Personal Finance and Investing

Extra safety features are often very inexpensive upfront and mean long-term savings on insurance premiums.
Before getting these features, talk to your insurer to make sure you will get a discount.
We have provided a price efficiency rating to let you know the ratio of upfront cost to insurance savings. The higher the price efficiency rating, the sooner you will make up the cost with insurance savings.

Add On Headrest

Protects against whiplash, head, neck, and back injuries. This is essentially a foam pad that attaches to the front of your headrest. It will allow you to rest your head while driving, rather than having to keep in hovering 6-inches from the rest.

Right now, your options are either to hold your head hovering without rest or to sit completely erect at a 90-degree, L-shape.
The add on headrest is an elegant solution to that problem that will really save your neck in a crash. Independent studies have proved it!
Plus, driving is just more comfortable.

Price Efficiency Rating: 7 – Will become higher as more insurance companies do their own studies on its effectiveness in reducing injury.

Signal Mirrors

These side mirrors flash LED turn signals so that it is clearer to other drivers that you are turning. There will be fewer collisions this way. Plus, the LEDs are very energy efficient, long-lasting, and cute!

Price Efficiency Rating: 5 – Installation can be pretty costly.

Child Car-seats

Getting the right child safety devices in your vehicle can save you big insurance money. If you ask your agent to recommend a car-seat, they may actually be able to offer you a discount because they know your child will have a much smaller chance of injury and death.
If your child’s improved safety isn’t a big enough reward, the savings will be!

• Rear-facing seats are best, but never put them in front of an active frontal airbag
• Do not incline seats more than 45 degrees
• Connect all the straps and harnesses correctly
• Pay attention to the expiration date on the car-seat

Price Efficiency Rating: 5-9 – Getting the best seat money can buy is better protection for your child and saves you more in the long run.

Sensors and Cameras

While these futuristic features are commonly thought of as expensive add-ons for luxury vehicles, they are becoming quite inexpensive as people and insurers realize they have huge safety and savings bonuses. As more statistics become available, insurers are seeing the proof that these features really do prevent many crashes and collisions, which means bigger discounts and lower rates as you get into fewer incidents.

• Lane-departure warning
• Front-collision warning
• Blind-spot detection
• Electronic stability control

Price Efficiency Rating: 5 – Once costs come down, this efficiency rating may well soar to a 10! For now though, it may take a year to recoup costs. However, if it saves you from a collision, which it very well might, you’ve instantly got your money’s worth.

Car Insurance Quotes

If your current insurance provider doesn’t give you significant discounts for extra safety options, consider switching. Car insurance quotes will help you find a more affordable provider. You can even compare policy details and rates from the best insurance companies in minutes using online car insurance quotes.

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Small businesses that buy insurance alone pay more. Those they buy as a group pay less.

“Life isn’t fair” is a lesson that many mothers and fathers teach their children at an early age. It begins with the child’s earliest request for an explanation as to why they can’t stay up later or go outside to play with their friends.

As a small business owner you may ask yourself, “why is it fair that companies of my size, who are having the hardest time in this economy paying the highest insurance rates?”

Well, the truth is that life is not fair but that doesn’t mean that you are helpless and without opportunities to leverage are buying power if you are smart about how you go through the insurance quoting process. The key is to look for opportunities to join business insurance buying groups to put your insurance premiums up to a level that is competitive with that of the larger companies.

Insurance companies are no different than any business, yours included. The bigger the customer the more attention they get and the more demanding they can be with service and pricing requests. If a large group of your customers bid together into buying group, you would likely give them the same rates and terms that you had previously reserved for your largest clients.

The good news is that insurance buying groups have existed for a long time and continue to flourish. You can find business insurance buying groups for health insurance, auto insurance, property insurance, workers compensation insurance, liability insurance and just about any other coverage that you may need.

