Thursday, October 30, 2008

How To Lower Your Car Insurance Premium

Owning a car is a huge commitment on its own, but owning car insurance needn't be. Although car insurance is a must under the law, there are various methods you can use to pay less premium and gain more protection.

The first thing you should do is to discard the mentality that car insurance is a boring must-do. If you start with this thinking, chances are you are going to take whatever that is served to you and take the shortcuts to getting your car insurance and forget about it.

A general rule of thumb is not signing up with the first company you come across. At this stage, you basically do not know what other company have to offer. Needless to say, you should be comparing four or five companies and pick out the best one. But if you are like other normal folks, going from one company to another is not your idea of fun. So what you can do is turn to the internet! By keying in simple information such as your location, age, gender and car details, you can get hold of auto insurance quotes from various companies in a matter of minutes.

Before you proceed to get an online quote, there are various things you need to know in order to secure the best insurance rate. You need to understand how insurance company determine their premium rates so you can work these factors to your advantage. Try to think from the insurance provider's perspective.

Basically, your insurance provider will want customers who are 'low risk'. What this mean is you need to convince your insurance company that you are a careful driver who are not likely to make a claim.

Also, insurance company need to assess how much they likely need to pay you if you do make a claim. For example, if you have past records of road accidents stretching back as far as six years ago or have been issued plenty of speeding tickets, you could be paying a higher premium. The same thing applies if you drive an expensive or new car that will require a higher repair cost. So, as you can see, figuring out insurance premium is really not complicated at all.

Also, the more frequent you use your vehicle and the mileage you go, the more likely you are to be involved in a car crash, as far as your insurance company are concerned. Even the neighborhood you reside in can play a role. Staying in a safe surburb rather than the city slump can reflect in your premium quote too, due to lower possibility of theft and vandalism.

A big mistake made by the majority of car owners is buying and forgetting about their car insurance policy. Your car insurance provider will slowly get a clearer picture of what kind of driver you are and your 'riskiness' could have decrease since the time you sign up for the policy, especially if you have been maintaining a clean record.

Overtime, you may be eligible for discounts that is not made available to you before. To see if you qualify for such discounts, make a review of your policy with your insurance provider every year.

These are only some of the things you can look into to get a better premium rate. In fact, there are many more details you can work on to secure a better quote. The key is to be an informed consumer and adopting a proactive approach to car auto insurance.



Visit http://www.CarAutoInsuranceGuide.com for tips and advice for cheap auto insurance on the internet.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Have You Run Diagnostics Lately On Your Health Insurance?

Just like any kind of insurance, you should be reviewing the status and amount of coverage you receive from your health insurance plan, at least once a year. What happens all too frequently is that coverages change, the deductibles change, the out of pocket amounts change, and you aren't aware of the significant ramifications of those changes.

Oh of course the health insurance company makes you aware of it, since they are required to do so by law. They send you a small "newsletter" via the US mail. Does that count? You bet it counts, although more than 85% of people only glance over those newsletters, if they read them at all. Based on the amount of pure garbage that comes in the mail daily, you figure they are trying to sell you something else and you glance at it and summarily toss it in the trash can. But you were notified, you simply elected not to read the notice.

That is exactly why you should examine your health insurance coverage annually. It is estimated that about 60% of Americans get their health insurance through their employer, who has them on some type of group plan. Group plans are very cost effective because they generally cover a large number of people, but depending on the plan your employer is providing, it may only be marginal protection, and you won't really discover this fact until the unexpected happens and you need to make claims on it.

Are just you covered or is your spouse and/or family covered as well? How much is it costing you, out of your paycheck, outside of what your employer pays on your behalf? Do you know how much coverage you have? Do you understand what is NOT covered and why? What is your annual out-of-pocket expense amount that you need to pay? How much is your co-pay amount? Are prescriptions covered as well? Do you get discounts on prescriptions if you elect to go with a generic instead of a name brand?

