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:
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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.

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.

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Yesterday, I blogged about how to avoid problems canceling your auto insurance when you’ve sold your car. But canceling your auto insurance when you no longer have a car, may be a bad idea for you, if you are going to own another car in the next year.

Often, when you sell your car, cancel your auto insurance, and do not own a car for a period of time, your auto insurance, when you need to get it again, is much more expensive than if you had not canceled your old auto insurance policy. A more expensive auto insurance policy, simply because you did not have a car or insurance for a period of time, is another situation causing people to feel ripped off by their auto insurance company.

I will show you how to avoid higher rates with a new auto insurance policy. This blog entry will explain the reasons why it benefits you to keep continuous auto insurance, and how you can keep your auto insurance policy active, when you no longer own a car, for a few dollars a month, which can save you a lot of money on auto insurance, when you get a car again.

The best way to show you how to avoid the higher costs & headaches of canceling an auto insurance policy, and starting a new auto insurance policy at a later time, is to use an example from my experience working in the insurance industry.

I had a customer contact me about their auto insurance. The customer had one leased vehicle, and the lease would be over in a month. The customer told me they would be without a car for about 6 months, then they would buy or lease a new car.

I explained how the customer could cancel the policy, but it may be a better idea to keep the policy active, if they knew they were getting another car in 6 months. I could remove all coverage, except Comprehensive coverage, a procedure my company usually does for cars people own, but will not be used for an extended period of time.

Keeping only Comprehensive coverage, with a high deductible, is inexpensive, even on a new car, to keep a policy active for a period of time when you don’t have a car. I don’t remember this customer’s price for a Comprehensive only policy, but I’m sure it was less than $15 a month, and it was probably much less.

Here are the reasons why keeping your auto insurance policy, when you don’t have a car, is a good idea:

1. One of the major rating factors (unless prohibited by state law, which may only apply in a very few states) is the length of time of your continuous auto insurance history.

You may ask, “I have been continuously insured for 10 years, why would a 6 month break in my insurance now, when I’m not driving or own a car, hurt my rates?”

Insurance companies weigh (and often can only use) recent history very heavily. For example, you may go 20 years without an auto accident, but if you have had two at-fault accidents in the last 3 years, the insurance company is concerned with the likelihood of claims in the future. You might be having a streak of bad luck, or your driving behavior might have changed for the worse. Your recent driving record is the best predictor of future claims.

Also, insurance companies hate not having verifiable data. If you haven’t had a car or auto insurance for the last 3 years (or even 6 months), the insurance company can’t confirm your clean claims history is because you haven’t had accidents, or because you haven’t had insurance.

Insurance companies charge higher rates for the absence of recent information, such as a verifiable, clean insurance claims history, since they have less information to predict your future risk of having a claim.

Having continuous insurance without any break in coverage can give you much lower auto insurance rates. Some auto insurance companies continue to give you a lower rate, up to 6 years of continuous auto insurance. If you have a long continuous insurance history, 3 years or longer, you do not want to ruin it by having a a short break in coverage, because you did not have a car. In many states, if you don’t have at least one year of continuous auto insurance effective until the start date of your new auto insurance policy, you  do not qualify for a standard auto insurance policy, and you have to have nonstandard auto insurance,  the same as people with bad driving records, and pay high rates, all because you did not have a car.

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When you have an active auto insurance policy, you can call your agent with the information about the car you are buying. Your agent can add the car to your policy and adjust your coverage, when you are ready to pick up the car, and will most likely be able to bill you, without you making a down payment.

Without an active auto insurance policy, you have to apply for auto insurance, even if you go back to the same insurance company you had before. Insurance company rates & rules are always changing. You may not qualify for the rates you had before. Your claims, credit, & driving record will be checked when you apply for a new auto insurance policy.

If you had a speeding ticket 2 years ago, which may have been unknown, or not rated for, under your old auto insurance policy, will affect your new rates, and may make you ineligible for preferred auto insurance. A claim 18 months ago where your car was hit while parked, did not affect your old rates, but may disqualify you from an accident-free discount with your new policy, which you may have received under your old policy.

There are many factors which could lead to your new policy being more expensive, and if for no other reason, your lack of continuous insurance coverage may make your new auto insurance rates much higher.

3. By keeping your old auto insurance policy active, you keep your continuous insurance history, so you can get much better rates when you shop your auto insurance, than if you canceled your old policy, and shop for auto insurance when you have a car again.

By keeping your old auto insurance, you have the convenience, and possibly lower rates, of adding the car to your old auto insurance policy, but you also have the freedom to shop to find better rates, and having a long continuous insurance history can help you get them.

life changes, like moving to a new home address, or getting a different or additional car, may mean your auto insurance company no longer has competitive rates for you. When you have a different car, shop for the best auto insurance rates with all the leading car insurance companies, to make sure you are not paying $100s more than you need to pay for car insurance.

The customer I mentioned, decided to cancel their auto insurance. 6 months later, they bought another car, called a different agency, representing the same company they were insured with through my agency, and applied for auto insurance.

Mistakes were made with the application, coverage was not provided until weeks after they owned the new car, and their new auto insurance rates were outrageous. The customer finally called me in frustration, and fortunately, I was able to fix some of the mistakes made, and get a lower rate for the customer — but it was not nearly as good as the rate the customer would have paid, if they kept their old auto insurance policy active.

