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Friday, September 30, 2011

State Farm: One of the Best.

"Great Agents, excellent service, close to home, Always there when I need them, Claims are paid quickly, get to know their customers personally, professional, proactive, They take good care of their clients., Extra discounts for safety features, extremely helpful, Great Customer Service!, excellent"

I joined State Farm Insurance when I was 18 years old! I will be 29 this week. I have never changed! In the beginning, it was just convenient to stay with State Farm insurance because I didn't have any reason to look elsewhere. I didn't have a need to file any claims, my rates didn't go up too high each year, so I just stayed put.
I added homeowners insurance in 2008 when we bought our first home. By then we had vehicles and now the house, so we started getting additional discounts.
Over the years, I have probably had somewhere between 5-10 claims for the car and maybe 2 or 3 claims on the homeowners insurance. What a breeze! The staff is very helpful, always friendly, always willing to help me any way they can. Any car or home repairs have been handled professionally, quickly, effortlessly!
One nice treat was getting a letter with State Farm. They informed me that no matter what ever happens in the future, they would never drop me or raise my rates excessively! They have stuck to that promise! My rates go up a couple of dollars each year, no more!
I can't imagine changing to another company - ever!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Should you rely on cheap car insurance?

Do you remember the Blues Brothers? They were unstoppable. They were "on a mission from God". Seems like almost everyone standing behind the counter in the rental agency is a Blues Brother when you come into collect the vehicle. They always want to sell you something, usually additional insurance. The most common special offer is loss damage waiver (LDW). It sounds such a good idea to have complete cover against any loss caused to the vehicle while under your control. The magic word is "waiver". You are excluded from liability even if you drive the vehicle off the end of a pier and it sinks without trace (hopefully without you still inside it). The only problem is this good idea can seriously damage your bank balance when the final bill comes in. That hourly or daily rate just got heavy. So when should you add LDW? The answer is deceptively simple. If you do not own another vehicle and have no insurance cover in place, it may be a good buy. But most insurance policies on your own vehicle cover you while driving a rental. So it all comes down to the extent of that cover on your own vehicle.

To get the maximum discount in these hard economic times, most people have been pushing up the deductibles. In many cases, the potential losses can be managed to keep to the low end. It's your vehicle. You can talk to the repair shop and get all the work you want done at the best price. But when it's a rental vehicle, everything is out of your hands. The rental company has no interest in protecting your bank balance. It pays top dollar to get the vehicle repaired and sends you the bill. No searching around to find the cheapest replacement parts and lowest price body shops. Everything is top of the range and then comes the kicker. It's called the "loss of use" charge. You are expected to cover their estimated loss of profit while the vehicle is off the road. And guess what. If you are paying their loss of profit, they have no incentive to rush the repairs. They can take their own sweet time and, in most cases, you pay - most private policies do not cover loss of use charges. Some credit card companies offer limited cover, but read the small print before relying on it. Limited cover means very little actual money will ever be paid out.

If you are only renting for a few days, it's probably worth paying for LDW. It may not be cheap car insurance, but it protects you. But if the end bill is going to be too high, trust to luck and your own insurance policy. Hopefully, your own cheap car insurance policy will give you enough of a buffer against claims Remembering, of course, that only the best private policies cover you against the dreaded loss of use charges. If nothing else, all this bad news should give you the incentive to drive like your wheels are passing over egg shells. Drive as safely and carefully as possible. If you are going to break some eggs, make sure the damage is minor and the losses are small.

