How Much Will a Car Insurance Claim Increase Your Rate?
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.
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.
If you have a son or daughter heading off to college in the next few days, take a moment to discuss the following car insurance related topics before they head off to school. These can have a financial impact on your family’s car insurance rate or a surprise liability claim. We’ll also look at a couple of things to review that can lower what you pay.
I currently have two clients who were recently served with papers notifying them that they were being sued by the other person involved in the accident. The circumstances surrounding their suits is different, however, they both were scared and called me to determine what to do.
On Sunday my brother-in-law was driving to Houston from Dallas on Interstate 45 when traffic slowed down south of Huntsville due to road work. He slowed down and entered the line of vehicles as the number of lanes shifted from two to one. The next sound he heard was the screeching of tires from a Dodge Challenger whose driver ignored the flashing road work signs, lost control of his vehicle and proceeded to side swipe my brother-in-law’s car and the next 4 vehicles ahead of him.
The number of drivers without car insurance, referred to as uninsured motorists by most insurance carriers, is rising nationally. Almost 1 in 8 drivers, or 13%, did not carry car insurance in 2015 despite it being required in 49 states. This was up from a national average of 12.3% in 2010.
I’ve written several posts on distracted driving and how dangerous it is for both the driver and everyone else on the road. Related topics I’ve written about include the types of things that contribute to driving in a distracted manner such as phone usage, video billboards, electronic systems in most cars, etc. An article recently appeared in The Dallas Morning News and Bloomberg about a recent study that revealed the average car insurance rate increase resulting from a driver being awarded a ticket for distracted driving.
Earlier this week, a pedestrian was struck by an Uber vehicle operating in autonomous mode and died from her injuries. This if the first recorded fatality between a pedestrian and an autonomous vehicle, and it raises several interesting legal, liability, and even insurance related questions worth noting.
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.
My email has been bombarded with notices since Monday from most of the insurance companies and brokers I work with. Each one has announced they are issuing a binding moratorium due to Tropical Storm Cindy. I thought this provided a good time to understand what an insurance moratorium is and how it impacts individuals and businesses when they occur.
A client called me last week who was surprised at the increase of adding his youngest son with a brand-new driver’s license to the family car insurance policy. I’m reviewing his options, but thought this was a great example of how car insurance companies take different approaches concerning vehicle assignment when adding a teen driver. These differences can result in some very surprising rates, especially if the new driver will be sharing one of the family cars!
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