Auto Insurance Articles

Maintaining a good drive record is one of the very best things you can do to help lower your auto insurance premiums.  Even in states where there is no-fault insurance in place, your insurance premium can still be affected if you receive a traffic ticket or make a claim on an accident.  Even when the accident is not your fault, your insurance premium might still go up if you have several claims within a short time period.  On the other hand, insurance companies have started to reward good drivers in addition to punishing bad drivers.  Maintaining a good driving record can not only help to lower your annual premium, but also may entitle you to receiving discounts, special perks and reducing your deductible.

Here are some of the special treatments you might get from your insurance company if you follow the rules of the road and avoid getting into accidents.

The biggest benefit of maintaining a good driving record is lower premiums.  If you do not have any traffic tickets or accidents, particularly no moving violations, on your record when you are applying for car insurance you will start out at a reduced rate.

It gets even better.  If you maintain a safe driving record it can cut your premium even more.  Most insurance companies give percentage discounts on your premium or apply points for safe driving for every year that you go without a claim.  These discounts can add up to something considerable after a few years.  In many cases you are even able to carry your safe driver discount over when you switch to a different insurance carrier.

Many car insurance companies also now offer accident forgiveness to drivers who maintain good driving records.  So if your driving record has accidents on it, after a few years of being accident free that will be removed from your record.  The insurance company may also revoke premium increases that were enforced due to traffic tickets or accidents.

There are insurance companies that even offer a type of accident forgiveness that works in reverse.  If you maintain a safe driving record for several years with having any claims, then your first accident may not result in an increase in your premiums.  However, if you were to have a second accident within a short time period you could wind up with a double whammy because of it.

Another big benefit that you will get from maintaining your safe driving record is enjoying lower deductibles.  Many insurance companies are reducing the deductibles that you have to pay before your insurance coverage pays out by a certain percentage for every year that you are accident free.  There are even some auto insurance companies that will completely eliminate your deductible after you have gone several years without a traffic ticket or accident.  This can be a huge benefit if you have elected to pay a high deductible in order to pay a smaller premium.

Some companies now also offer special perks or safe driver rewards programs.  They are similar to a credit card reward program.  Each company’s program can be different, but basically you can earn discounts for things like hotel, travel and leisure or even cash back on insurance premiums for every year that you have no traffic tickets or accidents.

When it comes to car insurance for people who have disabilities, there are lots of myths that get passed around.  Many people believe it is very expensive or impossible to get auto insurance if you have a disability.  These myths are both untrue.  Depending on what the disability it is, it is often illegal for insurance companies to charge higher premiums or discriminate based solely on disability.

In 1990 The American with Disabilities Act was enacted.  The purpose of  the act was to ensure that disabled Americans did not face discrimination.  The protection covers public and work life, as well as auto insurance rates and acceptance.  Insurance companies are prohibited from raising the car insurance rates on disabled people under this act without having due cause.  However, there are some circumstances where insurance companies can charge higher premiums.

In order to charge higher premiums to disabled people, insurance companies must provide strong statistical evidence that proves that someone with a particular disability is more at risk for becoming involved in auto accidents.  If insurance companies are unable to provide the data, then they do not have any legal grounds for increasing the insurance premiums on disabled people.

Another myth regarding auto insurance for people with disabilities that circulates is what disability types get charged higher rates.  Many people think that becoming paralyzed or losing a limb may result in an auto insurance company being able to legally charge the person more on their car insurance.  However, this is not true.  In fact there is data that shows that drivers who have these forms of disabilities are often safer drivers and less likely, not more likely, to become involved in auto accidents.

The forms of disabilities that actually can legally result in more expensive insurance premiums are medical conditions like epilepsy, diabetes and some forms of heart conditions.  These medical conditions do not necessarily affect a person’s ability to drive, but under certain circumstances that are associated with these forms of disease, unsafe conditions could occur.  If an epileptic were to suffer a seizure while driving or a diabetic were to suffer a hypoglycemic attack while driving, they could become unsafe drivers within such a few seconds.

When it comes to epilepsy, a majority of states have imposed some driving restrictions.  Most of them require that a person who has epilepsy be seizure free for a certain specified amount of time before being allowed to renew or obtain a driver’s license.

If you do get  diagnosed with a disability it is very important to inform your car insurance company if there are any potentially disabling conditions.  If you were to file a claim without having informed your insurance company of your condition, your claim could very likely end up being considered invalid.  This could occur even if the disability that you have is not one that insurance companies can legally raise premiums on.

