Ways Of Saving On Auto Insurance

Many small factors determine the actual cost in involved with auto insurance. Paying attention to such details will markedly minimize the expense of insuring your vehicle.

The law in most places requires of the vehicle driver to carry an auto isurance policy and many people approach it something as something that must be done but preferably avoided. Often then, they go to the same place every year possibly not aware of important savings that are available to them.

One of the simplest things to do is just to have a good look around. It is not that difficult to get a few quotes from a few insurance companies around in order to notice which one provides the best features for the dollar. These days with the wide spread use of the Internet such task is made very easy and insurance quotes can be received in few minutes right on one’s own personal computer.

Certainly, one of the things determining the cost of the insurance premium is the driver’s insurance credit history. Naturally then having it improved can save money. Without going into details of credit management – it should be noticed that everyone is entitled to a free credit report. Equifax, Experian and Trans Union companies are each obliged by law to provide it for free to those who request it, once in 12 months.

How can one improve the credit score? Naturally paying all the bills on time will have the biggest impact. Also each of those reports will contain the positive and negative information determining the overall score. Some of such can be erroneous and if so can be removed by one of the above companies. Also switching to new auto insurance after any particular derogatory remark in the report expires – as these all do – will have a positive impact on the insurance premium paid.

Basic credit report is all that is needed. Also there are some credit-reporting firms stating that their reports are free while in the meantime they charge ‘membership fees’ for it. So it pays to check the fine print in such cases.

And last but not the least idea for saving on auto insurance premiums has to do with the fact that not all the vehicle models are considered equal by the insurance companies. For instance vehicles that statistically show to be stolen the most will also carry higher insurance cost. And if the particular car parts tend to be more expensive so then will be the insurance.

Auto Insurance Minimum Coverage State By State

Each state sets its own values determining the minimum auto insurance coverage that can be activated by any auto insurance company for that state. Here they are listed alphabetically.

Alaska 50*100*25

Alabama 20*40*10

Arkansas 25*50*15

Arizona 15*30*10

California 15*30*5

Colorado 25*50*15

Connecticut 20*40*10

Delaware 15*30*5

Florida 10*20*10

Georgia 15*30*10

Hawaii 20*40*10

Idaho 20*50*15

Illinois 20*40*15

Indiana 25*50*10

Iowa 20*40*15

Kansas 25*50*10

Kentucky 25*50*10

Louisiana 10*20*10

Maine 50*100*25

Maryland 20*40*10

Massachusetts 20*40*5

Michigan 20*40*10

Minnesota 30*60*10

Mississippi 10*20*5

Missouri 25*50*10

Montana 25*50*10

Nebraska 25*50*25

New Hampshire 25*50*25

New Jersey 15*30*5

New Mexico 25*50*10

Nevada 15*30*10

New York 25*50*10

North Carolina 30*60*25

North Dakota 25*50*25

Ohio 12.5*25*7.5

Oklahoma 10*20*10

Oregon 25*50*10

Pennsylvania 15*30*5

Rhode Island 25*50*25

South Carolina 15*30*10

South Dakota 25*50*25

Tennessee 25*50*10

Texas 20*40*15

Utah 25*50*15

Virginia 25*50*20

Vermont 25*50*10

Washington 25*50*10

Wisconsin 25*50*10

West Virginia 20*40*10

Wyoming 25*50*20

The above vehicle insurance numbers are in thousands of dollars. The first two sets of digits there show maximum car insurace liability coverage for bodily injury and the last one maximum property damage. So let’s take the California auto insurance numbers there being 15*30*5 What it means is that if there were say two people involved in an accident – each would get maximum of $15,000 coverage and the total maximum would be $30,000. The maximum ‘property damage’ in that auto insurance claim would be $5,000. Although if the ‘bodily injury’ claim exceeds $30,000 in that example then the insurance would not cover the excess of it and the person there considered to be ‘at fault’ could be sued for that reminder cost.

Of course these numbers are subject to continuous adjustments so please double check with your auto insurance provider for the most current details of it.

New GPS Auto Insurance

In the previous post I have mentioned the Norwich Union having a special GPS based for folks under 25 years of age.

Now this same insurance company has announced a new GPS based insurance plan geared for general public. It will aloow the insurance rates to be continously adjusted on the go based on where and how the given drivers drive. The data in consideration will include information on times of the day and night driven, types of road traversed and the total mileage during the billing period.

What's next? GPS travel insurance figuring whether you are on a safe part of town? :-)

Far Out British Auto Insurance Scheme

If you live in England and are under 25 years old then you can qualify for an all new type of auto insurance promising to save up to 40 percent on insurance costs. What's the catch? Well, you agree not drive between 11pm and 6 am. The stats have it that the likelihood of an auto accident increases by the factor of 2 during those hours.

The vehicle tracking of that system is accomplished by a custom GPS satelite positioning tracker installed in each car signed up for that deal. For each night of driving during those blackout hours there is an extra fee of 25 British Pounds.

The firs British insurance company on board of that new auto insurance game has been Norwich Union.

Insuring car and driving in Mexico

Although driving in Mexico is on the right side of the road and the driving rules are much the same - the laws concerning road accidents and auto insurance are vastly different.

When driving to Mexico one should make sure their auto insurance is issued by one of the insurance companies authorized by Mexico.

Also if involved in an auto accident in Mexico, one is considered 'guilty until proved innocent' which means that if involved even in a 'not at fault' car crash in Mexico one is still very likely to spend some time in jail before cleared out by local legalities and procedures. Also driving without at least civil liability insurance in Mexico is considered a felony.

There are also some quirks regarding the specific of the Mexican auto insurance. For example vandalism is not covered under most auto insurances in Mexico. Almost always the car has to be physically gone in order to file a theft claim. Otherwise if you, say have a car window broken by someone, it is the owner who needs to pay, not the auto insurance policy.

And as a side note, almost all of the car leases in US prohibit driving a leased vehicle to Mexico.

New Auto Insurance Climate In Michigan

The state house in Michigan has just passed two bills that might be of benefit to drivers over 50 years old. The catch is that they must complete a traffic accident prevention course in order to qualify but once they do - such drivers would qualify for an auto insurance fee discount. The bills are now being moved to the state senate. The word has it that the bills were introduced to provide a relief to the older Detroit drivers.

New Mandatory Auto Insurance In China

Chinese officials has announced that as of July 1st this year all vehicle owners in China will have to purchase a mandatory non-profit auto insurance or else risk their vehicles being confiscated.

The step is said to provide funds for those claiming car isurance compensations. Currently China has 130 million motor vehicles of which but 35% have commercial insurance.

The stats are that globally approximately 1.2 million people die annualy in road accidents, of that 20% happens in China. That is some 250,000 people a year or 680 a day.
Also with the Chinese economic boom, there is 14,000 new vehicles being added to the Chinese roads a day. Most of those involved in fatal Chinese traffic accidents are pedestrians and those driving bicycles.