Misfortune on roads at the holidays can result in increasing your car insurance costs

Not many people are aware that all those hazards which are typical during the hectic holiday season can actually put an end to your previously cheap car insurance. There are a lot of reasons why driving at the holidays can prove more dangerous, but there are steps you can take to help keep your auto insurance quotes low.

Be Careful at Shopping Destinations

During the holiday season, parking lots in shopping centers and at major department stores become much busier. There are not only a lot more cars, but there are a lot more pedestrians as well. Plus, many kids have school breaks around the holidays, which means keeping an even sharper eye out for fast-moving foot traffic. At this time of year, it’s a good idea to take extra precautions when you’re out getting shopping done.

Drive Safely

There never seems to be enough time for anyone during the holidays, and this translates into unsafe driving habits. Feeling rushed and stressed trying to get everything taken care of means other drivers aren’t practicing the type of caution they normally would on the roads. People also might have their car really loaded up with boxes and packages which limit their visibility. Take a few deep breaths before starting your engine so you can remain a calm and safe driver, and keep an extra eye out for less cautious or distracted drivers.

Watch for Walkers

The foot traffic really increases during the holidays. Whether people are out shopping more, looking at the seasonal decorations, or giving their families a quick tour of the town, there are definitely a lot more folk who are out and about. Much like drivers, pedestrians at this time of year are often distracted or rushed, and not paying as much attention as they normally would to their surrounding conditions. As a driver on the road, practice being more observant during this time frame. Double-check your blind spots and try to keep from being too distracted on the roads yourself.

By following these three tips during the holidays, you’ll be able to enjoy a safe and happy time with your family. Plus, avoiding any mishaps or accidents is a surefire way to help keep you auto insurance rates at a reasonable level.

Misfortune on roads at the holidays can result in increasing your car insurance costs

Back-to-school season: Drive safely and you can keep your premiums down and your record point free

It’s the end of he holiday season and the time we get back into the grove. Along with getting back into the grove children and young adults all over are getting back into school. This means you will have competition on the road during your morning commute.

School bus stops change from year to year depending on where the children live. Consequently bus drivers have to learn new routes with stop variations, and the children have to get used to the new schedule as well. When the stop and go stutter traffic of the school bus reduces your morning commute to an exercise in fortitude, keep your composure.

In many states, the bus driver has the right to issue you a summons if you pass the bus inappropriately. Understand, they are not out to get you. However, nationally thousands of school busses are passed, or cut off every day. Thousands of students are injured every year due to bus accidents. Moreover, on average 20 children die a year when they are entering or departing school buses because of careless drivers. Many school districts are placing cameras on the buses to record the information of people driving illegally around the school buses. The cameras are attached to the STOP arm actuated when the red blinking lights are put on. The cameras can identify and record a car up to 100 yards away.

Depending on the state you live you can be fined several hundred dollars, and or have your license suspended, and or spend several months to years in jail. For example in NJ, you will receive 5 points on your driving record, minimum of $100 fine and up to 15 days in jail or community service. In Virginia it can be up to 11 years imprisonment.

There are things you can do to make the back to school transition period for you as a driver and auto insurance policy holder a bit easier. Get up a little earlier and leave plenty of time. If you are not rushed you are less likely to try to pass the bus as it is coming to a stop. Watch for children on the streets approaching the bus stops, and always defer to the directions of the crossing guard. You take the time to review your auto insurance policy to make sure you aren’t overpaying on your auto insurance premiums. Take the time to drive safely and you can keep your premiums down and your record point free.


Back-to-school season: Drive safely and you can keep your premiums down and your record point free

Looking for Cheap Car Insurance Rates

The cost of practically everything seems to be rising constantly. For this reason, consumers are always on the lookout for a great deal. And everyone wants cheap car insurance. Finding low rates for a good policy is the challenge. There are several ways you can look for low rates from reputable insurance companies.

Referrals from Friends and Family

Many drivers, especially young ones, simply use their parents’ insurance provider. Or they might ask a friend for a referral. You might initially get a lower rate because of the referral, but your premiums will probably be higher after the first year. If you decide to go with a referral, you should still take the time to review the insurance provider before you purchase a policy. Just because your friend or family member has had a good experience, do not assume the company has a high score with rating agencies.

