Can You Get a Teacher Discount For Car Insurance?

 

September 6, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Teacher Insurance Discounts 

Reader question:

I drive a lot because I am a theater teacher and I haul my students around to view plays, to the Renaissance Fair, to perform and all that. Is there some way that I can make my car insurance rates lower?

Margie

Glad you asked, Margie.

Before I get into the meat of the question that is most specific to you, I want to inform you of several other discounts that you might be abler to get for your discount car insurance policy. First of all, do you have a pretty good driving record? IF you don’t have any traffic violations in the last three years, most car insurance companies will give you better ratings for that. What about your car? Does it have various safety devices and anti theft devices installed? Anti theft and safety measures can also get you discounts. Obviously you wouldn’t qualify for the low mileage discount, but if you are a teacher of mathematics then you could probably get a good discount from 21st century, which gives fifteen to twenty percent off for people who have degrees in mathematics, engineering, and the like.

However, as a teacher you have a more specific discount available to you if you belong to a teacher’s union such as the National Education Association, or NEA. Granted the discount that you usually get on a one car auto insurance policy doesn’t reach far enough to cover the actual fees for being a member of the union, but there are plenty of other perks of being in the union that will probably make up for it, and when you have more than one car on your policy the real saving start.

There are some requirements, usually. You have to be either a full time college professor, or you have to be a teacher with state certification. If you meet all of the requirements, your car insurance discount could be as much as thirty percent.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Safe Driver Car Insurance – What Should I Pay For Car Insurance?

 

September 4, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Good Driver Insurance 

Reader question:

If I drive safe for three years straight, does my car insurance company have to give me better rates?

Don’t you wish?

Although it might be nice if safe driving automatically gained you cheap car insurance rates, it is not something that you can always take for granted. Some car insurance companies require longer periods of time, and other may factor in what exactly your previous offense were, or even how many non fault car insurance claims you have on record.

The best way to make sure you get better rates after a long period of safe driving is to make sure that you know this from the get go. Shop around and get safe driver auto insurance quotes online, and find out who gives safe drivers the best prices, when, and what the discounts are.

cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Who Has The Cheapest Commercial Car Insurance Rates?

 

September 4, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Commercial Insurance 

Reader question:

I use my car for my business. Do I need commercial car insurance? I need cheap insurance, since my business is just starting out.

Graham

That’s up to you.

Now, you are allowed to insure your business car under a personal policy if you also use it for personal reasons. However, if you don’t want to get into trouble for misrepresentation, then you have to be up front about all of the mileage and uses of your vehicle. If you don’t tell your car insurance company that you also use your car for business purposes, then that could be grounds for nonrenewal.

If you do report using your car for business, then your rates will most likely go up. If you use it for business more than for normal uses, it might be a better idea to just get the cheapest commercial car insurance you can. You also might want to get more coverage if your business involves carrying people or goods around.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Cheap Woman Driver Car Insurance Rates

 

August 31, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Female Car Insurance 

A lot of people are aware of the fact that car insurance rates are often cheaper for female drivers. Although popular stereotypes might depict women as bad drivers, statistics win out in the end, especially among car insurance companies. According to research, for a woman cheap car driver insurance is more possible because they get into fewer accidents than do men. This is mostly the case in the more high risk ages, when people are still under the age of twenty five.

Men are more likely than women to be involved in an automobile accident involving a fatality, just as they are also more likely to be ticketed for things such as speeding and drunk driving. However, there is some light at the end of the road for the guys in this group. Later studies show that women are actually getting into more car accidents these days, while men are getting into less. They still don’t get into the same amount, statistically, but the gap is closing. A few years from now it may be the case that the genders will see no difference in their car insurance quotes. At least not for that reason.

However, over the high risk age of twenty five, the effect of gender on car insurance premiums lessens. The reason for this is that, for those over this age, the statistics are pretty much equal, just as they are becoming for those under it. So, while there is a benefit in being female when buying car insurance, it only works for you if your still in your early twenties or below. This can be a great relief for women buying auto insurance policies while having to deal with high risk young group prices, since for females insurance is only 100% more than the average policy for an older person, while for males it is 200%.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

DUI – How Will This Effect My Car Insurance Rate?

 

August 31, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Dui Insurance 

Reader question:

When you get a DUI, do your car insurance rates always go up?

