Free Car Insurance Quotes and Information

Heh, I found this to be slightly funny and backwards to my previous post about State Farm cutting car insurance rates for consumers. North Dakota is the only state to see an increase while the other 49 will see a decrease. Apparently a hail storm caused an estimated 230 million dollar loss for insurance companies, which included State Farm. Rates are expected to increase by 3.2%.

State Farm Insurance has raised its car insurance rates in North Dakota an average of three-point-two percent. It's the only state where the company reports a rate increase this year.

Mike Andring is an actuary with the state Insurance Department. He says the company's rate increase was based on a loss experience from 2001 through half of 2004.

That period included a major hailstorm in Bismarck that led to an estimated 230 million-dollars in losses for insurance companies, including State Farm.

Andring says the company will make a new rate filing at the end of this year.

State Farm spokesman Dick Luedke says North Dakotans still have some of the lowest car insurance rates in the country.

State Farm is the nation's largest auto insurance underwriter.

Source: KXMC News

Looks like starting July 1st, 2005 State Farm customers will start seeing a decline in their Car Insurance premiums.

State Farm customers can expect to see their premiums go down starting July 1st. Americans now pay on average $870 a year for insurance per vehicle. But you might see your auto insurance bill go down soon.

Al Hatcher, with State Farm Insurance, says, "We're hoping to see anywhere between a 3% and 15% discount on auto insurance."

State Farm insurance, the nation's largest underwriter, cut rates in 32 states including Georgia. More insurance companies are revving up competition for customers. "There's a lot of insurance companies. A lot of the 1-800-companies start getting a bulk of the businesses," Hatcher said.

State Farm discounts will save their customers $13 million a year. The discounts will take effect July 1st. "You don't have to make any calls. Your discounts are already put in there," Hatcher said.

Source: WALB TV

Other insurance companies will also begin to offer discounts. Since 2000 car insurance premiums have been on a steady rise, and only recently has there been great competition in retaining customers. Remember, you can lower your premiums even further by having multiple insurance policies for your home, life, etc.

This isn't overly shocking. Women are typically more calculated and safe while men are usually the opposite (besides me, heh).

The Scotsman has a nice article that female drivers currently pay, on average, £412.44 ($745.96) a year – more than £90 ($162.78)less than the male average of £503.98 ($911.52), the survey from Sainsbury’s Car Insurance found.

New legislation has been submitted for approval that will force car insurance providers to stop basing rates on gender and age. Currently car insurance rates are based on statistical evidence that supports younger drivers under the age of 25 being more likely to cause accidents and get tickets. Annual insurance rates can cost young drivers (or their parents) up to $4,000 annually.

Hopefully this gets support in Canada and comes down here to the States.

Read the article here.

The following comes from CNN Money and provides good advice for those interested in buying a good car and at the same time saving on car insurance. They also have a chart at the bottom of the article that shows the cheapest car's to insure as well as the most expensive cars to insure. The chart isn't exhaustive, however it does offer some good advice.

It's no secret that some cars cost more to insure than others. Though your driving record matters most, your choice of car can mean the difference of hundreds of dollars in insurance costs every year.

The good news is that you don't have to buy a boring minivan to save money. Here are other reasonable choices -- and some cars to avoid.

First, you need to understand a few things about how insurance companies set prices.

The best predictor of how likely you are to get into a wreck, and have to file a claim, is you. If you've had accidents in the past, that means you are more likely to get into wrecks in the future. If you've had tickets, that's another factor that will increase your insurance premiums. If you live someplace with high auto theft rates -- that means anyplace near an international border or seaports -- same thing.

What's more, if people like you -- your age, your gender, with similar credit histories and marital status, etc. -- file a lot of auto insurance claims, that will probably mean higher rates for you, too.

The car itself is a big factor, though. Just like people, each make and model has a history. If it's a new model, without a lot of history, insurers will base their estimates on similar cars.

The best way to guage what impact a car will have on insurance costs, of course, is to ask your insurer directly, said Jeanne Salvatore, vice president of consumer affairs for the Insurance Information Institute.

But insurance loss data from Highway Loss Data Institute offer a quick way to see which cars will likely hit your wallet hardest.

The HLDI comples the average cost of claims for various vehicles. Cars that have an above-average cost of claims will likely cost you more to insure, said Kim Hazelbaker, senior vice president of the HLDI.