Not every insurance company may allow you to keep an active insurance policy on a car you no longer own, though it is pretty commonly done. If you already pay nonstandard rates, have an insurance history with recent lapses in coverage, or a bad driving record, it may not make sense to keep your auto insurance.

But it is best to discuss your options with your agent or insurance company (preferably your agent, with this matter, if you have one). You may be able to avoid higher auto insurance rates and a huge hassle, which make you feel like you have been ripped off by an auto insurance company.

If you haven’t shopped your car or home insurance in a few years with at least 5 other companies, there is a good chance you are paying too much.

Have you cancelled your auto insurance after selling your car, and regretted it when you purchased a car again? Comment or ask me questions on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news & new blog entries at CarInsWatch.

Does your auto insurance go down when you turn 21 years old? Do you pay a lower car insurance rate when you become 25 years old? Does the price for auto insurance go down when you get married? Do auto insurance rates keep going down your whole life, as long as you keep a good driving record? I’ll tell you what you need to know, so you can make sure you get the lower auto insurance rates you deserve.

A question I would sometimes hear from customers was, “I have been insured with you for a while now, when will my auto insurance rates go down?” Unfortunately, expecting the cost of your auto insurance to automatically drop, because you have not had any claims, and you have been insured with your auto insurance company for a few years, is a false expectation. However, I understand why people make the assumption, if they don’t have any claims, their rates will keep going down.

Everyone starts out with high auto insurance rates, when they are first licensed. This probably makes sense to you, since the lack of driving experience results in a greater chance of accidents & claims. If you try to get your own auto insurance before you have at least 3 years driving experience, you will pay A LOT for car insurance, even if you have a clean driving record. But as you get older, (or in a few states, as you have more years driving experience)your rates become lower.

15 years ago, most people saw substantial drops in the cost of their car insurance when they turned age 21, age 25, or married, as long as your driving & claims record remained unchanged.

Back then (as long as it did not conflict with state law), married females age 21 or older, married men age 25 or older, single women age 25 or older, single men age 30 or older, would all receive the same adult rating, and the rating class would stay the same until the driver was older than 50 and retired. A 31 year old single man would have the same rating factor as a 45 year old married woman, and they both would have the same rating factor as a 26 year old married man.

Now, rating based on sex, age, & marital status is more complicated, and can vary significantly from company to company. Some auto insurance companies will slightly drop your rate as you get older. You may see a gradually lower rate from when you were age 16 to 19, at age 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 & 25.

These gradual rating plans make the price savings less drastic at the traditional age 21 and age 25 price breaks. As you get older, you may continue to see a slight reduction in price, usually in brackets.

For example, age 35-39 may have a slightly lower rate than age 30 to 34. If you get married at age 35, you may see your price drop a bit. If you get divorced at age 37, you may see your car insurance rates increase.

If you keep a clean driving record & claims history, you should see lower rating factors as you age, and even lower rating factors as you age and stay married. Some insurance companies start raising your rates again once you are age 70, and increase them as you get older, since people over age 70 have a higher incidence of accidents & claims .
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Keep in mind this may not be true for all insurance companies. When I started working with auto insurance over 20 years ago, auto insurance companies all seemed to use the same rules. Now, there are big differences in how auto insurance companies rate car insurance, which is one of the reasons why shopping is so important to save money, by finding the insurance company which has the most favorable rating plan for you.

So, with the new rating plans, should you expect your auto insurance rate should continue to drop, until age 70, if you keep a clean driving record? Not really. Once you are over age 30, the savings is usually a few dollars, and your rates can actually be higher due to moving to a new zip code, getting a different car, getting divorced, etc. Even if everything about you stays the same, lower rates due to being older are usually offset by the regular rate increases imposed by auto insurance companies. This is because car insurance rates are linked to claims costs involving medical bills and car repair costs, which have a high rate of inflation.

Yet, auto insurance is very competitive, and the insurance companies are always devising new rating plans & discounts to give the best drivers the lowest rates, which is why it is so important to shop for car insurance each year. Auto insurance companies will sometimes lower rates & offer new discounts to existing customers.

But more often, a new rating plan with better rates will require your auto insurance company to start a new auto insurance subsidiary company, which will be marketed to new customers, and existing customers may have the opportunity to apply to the new auto insurance company, if they qualify.

In my experience, if you are 35 years old, insure with an auto insurance company & renew your policy every 6 months for 10 years, until you are 45, the rate increases over the 10 years you have been insured with the same auto insurance company, will make your auto insurance more expensive, even with lower rates due to age & a long term policyholder discount, than when you started.

You can’t expect to pay lower car insurance rates by not having claims & being a loyal customer by renewing your auto insurance policy each year. If you want lower auto insurance rates, you have to get them yourself by finding the best price for you by shopping with ALL the leading auto insurance companies each year.

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 company has low rates for everyone, so you have to shop with all the leading companies, to find the company with the best coverage and best price for you.

How long have you been insured with your auto insurance company? Have your rates gone down? Tell me about your experience. Comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch. See auto & home insurance company reviews rating each company’s pricing, claims handling and customer service for over 40 different companies; customer complaint analysis for the major insurance companies in each US State; term life insurance rate surveys and more, on my home page at smartshopyourcarinsurance.com.