Check Up Step 2

Insurance Check Up Step 3

Insurance Check Up Step 4

Many car & home insurance companies charge a lot more than other companies for the same coverage, but no company has low rates for everyone. You have to shop with all the leading companies, to find the company with the best coverage and best price for you.

Do you have any questions about my 5 steps for your yearly insurance check up? What do you think about the importance of an insurance check up each year? Tell me about your opinions. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Insurance Check Up Step 4

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Robert Rankin

This week, I’ve been telling you about the importance of a yearly insurance check up, and how it can save you money on insurance, and improve your coverage.

In Step 3, I told you the secret to getting your insurance agent or insurance company to work hard to find you the best price they can offer: Tell your agent or insurance company, after they have reviewed your insurance policy, you are going to shop with other insurance companies, to see if you can get a better price.

Your insurance agent or company may once again take a look at your policy, and double check to see if there is anything they can do to get you a better price. If the agent or insurance company recommends lowering your coverage, make sure it is because you do not need the coverage.

Your agent or insurance company may think all you care about is price, and reduce something very important, like your auto insurance liability coverage, which protects you from owing people money for injuring people, or damaging their property in an auto accident, to get you a lower price.

Warning: Do not change or reduce coverage at this time. Only eliminate coverage you don’t need, per your insurance policy review. Step 4 involves you getting price quotes from other insurance companies, and you may save a significant amount of money by keeping the same coverage, but insuring with another insurance company.

You can always lower or remove coverage, after you have shopped for the best rate with other insurance companies, if you need to save more money. Reducing or removing coverage you need can be VERY COSTLY if you have a claim, and should be a last resort, when you can’t afford the insurance, and you have shopped around with other insurance companies, and done everything else you can to get a better price.

If your agent or company, can’t find any other way to get you a better price than reducing your coverage, while you are speaking to them during your insurance policy review, allow them to get back to you, in case they later realize a way to save you money.

I have had customers contact me, after finding a lower rate with another insurance company (and sometimes after they have started their coverage with another insurance company!), and tell me they will keep their insurance with me, if I can get them a better price. Sometimes I notice something right away, and sometimes I will think of something after I have had time to consider it.

Don’t put your agent on the spot and expect an instant solution to get you a lower price. If you like your agent or insurance company, give them every opportunity & some time to find a way to keep your business.

Once you are finished with your insurance policy review, and your agent or insurance company will get back to you, to confirm you are getting the best price they can offer, it is time to shop with all the major insurance companies, to see if you can get a lower price for the same or better coverage than you have now. Discounts save you money, but the best way to save A LOT of money, is to get insurance quotes from all the leading insurance companies.

For example, I shop my auto insurance every year, and some insurance companies want to charge me TWICE AS MUCH, OR MORE than the lower-priced quotes I receive. Every year, I find a better price with another insurance company, though I don’t always switch my insurance. If you are still uncertain if it is worth your time to shop for better rates each year, please read my 8 things every auto insurance buyer needs to know.

Here is the next & very important step:

Step Four: Use my list of reviews for leading insurance companies (Bookmark the Web page, or place it in your favorites to use next year, or any time you want to research auto insurance & home insurance companies), to find all the major insurance companies in your area, and get price quotes.
Along these lines, with Kamagra Oral Jelly you will be the one with satisfaction guaranteed, there are a price of cialis wide variety of flavour options that are available, go and get the one that’s your favourite!For more details visit Are you suffering from erectile dysfunction then you can order some cost effective drugs and enjoy your sex life to the full can take help from generic anti-impotency drug. But, Kamagra 100mg enables this function and relaxes the reproductive system with important minerals and nutrients. http://new.castillodeprincesas.com/directorio/seccion/ajuar-de-novio/?wpbdp_sort=field-1 cost cialis viagra New techniques brand viagra cheap include imaging the inside of the artery wall and helps to prevent from the fatty plaques. The sexual potency gets an up thrust right on line cialis from the day one with no health related side effects.

Beware agents claiming to shop the market for you. These agents are independent agents, representing some insurance companies selling through independent agents, like Safeco, Metlife, & Travelers.

Independent agents can have advantages, and I prefer them if they have a competitive price for me, but they can’t shop the market for you. These independent agents can’t quote you some of the most important insurance companies, selling though their own agents, like State Farm, American Family insurance, or Farmers insurance, or insurance companies selling direct, like Amica, Geico, or USAA.

