Posts Tagged ‘Rates’
NJ auto insurance rates driven up again
January 20th, 2012
NJ auto insurance rates driven up again
By Ed Beeson/The Star-Ledger Ed Murray/The Star-LedgerThe cost of auto insurance in New Jersey has inched up for the first time in years, according to new data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Pictured above is an accident …
Read more on The Star-Ledger – NJ.com
How your ZIP code drives up your car insurance
Living on the wrong side of the tracks can cost you hundreds of dollars extra each year when you buy auto insurance. Something as simple as moving from one ZIP code to another in the same city — even if you've just moved across the street and your …
Read more on Fox Business
Why Mileage-Based Auto Insurance is Good for Drivers, Insurers and the Planet
But then you run into something as sensible as mileage-based auto insurance, which has lingered for years in state legislatures while people who don't drive much continue to pay up to 30 percent more than they should for insurance. …
Read more on Triple Pundit
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Your community’s fire preparedness can lead to lower – or higher – home insurance rates
January 17th, 2012
Tamara E. Holmes
By and large, installing a home alarm system can lower your home insurance premiums. Yet something that’s largely out of your control — your community’s ability to fight fires — also can affect how much you pay to insure your home.
ISO, an organization that tracks property and casualty insurance risk, evaluates and rates a community’s ability to handle fires. Many insurers factor that information into the formulas they use to come up with your home insurance premium. The thinking behind using ISO ratings is this: The better equipped a community is to fight fires, the less likely it is that homes and businesses in your area will sustain major fire damage.
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| If your community has a good ISO fire rating — determined by such things as how many local firefighters there are — it could mean lower home insurance premiums for you. |
Under the ISO program, called the Fire Suppression Rating Schedule, communities can score between1 and 10, with Class 1 being the most exemplary and Class 10 being the least. Historically, residential communities with the worst ISO ratings have had fire losses that were more than twice the amount of losses in communities with the best ratings, according to studies conducted by ISO.
To come up with the ratings, ISO evaluates three areas:
• 50 percent of the score looks at your local fire department, including staffing, training, geographic distribution of firehouses and adequacy of the fire equipment.
• 40 percent of the score takes into account the community’s water supply, including the placement and condition of fire hydrants and the amount of water that’s available to put out fires.
• 10 percent of the score measures the efficiency of emergency communications, such as the 911 system and the number of emergency dispatchers.
A benchmark for communities
Not only does the ISO rating help insurers measure a community’s risk of fire damage, but it helps cities and towns improve their emergency preparedness. “The program provides an objective, countrywide standard that helps fire departments in planning and budgeting for facilities, equipment and training,” says Joseph Masington, assistant vice president of ISO’s Risk Decision Services.
Orlando, Fla., is one city that has benefited from an improved ISO rating. In 2007, it went from a 2 to a 1, the highest possible rating.
To get there, the city added fire stations and 60 personnel, as well as fire engines and other equipment. The city also relocated some of its firefighting equipment to areas of the city with greater needs, and kept better track of equipment maintenance, firefighter training and inspection records, says Frank Cornier, deputy chief of the Orlando Fire Department.
The ISO ratings “are a measuring point,” Cornier says. By zeroing in on areas that needed improvement, “the city made the commitment to protect the citizens properly,” he says.
Like Orlando, other communities can improve their ratings by making changes in the three evaluated areas.
ISO requests updated information from communities at least every two years, Masington says. In areas of the country experiencing explosive population growth, the request is made at least once a year. ISO also invites communities to let it know about substantial changes have happened since the last evaluation.
Consumer payoff not clear
Consumers always should shop around for the best deal on home insurance, regardless of what a community’s ISO rating is, experts say. If your community’s rating goes up, it may or may not make a difference in your home insurance premium, says Jason Moon, a spokesman for the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation.
Some insurance companies don’t use the ISO ratings in their calculations of premiums, while others use the ratings along with a number of other factors such as the age of a home and the type of roof. And while a better ISO rating could lead to a premium reduction, changes in the home’s replacement costs or blemishes on the homeowner’s credit history could offset that, according to the Kansas Insurance Department.
When insurers do use ISO ratings and a rating improvement occurs, changes to premiums typically are calculated when policies come up for renewal. It’s unlikely that a homeowner would be offered a lower premium during a policy term. But that actually can benefit the consumer if the community receives a less favorable ISO rating, since that could cause your premium to jump, says Jim Newins, director of the Property and Casualty Division at the Kansas Insurance Department.
With so many variables involved, it’s nearly impossible for consumers to predict how much money an improved ISO rating could save them, but they should be aware of any factors that might make a difference.
“The consumer should really work with a licensed agent to see if any changes that happened from year to year can lead to a better rate,” Moon says.