Getting access to insurance buying groups has often started with businesses joining their local Chamber of Commerce or looking into other small business associations in their region or state. This will involve some time searching for the insurance discount buying groups using your phonebook, word-of-mouth and of course, the Internet.

Innovations in insurance buying groups have been slow in coming, but there are new options created seemingly everyday. As you might expect, the Internet is increasingly becoming a valuable resource in locating new and innovative approaches to leveraging your buying power.

The time that you invest in finding and accessing business insurance buying groups can pay off in real dollar savings. Not looking into business insurance buying groups can save you time but may cost you a great deal in the end.

It is a good idea to obtain quotes from at least one business insurance buying group at each of your insurance quoting opportunities. You shouldn’t assume that your insurance agent will do this for you as many of the groups get additional savings by selling insurance directly.

Whether you find options through your trade association, the local Chamber of Commerce or any other resource you’ll be doing yourself, your employees and your customers all a favor by pursuing every option to lower your expenses. Don’t forget that your employees and customers are sharing in the pain of this bad economy.

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Car accidents usually result in an increase in insurance premiums. Even if you are not responsible, your insurance company will have to incur some costs. There is an increase in car premiums and policy quotes because the accident will be rated against your coverage. There are a number of types of insurance coverage that can include collision, personal injury protection, and medical coverage. If you are found ‘at fault’ for an accident, coverage such as personal liability and collision will cover you, your vehicle, and personal injury to the other driver. Often, if you have just one accident, you will see an increase in your insurance quote.

Car insurance quotes will increase because you will be considered a high risk driver. The premium will reflect the nature of the accident and the costs associated with the accident. Insurance companies will usually charge ‘points’ to your policy. Depending on the insurance company, these points will be charged to your policy for a certain period of time that usually ranges from three to possibly seven years. If you are in an accident that was your fault, the insurance company will consider that you are a high risk of having accidents in the future and increase your rates. You will also receive higher insurance quotes. The length of time between an accident and your quote and premiums decreasing depends on a provider’s policies. As well, you may have to pay a higher deductible for the insurance.

Another reason why an accident can increase your premiums when you are ‘at-fault’ in an accident is that there are some companies who will not insure you. When there is less competition for your business, then there is less incentive to give you a good deal. As a result, your insurance quote will be higher. When you add the insurance ‘points’ into the mix, it is easy to see how an accident can become very expensive. If you have a faultless driving record, it is unlikely that your premiums will increase after an accident that was determined not to be your fault.

You can normally expect a rate increase of between 20-40%. This increase is based on the Insurance Services Office’s (ISO) criteria of raising a premium after an accident. According to the ISO, for multi-car policies, the surcharge is 20 percent of the base rate, and for single-car policies it is 40 percent. It is important to remember that there are other factors taken into consideration after an accident such as your age, gender, and driving record. These factors will affect how high the percentage increase will be.

The increase in premiums is not done so that the insurance money can get their money back, but is based on the risk that you may be involved in another car accident. Each insurance company has different policies and standards, but they look at your chances of getting into another accident. The number of accidents that you are involved in also increases your insurance premiums.

Some companies will absolve past accidents after a set period of time has expired. This can be two years, or as much as five years, but the period will vary depending on the insurance provider. Basically, you have to show the insurance company that you are no longer a high risk driver.

The best way to avoid high car insurance quotes is to avoid an accident. You can do this by practicing safe driving. One car accident can seriously impact your car insurance quote and the premium that you will pay.

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Auto insurance is required in 45 of 50 states in the US, and it’s a complex and highly technical product. Everyone needs to have it, and nobody really looks forward to renewal time, or insuring a new vehicle. You get your driving habits examined, your home, and all sorts of other invasions that you put up with in the name of “getting a better rate”.

To effectively get cheap car insurance, you’re going to have to do some legwork. First, gather up your driving records – just like your credit report, it’s always worth it to dig up your driving records every year or two and look for errors. These are compiled by human beings, and like credit reports, if you tell them to fix something, they have to do it. Your driving record is used by your insurance carrier to set your rate; it’s roughly 25% of the factors used.

