If you live in the residence of California, it is a good idea to know what laws, regulations and protections the state has created regarding car insurance. Understanding California state auto insurance laws will acquire shopping for a policy grand easier, and will allow you to make decisions based on your inherent rights as a resident of the Golden State.
Access to Auto Insurance Quotes
According to the California Department of Insurance, the state of California passed Assembly Bill 2677 in 2004, which requires all insurance companies operating within the state to give customers access to quotes or estimates at the lowest rate available to them. This means that California auto insurance laws ensure that consumers obtain accurate information when shopping for insurance policies.
AB 2677 mandates that insurance companies provide either a toll-free telephone number or a web station at which consumers can procure those quotes. In California, the insurance company must provide the consumer with a “cost estimate of its lowest priced personal auto policy at the limits the consumer requests and for which the consumer is eligible.” This makes it illegal for insurance companies to overcharge customers when customers could be getting the same coverage for a lower rate.
Consumer Privacy
Auto insurance laws in California protect consumer privacy by limiting the information brokers and agents can disclose to third parties. Generally, any non-public information is protected, which means that insurance companies can’t use information they have collected in an unauthorized manner. This includes health information; for example, if you are in a car accident, the auto insurance company can’t disclose details of your condition without consent.
Broker Fee Requirements
In California, auto insurance laws also protect consumers from unscrupulous broker fees, and they require insurance companies to disclose all fees prior to signing contracts or accepting payment from consumers. If you know of any insurance company, agent, or broker charging unscrupulous fees, it is critical to recount the Department of Insurance with the details.
California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan
California’s auto insurance laws provide the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan, which is intended for consumers who are unable to obtain insurance the standard way. In other words, if you’ve had too many citations or accidents, normal car insurance companies might not extend a policy to you. In this case, you have access to the CAARP, which will assign you an insurance company with pre-determined rates.
Capping
It is illegal in California for auto insurance companies to refer consumers to legal representatives in exchange for a “finder’s fee.” Capping is a felony in the state of California, so know that you don’t have to purchase a referral from an insurance agent or broker when you need the assistance of legal counsel.
Auto insurance laws in California are detailed at the California Department of Insurance web space. Notion your rights can protect you from unscrupulous agents and brokers, and will allow you to make informed decisions about your insurance needs.
Sources:
“Auto Premium Quote,” California Department of Insurance.
“Privacy of Nonpublic Personal Information,” California Department of Insurance.
“Broker Fee Regulations Summary,” California Department of Insurance.
Filed under Types Of Auto Insurance by on Mar 13th, 2011. Comment. 
Good news for California insured drivers the Insurance Commissioner John Garamendai announced a $30 Million Settlement with Allstate Insurance, that effects 250,000 policy holders, that could qualify for return on premium or credits of future premium bills. This was the result of an investigation that resolved issues, and number of practices of Allstate, between January 1, 2000 – April 12, 2002 effecting some auto insurance policies. Allstate has telephone, for policyholders can call, to get further information: 1 – 800 – 351-0646.�
California insurance motorist are only required to have a minimum amount of coverage, that includes $15,000 for death or injury to one person, any one accident, $30,000 for all persons in anyone one accident, and $5,000 for property damage, for any one accident. Not required by the residence of California include comprehensive coverage, uninsured motorist, medical payment, and collision insurance.�
A pilot program that is available for California Drivers to seize low cost car insurance. The California Gross Cost Automobile Insurance Program (CLACK), satisfies the requirements of the state’s auto insurance requirements. The insurance policy is based on a driver’s household income, driving record, and vehicle purchased value.
California Proposition 103, enacted into law in November 1988, qualifies a Good Driver to get car insurance from any insurance company, and is entitled to get 20 percent reduction in car insurance, compared to a non-Good Driver. A Good Driver must be a California driver licensed for three consecutive years, and have no points on driving record. Also, any major driving violations including Driving Under the Influence, could capture the Good Driver rating. Under Proposition 103, car insurance companies vital factor to calculate insurance rate, must consider operator’s driving safety recount, number of miles driven annually, and years of driving experience. Other considerations include, if the vehicle is stored in garage and has security features. Despite the positive aspects for lower insurance rates with proposition 103, drivers should be aware that lower minimum coverage may not be sufficient, to cover any additional liabilities, which the driver would be responsible for out of pocket cost. Additional liability insurance should be considered or purchasing an umbrella policy that would cover most cost of liabilities, above the car insurance policy, and conceal any other liabilities. An average umbrella policy provides one million dollars coverage for liabilities, and cost between two to three hundred dollars, a year.
Always recommended to contact several insurance companies or brokers to compare auto insurance rates. Each company calculates their own rate policy, which is partially based upon their own past losses, and expenses. Through your local telephone directory or Internet can provide names, and telephone numbers. Spending some time on the phone, answering questions, can conveniently get price quotes, and save money to get the best rate.
