Women Auto Insurance

How the premium on your car insurance is determined:

The use of the car is important when the premium is calculated. For example, if the car is used for deliveries, then it will increase the risk on the car and the premium may be higher. Trips to and from your work counts as personal use. When you visit clients during the day, it will be considered either full or partial business use, depending on your type of work and amount of visits you make to clients or suppliers every day.

Apart from the use of the car, your premium will also be influenced by, for example:
•    the value of the vehicle;
•    the colour of the vehicle (white cars and cars with bright colours like yellow are normally cheaper);
•    who drives the car (with some companies insurance on women is cheaper);
•    how old the driver is (young drivers usually pay more because they tend to be more inexperienced and/or irresponsible on the road) or how long the driver has a license;
•    where the car is parked in the day or night (how safe or risky the address is where it is parked, whether it is out in the open or locked up in a garage);
•    previous claims you had (which you have to be very honest about); and
•    the excess you choose (this is the amount that you will be responsible for if you have a claim).

Other options you have when you take out car insurance:

If you choose a higher excess, you will pay a lower premium. Just make sure if you choose a higher excess to save money, that you do have emergency funds available to pay the excess if your car was in an accident. Some companies offer you a chance not to have any excess but of course, at a higher premium.

You have the option to add “Car Hire” as an extra benefit to your policy which will increase your premium. If your car was in an accident longer than a certain period, you will be able to hire a car for a certain period at no cost to yourself.

Most of the insurance companies will only provide cover on the car if the person driving the car was specified on the policy as the regular driver. Make sure what your policy says before you let anyone else drive your car. Some companies allow you to add other drivers, like your husband or boyfriend. Some companies do not list specific names of drivers but they may charge you an extra excess if the car was driven by anyone else. In any instance, the other driver of your car must either...
•    have a valid driver’s license; or
•    or a learner’s license and be accompanied by someone with a valid driver’s license.

Additional requirements when you take out car insurance:

To limit fraudulent and dishonest claims, insurance companies will ask you to prove the existence of the car. They can do this by requesting the car’s registration number, engine number and VIN number (which you can obtain from the license details). Some insurers also ask you to take the car in to an inspection center around the country so they check that the car has not already been in an accident by the time you take out insurance and that it has the modifications or accessories like radios that you confirmed it has. Some insurance companies will request you to install an immobiliser, especially if your car does not come out with a factory fitted immobiliser.

Extra benefits of having car insurance:

Most of the insurance companies offer free access to a road assistance programme. For example, they come out once or twice a year if you’re stuck on the side of the road and they may even pay reasonable costs for towing the car to the nearest repair shop if it cannot drive. On some policies, you can also add funeral or accident life cover.

What you do if you’re in an accident

Here are 4 things to remember if you were in an accident:

1.    When you are in an accident, it is important to stay calm, don’t talk too much and only exchange personal and insurance information with the drivers of the other cars.
2.    It is also important to report the accident to the police immediately and obtain a case number that the insurance company will require when you lodge your claim.
3.    If anyone got hurt in the accident (or if you think anyone got hurt), then everybody who is part of the accident remains at the accident scene. Report it to the police and they will come out to you to give you a case number.
4.    Keep a copy of your insurance schedule with your policy number and the company’s contact details on your phone and in your car at all times. If you are in an accident, call the emergency roadside, your broker or the insurance company’s call centre for further guidance.

Always remember to contact your broker or insurance company if you change cars or if the address changes where the car is parked in the day or night like when you move or change jobs.

Variable Auto

If you have an older vehicle, then $25,000 is probably adequate or certainly no more than $50,000. If you have a very expensive new vehicle, you want to make sure the coverage is more than the cost of your vehicle. You may select $100,000, for instance. Many people who carry $100,000 property damage liability coverage carry the same limits for uninsured/underinsured motorist property damage coverage. Depending on the value of your vehicle, it is probably not necessary. Save a few bucks and only carry what you need.

This coverage, like most physical damage coverage, is subject to a deductible. Usually this deductible is $250 or $500. The lower the deductible the higher the cost. This coverage is redundant with collision coverage, but most people have a higher collision deductible. So if you are in an accident with an uninsured motorist, make sure you collect under the correct coverage.

The next coverage listed on your policy is comprehensive, or other than collision. This covers your vehicle for perils such as hail, wind, malicious mischief, total theft and hitting an animal. The price you pay for this coverage is based on the value of the vehicle and carries a deductible. The lower the deductible, the more you will pay for the coverage. Once your vehicle reaches 10 years old, you really need to consider whether it is still feasible to carry this coverage. That decision should be based on the value, condition and garaged location of the vehicle. You really need to weigh the cost of the coverage versus the value of the vehicle.