That is only a small portion of the number of questions you should be asking about your health insurance coverage. If you dig deep into your existing policy, you may be shocked to discover how little coverage you really have. However, NOW is the time to discover this fact, not when you are facing an emergency and find out something is not covered because the accident happened on a Tuesday between 1pm and 2pm, which is a blackout period. Don't laugh, there are stranger clauses and exclusions in many policies.

If you do not currently have any health insurance at all, you need to run not walk and get yourself and your family covered as soon as right now. With the sky rocketing costs of health care, even a relatively minor injury needing professional help or hospital expertise could ruin you financially.

But even if you already have health insurance, you are strongly encouraged to take out a notebook and start documenting your coverages, your deductibles and all aspects of your current health insurance policy. Then start shopping around to see what other policies are costing, both online and offline for the same or better coverage. You will likely be pleasantly surprised to find that affordable health insurance is right in front of you, and you can get the coverage you need immediately. The money you save will serve a much better purpose in your wallet than in the account of your old health insurance company.



For more insights and additional information about your Health Insurance Policy as well as getting a very aggressive online health insurance quote, please visit our web site at http://www.healthinsurancetipsguide.com

Friday, October 10, 2008

Steps To Save A Ton On Your Car Insurance Policy

Are you getting the most for your money when it comes to your car insurance policy? Between the rising cost of gasoline and car insurance, a bicycle or a horse starts to look pretty interesting these days. Remember, on a bicycle the top’s always down, even in nasty weather. Since you’re stuck with the price of gas no matter where it is, you need to look at your car insurance policy to save a few dollars.

If you’ve had any major changes since you took out the policy, you may find that you can get a discount without even changing companies. A change in the distance you drive to work and the total miles driven annually can dramatically change the rate. If you changed jobs to a closer location since you took out the policy, you might be in for a big drop in the rate for your car insurance policy.

Make sure you get all the discounts that are available. Each company has a variety of discounts. There are good student discounts and driver’s education discounts for the teen in the house. See if your company offers them. If you’re considering a second car, see if they offer a multiple car discount. Also, look for discounts if you change your homeowners insurance to the same company as your auto insurance, since many insurance companies give additional discounts if you have multiple different types of policies with them.

Prices from companies vary widely and depend mainly on their loss experience for your area and age. Getting additional quotes is always free, so you have nothing to lose but a few minutes time and everything to gain.

When you do rate comparisons, make sure that the quote you get is an apples-to-apples quote. Other companies may offer a lower rate but give you less insurance. Here are a few things to check carefully.

1. Make sure the deductible is the same. There are two different deductibles on your auto insurance policy, the comprehensive deductible and the collision deductible. Collision coverage kicks in when you hit something and comprehensive encompasses everything else, including hail damage and theft. The bigger the deductible gets the lower the rate becomes. Make sure your quotes are the same deductible or at least close to the same.

2. See if the liability coverage is the same. Liability is either single limit or split coverage. Split coverage such as 50/100/15 means that the company pays $50,000 maximum per person injured, $100,000 per accident and $15,000 for property damage. This is very similar to a $100,000 single limit policy but seems to have more coverage. You notice that word seems. If more than one person is injured, the split limit is best. If only one person is injured then you’re better off with the single limit. Either way, never accept a quote that offers less coverage than you already have until you check the same coverage cost with your present company.

3. See if the new policy has extras. All policies should have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. If you don’t, then get it. It’s your protection in case the other guy doesn’t have enough coverage or any coverage. You may have towing and rental reimbursement on your policy, which you may not need or want. See if the quotes contain those.

4. Try the Internet for multiple quotes. Often a single site can offer as many as 10 quotes at once. Find those locations and cut down the shopping time. Do not assume that on online quote is always going to be cheaper or have inferior insurance, since neither of those statements is true. Shop around, both online and offline, to get your ultimate best deal.

Take a few minutes and you could save hundreds of dollars a year and still have the same auto insurance policy but at a lower rate. The time you spend shopping around will surely open your eyes to the possibilities and potentially save you a ton of money at the same time.



For more insights and additional information about how to save a ton of money on your Car Insurance Policy as well as getting an aggressive online quote for discount car insurance, please visit our web site at http://www.tips-for-car-insurance.com