When speaking to a car insurance company, ask if there is any discounts, getting credit for extra driving courses or lectures, having more the one car insured, adding any additional security features to the car, and limiting your driving mileage to and from work only. Inform the insurance agent if you work at home, and if you can pay the premium in one payment per year, rather then in installments, to get a lower premium. Ask if you can make payment by a credit card, because the amount will be billed to you on your next month’s credit card statement, and you maybe entitled to points on the credit card, based on the type of credit card.
When deciding upon a car insurance company, check with the Consumer Complaint Examine (CCS) that is published by California Department of Insurance. This will assist consumers on car insurance companies based upon justified complaint study (composite ratio), company performance, and comparison data study. For example, in 2003, the number one rated car insurance company was The Swansea Mutual Insurance Company, that had justified complaint ratio zero, and Number of justified complaints zero.
Filed under Aaa Auto Insurance by on Mar 13th, 2011. Comment.
Many senior citizens have been loyal to their auto insurance companies for years, often decades. Having the same excellent insurance agent and company is comforting. But the auto insurance industry has become more competitive, actively vying for the senior citizen market. It makes sense for senior citizens to gather information to compare their current rates, especially at the time of auto insurance renewal.
Getting quotes for auto insurance is an easy process. With just a few clicks on the computer or toll-free telephone calls, anyone can gather a list that compares auto insurance by services and rates. For senior citizens, who often are on fixed incomes, this can be a very cost-effective exercise, possibly saving them hundreds of dollars during an insured period.
Finding Comparable Rates
Buying auto insurance is like any other important, long-term engage. The key is to take time to research and shop for the best deal with respectable auto insurance companies.
The following is a sample of insurance companies and insurance brokers offering auto insurance quotes on the Internet. Many have specific marketing programs targeting senior citizens.
AARP: www.aarp.thehartford.com.
AARP is an advocacy organization for seniors that promotes the interests of people over 50 years old. They offer auto insurance to members through The Hartford.
Allstate: www.allstate.com.
Allstate is a well known insurance company. Quotes can be gathered at the above website or local agents can be found in the telephone book and are available to assist in preparing a free quote.
Farmers Insurance Group: http://www.farmersinsurance.com.
Online or in person, a Farmers insurance agent can review auto insurance coverage, help identify potential gaps, and include any qualifying Farmers Auto insurance discounts.
Progressive Insurance: www.progressive.com.
Progressive will provide a quote for their company along with comparables of other auto insurance companies for easy comparisons.
Geico Insurance: www.geico.com.
This company can be accessed online or at one of their many offices. It is easy to get a quote; they offer flexible payment options and competitive rates.
Costco: www.costco.com.
Costco offers membership insurance through Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance.
Autoinsure: www.autoinsure.org.
Autoinsure has a page with helpful insurance information for senior citizens. They can provide quotes from all the major auto insurance companies.
Esurance: www.esurance.com.
A rising star among insurance companies that take pride in stating: “Esurance doesn’t just offer reliable insurance coverage, we also believe in educating consumers.” Their online quote process is easy to navigate.
US Insurance: www.usinsuranceonline.com
They will provide multiple auto insurance quotes tailored to specific needs within minutes of filling out their simple short form. It’s easy then to compare them side by side to find the best prices and coverage.
Car Insurance Rates: www.carinsurancerates.com
Their network of companies and brokers offer a variety of car insurances: Farmers, Allstate, AIG, Nationwide, AARP, Safeco Insurance, Liberty Mutual, MetLife and Mercury.
Every insurance rate: www.everyinsurancerate.com
EveryInsuranceCompany.com is a handy Internet directory to catch local insurance companies, insurance quotes and discount insurance rates.
Quote Scout: www.quotescout.com.
This website will provide quotes from a long list of auto insurance companies – literally from “A” to “Z”.
Insurance.com: http://www.insurance.com.
Insurance.com works directly with 15 highly rated car insurance companies in 46 states: 21st Century, Electric Insurance, Esurance Auto Insurance, The Hartford, Infinity, Liberty Mutual, Meritplan Insurance, MetLife Auto Insurance, Newport Insurance, Permanent General Assurance Corporation (The General), Progressive, QBE Insurance, Safeco, Travelers Insurance, and Unitrin Direct.
Keeping Auto Insurance Rates Down
There are ways that senior citizens can hold responsibility to control their auto insurance rates. Here are a few suggestions.
According to seniorjournal.com, most of the major auto insurance agencies provide a 5% – 10% discount to drivers beginning at the ages of 50 or 55. However, as a group, drivers 75 and older have one of the highest rates of fatal daytime accidents. Because of this, it’s important that senior drivers stay proactive and involved in keeping their driving skills sharp.