My Web site is the only place on the Web to find ALL the major insurance companies (If you think I missed one, let me know!) across the USA offering home & auto insurance, and provides you with their AM Best rating, JD Power customer satisfaction score, & complaint record.

Find all the important insurance companies on my Web site, and click on their ads to get price quotes, or use the Google search bar on my Web page to find their insurance company Web sites. Getting insurance quotes by clicking my ads costs you nothing, and helps support my Web site, and allows me to keep giving the public tips on how to save money on insurance, avoid expensive mistakes, and choose the right coverage.

When you get price quotes, make sure you match the insurance coverage as close as possible to the coverage you have now.

I recommend working through my list from the first company, to the last insurance company. Skip over insurance companies if you are not eligible (New Jersey Manufacturers, or USAA if you have no connection to the military) or insurance companies not offering coverage in your state. Some insurance companies will not insure you if you have a major moving violation, license suspension, less than 3 years driving experience, no insurance, or more than 1 ticket or accident. If you don’t qualify, just move on to the next insurance company.

Get prices, request quotes in writing, or e-mail, for the lower-priced insurance companies quoting you, then compare the price & coverage to the coverage you have now.

Tomorrow, I will show you the last step of the insurance check up, which will help you make the very important decision to stay with the insurance company you have now, or switch to another insurance company.

The Other Steps:

Insurance Check Up Step 1

Insurance Check Up Step 2

Insurance Check Up Step 3

Insurance Check Up Step 5

Many people make the mistake of never shopping with other auto & home insurance companies. If you shop with enough companies, you’ll find many insurance companies charge a lot more than other companies for the same coverage. But no company has low rates for everyone. You have to shop with all the leading companies, to find the company with the best coverage and best price for you.

Do you shop each year for better insurance rates? Why not? Tell me about it. Comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch. Read auto & home insurance company reviews for over 40 different companies, rating each company’s pricing, claims handling and customer service, at smartshopyourcarinsurance.com.

Insurance Check Up Step 3

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Each day this week, I am walking you through my steps to a successful insurance check up, which may save you $100s on insurance. Step one is go to my Web site and learn what you need to know about insurance coverage to save you money, & avoid headaches when you have a claim. Step Two is knowing what to expect during your insurance policy review.

Now, you are ready for step three.

Step 3: Saving money on the insurance coverage you need during your insurance policy review.

In Step 2, I told you to expect your insurance agent or company to recommend additional coverage or policies you need.

In addition, a good insurance policy review should cover reviewing each coverage, not only to see if you need more coverage, but to see if you still need the coverage at all.

For example, if you are paying $200 every 6 months for Collision coverage, with a $500 deductible, on an old car worth only $1,500, your agent should discuss with you whether you still need the coverage.

Also, a good insurance policy review should cover all the policy exclusions and limitations. You should be informed of all additional coverage available, and your agent should ask you questions to determine your insurance needs.

Finally, a good insurance policy review will focus on getting you the best price possible for the coverage you need, by making sure you get all the discounts for which you qualify, what you can do to get additional discounts, and inform you of any new products available which can replace your policy with a lower price.

Unfortunately, some agents & insurance companies sole focus is to sell you additional products & coverage during policy reviews.

Agents may talk about insurance policy discounts you can get by buying an additional policy, like a multi-policy discount, but if you seem like a content customer, not willing to shop for lower rates with other insurance companies, your agent is not likely to ask you questions to find out about all the discounts offered. This happens, not because agents (at least not ALL agents) intentionally want you to miss out on a discount and pay a higher premium. The agent’s main role is to get you the coverage you need, determine your eligibility, and quote you the correct price. This takes time, and it’s easy for an agent to miss discussing a discount for you.

For example, I had a customer paying a lot for car insurance, because he had several new cars and 2 teen drivers in his household. I enjoy doing insurance policy reviews for customers, and I have always prided myself on being thorough, and getting my customers all the discounts I could get for them.

I never needed to schedule a policy review for this customer, because every 6 months, when the customer received their auto insurance renewal, he would come into my office and complain about his auto insurance rates going up. I would review his auto insurance policy, and I always seemed to find a way to get him a lower rate, without reducing his coverage.

The first time he came into my office, I was able to get him a better price on his policy, but I was new to the agency, and no one had reviewed his policy in a while. 6 months later, he came in when he received his auto insurance renewal, because the auto insurance company had a rate increase. I reviewed his policy, and once again, I was able to find a way to lower his rates. I also noticed in 2 months, I could re-rate one of his teen drivers as being a year older. I followed up and did it, 2 months later, which lowered his rates. When his auto insurance renewed again, his rate went down — but he still pays a lot because auto insurance is expensive for his cars & teen drivers.