Individual Insurance Companies

Advertisements for insurance companies are everywhere: television, radio, and the Internet. If you see or hear a commercial or advertisement for a particular insurance company that seems reliable, you can contact the insurance provider directly. All major insurance companies provide free online quotes to customers. However, this can be very time consuming if you plan to compare car insurance quotes from multiple providers as you will need to contact each separately.

Online Quote Comparison Sites

These sites allow you to get multiple quotes from a variety of insurance providers that are approved to serve your community. Using this type of site is exceedingly convenient as you can compare rates at any time of the day in the comfort of your home. You simply provide basic information to get a list of offers that you can review at your leisure. When comparison shopping, it is best to select comparable policies. It does not make sense to compare a standard policy against a full coverage policy. You also want to review deductible requirements as well as annual premiums.

When looking for cheap car insurance rates, you have several ways to find great policies. Using a quote comparison site that provides quotes from trusted insurance companies is the safest way to comparison shop. You get accurate cheap car insurance quotes that are good for a specified period of time so you can review quotes at your convenience.

Looking for Cheap Car Insurance Rates

On the road in a rented car with toddlers how do you manage the feeding problem?

Of course, those of us with a good credit score can rent an RV and cook whenever we need food for the toddlers. That way, we can always take the emerging food preferences into account without undue waste and expense. It’s the same if we decide to go the route of camping. We can either pick the sites with cooking facilities or carry our own gas rings. Remember starting real fires in the middle of our current hot summer is not likely to endear us to Park Rangers and others trying to prevent wildfires from starting. So this gives you a shopping list of possible makes and models to shop for at the car rental companies if you propose carrying outdoor cooking equipment.

Otherwise you load the people into the vehicle and set off into the wild blue yonder, full of the joys of the road and hope in your hearts. Those of you with toddlers will know they are just learning about the world and beginning to take some control over how they relate to it. One of the first symptoms of toddler control comes in emerging taste preferences. This is not to say any child should have a say over what gets put on the plate, but practical reality may call for some negotiation over how much is eaten. Most children go through phases of being picky. Many never seem to emerge from this phase. If you’re lucky, the child will only eat something available at every diner or restaurant. This may be macaroni cheese which has the benefit of being relatively cheap and nutritious, or it may be junk food which will encourage faster growth around the waist. Either way, you need food storage in the vehicle you rented so that, if there’s a mutiny and all outside food is refused, you can fall back on snacks when the real hunger kicks in.

Hopefully, the car rental companies offered guidance on the diners and restaurants offering child-friendly portions at reasonable price. If not, spend time on the internet searching out the likely places to eat. Never assume all diners will cater for your toddlers.


On the road in a rented car with toddlers how do you manage the feeding problem?

Using cheap car rental how to defend yourself from alleged claims of damage

An increasing number of people who take a rented vehicle out on the public roads are discovering a problem when they return home. Having left the vehicle in what they believed was the same condition as when they drove it away, a bill for repairs then arrives (often with an additional administrative fee to boost the total). Not surprisingly, most renters think themselves the victim of a scam but what should the reaction be and how can you avoid the risk in future?

With the economy doing badly, cheap car rental companies are feeling pressure on their profits and so resort to a little exaggeration to keep themselves solvent. This means an employee will go over your vehicle with a fine tooth-comb and any damage, no matter how trivial, will be billed. So write and ask the renter for evidence of the damage and independent quotes for repairs. This may not deter the companies from pursuing you, but it will make it more difficult if you appear willing to pay for damage that’s proved to have occurred and for labor charges that are verified. It’s useful to ask for your own expert to be allowed access to the vehicle to verify the damage. If you paid for the rental using your credit card, ask what insurance cover is available. It’s also worth asking what insurance the rental company has in place.

The next time you rent, take pictures of the vehicle when you collect it and ensure the pictures have a date and time code. If you see any marks, no matter how trivial, make a note on the rental documents before you drive away. When you return the vehicle, take a second set of pictures showing whether there are any new marks. If there are none, ask the representative of the cheap car rental company to certify no new damage in writing or on camera. Only if you get good quality evidence that the vehicle was not damaged while in your possession can you effectively resist these usually spurious claims. Never be in a hurry when you pick up or drop off a rental vehicle. Protect yourself!


