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.

State Farm to rise insurance premiums in Florida

State Farm Florida Insurance Company is asking the Florida government to rise insurance premiums by 58.8%. And the automotive division of the company being State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is asking for a 71.5% hike.

State Farm is the largest private US property and casualty insurance carrier and it is also the biggest one in Florida. The proposed increases are very significan and met with some public resistance but these are to be necessarey to cover much higher insurance claims then in the rest of the country - should the recent high frequency and intensity of hurricanes to continue in the region.

As high as these proposed rates are, these vary by the particular Florida region. For example State Farm is asking for a 117.7 rates hike for mobile homes in the Palm Beach area.

And State Farm is not alone in this trend - some Florida insurers asked for average rate hikes up to 92%.

Also Florida Insurance Comissioner Kevin McCarty said last week that he was 'deeply concerned' about these developments.

Meantime Allstate Corporation being currently the second largest home insurer in the US is seeking to close its Florida operations.

VIN Stands For Vehicle Identification Number

Yes, did you know that VIN stands for Vehicle Identification Number?

Those 17 digit codes being usually placed around the upper left part of the dashboard can tell you a number of things about your vehicle. The history of VIN started in around the 1950's when american auto manufacturers begun stamping numbers on auto parts and the vehicles themselves. It was not untill the early 1980's though before the National Higway Traffic Safety Administration - a division of US Department of Transportation created the current 17 digit VIN standard which requires all newly manufactured vehicles to be identified by one. Actually, technically speaking the current Vehicle Identification Number standard was first introduced in February of 1977 by the ISO standards commitee under the number 3779 which was precursor for the later official US governmen standard adoption.

Now, what do those numbers mean? All right - the first threee numbers are called WMI or World Manufacturer Identifier except when the manufacturer makes less then 500 vehicles of a given type then the third digit is always 9 and the second position of it is in digits 12, 13 and fourteen. The WMI is specified in the ISO 3780.

Next, the characters 4 through 9 correspond to the VDS orVehicle Descriptor Section and can be used by manufacturers for coding their vehicle description.

And then the last 8 characters of VIN are called VIS or Vehicle Identifier Section while the last 4 characters of it are to be always numeric. ISO also reccomends that the VIN possition number 10 relate to the vehicle production year when such is being encoded. And the position number 11 is to reffer to the factory plant code with letters from A to Z and digits from 1 to 0 except the letters I, O and Q with no spaces or signs in the whole VIN otherwise.

In Europe, the European Union has also issued a vehicles identifying procedure, albeit not as stringent. In it, the year part is not mandatory and the relating of VDS part to the vehicles attributes is also optional.

The VIN plays also an important part in the auto insurance industry as this is the key number by which the insured vehicles are being tracked.

Geico Announced Having Sold 7 Million Auto Insurances

Geico also known as the Government Employees Insurance Company has announced having sold its 7th million auto insurance. The purchaser was Kevin Percell of Shelton, Conneticut who was looking for a new company to insure his vehicle. And the event took place in Buffalo, NY 13 March 2006.

Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance Opens New Collaboration With Ford

Ford Motor Credit Company has joined with Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance in providing very competitive personal auto and home insurance. The new insurance plans will be available to the currently more then 20 million Mercury, Ford and Lincoln users.

The new insurance offerings will be marketed as part of Ford Motor Company Insurance Services by both Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance as well as the Ford Motor Credit, the later being a financial division of the Ford Motor Company (Public, NYSE:F) . Meanwhile Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance will be conducting the claims, sales and service of this new joint financial undertaking.

And as a reminder I will mention that in January I have also written here more about Costco and Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance.

Top 10 Least Expensive Cars To Insure In Canada

1. Buick Rendezvous 4DR 2WD


2. Mercury Grand Marquis 4DR


3. KIA Sedona


4. Buick Le Sabre 4DR


5. Buick Century 4DR


6. Lexus ES 300 4DR


7. Ford Taurus Wagon


8. Mazda MPV


9. Saturn Vue


10. KIA Spectra 4DR

These are the latest figures from Insurance Bureau of Canada based on statistical claims history for all vehicles on record. The actual final auto insurance costs will of course vary depending of all the combined price factors involved.

Also here is a list I posted couple of months ago to the 10 least expensive cars to insure in the US

Auto Insurance And Credit Reporting

Yes, many auto insurance companies will check your credit history as a part of the process in determining the final cost of your auto insurance.

So how knowing about that can help you with auto insurance? Well, you can order a free copy of your credit report and see if there is anything there that can be improved. All information on such reports, positive or negative stays there only for certain stated there length of time. If a particular one is to expire soon then switching your auto insurance after that date can lower your premium automatically. Also you might find some other items in the report that you weren’t aware of.