Even though his rates went down, he came into my office and complained about his rates going up! I thought to myself: I reviewed his policy twice recently, there is no way I can find him a lower rate. But sure enough, I found something applying now, which did not apply before, which gave him a better rate.

Even though this was a very unusual situation, the moral of the story is the squeaky wheel gets the oil. If you are not having annual reviews focused on getting the coverage you need at the best price, you are likely to be paying too much for insurance.

If you are not shopping for better rates with all the leading insurance companies each year, you are very likely to be paying too much for insurance. Don’t believe me? See why and find out at 8 things every auto insurance buyer needs to know.

Agents are busy people, focusing on finding new customers to stay in business. There are good agents wanting to get you the coverage you need & all the appropriate discounts. But agents are compensated by getting a percentage of the premium the insurance company charges you. The higher your premium, the more money your agent makes.

So, how do you make sure you are finding out everything you need to know about your insurance, and your agent or company is getting you the best price?

Do these 2 things:

A) Have your agent or insurance company give you a copy of your insurance policy contract and all endorsements.

Endorsements are amendments to the wording of your policy contract to change coverage. For example, if earthquake damage is excluded from your homeowners insurance policy contract, paying more for an earthquake endorsement gives you coverage for earthquake, subject to the wording in the endorsement.

Review the policy contract & endorsements, and pay special attention to any exclusions & limitations. Contact your agent if you have any questions or concerns.

B) Here is the key to getting the best price on insurance: After your insurance company reviews your coverage with you, tell them you are happy with their service, but you are shopping around for a better rate with other insurance companies, which you do each year, to make sure you are getting a good price.

Even evil, greedy insurance agents will work hard to get you all the discounts and best price possible, if they think they are going to lose your business.

Some people may be reluctant, particularly if they have been insured with the same agent for years, to tell the agent they are going to shop their insurance.

Politely telling your agent you are going to shop around for better rates is actually a great check of the professionalism of your agent.

Most agents understand customers shop their insurance, and they will respond by trying to make sure they are getting you the best price they can offer you. A good agent will also tell you about benefits to staying with your current policy. For example, some insurance companies provide accident forgiveness at no additional cost, if you have been insured with them for many years.

If your agent says their customer service is worth you having them as your agent, ask for a specific example when the agent’s expertise & customer service benefited one of their customers.

Every insurance company will tell you they have the best customer service. Anyone can tell you they are best at their jobs. People who are really great at their job can prove it to you.

If your agent gets upset about you shopping for better insurance rates, and tries to manipulate your emotions, by trying to make you feel guilty, because the agent questions your loyalty, or your agent claims his family will have to eat dog food if the agent loses your business, you are not dealing with a professional insurance agent.

Allow your agent to get the best price possible for you, and explain to you why you should keep your insurance with the agent.

However, it doesn’t make sense for you to be loyal to an insurance company or agent, because the insurance company will NOT be loyal to you, and they will cancel you, even if you have been a customer with no claims for 30 years, if the insurance company thinks you now have a greater-than-average risk of having a claim. Your agent won’t be much help to you.

Once you have had an insurance policy review, you will be ready for the very important Step 4, and shop for better rates & coverage options.

Don’t wait to save money, or take a chance on not having the insurance coverage you need if you have a claim. Contact your agent and have them review your insurance policy as soon as you can. There is no need to go to the agent’s office, you can get your insurance policies reviewed over the phone.

If you have an agent, you want to have your agent, or someone on your agent’s staff, conduct your policy review. But if you don’t have an agent, because your auto insurance company sells directly, like Amica, USAA, Geico, Esurance, or Progressive, you can call the insurance company, and request the policy review.

The Other Steps:

Insurance Check Up Step 1

Insurance Check Up Step 2

Insurance Check Up Step 4

Insurance Check Up Step 5

Interestingly, discount cialis prices is that medication pill which can easily be procured with a bit of intricate research on the World Wide Web before procuring one. The effects last for approximately 4 to 100mg viagra 6 hours. Well back again about the article on human reproductive health, reproductive mode are generally divided into two types: sexual and asexual. kesehatan reproduksi In asexual reproductive health, an individual can reproduce without involvement of other individuals of the same species. cialis generika click to read more The neurotransmitter used for the nerve impulses buy viagra soft from the upper arm down to the hands.

