There are a couple of major and minor drawbacks when anyone excludes a driver living in the household from a car insurance policy. The biggest two are what happens if the excluded driver drives a car(s) that is on the policy they are excluded from and is involved in an accident?
According to Ted Gramer, CEO of TrueMotion, a mobile telematics firm in Boston, the most seismic shift in car insurance since it began over 100 years and it’s occurring now. Gramer wrote an article on the 5 car insurance trends he sees either beginning or unfolding this year. The article was published by Insurance Journal and provides some interesting insight into changes many consumers will find interesting, refreshing, and possibly long overdue. I think his observations are worth sharing here.
The weather was a major story line in Texas and national news during 2017. As I mentioned on Tuesday’s post, north Texas was pounded by golf ball to baseball sized hail a couple of times last spring and early summer followed by Hurricane Harvey’s lashing and flooding rainfall of the Texas coast.
I was talking with a prospective client this week who has a daughter graduating later this month from a university in Texas. The question they were grappling with was whether to keep her on their car insurance that I would be quoting, or to have her get her own policy since she has a pretty nice job lined up. I run into this a few times a year and thought we’d examine how I suggest they approach the decision.
I wrote a car insurance policy for a friend’s son last year. It’s an interesting story that’s worth retelling because most people aren’t aware that many car insurance companies won’t write a policy if you or one of your kids does this. You may surprised by this too!
The value of a totaled vehicle is one of the most contested car insurance claims. Is it too low, is it fair, or is it more than you expected? It doesn’t have to be, based on a recent article in the Dallas Morning News by Jerry Reynolds. His article, “How to Negotiate with Insurers,” suggests, if you’re willing to do a little homework, you’ll know whether the offer you receive for your totaled or stolen vehicle is fair or not.
A client texted me early Monday morning letting me know his car was broken into overnight. The good news was his car wasn’t stolen. What was stolen, though, was his wallet, watch, possibly his passport, a ring, and a few other items. His question was, did his car insurance policy cover this? He has “full” coverage policy on his car which results in a yes and no answer. Let’s look at the reasoning behind the two answers.
In July of this year, news agencies announced Wells Fargo forced unwanted car insurance on 500,000 to over 800,000 of its car loan customers, most of whom had valid car insurance. The type of insurance used is referred to as forced place or lenders insurance. The results of this practice were devastating; 274,000 of Wells Fargo’s customers were forced into delinquency and 25,000 vehicles were wrongfully repossessed. Wells Fargo reaped millions in revenue and fees from this practice.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Corpus Christi nearly two weeks ago then moved eastward along the Texas coast where it stalled over Houston for several days before moving on to Louisiana and off to the northeast. A one-thousand-year flood resulted from the trillions of gallons of water that fell along the Texas coast, enough to depress the earth’s crust by 2 centimeters. The estimate on the number of cars destroyed by Harvey ranges between 500,000 and 1,000,000. Let’s examine what kind of car insurance covers your car from flood damage.
There are a couple of car insurance related topics every parent of a college student should discuss with their son or daughter before they head off to school. Both have a financial impact on the family’s car insurance rate. The biggest one is allowing a friend or roommate to drive their car or truck if they take one to school. The other one relates to grades. Let’s review this issue and ways to lower your car insurance rate.
Subscribe to my newsletter by filling the form below.
A confirmation email will be sent to your mailbox: please read the instructions to complete the subscription.
