Dec/110
Discounts For Student Car Insurance
Age is one of the many factors that can affect your car insurance rates. Unfortunately, the younger you are, the higher risk you pose to get into an accident. Therefore, students and other young drivers pay a higher auto insurance premium than do other drivers. Especially with the high cost of an education and hard economic times that make it hard for young people to find jobs, finding cheap but quality insurance can be a difficult task.
While an auto insurance company may not offer a specific student rate or a special type of young driver insurance, many companies do offer significant discounts for good students. Statistically, students who perform well in school get involved in fewer accidents than those who do not, and therefore are seen as lower-risk to an auto insurance company. Therefore, students may be able to save money on car insurance by keeping their grades up.
Who qualifies as a high-performing student? Criteria that an insurance company may use to determine discounts could include:
A full-time college or university student under the age of 25 who maintains a B average, or otherwise qualifies as a good student. A full-time student enrolled in high school or a certificate degree program who maintains a B average in a program that designates letter grades. A student with at least a 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale. A student who is ranked in the top 20% of his or her graduating class. A student who is included in the school’s Dean’s list, honor roll, or comparable group with the purpose of commending academic achievement. Particular insurance companies may vary in the criteria they use to determine discounts, if they offer discounts for students at all. For example, some auto insurance companies may only offer discounts to college or university students and may not offer discounts to high school students. Other policies may only offer discounts if the participant is over the age of 21. If you are a student searching for inexpensive car insurance, your best bet is to collect quotes from multiple companies, compare their premiums, and choose the one that offers you the best deal.
If you are searching for low-cost, no-hassle car insurance for students in the Chicago area, the Chicago car insurance agents of Insure on the Spot can help. Visit the website of our Chicago car insurance representatives today to learn more about your auto insurance options.
Dec/110
Insurance Fraud – Spotting Insurance Scams
The majority of people who commit insurance fraud don’t think they’re hurting anybody directly. In fact, they think they’re hurting major corporations who have enough money that they don’t care anyway. This is not the case. In the United States, insurance scams cost an estimated $875 per person annually. It adds up to approx. $80 billion per year, and with the rapid growth of technology, it’s getting harder and harder to catch.
There are different types of insurance fraud.
One of the leading forms of insurance fraud is in our health care system. Health care fraud results in over $30 billion per year in the United States. There are two kinds of health insurance fraud: member fraud and provider fraud. An example of member fraud is when you deceive your insurance company by purposely not declaring something, where an example of provider fraud is if you were to bill for a service that was never rendered.
One fast-gorwing form of insurance fraud is automobile insurance fraud. Staged rear-end car accidents are a common form of this type of fraud. This is when a scam driver will stop suddenly in front of a car deliberately so they other car rear-ends them. Another popular scam is when there’s already an accident, you add damage purposely in the hopes to collect more money. Often times, this works, which is why it’s important to take photographs of the damage.
Another form of insurance fraud is when the beneficiary tries to collect the benefits while the insured is still alive. This is called life insurance fraud. The best thing you can do in this scenario is to know your insurance broker. When you go in to pay your premium on the insurance, don’t pay in cash. make sure you understand your policy, and if you don’t, bring it to someone who does.
And last but not least, I want to talk about fire insurance fraud. This form of fraud is very common because it’s hard to prove. If you lose your house to a fire, who’s stopping you from declaring stuff you didn’t have in the first place? There is no real way to prevent this kind of fraud. This will haunt you in your taxes and that’s about it. The best thing you can do is report it if you hear of anyone making false claims.
As I mentioned previously, the best thing you can do if you’re a victim of fraud or if you hear of any sort of fraud taking place, is to report it. You can report fraud to the National Fraud Information Center at 1-800-876-7060. I hope this article has opened everyone’s eyes a little bit to how this serious crime is affecting each and every one of us.
Dec/110
Car Insurance and the Postcode Lottery
Many things determine how much your car insurance will be; your age, sex, claims, the type of car, and even your postcode. People are being charged higher car premiums according to the location of their house. For example, car owners who live in the North West or in London pay on average an excess of
Dec/110
Insurance – Understanding Car Insurance
Buying car insurance can be a very big expense on the household budget, especially if you have teenage drivers in the family. Add in the fact that every state has different liability requirements and things can get quite confusing pretty quick. It’s good to know what is required and what everything in a car insurance policy means. So let’s take a quick look at what an auto insurance policy really is.
Liability
This is what protects you in the event you cause an accident and hurt someone else, or damage property. Every state has there own liability requirements. Be sure to check what your individual state requires. Let’s take an example of a policy with a liability limit of 100,000/300,000. The first 100,000 is the limit that the policy will pay for any one persons medical expenses. The next figure, 300,000, is the limit the policy will pay for all medical expenses for anyone in the accident.
It is important to note that liability coverage will not pay for any injuries or damage to your own vehicle.
Property Damage
This is the total amount that your insurance policy will pay for property that you damage if it is determined that you caused the damage. Generally, most policies have $100,000 as a property damage limit. You can increase that if you wish to. With the price of cars and property these days, it may be a good idea to increase that limit up to $250,000.
Comprehensive
This insurance coverage pays for damages done to your car. This includes theft, storm damage, fire and vandalism. This coverage will have a deductible attached. The rate for this insurance coverage goes down as the deductible goes up. This coverage will also be required on any loan you may have on the vehicle.
Collision
Collision coverage will pay you for damages down to your own vehicle in the event an accident is deemed to be your fault. If your vehicle is totaled out in an accident the insurance company will pay you the actual cash value of your vehicle. This could be less in some cases than what your vehicle is worth. Collision coverage is also required by finance companies on any loan against your vehicle.
Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage will pay you in the event of an accident that is not your fault and the other party has either no insurance coverage, or not enough insurance. No matter what the law states, there will always be those who refuse to carry insurance. That makes having this insurance coverage vitally important.
Optional Coverages
There are many different optional auto insurance coverages that you can purchase on your auto policy. Some of these include emergency road service and rental car coverage. Both of these services can be a big help to you in the event of a claim.
By understanding the various auto insurance coverages you’ll be able to determine what exactly you need for your particular situation. In the long run this will help save you money and give you peace of mind.