Using cheap car rental how to defend yourself from alleged claims of damage

How to Keep Safe on Roads and Get Cheaper Rates: Top 4 Tips

Whether you have a new car or an old one, it is imperative that you take into consideration certain safety measures to ensure that you and your family is safe while riding the said vehicle. Staying safe on the road and being road safe i.e. a safe driver also can get lower car insurance premiums. Here are the top 4 tips to keep in mind if you want to be safe while driving and for you to get a lower premium on your car insurance.

Safety Features

All the safety features of your car should always be in good, working order. Your airbags should be working, the seatbelts should be maintained and your brakes should always be checked by your mechanic. To ensure that you get the best car insurance rates, you should also make sure that your car has an alarm system in case someone tries to drive away with your vehicle.

Maintain a Clean Record At The DMV

Follow all traffic rules. If you always get a speeding ticket or a ticket because you keep beating the stop light, you will never get a clean record at the DMV. Keeping a good record at the DMV is not only good for your driving reputation but will also ensure that you get a good deal from your insurer because the safer driver you are, the lower your car insurance premiums will be. Driving under the influence does not help in maintaining a good, clean record at the DMV and this gets a special mention because a number of Americans get arrested for drinking under the influence. If you are drunk, have your spouse drive or have someone to come pick you up.

Fluids

Regular checking of leaks in your engine is a good way for you to make sure that everything is working fine. Your engine oil should be changed every time too it reaches a certain number of miles. All fluids such as antifreeze, engine oil, brake fluid etc should all be in good working order.

Take It Slow

Doing it the fast and the furious way is only made for the movies and these guys have a lot of money to spend on gas. If you drive slow, you are less likely to be involved in an accident and you get to save on gas too!


How to Keep Safe on Roads and Get Cheaper Rates: Top 4 Tips

Quotes may be risen due to an internet attacks on the carinsurance company

In the good old days before the internet, people who were aggrieved by their treatment at the hands of large corporations had only little voices to complain. The only chance of getting any compensation was if the newspapers picked up the stories. Except this didn’t happen often because the large corporations were advertisers and had leverage over the editors’s decisions on what to print. With the arrival of the internet, you now have a louder voice, but the ability to publish your own content does not give you any better visibility. Tens of thousands post content every day so, to get noticed, you have to have a good story and luck. If lightning strikes, your complaint goes viral and all the social media amplify your voice. Now this is a PR disaster and the large corporation has no choice but to act. But, more often than not, the lone posting on the personal blog or the Facebook page or the complaints site goes unnoticed and the victim stays a victim without compensation.

To understand this, we need to go back to 2010 in Baltimore. An underinsured driver passed through a red light and killed another driver on the junction. The deceased driver had an car insurance policy that was supposed to pay out up to $100,000 if an uninsured or underinsured driver caused injury or death. The insurer decided to believe the “other” driver’s version of events. The law of Maryland allows an insurer to refuse payment if their own driver was in any degree to blame for the accident. In a trial on the issue, the insurer therefore paid an attorney to argue its own policyholder was 1% to blame for the collision by driving through traffic lights on green. Needless to say, the jury was not impressed.

Thanks to the firestorm, the insurer has now reached a settlement with the family of the deceased but, if it now becomes more generous in its settlement strategy, the car insurance quotes must rise. It kept car insurance quotes low by being Scrooge. Now the internet has forced it to act, we may all have to pay more.


Quotes may be risen due to an internet attacks on the carinsurance company

Increasing fraud becomes the reason why we pay more expensive annual premium rates

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) is liaising with state government agencies, insurance companies, and law enforcement agencies in an attempt to produce coordinated strategies to reduce the amount of fraud as it affects the insurance industry. The current national situation is increasingly serious with several billion dollars a year being syphoned out of insurance companies by fraud. Because they are not charitable organizations, these insurance companies react by increasing the annual auto insurance premium rates for all. Before the fraud became serious, it was possible to find cheap auto insurance. Now all insurers are increasing their rates, we are all paying more.

This should not happen. The criminals who steal all this money should be behind bars but this does not happen as often as it should. Why is this? The answer comes from the dire state of individual state’s finances. It takes time and money to investigate all allegations of criminal wrongdoing. The more crime reported to the law enforcement agencies, the more investigators are required. So, to pay for this when states are running a deficit, should we lay off teachers and close down some schools? It’s choices like this that mean most states cannot afford to recruit more police officers. When the insurers know there will be no investigation, why bother to report the suspected frauds? It’s easier to pay out and collect higher premiums from the rest of us.