Dwayne

They do usually, but not always.

Most states require you to file an SR 22 form to prove that you have DUI car insurance, but not every state does. If you want to know if your state is one of the ones that does not deal with the SR 22 form, then you should contact your state department of insurance. If they don’t, then it’s very possible that your car insurance company won’t find out about your drunk driving offense until you give them the heads up. The reason for this is primarily because the insurance companies aren’t keeping a constant eye on the record, and if anything, they probably only look at it every six months, if not less.

There are a couple of other reasons though. One of them is that the courts don’t automatically give all of their information over to the DMV, so even if your car insurance company does look at your record, the offense might not be there. Another is that a lot of times, when people commit moving violations, they will take defensive driving courses in order to wipe the violation from their record. This is one of the very popular possibilities when it is offered, because most courses are either very cheap or free. Sometimes when you commit a DUI, your license gets suspended, but the shorter the time of the suspension the less likely is your car insurance company to find out.

Even if they don’t know right away, though, they still have a period of three years to find out. During that time, they can cancel your policy as soon as they find out. Aside from the misrepresentation, that in itself doesn’t mean that your rates will go up or you’ll get canceled, either. Some companies have policies where, if you have been a customer with a good history and driving record, you can be forgiven for an offense, even one as serious as driving under the influence of alcohol. Sometimes you don’t even lose your safe driver discount, so long as you keep driving clean.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Cheapest Car Insurance Score – How Do I Find Out My Score?

 

August 31, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Auto insurance help 

You’ve done everything you can to have the cheapest car insurance premium. You take advantage of discounts, you cut down on your driving, car pool, drive safely. You bought the right kind of car with the right kinds of safety features. So why is it that your car insurance premium rates are still higher than you would think they should be? After all, you’re older than twenty five and married, so shouldn’t you be getting a break by now?

Maybe, but one of the biggest influences on car insurance rates is something that follows many people through most of their lives. The credit score. The credit score is something that you might never have thought of as being a reasonable factor in your auto insurance rates, but the car insurance companies think that it actually does have something to do with driving. Not only are people with better credit scores more likely to be reliable customers who pay their premiums on time and don’t change companies too often, but they also, according to statistical data, file fewer claims than do people with lower credit scores.

Insurance companies take the credit report and make an insurance score out of it. This doesn’t necessarily take into account all of the same factors as does your regular credit score, and is more interested in regular payments than a long history. And these scores are the driving influences of high insurance rates among good drivers.

Their use is heavily debated. There have been lawsuits filed against certain car insurance companies for using these so called insurance scores to decide premiums, and many say that they target low income and minority families, because those are the groups in which people are more likely to have bad credit history. For the moment, now, they must be dealt with.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Cheap High Performance Car Insurance

 

August 29, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: High Performance Insurance 

Why should you pay more for high performance muscle car insurance? Could it be justified because you own a fast car, does that mean you are going to drive fast and reckless?

I know of many fast car collectors in this country and many of them do not really drive fast at all….heck their cars cost too much money to put in jeopardy driving like a mad man.

So does this mean that their car insurance carrier will give them the same low rates as a “normal” vehicle? Ya right my friend, think again.

I would assume that the vast majority of cases the insurance rates will be greatly higher for a muscle car than that of a regular whimpy vehicle. Could this be fair? Can one really expect to find cheap fast car insurance?

So how can a high performance car owner reduce your insurance rates?

  1. Carry the highest deductible allowed
  2. Move all other insurance plans to one company to take advance of combined coverage discounts
  3. Check for discounts like limited use or restricted use vehicles if you only drive on the weekends or at certain times of the year etc.
  4. Take defensive driving class or some other state offered driving program
  5. Clean up your driving record. Keep your record clean and clear of violations even when not driving in your fast car. Any and all violations will increase your rates regardless of what kind of vehicle you were driving in when you were giving the citation.

Want to get more ideas and tips on how to lower your high performance car insurance rates? Our new site is made for visitor feedback to help fast car owners get lower rates on high performance car insurance allowed.

If I Get A Speeding Ticket Will My Car Insurance Rate Go Up?

 

August 22, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Auto insurance help 

Reader question:

If I get a speeding ticket, will my car insurance rates go up?

Andy

Usually.

