Four Tips For Finding the Cheapest Auto Insurance

By Genc R Arifi

We can hardly watch a television program without seeing at least one advertisement for auto insurance. Car insurance companies try to confuse us with cute mascots or snappy jingles.Here are a few ways to find the lowest auto insurance rates and save money on your monthly premiums.

Research is crucial. You must spend the time online or on the telephone getting auto insurance quotes.You cannot make an informed decision without all the facts. If you are searching online, use search engines to find auto insurance quotes. Vary your search terms and enter keywords such as car insurance, vehicle insurance,and auto insurance. Take your time and gather facts. Create a spreadsheet or some system for tracking the rates provided by each company. You will want to compare all the quotes an organized manner.

If gathering information online, websites may require you to enter your contact information. You may not want a barrage of sales calls. You can leave the phone number field blank, or enter one that has caller ID so you can ignore the call if you don't want to get trapped in a long sales call. Be sure to provide an email address so you can receive the quote.

Ask questions when applying for the quote. Ask about homeowner discounts, safe driver discounts, good student discounts, or low mileage discounts. If you don't ask, you may not get a discount. Be proactive and ask the right questions. The insurance representative will also ask you questions. Always answer them honestly and to the best of your knowledge.

Think about frills you can live without.Insurance companies love to sell customers unnecessary upgrades that will increase their premiums. For example, if you have several drivers in your home, you may not want to opt for rental insurance. You can use another vehicle if one is damaged and in the shop. Never opt out of roadside assistance. You never know when or where you will need help. Roadside assistance is your safety net.

Make sure you have adequate collision and medical coverage. One automobile accident can result in thousands of dollars of expenses. Car accidents aren't a common occurrence, but the repairs and medical expenses can really add up quickly. Be prepared for the worst case scenario.

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So You Think You Understand Auto Insurance

By Wayne Dohrmann

Not all Auto insurance policies are the same even though people would like to think they are. Here is an example of one difference.

You buy a newer car from a local used car dealer with 20,000 miles on it. You drive your car to work and park it in the lot. Soon after, you get a call from security that there is smoke rolling out from under the hood. The fire department has already been called and they arrive at the same time you do. You pop open the hood and they find that there is only smoke coming from the wiring harness. It looks like a toaster wire in places. (It will do this if a short occurs and the current from the battery will cause this to happen) The fire department empties a couple of extinguishers on the smoke until it quits and they leave. You grab the warranty information from the glove box and call the auto manufacturer. You find out that the warranty on that part of the vehicle is only for 10,000 miles.

You call your insurance agent and report the claim. He/she sends an adjustor to look at your car. The adjustor also notes that there had been no flames, just smoke from the short. He denies the claim and you argue over the fact that your policy states that there is coverage again a loss by fire. He takes the policy out and points out the definition stated in the policy excludes any damage that is not caused by flames. At this point you are looking to take it up with any one who will listen.
You go back to the used car lot that sold the car to see what they warrant. They do not cover any thing other than engine and drive train.

You finally realize, you are stuck for the $1500 repair bill. Is this what you would expect. Would you not have expected your insurance company to pay this bill, after all it was certainly caused by a very hot wires. The fact of the matter is as was pointed out, it depends on how the policy defines fire. If it defines it a certain way it can exclude damage caused by something that is hot enough to melt the insulation off of wires, but not hot enough to break into flames. I have to admit when I heard about this I was taken back.

This is just one example of how definitions affect the coverages in your policy. So the question then comes up, what can you do to prevent this type of thing from happening to you?

Strangely enough, it is the consumer's responsibility to find out about the coverages. Most people think it is up to the agent to make them aware of the lack of coverage, the fact is, that they only have to answer truthfully any questions you may ask them and they are not obligated to tell you all they know. If your agent tells you, you have coverage on something and it is found out later that the policy does not cover that loss, the insured will surely bring the agent's E&O coverage into play. To prevent that from happening, a sharp agent, will get the answer from an underwriter or officer of the company explaining how the policy interprets a loss.

Every insurance company has precedent on how they have handled previous claims of the type you are dealing with, you need to know what they did on past claims. If your claim is unique enough so there is no precedents it will now depend on how that section of your policy is defined. That always leaves room for speculation.
If they say they will not speculate on how losses will be handled, then I would not speculate on buying the coverage from them. As was stated, it is your responsibility to ask, and your agent and company to answer truthfully any question asked them. Now, how do you know which questions to ask?

There is additional information on a web site at rel=nofollow www.autoinsurance.wpds1.com.

So in conclusion, you must ask yourself this question. Do you want cheap insurance, or do you want quality insurance? The two will probably not be the same, but how will you know?

Added comment.

If you have an unusual insurance experience, the author would interested in hearing about it. Just give as many of the claim and the outcome about the claim as you feel are pertinent to the case and I may include it in my next book. If you are willing to mention the name of the company and refer to the case number, all of the available facts will be addressed if your claim is chosen to be included. I will not mention your name in the article unless you give me specific authorization to do so. You may contact me at the email mentioned on the web site.

All rights reserved. Wayne Dohrmann 2007 http://www.autoinsurance.wpds1.com

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