Buying insurance policies has always been potentially expensive. When you see the premium rate expressed as an annual sum, it can look a little daunting. Yet, when you are old enough to put wheels on the road, there’s mandatory liability cover in all but three US states. This is where dreams would fade were it not for the willingness of insurance companies to be flexible on the payments. First they dropped to 6 monthly payments. Some went for quarterly. And then the final act of liberation – the monthly instalment plan. Now you could buy your policy on the same basis as your home, the furniture and white goods in it, and the car you wanted to drive. Everything had come down to the total amount you could afford to pay every month and still have something left over to buy food. This has some major benefits. You can buy insurance with no down payment. Just use the internet search engines to find cheap auto insurance quotes offering the lowest premium rates, pay the first instalment in advance and you are legal on the road.

But there is more to it than that. Ignoring the supposed advantage of easier money management, it also frees you to change your auto insurance policy whenever you find a better deal. If you have paid six or twelve months in advance, this locks you into the policy. Yes, companies do allow you to change, but usually subject to cancellation charges – sometimes eye-poppingly high. The freedom to change insurers can be important if you change the make and model you drive. The existing insurer may be less competitive on the rates for the new vehicle, but the charges may take up the saving available by switching to a competitor. However, because insurers prefer stability, they offer discounts on 6 or 12 monthly payments to give them your cash in their hands. Paying on a monthly basis is always more expensive. As always, it’s your choice.

What is UM or UIM?

Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage will pay for injuries or damages you, your passengers or your property has sustained due to an accident with a driver who doesn’t have enough insurance coverage, or no insurance at all and is called responsible from the legal point of view.

By uninsured river most companies mean a driver who had no insurance, didn’t have the minimum required amount, or was denied coverage by his insurance company and thus being unable to pay for the damage caused. Hit-and-run drivers can also be classified as uninsured drivers from bodily injury liability perspective.

An underinsured driver in contrast, is a car owner who had the amount of coverage to meet state minimum requirements but not enough to cover the damage or injuries caused. In this case, his insurance will pay a certain part of the damage and the rest will have to be covered by underinsured motorist coverages.

Though, you have to keep in mind that these coverage types are not the same and are separate. Still, insurance companies tend to bundle them into a single product for convenience.

Is it a must?

Only in a small number of states UM/UIM coverage is legally required. The majority of states leave it as an option. However, if you choose to purchase this coverage it should meet the minimum state requirements but not exceed liability limits of your policy. In case your company offers uninsured motorist property damage (UMPD) coverage it is impossible to be purchased without having UMBI.

What use is there in it?

First of all, this type of coverage is relatively cheap car insurance and won’t boost up your rates dramatically. However, in case you have an accident with an uninsured/underinsured driver, you risk of not getting sufficient coverage by your company, which will pay for your car repair or medical bills if required. Assuming that the other party was at fault, it is the other party’s insurance company that should be paying for these expenses, and if there’s not enough or simply no coverage eventually you won’t be paid anything.

Having uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage will pay for your damages and injuries in case you face such a driver in an accident. It is evident that it’s better to have such coverage with your policy even if you are striving for cheap car insurance. You especially benefits from this coverage if you frequently drive in areas where there are more uninsured vehicles. See what the rates are in your location and decide if it is a must for you.

If you want to make a good decision about your insurance company you should ask around, analyze and come to a conclusion with the list of top five insurance companies to deal with. You should also trust your senses. Sometimes people have bad feelings about companies but they don’t care enough to trust them. Have a conversation with your family, relatives and friends about the insurance companies they use. It could be useful for you to take advice from those who you can rely on – people that will only advice you something descent. It is very important to know how easily and how quickly claims are processed. It would be perfect if the company that you plan to get insured with had a 24/7 claim service.

Let us tell you the main reason for car insurance. Your insurance should protect you from any injury or property damage that may occur during an accident. It has to protect your assets and help you with the liability. In order to choose a good company you must shop around and ask for the costumer satisfaction ratings. They are extremely important. They can tell lots about the way company maintains itself on the market. But it should also be mentioned that it is not possible to tell the future according to the past. Sometimes unpleasant cases happen but it is not fair to judge the company like that. You should always check how long the company is around for. If they have been on the market for a decade and have lots of pleased costumers – you should definitely worry about nothing. History can show you all the advantages and disadvantages giving you the best perspective on what there is to expect.

Information on the insurance companies is not difficult to seek. You can always ask or email if you have any questions. With the help of internet insurance sites it became very easy to get insured. Cheap auto insurance is only a question of time. But we would not recommend you to run after the price. Cheap doesn’t always mean – the best. But if you decided you need cheap auto insurance and nothing else – there is no better place than internet for it. It is there to give you plenty of offers to choose from. Trust our word.