It all depends on who you are and what car insurance company you are with. Typically, a speeding ticket is one of the big factors in the rise of your car insurance rates. It is evidence that you are an irresponsible driver and puts you into a high risk pool of people being insured. One speeding ticket might not be the end of your car insurance history, but it does usually have a big impact, although not nearly as much as getting into a car accident. Car insurance companies want to nip speeders in the bud, though, considering that speeding is more likely to get you in a car accident to begin with. If your rate goes up too much, though, you can get free auto insurance quotes and see what other companies are like.

However, it isn’t necessarily true that you will see an increase in your premium. If you have been a long time customer with your car insurance company, they might want to give it a little bit of thought before giving you reason to leave them be. If you have a good driving record from the past and the speeding ticket is a one time thing that is in no way normal to your driving experience, it is very possible that you will see little to no effect from your speeding ticket on your premium.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Are Car Insurance Rates Falling? Should I Wait to Switch Insurance Carriers?

 

August 22, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Auto insurance help 

Reader question:

Are auto insurance rates falling in the U.S.?

Albert

They sure are.

It’s some of the best news to come out of the insurance business, and after so many years in which the rates have steadily gone up, they are finally beginning to go down. Not by too much, but in gradual amounts that are still reassuring and do make a difference. The very first drop in rates was by .3% nine years ago, and since then it has been growing. For this year, the expectation for reductions is somewhere around 3%. Again, it is going slow but the good thing is that it is going at all.

California has had some of the best results, with a 5.7% drop in insurance rates in the last year. This wasn’t the first year for rates in California to fall, but it was definitely the most successful. Other states where car insurance rates tend to be the highest, such as New Jersey, are also seeing good things happening. New Jersey alone will see a 15% decrease thanks to new state laws.

There are a lot of reasons that one might consider to be affecting the decrease of car insurance rates. One of the main ones is that there are now more people who are older than there are who are younger. The highest car insurance rates tend to belong to those under twenty five, and there are just fewer people of that age nowadays.

Another reasons is because cars are safer now. Every year a new kind of safety feature is added to the automobile market, and with things such as traction control, run flat tires, and all wheel drive, getting into a car accident these days seems like it takes a concentrated effort. Not only that, but car insurance companies provide incentives for people to buy safer cars with their discounts.

There are now more car insurance companies on the market as well, which means that the prices are going to fall due to there being more competition out there. Car insurance companies are falling all over themselves trying to come up with new discounts and innovative practices and advertising techniques to call customers. This mostly comes with companies that are now doing the bulk of their advertising through the internet, which is much cheaper and reaches customers just as well;if not better than traditional advertising schemes.

Another big factor has to do with more policing of drunk driving. Drunk driving laws are now much harder than they were before, creating larger disincentive. And the fewer drunk drivers, the lower car insurance prices.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Free and Simple Ways to Lower Your Car Insurance Premiums

 

August 7, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: auto insurance quotes 

How can I EASILY lower my car insurance? It seems that all the auto insurance companies that advertise on TV rarely…if ever tell you how to lower your car insurance rates.

For late model car owners – you might only want to carry collision and comprehensive coverage. What is Collision Coverage you ask? Collision coverage insurance pays to repair your vehicle when and if you are ever involved in an auto accident. It also pays no matter who was at fault.

What is Comprehensive Coverage you ask? Comprehensive insurance pays to repair your car when it’s been damaged by fire, vandalism, theft, or other freak acts of mother nature.

How can you save money on collision and comprehensive coverage? By far the easiest way is to carry the highest deductible that you can afford. The deductible amount is the part of the repair cost that YOU will pay for. Raising your deductible from $250 to $1,000 can save you up to 55% on your insurance premium.

Say your car needs $2500 in body repairs after an auto accident. If you carried a $1000 deductible you will be responsible for $1000 and the insurance company would pay the remainding $1500…..and all other costs that might be un-covered during the repair process.

Doesn’t sound like a good deal to you? The amount of money you will save on your annual insurance premium for having a high deductible will more than off set your $1000 deductible pay out in 2-3 years of time.

Personal injury protection insurance is something you might also want to consider as well. What is Personal injury protection you ask? This pays for medical expenses for you and passengers in your vehicle if you’re ever involved in an car accident. It will also pay medical expenses for you and your immediate family if you are ever injured in someone else’s vehicle or when you’re walking or riding a bicycle….don’t laugh this happens quite often.

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