One question I’m asked by clients when filing a car insurance claim is how much will this cost them when their policy renews? Here are some interesting statistics that give us some benchmarks.
What factors should be used to determine a person’s car insurance rate? Factors such as their age and gender make sense. Even the type of car they drive, where the car is parked, and their driver classification (commuter, business use, or pleasure driver) should be factored into the rate determination. But should socio-economic factors, such as a person’s education or occupation be considered? What about a person’s marital status?
Have you heard about the new Ford F-150? It would be hard to miss the press on its predominate aluminum body. Ford shaved 700 pounds off last year’s model by switching from steel to aluminum for 97% of the outside of the truck’s body. Doing so helped improve theF-150’s fuel economy from 5% to 29% depending on which engine is installed.
If you have a son or daughter heading off to college, you’re in the midst of getting everything together, packed, and ready to either take them to school or preparing them to head off on their own. As busy are you may be right now, there are a couple of car insurance related topics that are worth taking a few moments to examine as a parent, and to talk about with your son or daughter before they step onto campus.
If you think Texas car insurance rates are on the rise, it’s not your imagination. Based on a report released earlier this year by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Texas premiums now rank 11th highest in the nation. Two years ago, we were ranked 14th highest in the nation. The average Texas car insurance premium, based on the 2009 data used for the NAIC report (the most recent nationwide data available), is now $1,022 a year. The national annual average rate is $901.
Yahoo Autos posted an article by Justin Hyde on February 5th of this year listing the top ten cities in the U.S. with the highest car insurance rates. One of the two points raised by Justin is that car insurance rates are impacted by where you live more than by how you drive.
I’ve had a couple of interesting discussions with clients about their car insurance renewals. In both cases, their car insurance rate increased and both wanted to know why. Most of the carriers systems don’t give me a clear reason, so I called each company and we reviewed each client’s policy together. Most of the factors that led to rate increases were understandable and one was a surprise.
I ended the day on Tuesday talking with a woman in Houston about car insurance for her and her adult daughter that lives at home. Our discussion covered the typical points I need in order to provide her with a quote; names, dates of birth, year, make and model of the cars, who is she insured with now, when does her policy renew, etc. What was interesting was, she asked me why I asked my last two questions which were…
There are a number of factors that impact what you pay for car insurance, not all of which are related to your driving record or the car you drive. Last week I introduced 8 car insurance discounts you need to know about (http://bit.ly/YHt1kA). There are 4 more factors that help you save money on car insurance. They aren’t all discount related but they can help you hold on to more of that hard earned money!
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