Let’s be completely clear. The law does not care who is asking for the information If it is going to be used for either purpose, the asking is unlawful. If this happens to you in an interview, it may pose a dilemma. If you cite the law and refuse to answer, the interviewer may think you a troublemaker with something to hide and not hire you. That you can complain to the local Department of Labor and take satisfaction in seeing a civil penalty imposed, this does not replace the offer of employment in these difficult economic times. The temptation to answer will be strong. But when it comes to insurance companies, you must stand up and assert your rights. If the insurer persists, report to your state’s Department of Insurance. This will put the insurers at risk of losing their license to sell policies in your state. This is a big stick to wave in defense of your rights. More importantly, the Department can order the insurers to offer you insurance on regular terms which protects you. Once employed, it’s just as important to stay alert. The operators of group health plans are known to offer incentives like lower premiums to employees who answer a questionnaire including questions about their family medical history. Obviously, insurers want to know if there is a risk of serious diseases like cancer. You might be more at risk if there is a history of cancer in your family. Everyone should refuse to answer.

The reason for the law is important. Genetic tests are increasingly important in diagnosis and deciding on the best treatment for medical problems. Too many patients were refusing these tests because they feared discrimination should their employers or health insurance companies learn of the results. The medical profession strongly supported this change in employment and insurance law. Doctors want to be able to make an accurate diagnosis which means using the best available tests. With this law in place, your rights should be protected. If you are considering a change in insurer, remember you cannot be discriminated against when the companies give you health insurance quotes. They must always be able to prove their quotes are close to the average for people of your age, gender and general social background. If you think you are being victimized, complain.

Is the red car really fast?

You have definitely heard numerous stories telling about red cars being ticketed far more often and costing more to insure than cars of any other color, even if there’s no statistical proof of such information. Because there’s no official data on that matter it’s really hard to say what color is riskier, however insurance companies and police officials state that they never link the color of the car to actual claims or tickets.

Of course, the best idea is driving within speed limits regardless of your car color. Even if you have a red car, respecting the speed limits will prevent you from getting tickets. And chances of your insurance being costly are the same as the other guy driving his green SUV in the next lane.

Color and character

It may be irrelevant to speeding tickets and insurance rates, but what does the color red tell about you as a person? It may not affect the number of tickets you receive, but what does your car color say about your personality? Many psychologists of various schools that work with colors tend to attribute the color of red to aggressive behavior, describing people who like this color as risk-lovers and very active persons. That’s probably where the whole red car insurance story comes from – red means more risk, and more risk means higher premiums.

Color and money

But is this all true? Do auto insurance rates depend on what color your car is painted in? And will the rates go down if you repaint your vehicle? No, no and no!

Some people tend to believe that the VIN contains information on your vehicle color and when the insurance company uses your VIN to set the rates for you, they include your color into the calculations as well. In reality, there’s much more to VIN than just body color and the insurance company won’t even pay attention to this factor, being interested in production year, make, model, engine size and other more important technical data for determining your auto insurance rates. And the only way you can get higher auto insurance rates for your red car is it being a Ferrari, Lamborghini or another expensive fast car that is generally quite costly to insure regardless of body color.

So if you really want to drive a red car enjoy doing it for as much as you like without worries. That is having in mind that you will be driving with respect to speed limits, less aggressively and making everything possible to avoid traffic accidents. Which applies to all car owners that want to have cheaper auto insurance regardless of what color is their car. It can be painted like zebra if you will, but if you drive safely it will still cost you less to insure the vehicle!

And it’s hard to tell that the most risky drivers – men younger than 25 years old – are contributing to these statistics. These are actually men of all age groups.

As an insurance agent from Ohio, Brad Vermillion has stated: “Men are more aggressive in their very nature and pursue a riskier attitude when driving a car. You see a man not wearing a seat belt, speeding and driving under influence far more often than a woman. The amount of miles driven throughout the lifetime is also quite higher with men than with women, which of course means a greater risk of being involved in a traffic accident and filing an insurance claim. The less you drive the safer you are.”

A righteous question rises consequently, whether do insurance companies take into account the statistics provided by the NHTSA and other organizations? “Insurers know about such statistics very well and they are reflected in their pricing guidelines,” stated Vermillion. “A man will always pay a higher auto insurance premium than a woman, even if he lives in a safe area and has a perfect driving and credit record.”

But the overall trend has started to shift in recent years, making the gap between men and women smaller in what concerns auto insurance premiums. “The last couple of years have shown more and more women driving at longer distances and for more extended periods of time. This results from a wider access to cars among women and more intense and active lifestyle attitudes, forcing women to move around a lot more than in previous years,” states Dave Roush, CEO of Insurance.com. “Women spend more time behind the wheel and raise the stress levels, which inevitably results in more aggressive attitude from women on the road. This trend is only starting to take shape and it’s a matter of time to judge whether it will minimize the gap between men and women in what concerns auto insurance rates. But for now men are well ahead in this competition.”