Rachel Hartman
Sitting in traffic is no fun. But when compared with getting into a crash, it’s the cheaper option – by far.
Traffic crashes cost society $ 299.5 billion a year, which amounts to an annual cost of $ 1,522 per person, according to a study released in November 2011 by AAA. Congestion, while a common gripe among motorists, sets society back just $ 97.7 billion a year, which amounts to $ 590 per person each year.
For the study, the costs of crashes were based on the Federal Highway Administration’s tallies for traffic deaths and injuries. The federal agency placed a value on 11 items, including property damage, lost earnings, medical costs, legal costs and lost quality of life.
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| Traffic congestion carries a far lower financial toll than traffic crashes, according to a study by AAA. |
Measured in 2009 dollars, the cost of a single traffic death came to $ 6 million. The study estimated the cost of a traffic injury at $ 126,000. These figures were compared with traffic congestion costs — including fuel costs and lost time — computed by the Texas Transportation Institute in its Urban Mobility Report.
“Although we have seen a decline in the number of traffic fatalities in recent years, our work is far from over,” says Angie LaPlant, a spokeswoman for AAA Auto Club South. “Continued progress is needed to provide the necessary and sustained investments that lead to better and safer roads.”
Auto insurance and car crashes
According to the AAA study, crashes on less congested roadways appear to result in less frequent, but more severe, crashes. On more congested highways, while the number of crashes tends to increase, the severity of each wreck decreases.
The number of crashes in your area can affect not only how you drive, but also what you’ll pay for auto insurance. When setting premiums, insurance companies look at the number of crashes in your Zip code or county to assess the risks involved.
“Accident frequency in an area can cause the base rate for auto insurance to increase or be higher than an area with a low-accident frequency,” LaPlant says.
How your vehicle will hold up in a crash also helps determine your auto insurance premium.
“A main component of insurance premiums for a vehicle involves the likelihood that the vehicle will be involved in a crash and what the cost for the crash will be,” says Russ Rader, a spokesman for the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Your insurance company will look at the type of car your drive, as well as statistics related to the costs of crashes for that model when setting auto insurance rates.
Safety tips
When it comes to auto insurance premiums, the area you live in and the car you drive are just two factors that will affect the price. The amount of coverage you want, your age and your driving record also will be taken into account.
While you can’t change your age, there are many steps you can take to keep your driving record as clean as possible. Follow these guidelines to stay safe while on the road:
1. Get a good start. Before you get behind the wheel of a car, familiarize yourself with the vehicle’s features, LaPlant says. Secure items that could shift around while the car is moving, such as briefcases, purses, toys and phones. Check your map or GPS before rolling down the road.
2. Stay focused. Avoid smoking, drinking, eating and reading while driving, LaPlant says. If you need to do an activity that will be distracting, such as attending to children, making a call or sending a text, ask a passenger for help; otherwise, pull over to the side of the road.
3. Make safety a priority. When shopping for a car, look for a crashworthy vehicle, Rader says. To find cars that rank well when it comes to crash prevention and protection, check the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Top Safety Picks. “To be a top safety pick, the vehicle has to earn top crash ratings for protecting people when there is a crash, and it has to have electronic stability control, a key feature in preventing many kinds of crashes,” Rader says.
Steering clear of traffic congestion
The days of “rush hour” are gone, says David Schrank, co-author of the Urban Mobility Report. “Now it’s rush hours – with an ‘s.’” In some areas, rush “hour” can last six hours or more. While congestion often is considered a big-city problem, Schrank notes that it has grown worse in areas of every size during the past several years.
To avoid congestion, and the fuel and time costs that go along with it, follow these three steps:
1. Look into flex time. Many jobs allow flexible hours or even telecommuting, Schrank says. You may be able to change your work hours to avoid the rush or, better yet, stay home and miss it entirely.
2. Take alternate routes. Before heading out, check to see whether there’s a delay along your planned route. If there is, make a detour.
3. Explore other options. It may be more comfortable to ride to work in your car, but if your city offers an efficient public transportation system, you could save time — and aggravation — by taking the subway, train or bus.
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La homeowners insurance rates rising more slowly
January 17th, 2012
La homeowners insurance rates rising more slowly
By Staff reports AP Homeowners insurance premiums in Louisiana remain among the nation's highest, but are rising much more slowly than they did in the first two years after Hurricane Katrina, new data from by the National Association of Insurance …
Read more on Bastrop Daily Enterprise
Homeowners urged to weigh in on FAIR Plan insurance hike
"Our voices together do make things happen," said Paula Aschettino, chairwoman of Citizens for Homeowners Insurance Reform. She specifically encouraged more homeowners from SouthCoast to join her group and make their voices heard. …
Read more on SouthCoastToday.com
Home Insurance-An asset protection tool
Its importance cannot be quantified in monetary terms hence the need for home insurance protection. Apart from the above, owning a house is huge investment. You and I know what it takes to get one. We know the complex process of getting mortgage and …
Read more on Brunei News, Brunei Headlines from Brunei fm
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How do I find out my car insurance rates before I get a car?
