Archive for February, 2009
How High Gas Prices Can Lead to Lower Auto Insurance Rates
our neighbors would just drive even less, we’d get lower auto insurance rates.
And that could be in the process of happening. When Americans spend less time on the road, the frequency of auto accidents declines. And when auto accidents go down, so do claims on auto insurance. That gets the ball rolling: When auto insurance companies see their costs on claims declining steadily, they typically respond to market conditions by lowering their auto insurance quotes and, ultimately auto insurance rates in a bid to stay competitive. And voila!, we write smaller checks for our auto insurance premiums.
With run-away gas prices, Americans are already driving less. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reported in May 2008 that Americans are driving at “historic lows.” The estimated “vehicle miles traveled,” or VMT, for March 2008 fell 4.3 percent compared to March 2007, making it the sharpest dip for any month since the FHWA began tracking traffic-volume trends in 1942. Want to follow driving trends? The FHWA publishes monthly “Traffic Volume Trends.”
When auto accident claims go down, auto insurance companies can usually respond fairly quickly. To adjust premiums, they must file new auto insurance rates with every state in which they operate. They can file new auto insurance rates any time they want to respond to market conditions, and many states offer a “file and use” system, where auto insurance companies can file new auto insurance rates and begin using them immediately without prior approval from the state insurance department. Some states even have a “use and file” system, so insurers can implement new auto insurance rates and then officially file them shortly thereafter. This way auto insurance companies can begin passing on savings (or increases) right away.
The nation’s largest auto insurance companies are the first to see trends in accidents and claims payments due to the sheer volume of their claims data. For example, State Farm, the nation’s largest auto insurance company, handles about 19 million auto insurance claims a year (that’s a little over 17 claims per minute, all day, every day).
Robert Passmore, Director of Personal Lines for Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCIAA), an industry trade group, says, “This is where you see competition kick in.” He notes that if you live in a state that requires “prior approval,” it would take a longer time to see rate reductions. That means Californians and New Yorkers could be tapping their toes waiting for auto insurance rate reductions while everyone else pockets savings.
Auto insurance companies also note that auto insurance rates have been holding steady or declining over the past few years anyway. For example, State Farm customers in all states have seen rate reductions between Jan. 1, 2004, and Dec. 31, 2007, and customers in 39 of those states saw double-digit percentage rate decreases. (State Farm policyholders in New Jersey got the biggest drop of 29.19 percent.)
Passmore cautions that other factors could offset the trend in reduced driving specifically, medical costs from bodily injury claims, legal costs relating to claims disputes and repair costs that are, for now, rising faster than the rate at which auto accident claims are going down.
Darn those repair, medical and legal costs! If it weren’t for those, drivers could already be seeing lower auto insurance rates (as we sit at home). However, auto insurance companies generally agree that if we see significant auto accident reductions, lower auto insurance rates won’t be too far behind.
Perhaps at the $6-a-gallon mark?
Will reduced driving mean lower auto insurance rates?
Insure.com asked the nation’s top auto insurance companies whether high gas prices and reduced driving are translating to lower auto insurance rates yet. Here are their answers.
State Farm spokesperson Dick Luedke notes that State Farm auto insurance rates have been on the decline nationwide since 2004, but reduced auto accident claims are not yet leading directly to further auto insurance rate reductions: “Our actuaries look at claims data not just to see the recent past, but also to see what might change the future, like gas prices.”
Luedke says there’s no hard and fast rule as to what level of auto accident reduction would spark lower auto insurance rates, but says, “If we saw a reduction as big as 10 percent in accident frequency, we would have reacted long before that.”
Allstate spokesperson Kate Hollcraft says, “We have just recently seen a decline in automobile claim frequency and if this continues through the summer months, we would probably be able to attribute it to a rise in fuel costs.”
Progressive spokesperson Leah Knapp says, “We don’t speculate about future rate changes, but it would be accurate to say that we continuously review market and business conditions, including monitoring losses, so that we can ensure our policies are accurately priced everywhere we do business. When our analysis suggests our rates require adjustment, we may seek to either raise or lower rates accordingly.”