If credit scores were only used by banks for internal purposes, customers might weather the storm. But employers, landlords and, most importantly, insurance companies also use the scores to decide who is a responsible and reliable member of the community. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, half the nation’s employers routinely use credit scores when recruiting. The majority of insurance companies use scores when setting premiums for driving on the road. For some reason these companies have never been able to explain, they believe that people who have poor credit scores cannot drive safely on the roads. This is odd. If people cannot afford to replace their vehicles, they probably drive more carefully to reduce the risk of an accident.

California, Massachusetts and Hawaii already have laws banning the use of credit scores for auto insurance purposes. A number of other states are proposing legislation to limit or outlaw the practice. As an aside, Maryland has a ban in place for home insurance purposes. In addition to its general unfairness, the use of credit scores is also potentially discriminatory. The problem is that people who have low incomes tend to have low scores. This concentrates poor scores among some minority groups. Civil rights campaigners suggest that African American and Latino drivers with low credit scores face unlawful discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity. Naturally, the auto insurance companies deny this but, citing commercial confidentiality, refuse to produce any detailed data that would allow the issue to be settled one way or the other. As a result, the poor and disadvantaged are left with the feeling they are being victimised. What is interesting in all this is that insurers continue to be profitable in the three states where credit score use is banned, suggesting that the continuation of the practice is based on convenience. A computer can take data, apply a formula and produce a premium. If human beings had to look at files and make decisions, this would be more expensive and eat into profits.

As a sign of this practicality, the age range of nineteen to twenty-nine is the most underinsured group in the US. These are the invincible people who never believe they will fall ill and always forget they are the group most likely to be injured in traffic accidents. So when people finally see the need to insure, where do they find the affordable policies? The answer, in an ideal world, is that your state’s Department of Insurance offers some kind of guide to find affordable insurance. Every state in the union has a duty to regulate the insurance companies in their territory. They also operate complaints schemes so they know where many of the bodies are buried. So some states like Idaho publish guidance for those who do not have a health plan through their parents or employment. What you look for depends on what level of risk you want. A basic policy is better than no policy. If you have some savings or a guaranteed line of credit you can tap, go for a high deductible. Having a policy where you pay the first $5,000 is a good deal if you need long-term care. The larger the deductible you agree to, the lower the monthly premium. Really basic policies can cost less than $50 per month for a limited range of serious injuries and illness.

Being honest, you should never gamble with your own health or the health of your family but, every day, that is what this recession is forcing people to do. It would be great to be able to give you a promise that you will always find affordable health insurance, but life is not always fair. You can find you have the first symptoms of a long-term illness. Circumstances can change and the deductible you signed up for is no longer within your means. So, when you buy health insurance, you are always gambling just a little. Hopefully, you will come out a winner.

Consumer groups argue that using credit history is pretty unfair because many of the “defaults” that appear on these histories are the result of predatory terms operated by credit card and other lenders. Even the most minor and technical of infringements can result in retrospective penalties designed to boost the lender’s profits. Such blemishes are not truly representative of a person’s overall responsibility in managing debt. Indeed, the use of histories by a wide range of individuals and organizations increases consumer distress as they are increasingly denied access to credit and other services. There are many consumers who pay less because they have good scores. Which is better – that the risk is divided equally among all policy holders or that those who represent the greatest risk pay more? Politically, can states insist that all the most creditworthy people pay more?

The bill is also about to eliminate the current territorial rating system that imposes higher premiums on city rather than rural drivers. The plan would call for equal treatment so that no matter where the car is garaged and driven, the same basic premium will be paid. Auto insurance is a for-profit business so there will always be arguments that the market will decide what represents a fair premium. With a recession looming, everybody wants cheap auto insurance. If this law passes in Connecticut, perhaps other states will follow suit and make the US a more affordable place for drivers.

In Massachusetts, there has been a rumbling dispute about the extent to which the local insurers should be regulated. Until last year, the state imposed quite strict rules on the type of policies that could be sold and the premium rates. The current system is one of managed competition with the companies having more freedom on the new products and the premium rates at which they can be sold. The problem focussed on the Board of Appeals run by the Insurance Commissioner Nonnie Burnes. If a driver is involved in a collision, the insurer is allowed to decide which driver is at fault and to add a surcharge to the premium payable by the driver in the wrong. This surcharge can be up to 50% of the original premium. The current Board finds that the surcharge is not justified in more than half the cases referred to it.

The people of Massachusetts were therefore shocked when the Commissioner announced the Board would be shut down. This would leave surcharged drivers with nowhere to go. Strangely, when consumers shop round for a change, the other companies tend to rely on the current company’s finding of fault, rate the driver as more of a risk and only offer auto insurance at higher rates. What should be fair competition between the companies producing lower premiums is the sharing of information about drivers resulting in higher premiums. The state legislature was therefore quickly into action to propose legislation ordering the Commissioner to retain the Board. After a stand-off with the bill moving through the legislature, the Commissioner gave in and announced the Board will be retained. Lacking confidence, the legislators are continuing with the passage of the bill. The interests of the consumer must come first when it comes to car insurance.