Archive for the ‘Helpful Insurance Articles’ Category
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What Rights Does the Californian Law Give You as a Customer of an Insurance Company?
The state of California takes car insurance very seriously. There’s a regulation called “Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations” that force the insurance companies to the following:
- Let you know of everything that the policy covers, including time limits or any other clause, by writing.
- Start an investigation and provide you with forms and instructions on how to make a claim in a maximum of 15 days of receiving your notice of claim. The notice that you give can be written or oral.
- Respond to any communication from you in a maximum f 15 days.
- Accept whole or in part, or deny your claim in a maximum of 40 days after receiving proof of claim. Proof of claim is the documentation that you give them that proves the damage that has to be covered. It’s very advisable that it includes a police report. You should also send copies of photographs, estimates from repair shops, and hospital bills.
- Pay for a tow truck to take your car to whatever place is appropriate. However, if the insurance policy recommends a towing company and you use another one, you might not get the money back.
- Give you a fair settlement. Whether you lose your car completely or have it repaired, your insurance company has to give you a settlement that’s equivalent to what you had before the accident according to market value. The same goes for medical and legal bills if they are covered.
- Pay you in no more than 30 days after a settlement has been accepted by you. In the case of repairs, the repairs shouldn’t start later than the 30rd day after settlement has been accepted. Don’t worry, they won’t take that long in repairing your car. If your car had that kind of damage, they would declare it a total loss and either pay you money or get you another car.
- Give you sufficient notice that they will not store your car anymore or will stop paying for storing it. When a car is damaged enough that you can’t drive it, but not enough that it’s considered a total loss, then it may need storage and many insurance companies provide it for a limited time.
Those are the obligations that all insurance companies operating in California have to abide by. Remember, if you know them, you can demand them.
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Auto insurance is great to have (and in the state of California, mandatory as well). You can go around without worrying that your car will be stolen or that you’ll go in debt in case of an accident.
However, no auto insurance will protect you from actually having the accident. That’s your responsibility. It’s not that hard; respect the speed limits (they exist for a reason), don’t drink and drive, and don’t drive if you’re too tired, among other things.
Nevertheless, when an actual accident happens, it can be a very stressful and frightening situation, especially if someone is hurt.
First of all, stay calm. I know that staying calm is hard to do in a car accident, particularly if someone (for example, you) is bleeding, but you must. Otherwise you’ll probably make things worse. By staying calm, you will be able to make better decisions.
Make sure that you’re alright and able to walk and talk properly. If someone is hurt, call the paramedics immediately. Then call the police. Try to get the local police as each jurisdiction will have its own way of dealing with accident reports.
Then, try to gather as much information as you can. You need plate numbers of each car involved, the names of every driver and vehicle occupant and their phone numbers. The names of any witnesses and their phone number as well. This is why it’s a good idea to carry a small notebook and a pen in the glove compartment. It’s also a good idea to have the numbers of the police departments of the areas where you drive most of the time (for example, home and work, if they are in different ones).
You will then have to report a claim with your insurance company. You have to provide all proof and information of the accident (which is why a police report is so important). Gather all the documents that you can, like hospital bills, pictures taken with your cell phone, etc. By law, the insurance company will have 15 days to acknowledge your claim and 40 days thereafter to conduct an investigation and accept your claim in whole, in part, or deny it. Afterwards, it has 30 days to pay you back.
Anyway, even with auto insurance, the best thing to do is to drive safely and avoid accidents. Also, keep one copy of your insurance policy in your car, one in your wallet (or at least the company’s phone), and one in your house. It’s always better to be prepared.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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These days, everything is done online. And shopping is one of the activities where both clients and suppliers prefer to go online it. It is not different for getting California auto insurance online.
By this time, you should have some experience with purchasing something online. I mean, we’re talking about California, in The United States of America. It’s not like we are referring to a far away country that still hasn’t gotten used to doing things online.
Anyway, there are many advantages to purchasing your insurance online.
First of all, you can compare several prices from several companies in a very short amount of time. Otherwise, you’d have to make calls to each company just to get different prices to choose from.
And while we’re in the subject or calling, you don’t have to put up with all the annoying things that are involved with calling a company, like being put on hold while hearing some version of “all our agents are occupied but your call is very important to us.” However, what I hate the most is when I actually get a sales representative to talk to me and he tries to push me to buy something that I don’t want just to get his commission. And of course, he has to have my phone number before giving me a price, so not only I have to listen to him when I call, but he’ll be calling me at my home several times trying to finish his deal.