Insurance Check Up Step 2

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Robert Rankin

Yesterday, I explained the importance or an annual insurance check up, and showed you the first step: use my Web site to understand & decide on the auto insurance & home insurance coverage you need.

Each day this week, I will walk you through my steps to a successful insurance check up, which may save you $100s on insurance. Now you know the coverage you need, here is step 2.

The second step: Know what to expect when you have your policy review with your insurance agent or company.

Before you contact your agent or insurance company for a policy review, it is important to know what to expect.

Agents & insurance companies often recommend additional coverage or policies during insurance policy reviews. From my own experience, customers often pass on additional coverage they need, or do not give it the proper consideration. However, customers should not blindly buy whatever an insurance agent recommends.

Agents & insurance companies love to have policy reviews with customers, because it gives them a chance to show their value to the customer, and sell you additional products.

Discussing additional insurance needs is a very important part of the policy review, and it is not about selling you something you don’t need.

If you could get a 20% discount on your auto insurance, if you insure your home with your auto insurance company, isn’t it in your interest to at least get a homeowners insurance price quote from your auto insurance agent?

If your agent knows you have kids, or other people financially dependent on your income, the agent is not doing their job if they don’t discuss life insurance with you. How would you feel, if you had regular insurance reviews with your agent, then one day you found out you have a terminal illness, and your agent never brought up term life insurance, which you could have had for $30 a month?

Given the reputation of insurance agents, I understand why customers may consider agents, recommending you purchase additional coverage or policies, the same as a car sales person trying to get you to buy the extended warranty, undercoating, & rust-proofing.

It is normal for people to be wary of sales people trying to sell them something. Particularly with insurance, it is human nature to think you will never need it, then regret not having it, if it turns out you needed the coverage.

However, when I conducted insurance policy reviews, I was often astounded at customers declining to make prudent decisions to buy the additional coverage they need, when they could afford it.

Do you want to make smart insurance decisions and avoid expensive mistakes?

LISTEN to what your agent or insurance company has to say.

Don’t tune out your agent because you think you are getting a sales pitch. If your agent recommends buying additional coverage or another insurance policy, listen to(or ask) the reason the agent recommends it. Don’t be quick to dismiss it.

For example, if your agent recommends an individual life insurance policy for you, don’t ignore your agent because you have life insurance through work. It is easy to think, if you have some life insurance coverage, you have enough life insurance. There are drawbacks to group life insurance through your work, and depending on life insurance through work can be a huge mistake. Your agent can explain why this is so.

Take advantage of your insurance agent’s knowledge & expertise, and listen to your agent. If you have questions, ask them. Make sure you are understanding what your agent is saying to you. Remember, you are in control. Your agent can’t force you to buy anything. The advice you get from your agent is free, so take advantage of it.

A good insurance agent will ask you questions to discover your insurance needs, and then discuss the pros & cons of any option. Good agents will discuss with you the consequences of not buying the additional coverage, actions you can take other than buying insurance, and the likelihood of you needing the coverage.

Generally, insurance coverage at a reasonable price, which protects you from a large financial loss, is a good purchase, unless the event is extremely unlikely to occur.

This is how the fruit acts on the body thereby resulting into possible chances of curing Erectile viagra for sale australia Dysfunction or Impotence for that matter. But the great value of learning to read was that he was in great demand during the cold winter cheapest sildenafil 100mg months, to read to his friends and their parents. Secondly, it’s regarded as a Weight Loss learn the facts here now levitra 20 mg Product. Tufan capsules are made out of natural ingredients that have properties of enhancing male tadalafil overnight sexual performance. For example, it is not unusual for an agent to recommend increasing your liability coverage, when reviewing an auto insurance policy.

Not too long ago, I increased my Bodily Injury Liability (covers you if you are legally liable for injuring someone due to the use of your vehicle)from $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident, to $250,000 per person, $500,000 per accident. The increase in premium was less than $20 more every 6 months.

In this example, the pros to making the decision is more coverage, in case I am responsible for injuring someone in an auto accident. Also, higher liability limits are a sign of a responsible driver, so you can actually save money, when you shop your auto insurance with other companies, by having higher liability on the auto insurance policy you have now. Don’t expect your agent to tell you about this benefit (but my Web site does, along with other money-saving tips).

The con is the higher premium, but since it is less than $20 more every 6 months, it makes sense to increase the coverage.