Depending on what your disability is, you could be required to make modifications to your driving habits and your vehicle before you will eligible for car insurance.  You should think of this as being similar to having to have glasses to drive.  For example, a person who lost a limb might have to have their vehicle modified to have controls that will enable them to drive safely.  It is also important to keep in mind that making modifications to a vehicle could increase insurance premiums due to the fact that the vehicle’s value increases.  This is not the same thing as raising insurance premiums because of a disability and is legal for insurance companies to do.

No doubt you’ve heard the commercials claiming you can switch to different auto insurance companies and save a lot of money.  However, you do need to make sure that you fully understand what switching your car insurance actually involves before doing it.

The first thing you need to do before switching auto insurance companies is to make certain that you get a good estimate of what your auto insurance will cost over the long run.  Sometimes insurance companies will offer you a particular rate, but the rate isn’t for the life of your insurance policy. As time passes, in some circumstances, you may end up paying more for your auto insurance.  So when looking at what different policies cost, you need to look at not only the current rates but what it will cost in the months and years ahead.  You want to be aware right away if there are going to be rate increases or other changes regarding your insurance policy.  You always need to keep in mind that when it comes to auto insurance, you need to understand not only what the insurance policy will cost when you first enroll, but also the long term costs if you were to switch to another insurance company.

The next thing you need to be sure about is to make sure neither your current or new insurance company is going to charge you any fees for switching policies.  Sometimes a current insurance company charges fees when policy holders switch unexpectedly.  So you need to explore the possibilities of what you need to do so that you can switch if you want to without incurring any fees.  Also be certain that the new insurance company will not charge you fees in order to ave hcoverage with them.  These types of fees usually are not listed on the website, so you will need to read all of the fine print to the policy to be sure that you know just what fees you will be charged and which ones you will be able to avoid.

Don’t get fooled into thinking that in order to switch insurance companies that you have to pay fees.  Also, don’t be fooled by a deal that looks really good at first glance.  You need to fully investigate the policies to get the right one for you.  Make sure you get complete information and know exactly what each policy will really cost.  This way you can take advantage of various offers from different auto insurance companies and get a good deal, while at the same time making sure you have the coverage that you need.

One form of insurance for your vehicle is liability auto insurance .  It is usually coupled along with property damage insurance, and is one of the forms of insurance that is required in the United States and Canada to drive a motor  vehicle.  Liability insurance minimums were established to cover any damages that you inflict with your vehicle to other individuals and their property.

Liability insurance offers fixed coverage to pay for negligence and collisions that you are legally liable for.  There are two type of liability coverage that are available: split limit and combined single limit.

Combined single limit is insurance coverage for bodily injury and property under a single amount of money, like $1 million.  If you get into a collision with another vehicle and the driver is injured or their vehicle is damaged, the combined single limit insurance policy would pay for the injuries and damages.

A split limit policy divides liability insurance coverage into two different categories: one for bodily injury and one for property damage.  With this form of insurance you have the ability to choose separate amounts for the two different coverages.  From the above example, there would be separate payments made for bodily injuries and vehicle damages from the two portions of the insurance.  In addition, bodily injury insurance is also sometimes split into two different categories: maximum paid per accident and maximum paid per person.

Property damage and liability insurance are legally required in the United States, with each state having its own mandated minimums.  It is very important to understand these these required minimums often are insufficient for covering damages that occur in a medium scale collision not to mention a serious one.

The best thing for you to do is to get as much personal liability insurance coverage as you can afford to help to insure that you have sufficient coverage if you were to ever become involved in a collision.  It may seem unnecessary, but if you were to ever be involved in a serious collision that resulted in someone be killed or seriously injured, you could end up being financially wiped out  if you don’t have sufficient insurance.  Having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars on an insurance settlement to an injured party isn’t an easy thing to do.

You should contact your insurance agent and see what they recommend in terms of liability insurance coverage versus what your state recommends.  There is a good chance that your insurance agent will recommend that you have at least a $1 million liability with a combined single limit policy.  If your policy is a split limit one, you should have higher coverage for bodily injury than you do for property, but the total amount shouldn’t be less than a total of $1 million.  Your insurance agent should be able to help you make a decision on how much liability insurance you need as well as the best price.