Many states offer an auto insurance discount for old drivers if a person meets a given age criteria and has taken an approved mature driver safety course. Local colleges and senior centers are good resources to learn about the classes. AARP has local and on-line access to the course. Costco offers its members an online drivers’ safety training course through FirstNet: www.firstnetlearning.com.
Another scheme to keep auto insurance rates down is to drive a low-profile car, one that as part of a group has a lower rate due to minimum repair costs, considered safer and less likely to be stolen. Check the Highway Loss Data Institute, www.iihs.org, for the latest related data.
Demand current auto insurance needs and requirements. Changing to higher deductibles or dropping collision or comprehensive coverage for older cars may fabricate sense.
Always ask about discounts when purchasing or renewing auto insurance.
And finally, the best long-term advice: Always drive defensively, stay alert and follow the driving laws. Maintaining a expedient driving record is the best way to keep auto insurance rates down.
Filed under State Farm Auto Insurance by on Feb 26th, 2011. Comment.
Friday, stock market took a nosedive apt from the initiate. Then it became confused as stock index futures trading was suspended when the daily limits were touched in those markets. Only to turn highly volatile during the last hour, that the Volatility index touched an all time high of 89 at one time. Still, all indices couldn’t edge out of the negative territory.
GLOBAL PICTURE
European and Asian markets all closed in the negative territory.
British pound dropped after the GDP data showed an alarming decrease. UK GDP went down BY -0.5%, more than the expected -0.2%.
OPEC members finally agreed to cut oil production by 1.5 mln barrels/ per day from November.
US GOVERNMENTAL
Alpha Bank & Trust of Alpharetta became the sixteenth bank to fail. FDIC took over as receiver.
Stearns Bank will assume the failed bank’s insured deposits. Cost to FDIC is estimated to be over $158 mln. The failed bank had $346.2 mln deposits.
Alpha Bank had total assets of, and total deposits of $346 mln. Out of the $354 mln assets of the
Stearns Bank will retract roughly $39 mln, the rest will go under FDIC control.
The Treasury is expected to divulge a bailout plan for regional banks and another for insurance companies.
It will also be receiving $7.7 bln of preferred stock and warrants from PNC Financial Services (PNC) in return for capital provided under the bailout plan.
US ECONOMIC DATA
National Association of Realtors Existing Home Sales Data:
Existing home sales increased BY 5.5% in September which translates to an annualized rate of 5.18 mln units.
The regional data is interesting: West +16.8%, Midwest +4.4%, South +2.2%. But Northeast-1.2%
Total housing inventory fell 1.6 % to 4.27 mln existing homes available for sale. That is equivalent to a 9.9-month supply, compared to the 10.6-month supply in August.
Crude oil DOWN by -$4.47 (-4.5%) to $64.75
Gold UP by $15.60 (2.18%) to $730.30.
CBOE Volatility (VIX) settled at 79.31,back UP by 11.48 from the previous day.
US Dollar continued its rally, though chances for lower interests rates are high.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s value against a basket of six major currencies, was at 86.44, a 52-week high.
STOCK MARKET INDICES
Dow was DOWN by -312.30 (-3.59%) to 8,378.95
S&P 500 DOWN by -31.34 (-3.45%) to 876.77
Nasdaq DOWN by -51.88 (-3.23%) to 1,5520.3
NYSE
Daily Volume: 1.56 bln
A/D Ratio: 585 stocks advanced against 2633 declined
52-week Hi/Lo: 12 stocks climbed to new Highs while 902 went down to new Lows
Nasdaq
Daily Volume: 2.65 bln
A/D Ratio: 633 stocks advanced against 2248 declined
52-week Hi/Lo: 0 stock climbed to new Highs while 850 went down to recent Lows
MARKET NEWS
One subsector that stood out were the insurance stocks like Prudential (PRU) and MetLife. This followed news report that government will extend bailout benefits to insurance companies too.
Chrysler will reduce 25% of its work force, about 15,000 jobs.
AIG (AIG) has so borrowed $90.3 bln form the Treasury. But it now says it needs more than the allocated $122.8 bln.
M&A NEWS
PNC Financial Services (PNC) is buying National City (NCC) at $2.23 per share. The conversion will be .0392 shares PNC for each NCC part. The total deal comes to $5.2 bln.