Auto insurance requirements imposed by the states

Sometimes, people forget that the USA is a federation of sovereign states. So, although there’s always a role for the federal government when it comes to obvious national interests like defense, most of the day-to-day law-making and regulation gets done by your local state’s capital. In this, auto insurance is exactly the same as most other products and services offered for sale. The local state decided what degree of consumer protection is appropriate and the level of enforcement required.
Every state has a Commissioner who’s responsible for regulating insurance within state borders. From this you will understand that each insurance company is licensed to sell policies state by state. No company can sell policies across state lines. This leaves the Commissioner with whatever power has been allowed by the state government. Some states have highly regulated markets with the Commissioner deciding the range of policies that can be sold and setting limits on the power of companies to limit or exclude risks. Most Commissioners also actively police the insurers, responding to consumer complaints. A few have the power to refuse an insurer’s request to increase premium rates.
You should do a google search to find the website of your local state’s Commissioner. There’s always a wealth of information about the local insurance market. The most important step is establishing exactly what your state’s mandatory requirements are. You will also find useful information about how to complain if you feel you have been the victim of misselling or an insurer is wrongly refusing a claim.
Although some aspects of the laws affecting coverage are expressed as mandatory, you also need to look carefully at your state’s policy on enforcement. In some states, there’s little will to enforce them vigorously. The politics seem to be that, in many cases, the mandatory nature of the laws makes the premiums look like a tax on the poor. At a time when there’s high unemployment, elected representatives feel under pressure to reassure voters. With budget deficits high, there’s little money available to police forces to catch more of the uninsured. This means there’s a rising percentage of uninsured drivers on the roads. In some states, it’s approaching 20% of the vehicles on the road. The risk of being in a collision with an uninsured or underinsured driver is therefore high. You may therefore think it good value to get auto insurance quotes for uninsured driver coverage depending on where you

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Recommend State Farm Insurance

I have been a customer of State Farm Auto Insurance now , my husband used them when we got married and I just went ahead and insured my vehicle with them. I was unsure of State Farm Ins I had heard many people say they raised the rates or dropped you if you had an accident. In our case this has never happened. My husband had two accidents one his fault and one that wasn't. He also had a couple of speeding tickets(until I told him either drive the limit or pay the higher rates the rest of your life. Like a good husband he listened to my wisdom.) The insurance went up after his two speeding tickets, but not outrageously like I assumed around a two hundred more every 6 months(which was enough) It also was raised after the accident that was his fault, but this only lasted for three years and then his insurance went down again. Mine was not raised. To make our coverage easier to handle we have a 500.00 deductible which decreased the insurance quite a bit, we also got rid of the other little niceties like rental car. If you are not able to afford to rent a car while yours is in the shop I would keep this option. Our insurance coverage breaks down like this. Liability Bodily injury 15,000/30,000(note we also have very good medical coverage) Property damage 25,000 500.00 deductible Comprehensive 500.00 deductible collision Uninsured motor vehicle(for people that cause an accident harming our vehicle or ourselves and have no insurance) bodily injury15,000/30,000 property damage 25,000 The amount we pay is reduced by these perks Multiple Line(our house is insured with them) 26.53 Multiple vehicle 50.71 Accident Free 33.75 On my husband Ford Ranger the total is 263.38 for six months coverage. Mine is a little higher for the Minivan about 25.00 more. If we have a windshield broken there is no deductible it is fixed one hunderd percent. I know this because it happened. Another thing that I like about STATEFARM is about 6 times out of the ten years we have had coverage their have been rebate checks sent out when State Farm has a good year. This year we received around 75.00 between the two vehicles. That may not seem like much but in a state(SC) where vehicle insurance is high anyway, every little bit in my pocket is a perk. I would recommend State Farm 100%. There agents have a local office and customer service is great. I would surely recommend State Farm

State Farm Auto Insurance?

I got State Farm auto insurance a year and half ago-I was with Progressive for 9 years before that. I wanted a "local" office where I could talk to someone face to face. Well I had a minor accident and the agent said it should be no problem to get taken care of after paying my deductible. But then said if your repairs come to over 1000 dollars, we will be charging an accident surcharge.

I went home and was bothered by that all day/night. I had a claim with Progressive and never got charged extra charges and my premium never went up either. I don't understand-is this a normal deal? To charge more money and add extra charges-I thought State Farm was one of the best out there.