Collision coverage is pretty self explanatory. It covers damage to your vehicle as the result of an accident. If you are not at fault, you should collect from the other party's property damage coverage. If there is disputed liability or you are at fault, you will have to use your collision coverage less the deductible to repair or replace your vehicle. Even if you are not at fault, some companies may force you to use your collision coverage and subrogate against them to collect your deductible. That is becoming more common. Remember the way insurance companies make money is by holding on to insurance premiums and investing them for maximum return.

Next, we are going to tackle auto and homeowner policy pricing and what you can do to keep your insurance premiums as low as feasible. And learn where to find discounts and policy credits.

Ride share Advances

Uber and Lyft say they already require background checks and vehicle insurance. Uber says having one set of rules statewide could help the company offer services beyond the state’s metropolitan areas, and Lyft, which pulled out of the state following a lawsuit, also is backing the bill.

The measure has bipartisan support in the Missouri House, where backers argued it could mean more jobs. Ferguson Democrat Rep. Courtney Allen Curtis said it’s a “pathway to the American dream.”

“It enhances competition, which is good for business,” said Republican bill sponsor Rep. Kirk Mathews, of Pacific. He added that it could improve ride services and make prices more competitive.

But opponents questioned whether the measure would create jobs. Democratic Rep. Deb Lavender, of Kirkwood, said new jobs with ride-hailing companies could mean taxicab drivers lose their jobs. Kansas City Democrat Rep. Jeremy LaFaver said regulation should be up to cities.

“We can do this at the city level,” LaFaver said. “It’s better done at the city level.”

The legislation also would mandate that companies provide customers with fare estimates, pay an annual permit fee of $5,000 and adopt zero-tolerance policies against drivers using drugs or alcohol while working. Convicted sex offenders and some other felons would be banned from providing rides through those companies.

The House gave initial approval to a similar regulatory plan last year. But the proposal lost momentum after Kansas City in April reached an agreement with ride-hailing companies to establish a certification system for drivers.

Lyft pulled out of St. Louis after a 2014 lawsuit from the Metropolitan Taxicab Commission and has since halted its operations in Missouri. Uber has said it is the only such company currently offering rides in Missouri, with drivers limited to St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia.

Older Vehicle

If you have an older vehicle, then $25,000 is probably adequate or certainly no more than $50,000. If you have a very expensive new vehicle, you want to make sure the coverage is more than the cost of your vehicle. You may select $100,000, for instance. Many people who carry $100,000 property damage liability coverage carry the same limits for uninsured/under insured motorist property damage coverage. Depending on the value of your vehicle, it is probably not necessary. Save a few bucks and only carry what you need.

This coverage, like most physical damage coverage, is subject to a deductible. Usually this deductible is $250 or $500. The lower the deductible the higher the cost. This coverage is redundant with collision coverage, but most people have a higher collision deductible. So if you are in an accident with an uninsured motorist, make sure you collect under the correct coverage.

The next coverage listed on your policy is comprehensive, or other than collision. This covers your vehicle for perils such as hail, wind, malicious mischief, total theft and hitting an animal. The price you pay for this coverage is based on the value of the vehicle and carries a deductible. The lower the deductible, the more you will pay for the coverage. Once your vehicle reaches 10 years old, you really need to consider whether it is still feasible to carry this coverage. That decision should be based on the value, condition and garaged location of the vehicle. You really need to weigh the cost of the coverage versus the value of the vehicle.

Collision coverage is pretty self explanatory. It covers damage to your vehicle as the result of an accident. If you are not at fault, you should collect from the other party's property damage coverage. If there is disputed liability or you are at fault, you will have to use your collision coverage less the deductible to repair or replace your vehicle. Even if you are not at fault, some companies may force you to use your collision coverage and surrogate against them to collect your deductible. That is becoming more common. Remember the way insurance companies make money is by holding on to insurance premiums and investing them for maximum return.

Next, we are going to tackle auto and homeowner policy pricing and what you can do to keep your insurance premiums as low as feasible. And learn where to find discounts and policy credits.

Legal Coverage

How this 3 Different Policy Works?