Even though I am not wealthy, and don’t drive much, I don’t know if I will be in an accident where my coverage may not be enough. If it happens to me, and I don’t have enough coverage, my assets are at risk, and I might have to file bankruptcy. Even though I think it is very unlikely I will be liable for auto accident injuries that severe, the additional cost is low enough, and the financial impact of not having enough coverage is so severe, increasing my Bodily Injury Liability coverage was an easy decision for me.

However, say I was an 18 year old, just licensed, having only $15,000 per person, $30,000 per accident for Bodily Injury Liability. It may cost several hundred dollars more every 6 months to take $250,000 per person, $500,000 per accident, for Bodily Injury liability. An 18 year old may not be able to afford it. The cost of the higher liability coverage is an indication the 18 year old is much more likely at risk of needing that much coverage, but the cost may be too much to pay.

A good agent discussing this with the 18 year old, would ask about any assets owned & the type of work the 18 year old does. If the 18 year old has no assets, like a healthy bank account or owning a home, and is working part time to get through school, risking the need to file bankruptcy, because of not having enough Liability coverage in an auto accident, might be the only option, due to the high cost of the insurance.

Furthermore, a good agent will offer higher liability in an amount of coverage, the 18 year old may be able to afford, such as $50,000 per person, $100,000 per accident, for Bodily Injury Liability.

A good agent gets information from you, recommends insurance coverage you need, shows you different options, and lets you make the decision to buy it.

But what if you DON”T have a good agent?

You can protect yourself, by getting unbiased information on auto insurance & home insurance coverage, at my Web site, www.smartshopyourcarinsurance.com, as recommended in Step 1. Bookmark, or place my site in your favorites, and you can access it when you need it, to find out if you are getting a good recommendation from your agent. If you have a question not addressed, or not clear on my Web site, e-mail me, and I will give you my opinion.

How do you know if your agent does not have your best interest at heart? Almost all agents are likable people. They couldn’t make it in this business if they weren’t nice. Every agent will tell you they put their clients ahead of their own interests. Not all of them do, so you have to watch out for warning signs.

Not-so-good agents ask few questions, don’t explain your options, and are most concerned with trying to close a sale.

Don’t buy anything you don’t understand, and if you feel pressured by your agent to buy, tell your agent how you feel. Your agent may strongly believe in the importance of the coverage, and may not realize you feel uncomfortable. If the agent persists & pushes you to buy, it is time to change agents.

Insurance agents have the reputation for being aggressive sales people, but few really are. Don’t put up with a pushy agent, when there are many good agents out there wanting your business.

The Other Steps:

Insurance Check Up Step 1

Insurance Check Up Step 3

Insurance Check Up Step 4

Insurance Check Up Step 5

Some insurance companies charge a lot more than other companies for the same coverage, but no company has low rates for everyone. You have to shop with all the leading companies, to find the company with the best coverage and best price for you.

How good is your insurance agent? When did your agent last contact you for your insurance policy review? If you haven’t spoken to your agent in over a year, your agent is not doing their job. Tell me about your experiences. Comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Auto, Home, Life Insurance Reviews & Shopping Tips

The best insurance reviews on the Web!

Category Archives: Auto Insurance Information

Drinking, Driving, Punitive Damages, & Auto Insurance

Negotiating a Total Loss with Your Auto Insurance Company

When will your car be considered totaled?

My insurance company wants to total my car. What should I do?

Should you ask to keep your car if the insurance company decides it is a total loss?

Settling a total loss with your car insurance company

Buying Insurance Direct from the Company

Do I Need an Insurance Agent?

Evaluating your auto or home insurance company’s claims service

Insurance Policy Exclusions

Credit Scores for Auto & Home Insurance

How can insurance companies order your credit report? Isn’t that illegal?

Why do insurance companies use your credit, and what does your credit have to do with your insurance?

What you need to know about how insurance companies use credit when shopping for insurance

Good credit can help you get low insurance rates!

JD Power 2011 Auto Insurance Claims Satisfaction Study Reviewed

Rear End Collisions & Auto Insurance

Get Your Insurance Questions Answered & Problems Solved!

Best Insurance Rates For The High Risk Driver

Insurance & Small Claims

Should I file an insurance claim?

Can your company or agent match auto insurance rates?

Road Rage Not Covered By Auto Insurance

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Ignoring an insurance bill can damage your credit history

Multi Car Discount & Auto Insurance

Stopping your auto pay does not cancel your insurance

Buying, borrowing, or lending a car & insurance: make sure you are covered

Auto Liability Insurance Coverage

Insurance Check Up Step 5

Insurance Check Up Step 4

Insurance Check Up Step 3

Insurance Check Up Step 2