January 14th, 2012
Question by Mokaddasa: How do I find out my car insurance rates before I get a car?
I haven’t bought a car yet because a lot depends on how much insurance will be. I’m a 27 single female living in Boston, I’ve had a license since 18 but never drove so it expired and I recently renewed it. I don’t have anything on my record. I would be the only person on the insurance. I went online but they required the make and year of your car to calculate the rates.
Best answer:
Answer by A Very Helpful Guy
Hello,
Yes, the rates you pay for car insurance do depend on a lot of factors:
Age
City, State
How many previous accidents you’ve had
Year of vehicle
Make of vehicle
The best thing you can do is actually call up a few of your local car insurance companies and get some ballpark figures. The important thing is, is to find one that you like and trust and who gives you a decent quote.
Your next step would be to go to a car dealership, take the number of the insurance companies who quoted you the best prices along and find a car that you like and can afford. After you take it for a test drive and get as much information as you can such as if it’s being sold “as is” or comes with some sort of warranty etc…
Before any money changes hands or you sign any paperwork at the dealership, call the insurance company from the dealership. Give them the specifics of the car. They will then be able to give you a correct insurance quote.
If it’s a reasonable quote for you, by the car. If not, find out what year/make of car from the insurer would make the payments lower and ask the salesperson if they have any of those on the lot.
Even when you do obtain insurance, don’t be afraid to then further call around or check online for cheaper rates. You can always switch after you obtain the insurance.
I hope this helps you. I wish you good luck in getting a car and insurance.
What do you think? Answer below!
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Cigar smoking may affect rates for term life insurance
December 29th, 2011
Learn whether smoking occasionally affects term life insurance rates, and how to find out if you’ll
see a higher bill. (Source: Modern Medicine)
MedWorm Sponsor Message: Find the best January Sales in the UK.
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LaPlace, LA | Cheap Car Insurance Rates 70068 | (985) 652-4917
December 6th, 2011
allstateagencies.com Allstate Insurance Agency – Charles A Heine Jr Agency 1510 W Airline Hwy Riverlands Shopping Center LaPlace, LA 70068 985-652-4917 Tel 985-652-4995 Fax 225-963-4348 Cell CharlieHeineJr@allstate.com For your auto, homeowners, and life insurance needs in LaPlace. We also handle boat, motorcycle, renters, recreational vehicles, flood, and cancer. Allstate is the 2nd largest provider in Louisiana!
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OAIN: Auto Insurance Rates to Be Trimmed in Pennsylvania
December 5th, 2011
OAIN: Auto Insurance Rates to Be Trimmed in Pennsylvania
State Farm is cutting overall auto coverage rates for its Pennsylvania customers by an average of more than 1 percent as of Dec. 26, Online Auto Insurance News (OAIN) reports. State Farm customers throughout the state are expected to save a combined …
Read more on TopWireNews (press release)
Travelers Debuts "Guide to Better Coverage"
"A new home, buying a car, tying the knot, having a baby — life keeps changing, and so do the things we need to protect," said Greg Toczydlowski, President of Travelers Personal Insurance. "The 'Guide to Better Coverage' helps people better assess …
Read more on MarketWatch (press release)
Big Changes in Wisconsin's Car Insurance Laws
"That brochure very effectively describes all of the coverages that people buy when they buy auto insurance, and it also tells people what they should do when their policy is coming up for renewal." Most drivers, End says, probably are not aware that …
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Study: Death rates for SUV, pickup crashes decline
September 28th, 2011
Kevin Lyons
In the past decade, SUVs and pickups have become less likely to kill you if your car collides with them, according to a study released Sept. 28.
In 2008-09, the latest information available, 1- to 4-year-old SUVs were involved in crashes that killed car or minivan occupants at a rate of 16 deaths per 1 million registered vehicles weighing between 3,000 and 3,499 pounds, down from 44 deaths per million in 2000-01, according to the study, produced by the industry-backed Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The rate of truck deaths went from 63 to 26 deaths per 1 million registered vehicles weighing between 3,000 and 3,499 pounds, according to the study.
“That’s good news for people who drive SUVs and pickups and good news for everybody else on the road because those cars do not pose as much as a risk as they once did,” Joe Nolan, vice president of research at the institute and co-author of the study, tells InsuranceQuotes.com.