Nationwide Vice President & Policyholder, Standard Auto Product & Pricing, Larry Thursby, observes that “customers are having fewer accidents.” But he notes it’s been that way for a couple of years due to a variety of factors, like an aging population that becomes safer drivers, graduated licensing laws for teens and crackdowns in drunk driving. In addition, potential auto insurance rate reductions due to accident frequency are being offset by inflation in the usual suspects: medical and hospital costs, repair costs and legal costs.
Thursby says that Nationwide has been passing along cost savings by offering guaranteed renewability, lower surcharges and broader “forgiveness” for accidents, fender-benders and minor violations.
Car Insurance Quotes for the Faint at Heart
ar insurance quotes might intimidate you the first time you have to deal with them. It’s not just the rules and regulations, and all the requirements the state puts down, it’s also the companies who provide the car insurance quotes. But we feel that if you get the car insurance quotes from a good source, then things are a lot less complicated. We’ll get to that later though. Let’s start from the basics, the very nitty-gritty of car insurance.
Get Many Car Insurance Quotes!
Quotes from multiple sources are what you want. If you only get a couple of car insurance quotes, then you don’t really get a feel for the kind of deals that are out there. And believe us, car insurance quotes can vary a whole lot!
Car Insurance Quotes Need Info
Next, you’re going to want to find all the information you need about your car. Insurance quotes are only as accurate as the information you give out! A good car insurance quote takes into account all sorts of things about your car, like the model, the year, the odometer reading, and how much you use it. Most of the information a car insurance quote asks for you will know off the top of your head, but there are some things, such as the Vehicle Information Number (VIN) which you can’t be expected to have memorized. You can find this on your title (you do still have your title, right!).
Name Your Coverage: Many Kinds of Car Insurance Quotes
To get a car insurance quote, you will also need to know precisely the sort of coverage you actually want. There are several kinds of car insurance. Quotes can cover such things as yourself, your vehicle, and other people who might be involved in an accident. The basic liability insurance is probably required by your state and this would likely give you the lowest car insurance quotes. Liability insurance just pays for things you would be legally liable for, in the event that you goof up and break something or someone. There’s also what they call collision coverage, and you should consider getting car insurance quotes for this if you want to protect your car from damage from car accidents and such. This isn’t to be confused with comprehensive coverage which protects your car from things that can’t be considered car accidents, and you should look carefully at your car insurance quotes to see exactly how broad that comprehensive coverage is, but it ought to work for things like fire or theft.
There’s not much else you need to know to get the best car insurance quotes available to you. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Good luck finding your car insurance quotes!
Auto Insurance Loss of Use: Is it Part of Automobile Policy?
oss of Use Term in Auto Insurance?
One of the things that the consumers may not really contemplate, but do expect, is that their auto insurance will cover the cost of a replacement car when their automobile is being replaced. Many auto insurance policies actually do not provide for this automatically. If you are at all dependent upon your car, it is vital that you make sure that this type of coverage is included. Rental cars are not cheap!
How do you tell if you have this kind of auto insurance coverage for automobile or RV? First, you need to look at your car insurance policy. The language you are looking for refers to something called “loss of use.” What is loss of use coverage? As the name suggests, loss of use coverage refers to the expenses for transportation while your automobile is in being repaired or replaced. In more practical terms, this simply means that you have coverage for a rental car. Indeed, many people including those in the auto insurance business refer to this clause of the car rental coverage clause.
Buying loss of use auto insurance
Buying loss of use auto insurance with the car policy is definitely something you want to do. The idea of buying more car insurance coverages and auto insurance quotes probably is one of the least favorite things for most people. That being said, going for days without your car is far worse. Most of us drive to work and home. Most of us need our cars just to get around to find basic things like food. You really don’t realize how dependent you are on a car until you don’t have it. If you don’t believe me, try a simple little test. Lend your car to a friend one morning and tell them not to bring it back till the end of the day. I guarantee that you’ll be going batty by noon!
Loss of use automobile insurance is simply worth its weight in gold. It may not seem like it now, but it will when you suddenly need to get around and your car is in the shop. Paying for a turist car for tour or turizm with your own money for more than a few days is an extremely expensive proposition. Paying 10 to 20 bucks a year extra on your car insurance to get loss of use coverage is definitely a better deal. Do it!