Third party only covers the other people involved in the event of an auto accident, without covering you at all. Third party with fire and theft offers the same amount, but includes coverage for vehicles that are stolen or damaged by fire. Comprehensive coverage by far offers the most extensive protection, and it will insure you, the other parties involved, repairs, accidental damage, and even vandalism. Evaluating your current auto policy will help you gauge whether or not legal coverage is right for you by measuring how much your current policy covers. The more that your current policy covers on it’s own, the less potential excess costs you may accumulate. If your policy covers much less, then it may be more beneficial for you to purchase legal coverage since your risk of acquiring a large amount of excess costs is much higher.
Consider Your Environment and Normal Driving Routine

Did you know that your current environment and driving routine are huge contributors to a heightened accident risk? Studies have shown that those who primarily drive on rural routes versus motorways are more likely to find themselves in an auto accident. Rural roads pose more of a risk to drivers with their narrow designs, and people tend to drive much faster on them as opposed to motorways. These types of routes are also more prone to having wildlife surrounding them, which also poses an elevated accident risk. Drivers who commute during early afternoon and evening are also at a heightened risk in correlation to the higher larger traffic volumes that are present during these times. If your commute typically entails driving on rural roads or between these hours, then your risk of facing an accident is much higher than average. Due to this increase in accident risk, purchasing legal coverage could be much more advantageous in protecting you, your vehicle, and your passengers.
Factor in Your Vehicle’s Worth

Looking at the market value of your vehicle is also a good idea when you compare car insurance and look into legal coverage. Some claim that if your vehicle is under £1,000 then it would be less risky to skip out on legal coverage because of how inexpensive any repairs and replacements would be following the event of an accident. However, this theory could really go both ways. Older car models typically experience more mechanical issues, which are responsible for roughly 13% of accidents. If your car is known to experience frequent maintenance issues, then legal coverage is still a very valuable pursuit.

It’s ordinary for drivers to be drawn more to cheap car quotes regarding future car insurance, but avoiding optional coverage options such as legal coverage could potentially result in even higher costs to you. Purchasing adequate legal coverage for your current or future policies will give you the confidence and reassurance that you and your passengers are sufficiently protected from overwhelming accident-related costs in the future

Hike in Insurance

Insurance of vehicles, including cars and bikes, will become costlier from April 1 as insurance regulator Irdai has decided to increase premiums by up to 40 per cent from the next fiscal.

Third party motor insurance premium for small cars (up to 1,000 cc) will now be up 39.9 per cent to Rs 2,055 from Rs 1,468 being currently charged. The hike in mid-segment cars (1,000 - 1,500 cc) too is about 40 per cent.

Premium hike in case of bigger cars and SUVs (above 1,500 cc) is 25 per cent. It will now cost Rs 6,164 from April as against the current Rs 4,931.

"It is observed that the cost inflation index (CII) has increased by 5.57 per cent over the previous year, i.e. from 1024 in FY 2014-15 to 1081 in FY 2015-16," Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said while notifying the rates of third party insurance premium from April 1, 2016.

Similarly, premiums have gone up in case of bikes and scooters. The new premium rate for two-wheelers up to 75 cc is Rs 569 as against Rs 519. Two-wheelers falling in the category of 75 cc - 150 cc is up 15 per cent to Rs 619 while there is increase of 25 per cent for bikes in the category of 150 cc - 350 cc. However, premium has been reduced in case of motor-bikes which are about 350 cc to Rs 884.

Basic third party (TP) premium for three-wheelers too has been increased. A new category 'e-rickshaw' (capacity of up to 6 passengers) has been introduced and the basic TP premium has been fixed at Rs 1,125.

The premium increase in case of public carriers is in the range of 15-30 per cent. However, there is no change in case of goods carrying vehicles having capacity up to 12 tonnes.

Motor third party insurance is mandatory for vehicles. Irdai has asked insurers to ensure that motor third party insurance is made available at their underwriting offices and through all available channels of distribution.

Earlier, the regulator had published an exposure draft which included number of policies, number of claims paid and amount of claims outstanding as on March 2015 for each underwriting year and for each class of vehicle. 

Dysfunctional Market

Ashdown found it would have cost £800 to hire the same vehicle from the same local rental company, instead of the £4,216 Claimfast is charging.

“They often hire posher cars for a longer period than necessary to maximise their income. It’s an abuse of the system,” says Rob Cummings, manager of general insurance at the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

A two-year investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in 2014 concluded that the hiring of courtesy cars via CHCs costs consumers an extra £84m in increased premiums and distorts the market.

The investigation began with plans to regulate how insurers set about putting drivers back on the road after accidents, addressing the role of expensive middlemen such as brokers and claims management companies and tackling the soaring costs of credit hire. However, its ambitions have since shrunk steadily. Despite identifying “significant consumer detriment”, it decided it could not provide an “effective and proportionate remedy” to address the problems and abandoned all its suggested solutions, leaving it to the insurers and CHCs to sort it out among themselves.

“We found that a fully effective solution to the problem would require a fundamental change to the law, and we questioned whether the scale of the problem justified such a fundamental change,’ says a CMA spokesman.

“The fact the insurer of the at-fault party in an accident pays for the hire car provided to the non-fault party but has no control over what is provided (so long as it is reasonable) or who provides it creates incentives which are counter-productive overall. But to get the business in the first place CHCs pay non-fault insurers huge referral fees. Most of the money therefore passes round the circle.”