By the Fair Credit Reporting Act you are entitled to a free credit report from any of the three credit reporting companies – Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. They got a PDF webpage with a Request Form hat you can print out, fill in and mail to receive that free credit report. The mailing address is: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281



A word of caution here. There are also a number of companies offering what they only call a free credit report, but when you read the fine print it turns out not free at all. It might be called as ‘free with a membership’ or ‘free within trial period’ and if you don’t cancel during the trial time they will bill your credit card. These are not part of the legally mandated free annual credit report program.

California New Low Cost Auto Insurance Program Expanded

California has just passed Senate Bill 20, sponsored by Insurance Commissioner Garamendi. It is to start on April 1 (not a fools joke).

It is a Low Cost Automobile Insurance program allowing low income drivers to opt for the liability auto insurance for under $400 a year. With the new legislation in place it will be expanded to the counties of Alameda, Orange, Riverside, Sand Bernardino and Sand Diego.

Plans are in the workings to also expand the program to the counties of: Contra Costa, Imperial, Kern, Sacramento, Santa Clara, San Jaquin, San Mateo and Stanislaus.

In the words of Senator Martha Escutia "My goal in creating the Low Cost Auto Insurance Program six years ago was to provide an affordable alternative for consumers who are required to have, but simply cannot afford a conventional policy. The expansion of the program to additional California counties is a blessing for many working families who are searching for affordable auto insurance."

This auto insurance program has been created in 1999 and originally applying to the Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties. With the new legislation in place it will encompass 16 counties.

The terms for it are that to qualify for this program the family income must be lower then 2.5 times the Federal poverty level of $24,000 for a single individual, $33,000 for two people and $50,000 for a family of four and the insured vehicle’s total value needs to be under $20,000. There are also some minimum driving record requirements for it. For more information please call 866-602-8861

Here you also read what I wrote about this developing program in January.

Online auto insurance purchases on the increase

According to Insurance.com the number of auto insurances bought in the US over the internet rose by 20%. It is reflecting the growing shift in the direction of people doing their financial transactions on the net.

"During the past five years we have seen a tremendous growth on our site as a result of customers' increased confidence level with the internet," said Insurance.com President Lou Geremia. "We've embraced this new growth by adding over 100 licensed insurance agents to our sales center and have extended our sales center hours to 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Standard."

New California auto insurance policy proposal

On February 24th there is to be a formal hearing for a new California auto insurance policy that might result in the auto insurance rates rising in some counties as much as 35 percent.

The idea relates to rising rates in urban areas as well as more in relation to personal driving record.

Insurance Australia readying to acquire almost a quarter of China Pacific

Insurance Australia Group (IAG) is preparing to buy 24.9% stake in China Pacific Property Insurance (CPPI). IAG is Australia’s largest auto and home insurance company.

CPPI has already sold a 24.9% of its shares to Carlyle Group and Prudential Financial, which is rated as the 3rd largest life insurance company in the US.

The investment is related to China’s insurance market having grown 20% over the past 5 years.

AAA will provide auto and home insurance in Hawaii

AAA has been offering auto and travel services to Hawaiians since 1912 but it is the first time that it will make available home and auto insurance to the 120,000 islanders.

It will be done through AAA's affiliate - Interinsurance Exchange of the Automobile Club, rated as A+ by A.M. Best. The later issues yearly over 1 million car insurances in California and also offers such in Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Texas and Vermont.

Hawaiian AAA members, paying their $54 annual membership fee will qualify to apply for the insurance. All others can receive a free auto insurance quote from AAA but will need to become members in order to apply for it.

Average auto insurance costs easing slightly

In 2005 the average annual US auto insurance costs declined by 2% or $60 with Pennsylvania having the largest decline of 9.7%.  Nevertheless the insurance premiums still managed to go up in some states, with North Dakota leading the pack with 15.7% increase.

$250 a month being an average monthly insurance cost in the US leaves many people wishing for the insurance costs to go down much more.  How much more will it decrease – the future will show but so far, with the comparative shopping habits being encouraged by the internet we can look forward for the trend to continue into the future.

Did you know?

In California one out of every four drivers does not have car insurance. That is mainly because of the high costs of insurance. Fortunately there's an expanding auto insurance plan in California, of which I wrote about two weeks ago - that somewhat helps lower income folks with that problem.

Costco continues with Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance

Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance and Costco Insurance Agency Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Costco Wholesale Corportaion renewed their current cooperation, extending it for next five years.

"We are pleased to continue our successful relationship with Costco,"said Ken Ciak, President of Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance. "Like Costco, we are committed to providing best-in-class products and services. We offer premium insurance products and solutions at very competitive prices."

The program is available in 38 US states and available to 17 million Costco memeber households.
Members can get a quote by phone through calling 888-404-5365 or online by visiting www.costco.com/services/auto

Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance offers automobile, home and umbrellea insurance. Headquatered in De Pere, Wisconsin with over 950 employees it currently supplies auto and home insurance to over 450,000 people. Meantime the underwriting of the policies for these services is done by AMEX Assurance Company and IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company. Both IDS Property Casualty and AMEX Assurance are wholly owned subsidiaries of Ameriprise Financial.