COMPANY RESULTS
* Companies that exceeded market’s expectations on quarterly earnings:
Aflac (AFL), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI), Cache (CACH)Timken (TKR), ITT Industries (ITT), Fortune Brands (FO), Microsoft (MSFT)
* Companies that confirmed market expectations:
T. Rowe Price Group (TROW), Ingersoll-Rand (IR)
* Those that missed the forecasts:
Exelon (EXC)
ANALYSTS’ RATINGS
- Stocks upgraded:
American Campus Communities Inc (ACC), Amgen Inc (AMGN), Biogen Idec Inc (BIIB), Celestica Inc (CLS),Colonial Bancshares Group Inc (CNB), Dean Foods Co (DF), Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (DO),DR Horton Inc (DHI), Elan Corp Plc (ELN), Emulex Corp (ELX), Estee Lauder Companies Inc (EL),Flextronics Intnl Ltd (FLEX), Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD), Hub Group Inc (HUBG), Innophos Holdings Inc (IPHS),Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB), ManTech International Corp (MANT), Monolithic Power Systems Inc (MPWR),National Penn Bancshares Inc (NPBC), Fine Energy Inc (NBL), Range Resources Corp (RRC), Stamps.com Inc (STMP),
Trimble Navigation Ltd (TRMB), United Rentals Inc (URI) and Western Digital Corp (WDC).
- Downgraded stocks are:
AES Corp Inc (AES), Affymetrix Inc (AFFX), Barclays PLC ADR (BCS), BIDZ com Inc (BIDZ),
Cabot Microelectronics Corp (CCMP), Cheesecake Factory Inc (CAKE), Credit Suisse Group ADR (CS),CyberOptics Corp (CYBE), France Telecom ADR (FTE), Janus Capital Group Inc (JNS), Kennametal Inc (KMT),LKQ Corp (LKQX), Netgear Inc (NTGR), Penske Auto Group Inc (PAG), Rightnow Technologies Inc (RNOW)
Texas Capital Bancshares Inc (TCBI) and Verigy Ltd (VRGY).
- This stock received both upgrade and downgrade:
Zimmer Holdings Inc (ZMH).
WEEKLY SCORECARD
All indices are detached falling on a weekly basis:
Dow-5.3% S&P 500-6.8% Nasdaq-9.3%
POINTERS TO THE FUTURE
The FOMC is to meet next week again and the chances of another interest rate cut is high – may be to 1.25% or even 1%.
The percentage of unemployment Americans can be as high as 9% next year – about 4.5 mln.
We may see the birth of big regulatory agency in a few months – Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) merged into one organization.
Filed under Mercury Auto Insurance by on Feb 26th, 2011. Comment.
My daughter just had her fifteenth birthday and my wife and I are already preparing for six months from now when we get auto insurance with her name on it. She’ll get her Missouri driver’s permit and then a year from now she will get a graduated driver’s license.
Adding a teenager to your already existing insurance is ample if you have insurance with discounts for added drivers. Despite having our own insurance, my wife and I are still shopping around to see if other insurance policies are better than our existing one. Here is a guide for all concerned parents who want to save money when a driver comes of age and still wants apt coverage.
In general you will want to find an insurance policy that is cheaper for teenagers, not necessarily cheaper in general. According to Edmunds.com, teenagers are six times more likely to get into car accidents than 30 to 59 year-olds so the premiums on all teenagers will be higher than adults.
Good Grades, Good Driving
Keeping your teenager safe is important. Have your teenage know all of the laws before they buy their driving test. In Missouri, there is a handy guide online and in booklet format that explains all of the basic rules of the road.
My teenager loves to text. A expedient investment is to get a BlueTooth attachment for a cell phone so they are less likely to be distracted while driving. Absolutely no texting while driving to preserve everyone safe on the road is a must for your teenager.
Many insurance companies will give discounts for good grades because they figure, and correctly so, that a teenager responsible enough to earn high marks in school can also be a more prudent driver. Edmunds says that you can save up to ten percent on car insurance this way.
Motivating your teen to be a ample driver and hold good grades can be several fold. Allow them an extra hour or two of curfew, consume more time with friends, even whisper them that the family can save up for them to have their own car to help teach them responsibility as an adult.
Ordering Insurance
Here are some decent plans for teens when you shop around. Rates will vary based upon geographic areas (the more cars in your area, the greater chances of a atomize and hence higher insurance) and what kind of car the teenager will have access to.
Since your teen is your absorb child and you want to protect them as remarkable as possible, I would settle for nothing less than full coverage even if your state unbiased requires liability insurance. Full coverage is more expensive but in the long run, which is just three years, it will be worth it.
You’ve seen the advertising for Allstate Insurance and accident forgiveness and safe teen drivers. Adding your teen to a policy is fairly simple and there are many programs that reward safe drivers. With many budget cuts in public schools, enrolling your child in a driver education class may cost a fee but it is well worth it.
Progressive Insurance is probably a cheaper way to go if you want itsy-bitsy premiums. Progressive may be cheaper in general even though they may not offer as many discounts. The key is to shop around for many types of premiums and policies. When drivers turn 19 their premiums go down as much as 30 to 35 percent.
Filed under Farmers Insurance by on Feb 24th, 2011. Comment.