The CMA admitted that its own inability to find a solution was deeply unsatisfactory, but the Credit Hire Organisation, the trade body for CHCs, hailed its inaction as a “victory for consumers”.

“We think the report was stitched up,” says CHO director general Martin Andrews. “The ABI has spent years trying to convince people that CHCs are the devil incarnate, but they exist solely because insurers would rather not have courtesy cars provided as it involves a cost they don’t want to pay.”

Non-fault drivers are allowed to claim sufficient costs to put them back in the position they were in before an accident, meaning drivers whose cars are damaged are entitled to a temporary vehicle. According to Andrews, insurers used to be reluctant to tell customers this: “There’s nothing to stop insurers providing the cars themselves. Most choose not to. We keep them honest because we tell customers what they are entitled to.”

The ABI says insurers rarely get the chance to hire cars directly since the brokers who tend to deal with their customers refer their cases on to CHCs before the insurer gets a look in.

Many insurers and CHCs subscribe to a voluntary agreement which sets out the maximum daily hire rates that can be charged for replacement vehicles including administration and late payment fees. Nonetheless, the CMA found that at-fault insurers end up paying an average of £607 extra for vehicle hire arranged through CHC’s than through direct hire, a cost ultimately passed on to policyholders through higher premiums. “We’re not a charity,” says Andrews. “We’re in this to make money, but profits are less than 5% per rental.”

In Ashdown’s case, Claimfast says that its charges include a late payment fee. “The costs do appear higher than simply finding a car online, but this is because it is not a like-for-like comparison,’ says a spokesman. “For example, the car is provided with no policy excess, which can be over £1,000 for a hire car, and with a nominal deposit of just £1. The hire charge also includes the cost of arranging delivery and collection of vehicles, and dealing with the insurer.”

The company says there is no question of Ashdown being charged legal fees or having to foot the hire bill if the court case fails: “Because the car hire documentation was in Ms Ashdown’s name she would have been named as the claimant if we were then forced to take the third party insurer to court. Unfortunately this is unavoidable, but it is very rare that an individual will be asked to attend court in such a case.”

The ABI is calling for referral fees to be banned and hire charges capped to keep costs down and avoid expensive litigation, but the CMA is in no hurry to oblige. Having declared it has no powers to do either it says it will not commit to another investigation, although if matters got worse it might take another look and “possibly reconsider some of the remedies which we have decided not to pursue”.

Commercial Insurance

On March 1, 2016, WRAL Investigates reported that North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin wants state lawmakers to tighten up regulations over commercial vehicle insurance, stating that some out-of-state trucking companies are claiming in-state residency to obtain lower insurance rates.

It is no secret that North Carolina has some of the lowest vehicle insurance rates in the country. These insurance policies, however, are available only to residents and businesses that reside in the state. According to WRAL, ten years ago, drivers from New York and New Jersey were registering their cars in North Carolina in order to get cheaper car insurance. But, the General Assembly changed the law to stop this from happening.

On March 3rd, the same issue is occurring in the $670 million-a-year commercial vehicle insurance market. Reportedly, North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin is seeking to have a similar statutory enactment passed. In recent years, the North Carolina Reinsurance Facility raised its commercial rates because of significant claim losses. Goodwin attributes this increase in commercial rates to out-of-state trucking companies claiming in-state residency to obtain lower insurance rates. Goodwin has been quoted as saying: "They have accidents in other states and the like. It impacts insurance rates for the legitimate businesses that are here, and it's becoming a growing problem."

WRAL Investigates confirmed North Carolina freight insurance coverage for Senn Freight Lines in Newberry, S.C. A spokesman for Senn stated that the company has no North Carolina operations, although an internal insurance memo indicated that Senn claims one truck registered and one driver licensed in the state. According to the Secretary of State's Office, another trucking company, Fast Transport, Inc., is listed as a North Carolina registered corporation. However, the address listed for Fast Transport is in a remote residential neighborhood in Wake Forest, and a spokesman for Fast Transport stated that the Wake Forest house is the trucker's accounting headquarters. According to WRAL's investigation, Fast Transport claims dozens of trucks in Florida, Georgia, and Texas but only one truck in North Carolina.

The Insurance Commissioner's position seems to be that only North Carolina companies should be able to take advantage of the state's lower insurance rates. He wants "to protect and help the legitimate companies that are doing business in North Carolina from being taken advantage of by businesses...that are misleading the state and misleading insurance companies as to their presence in the state.

As a result, Goodwin's office is drafting legislation to present to the General Assembly when lawmakers reconvene in April that would better differentiate between North Carolina companies and posers exploiting the law to get cheaper rates.