For those citizens who want to protect themselves, here are a few hints. If you are involved in an accident, take pictures of the damage and of the people in the other vehicle. If they are claiming to be injured, call an ambulance. Call the police in any event. Should a tow truck stop and offer to take your vehicle to a garage for repair, refuse. If anyone suggests you should make a claim even though you are not injured, report them to the police. You can help preserve getting cheap auto insurance for honest citizens only if you actively protect yourself from becoming involved in a fraud.


Increasing fraud becomes the reason why we pay more expensive annual premium rates

Finding cheap car insurance using comparison shopping

There are many ways to find out about different insurance companies. You can search online, you can visit agencies in person, make phone calls, or get referrals from family and friends. The best, and fastest, way to find cheap car insurance is by comparing quotes online. By doing this, you can make sure you are getting a good deal and not getting ripped off. You can also make sure the policy has the best coverage, and compare any added perks.

Your personal situation will determine how low your premium can go. If you have had tickets or accidents in the past, you will likely have a higher premium than someone who has never had an accident, even if the accident was not your fault. However, even if you have multiple accidents, your car insurance quote will vary among agencies – which is why comparison shopping is important.

How much different factors are weighed will vary from company to company, even thought the factors that are involved in calculating an auto insurance quote are generally universal. In addition, some companies will add many different fees when you have had tickets, and some will just add a small fee. You won’t know what you can get if you just go with one company, you must look thriough multiple car insurance companies.

Many times after requesting a quote you may be hounded by insurance agents trying to make a sale. They want to get to you first and perhaps slightly pressure you into making a purchase. Do not be fooled by these tactics – you’re decision should be based on price and coverage, not pressure tactics. If you shop in person or by phone, it may be harder for you to turn down these deals. Shopping online puts a barrier between you and the company, and many websites allow you to research multiple quotes at once – saving you time and money.

It is also important to research policy quotes each time you renew your insurance. It may not necessarily be the case that company you are with is offering you the cheapest car insurance policy even though it may have been when you originally signed up.

Nobody likes to pay for auto insurance when there are other, more fun things, you could spend your money on. Therefore, you might as well save as much money as you can! Shopping online is the easiest and most beneficial way to do this, and will only cost you a couple of minutes of your day!


Finding cheap car insurance using comparison shopping

Using comparison shopping to find cheap car insurance

There are many ways to find out about different insurance companies. You can search online, you can visit agencies in person, make phone calls, or get referrals from family and friends. The best, and fastest, way to find cheap car insurance is by comparing quotes online. By doing this, you can make sure you are getting a good deal and not getting ripped off. Ensuring the policy has the best coverage, and comparing any added perks is also something you can do.

Your personal situation will determine how low your premium can go. If you have had tickets or accidents in the past, you will likely have a higher premium than someone who has never had an accident, even if the accident was not your fault. Your car insurance quote will vary among agencies, however, even if you have multiple accidents, which is why it is so important to comparison shop.

Although the factors involved in calculating an auto insurance quote are universal, how much each factor is weighed varies from company to company. In addition, some companies will add many different fees when you have had tickets, and some will just add a small fee. You won’t know what you can get if you just go with one company, you must look at multiple policies.

Many times after requesting a quote you may be hounded by insurance agents trying to make a sale. They want to get to you first and perhaps slightly pressure you into making a purchase. Do not be fooled by these tactics – you’re decision should be based on price and coverage, not pressure tactics. If you shop in person or by phone, it may be harder for you to turn down these deals. Shopping online puts a barrier between you and the company, and many websites allow you to research multiple quotes at once – saving you time and money.

It is also important to research policy quotes each time you renew your insurance. Even though the company you are with may have been the cheapest car insurance when you signed up, it may no longer be.

Nobody likes to pay for auto insurance when there are other, more fun things, you could spend your money on. Therefore, you might as well save as much money as you can! Shopping online is the easiest and most beneficial way to do this, and will only cost you a couple of minutes of your day!

Using comparison shopping to find cheap car insurance