Infuencing those costs are, first, how likely the car is to get wrecked or stolen and how much it costs to repair or replace the car.

Generally, more expensive cars will cost more to repair or replace and, therefore, will cost more to insure. Injury costs will usually have less effect on your premiums, said Hazelbaker.

Complicating matters is that certain types of cars tend to be owned by certain types of drivers, said Hazelbaker.

Even if you are a middle-aged woman with a spotless driving record (typically "low risk" in insurers' eyes), a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution will probably cost you more to insure than another car just because others who buy the turbo-charged speedster tend to be to be less careful, and less experienced.

The Mini Cooper, on the other hand, is well below average in injury, collision and theft costs. Therefore, it shouldn't hit your insurance premiums as hard.

Apparenly a woman from Silver Spring Maryland decided it'd be a good idea to drive her car off of a parking garage. The Toyota Avalon the woman was driving fell two-stories and landed on it's roof. She suffered only minor injuries. The 19 year old woman said that she was trying to pull into a parking spot that was facing the outside of the building. She says she hit her brake but kept going forward. I'd imagine that her insurance company will likely check her brakes and determine whether she hit the brake, or accidently hit the gas and drove off.

You can read the story here.

Apparently this is true in West Virginia. I wouldn't be surprised if this happens elsewhere as well, but no one knows about it. It makes sense though, since people with poor credit scores are late on payments, are probably procrastinators, and are likely higher risks in life in general. Is this fair? Probably not. But is it fair that car insurance rates are high for those who are under 25 that have not had a single accident, and have a credit score above 700? The insurance industry is one that is based on statistics, and generally does not cater to those outliers or exceptions. If they did, it would hurt their bottom lines.

You can read the story here.

A study by a Wisconsin company says Roanoke has the cheapest auto insurance rates in the country. Runzheimer International -- based in Rochester, Wisconsin -- reports that Roanoke's annual auto insurance premiums averaged 758 dollars during an eight-to-10-month period last year. That's compared with over 51-hundred dollars in Detroit, the most expensive city. Other expensive cities were Philadelphia and Newark, New Jersey. Second and third behind Roanoke for cheapest car insurance rates are Wapakoneta (WAH'-pah-koh-NEH'-tah), Ohio and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

For the study, Runzheimer evaluated mid-sized sedans driven in a 50-mile radius of a city. The report's average car insurance rates are based on drivers over a minimum age and with clean driving records. The average rates include comprehensive, collision, bodily injury, property damage and uninsured motorist coverage.

Insurance agents say insurance premimums are higher in larger cities and areas with higher crime rates.

Source: http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=3153315

Car Insurance and tickets

I had an interesting question asked to me today via IM (and no, I don't really condone asking me questions via AOL Instant Messenger or the like; talk to your car insurance company). A young driver asked me today how much his car insurance rates will go up since he got a speeding ticket (he was charged going 75 in a 65).

The amount your car insurance can go up depends on many different variables. First, it depends on your car insurance company. Each car insurance company can adjust their rates accordingly depending on the violation. Other variables include the type of infraction (speeding), the car driven, and the age of the driver. These all matter when an adjuster is going over your claim once you've gotten a ticket. Do note that if you get into an accident, you're likely to get a ticket for driving too fast for the conditions (even if you were within the speed limit). Also note that if you are hit for multiple infractions (speeding and no seat-belt) you are hit with multiple points on your record.

You can, however, get by this mess by going to traffic school. The driver I spoke with didn't know he could have went to traffic school. Now, depending on what state you're in, traffic school is normally offered to remove one point off of your driving record. In California you can go to traffic school once every 18 months to remove one point from your record. When a driver accumulates points, these go on your DMV record, and your car insurance company will eventually find out about them come time for policy renewal. If your car insurance company notices these points, your premium will jump up (and jump up quite a bit depending on age).

I urge everyone, if offered, to go to traffic school whenever you can. In CA it costs around $30 and can save you a ton of money over time. In CA it's offered in one 8 hour in-class sitting, two four hour in-class sittings (usually Saturday and Sunday), or online. Personally, I've done one eight hour sitting and the online version. Both have their pro's and con's, but I leave it up to you as far as what you'd feel comfortable doing. This little tip will save you a ton on car insurance.