No one wants to pay more for their car insurance than needed. This is why many people volunteer their cars have such features as anti-lock brakes, a security system, air bags, etc. With that in mind, here are 10 discounts to be aware of that may add up to some nice savings on your car insurance!
You and three of your best friends are headed to the Texas Hill country for a weekend to get away and catch up with each other. You’ve been looking forward to it for weeks! It’s been a very long week with late nights to wrap up a project before heading out of town and you’re tired. You ask one of your friends to drive your car while you rest. They accidentally clip another car while passing. No one got hurt, but it’s your friend’s fault and your car.
Most of the time, I rarely think about my air bags. My car has full frontal air bags along with side curtain air bags. I have no desire to ever see what they look like or even discover how they work, but I’m very glad they are there. I have been in one major accident in my life, before the cars I owned had air bags. The seatbelt saved my life and protected me from suffering any major injuries. I’d like to avoid experiencing that again.
Driverless cars are coming, and they’re coming sooner than most of us think. One only has to search “driverless car” on Google, Yahoo, or Bing and there will appear over 3,000,000 results for your reading or viewing enjoyment. Google has retrofitted Lexus and Toyota models for testing, not to mention their 100 mini commuter cars that look very similar to a Little Tykes car my youngest son had.
Early in my insurance career, I was attending a larger party with a number of friends when a woman came up to me with tears in her eyes. Her husband, who was coming in their other car, had been involved in an accident not far from where we were gathered and she did not know what to do. We left the party together in her car and I drove us to where the accident had occurred, a southbound service road of North Central Expressway in Dallas.
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.
A client called me last week with a question about how to handle something. Her teen had been in a little accident with an adult, and it was the adult’s fault. The good news is the teen was unhurt and the damage to her car was minimal; the bumpers simply rubbed together. According to the body shop the client visited, they could either remove, sand, and repaint the bumper or replace it. The difference in cost was minimal.
There have been some interesting articles in the news related to cars over the past few months. When taken individually they do not appear to be significant, yet when combined together, they paint an interesting picture for many Americans. The pieces of this puzzle involve rising new car prices, the growing length of car loan terms, and vehicle depreciation.
My friend’s son graduated from Texas A&M University and moved to Dallas to begin working with a company in the Las Colinas area. As the mom and I discussed the policy, I asked her how long she planned to leave her son on their car insurance policy. She and her husband were thinking about “encouraging” him to get his own policy now that he’s on his own. In response, I asked her if she’d like to know what I recommend all my parents who are facing the same decision.
A client sent me an email two weeks ago that turned into an enjoyable “conversation” over a series of email messages. My client has a teen daughter that’s about to get her learner’s permit and she wanted to know when she should add her daughter to her car insurance policy.
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