Nolan points to two reasons that SUVs and trucks are safer:
1. Automakers agreed to build the front ends of SUVs and pickups so that their energy-absorbing structures would line up better with cars. This was done so that in a head-on collision, an SUV or truck was less likely to roll over a car. That change followed a series of meetings in 2003 between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and many of the big automakers.
2. Head-protecting side air bags have been added.
“By working together, the automakers got life-saving changes done quickly,” Nolan says in a statement about the study. “The new designs have made a big difference on the road.”
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Air bag theft: A threat to your safety — and your auto insurance rates
July 26th, 2011
Tamara E. Holmes
While most drivers know that car theft is a real risk, many aren’t aware of another vehicle-related crime that can affect their safety along with their auto insurance rates – the risk of having their air bags stolen or being victimized by air bag fraud.
“As more and more cars came equipped with air bags, we saw an increase in air bag theft,” says Kip Diggs, a spokesman for State Farm.
Although that increase has leveled off since the mid-1990s, Diggs says, it still costs insurance companies and their customers millions of dollars a year. While it’s difficult to gauge the effect of a specific kind of theft on insurance premiums, air bag theft does put a dent in the optional comprehensive portion of your premium, which covers theft-related claims, Diggs says. Air bags are standard equipment on new vehicles.
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| An air bag is an important safety feature in a car — and an attractive target for thieves. |
Typically, a rash of air bag thefts will occur at one time, says Frank Scafidi, a spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau. “If there’s a concentration of vehicles, thieves will hit a place and maybe break into eight, nine, 10 or 15 vehicles,” Scafidi says.
Theft yields big payoff
The payoff for crooks can be high. A new air bag can cost about $ 1,000 from a car dealer, so a disreputable repair shop could buy a stolen air bag on the black market for between $ 50 and $ 200, charge the customer the market rate and pocket the difference, the National Insurance Crime Bureau says.
An estimate of how many air bags are stolen each year isn’t available.
State Farm and other auto insurers have been working with automakers and air bag suppliers to come up with solutions to the problem of air bag theft.
“We have found ways to make air bags more difficult to steal — for example, making the car itself harder to break into, and designing the air bag module so that it can be removed only with a special tool,” Diggs says.
Another way the problem has been dealt with has been to lower the cost of some air bags, “lessening the incentive to steal them,” Diggs says.
States crack down
While the theft of any car part is undesirable, air bag theft is particularly detrimental because of the safety risks it can pose to drivers. If an air bag is stolen and reinstalled improperly or doesn’t function like it’s supposed to, a driver can be seriously injured or killed if the air bag doesn’t deploy properly in an accident.
To confront the issue of air bag fraud, the National Conference of Insurance Legislators in 2009 drafted language that state insurance regulators could use to create legislation targeting air bag fraud. This language suggested criminal penalties for fraudulently installing or reinstalling an air bag. It also recommended severe penalties for those who committed air bag fraud that led to the death or serious injury of a driver or passenger.
Rhode Island, which adopted legislation targeting air bag fraud in 2010, requires anyone who sells or installs a salvaged air bag to disclose that information, as well as maintain records of the air bag’s purchase — giving consumers a paper trail showing that an air bag was purchased legitimately.
Even in states where there are no laws governing air bags, consumers who think they’ve been ripped off by air bag fraud can contact their state’s attorney general to file a complaint.
An ounce of prevention
To prevent air bag thefts, consumers should take the same precautions they’d take to avoid the theft of anything in their vehicles, Scafidi says. Among the suggestions:
• Keep your car locked when it’s parked.
• Park in well-lit areas.
• Consider installing security devices such as alarms to deter thieves.
• Keep packages and other valuables out of sight so thieves have less of an incentive to break into your car.
If you’re having an air bag installed or buying a used car, the National Insurance Crime Bureau also recommends the following tips to avoid air bag fraud.
When having an air bag installed:
• Check the invoice to make sure the air bag actually was purchased from a manufacturer or dealer.
• Ask whether you can inspect the air bag before installation. Look for sealed packaging from the manufacturer.
When buying a used car:
• Make sure the cover over the steering column is the same color as the interior. If the colors are different, this could indicate the original air bag was replaced, because “when thieves try to rip them out of the dashboard, they’ll cut through the plastic,” Scafidi says.
• Be sure the indicator for the air bag system lights up on the instrument panel when you turn on the vehicle’s ignition, the bureau says. If the light doesn’t come on, there could be a problem with the system, meaning the air bags might not be activated in an accident.
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He’ll Break Your Heart — and Your Car Insurance Rates
May 18th, 2011
He’ll Break Your Heart — and Your Car Insurance Rates
If you’re a female driver thinking of adding your boyfriend to your auto insurance policy, you may want to reconsider. If he doesn’t break your heart, there’s a good chance he’ll do serious damage to your car insurance rates.
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