Another significant chunk of what drives your insurance premium is gender and age. Men have higher insurance premiums than women do, because men tend to do stupider things behind the wheel. Older drivers have lower rates than younger ones, for much the same reason. If you’re still in the “young and male” demographic, it pays to really do a lot of price comparisons on when comparing quotes. You may already know that the highest rates are for male drivers under age 25, but like anything else, there are ways to reduce that, for example by having a grade point average of at least 3.0 will frequently get you better rates.

The best place to compare care insurance quotes is online – there are plenty of places where you can enter your ZIP code which tells them how likely it is the car will be burgled), your age, and your social security number, and it’ll pull up a set of competing quotes from all vendors. This is a good “first pass” at getting cheaper insurance, but be sure to take the time to compare all the details. What’s the AH White rating of the insurance carrier? Often times “absurdly low rates” translate to a churn and chuck artist – someone who uses a lot of low teaser rates with really high price hikes after you’ve signed, to make their business on pure volume.

Don’t forget to factor in discounts you already get – if you’ve gone to a driving school, that’s probably worth a discount, as is three or more years with no accidents. Getting married will drop your premiums, because the presumption is that you’re now becoming more responsible, with a family to look after. Bundling coverage with the same carrier can get you a package discount, though you should make sure that the combined package does, in fact, cost you less than two separate policies.

All in all there are several tools available for getting cheaper car insurance, but they all run down to price comparison and doing your homework. While it may seem to be a hassle, when you think about cumulative savings over a year, saving $30 or $40 a month on insurance adds up to a significant chunk of change.

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If you felt faint the last time you opened your premium notice from your car insurance company, then it’s time to start saving with a car insurance quick quote. Often you’ll find that by using the services of an online site, you can get multiple quotes and find the best rate for your car insurance.

Many people worry that if they pay less in premiums, they won’t have as good of coverage. That simply isn’t true. Companies set their insurance rates according to their loss experience, operating expenses and investment experience. Higher rates are an indication that they aren’t doing well in one of these areas.

You might recognize some companies immediately because they advertise on television. Their clever advertising campaigns cost thousands of dollars, dollars that the customers pay for through their insurance premiums.

When you secure a car insurance quick quote, you may not recognize the name of some of the companies. That doesn’t make them good or bad. It simply may be an indication that they allow their service to speak for them rather than spend the extra money to drive in customers.

If you’re uncertain about a company, one quick way to find out how secure they are is to check their financial rating. Often the company offers that information at their website. Another route is to check for customer complaints in your state. Look at your state’s Department of Insurance website for that information.

If you want a name you recognize, you’ll find those included in a car insurance quick quote. Websites offer a number of different companies. Some are relatively small and others are the giants that have been around for years. You can see the difference in rates and decide for yourself.

When you look for a car insurance quick quote, make certain that you compare apples to apples. Input the exact information on the coverage you presently carry. Make sure the deductibles remain the same in the quote and that you secure a quote with the same liability coverage. Both of these factors make a huge difference in the final price. A bargain isn’t a bargain if you get less coverage.

After you’ve found a good company with a great rate, see if you can improve the coverage or the rate even more. Check for any discounts for which you’re eligible. There are often discounts for safety equipment, theft control, multiple cars, multiple policies or good students.

Adjust the coverage you want after you find the best company for you. You can play around with prices by making adjustments on the quick quote. Increasing your deductibles lowers the price of your car insurance dramatically.

Also, consider increasing the limits of your liability. You’ll find that the price difference isn’t that great for the increased coverage. If you have too low of limits and cause an accident that involves high costs for medical bills, lower limits or state minimums may not cover the cost. Anything not paid for by your insurance company is your responsibility. It only makes sense to pay a few dollars more for the best possible limits.

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