Financing - the only profit for GM in 2005

Not everyone knows, but General Motors actually makes money by selling auto insurance and offering mortgages. The company made $2.22 billion doing just that during 2005.

Meanwhile the GM lost $3.8 billion in the first three quarters of 2005 selling their vehicles, or on average - $539 for each of their auto being sold.

The Ford auto company had posted similar figures - it made $2 billion profit in financing while losing $1.4 billion in those first three quarters on their autos ($576 per vehicle sold).

Also, the two companies combined sold $38billion in consumer loans last year.

More market consolidation in the auto insurance industry to come in 2006

It has been noted that after the major natural events like the recent Hurricane Katrina the insurance payouts have risen significantly. That may instigate many smaller auto insurers to sell out in order to protect their profits.

Particularly states with low auto insurance loss rates will be more affected by such larger payouts.

Bigger auto insurance companies with more access to innovative price setting technologies and better advertising coverage will find it easier in the coming years. That would include companies like Geico, the auto insurer of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (BRKA, BRKB), Allstate Corporation (ALL), Progressive Corporation (PGR) and the United States Automobile Association (USSA). Nevertheless smaller companies with underwriting margin of over 4 percent and positive growth should also find it easy to perform regardless of the major natural events affecting the insurance industry.

Insurance discount for hybrid car owners complementing tax credits

US tax regulations offer up to 10 percent tax breaks for the users of environmentally cleaner technologies which according to Consumer Reports can save up to $4,000 for consumers running cars utilizing entirely alternative fuels.

Along those lines - Travelers, one of America's oldest insurance companies now offers hybrid car owners a 10 percent discount on their auto insurance. It is related to the actuarial pragmatism assuming that hybrid car owners are typically lower risk drivers.

As a side note - the US government is also offering tax discounts to homeowners utilizing energy saving materials such as energy efficient windows.

Mississippi car insurance cost going up

As of the first of this month the minimum cost of liability insurance that Mississippi drivers must carry will double.

"Drivers will see anywhere from a 10 to 25 percent increase in their premium depending on age, driving record and their experience,'' said Joe Bryant, an agent with Shelter Insurance in Hattiesburg.

Reportedly the costs went up because the premiums were not enough to cover the high costs of the car insurance payouts.

As a side note - driving without an auto insurance in Mississippi carries a $1,000 penalty.

Also, while many drivers expressed their discontent over the new regulation, it will affect only a small portion - those who carry the minimum amount of insurance required.

Top ten least expensive cars to insure

1. Buick LeSabre
2. Oldsmobile Silhouette
3. Honda Odyssey
4. Buick Park Avenue
5. Pontiac Montana
6. Mercury Grand Marquis
7. Buick Century
8. Chervolet Venture
9. GMC Safari
10. Oldsmobile Bravada

These are of course some general statistics, the actual cost of your auto insurance will vary depending on many other factors besides the car model.

California pilots new auto insurance program

With the turn of the year a new law come into effect in California enabling low-income East Bay residents to buy driver's auto insurance for less then $400 which makes it a pioneering State in that area. The rule is to come into effect April 1 2006 - no April fool's joke :-)

Until now this leading auto insurance program has been limited to San Francisco and Los Angeles county residents. But in April it will expand to include Alarmeda, Fresno, Orange, Riverside, San Beranardino and San Diego counties. If all goes well, it might expand to embrace the rest of California soon after.

To qualify for this insurance discount, a driver needs to be over 19 years old and have income within 250 percent of the statutory poverty line - that being about $23,000 for singles and $47,000 for families of four. Other qualifying requirements include holding licence for at least three consecutive years, no more then one at-fault accident involving bodily injury or death in the past three years or more than one moving violation in three years, or more than
one property-damage wreck that they caused driving within the same time span.

The program, is administered by the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan and has provided car insurance for low-income San Franciscans at a rate of $314 per year. In Los Angeles, the cost has been $347.

This auto insurance expansion bill has been passed by the Senate on a 21-13 vote and went through the Assembly with a 62-17 margin.

Welcome to Auto Insurance Blog!

Hallo Everyone! I am going to be posting here news and info about auto insurance, helping you stay up to date with it. So let’s start now.

State Auto Financial (NASDAQ:STFC) got named “Best Managed Auto Insurance Company” by Forbes. The magazine listed in its review 26 best out of some 1,000 publicly traded companies having at least $1billion in sales, positive book value and at least $ 1 billion in sales.

In the words of Bob Moone, STFC’s Chairman and CEO “On behalf of all State Auto associates and the 22,000 independent agents who make up our only distribution system, we are proud to have earned this recognition. STFC’s commitment to unrelenting attention to and execution of the fundamentals of our business has led to sustained positive return on capital, sales and earnings growth. Our selection as the Best Managed Company in the insurance industry places State Auto among an elite group of insurers.”

The State Auto Insurance Companies are headquatered in Columbus, Ohio and are rated A+ (Superior) by the A.M. Best Company.