Another advantage of purchasing your insurance online is that you get access to a much wider range of options. San Francisco and Los Angeles aren’t ALL of California. If you live in a small town, you might not have many insurance agencies. With the aid of the Internet, you can contact several companies that you don’t have locally, increasing your options. Otherwise, you either stay with the limited options you have in your town, or have to spend money calling long distance to companies (and paying for “please hold” time).
So, if you are looking for car insurance in California, just get it online. All companies will give you the same options as if you called. You can enter your personal circumstances in the quote requirement, so that’ll be taken into account. For example, the car you drive, your driving record, the mileage, etc. These factors can affect the premiums of the insurance, so they’re good to consider.
Popularity: unranked [?]
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Auto insurance policies in California are regulated by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. And they are serious about it.As they themselves say in their website, the aim of the law that regulates auto insurance is to give private drivers “liability insurance that provides financial responsibility for any damage or injury caused by a traffic collision regardless of fault, and to remove uninsured vehicles from the highways.” The law is appropriately named “California’s Vehicle Financial Responsibility and Suspension Laws.”
So, not only you have to have insurance for your car in California, you have to present proof of it when you renew your vehicle’s registration AND present it to a police officer if he stops you for any reason. And of course, if you ever get into an accident.
An interesting note is that as long as your car is out on the street, you have to be able to present proof of insurance, EVEN if the car is not moving. For example, if your car is parked, and someone else hits it, YOU have to show proof of insurance as well.
There are several methods that the law provides for you to prove your financial liability, but the easiest one by far is to get auto insurance. Other methods are very difficult to get, for example, a deposit of 35,000 dollars or having a car fleet of 25 or more vehicles, so that they serve as insurance for each other.
So, what are the insurance minimums that you need? Let’s look at the law again (note that this applies for private passenger vehicles)
* $15,000 for injury/death to one person.
* $30,000 for injury/death to more than one person.
* $5,000 for damage to property.
In California auto insurance lingo, this insurance coverage is called “15/30” or “basic.” It’s the minimum insurance you have to have in order to be able to drive in California. If you come into California from another country or from Mexico, you have to make sure that your policy covers this or you’ll get in trouble if you are ever stopped or get in an accident.
Lastly, while these are the minimums, you should consider getting more coverage than the law requires. Sure, it will cost you more, but you’ll be able to drive around without the worry that hospital bills will go beyond $30,000. This kind of larger coverage is called “standard” and you can find a good quote for it on this site.
Popularity: unranked [?]
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Do you know what does Rowan Atkinson (of Mr. Bean fame) have in common with every other person reading this article? No? Give up?It’s the love for classic cars.
They all mean something different for everyone. Some love them for the nostalgia. Other people connect them to a golden era. Some others find in them the luxury and elegance that today’s cars have lost. In any case, getting a classic car is a dream for many and a reality for a few.
However, no matter what fantasies classic cars make us dream, we have to deal with reality, and that means getting an insurance policy for our classic cars. In fact, seeing how much we love them, getting insurance for a classic car is even more important than getting it for a normal car.
Classic Auto Insurance in California
Nevertheless, don’t worry. In reality (and in the great state of California), insurance prices for classic cars are quite affordable. That’s because insurance companies assume (and mostly rightly so) that people will take much better care and drive less a classic car than a regular car. Plus, as a rule, people who have a classic car also have a regular car to do their “dirty driving,” so the classic car is only used for leisure driving (and to show it off, of course). And then there are those people who don’t use their classic car at all, but even I think that’s too extreme.
However, there are two things to take into consideration when getting insurance for a classic car.
- It’s better to work with a competent company than with a cheap company. When it comes to classic cars, you don’t want to save money on insurance. If you already have a good experience with the insurance company that handles the insurance for your regular car, especially if you’ve actually seen how they handle accidents, then keep with the same company and don’t look for a cheaper price. On the other hand, if the service has been less than stellar, get another option.
- Get a company that will take an agreed and guaranteed valuation of the car. This is what you will get if the car is stolen. Make sure that they agree to a new valuation in a fixed period of time, as classic cars, unlike regular cars, increase in value with time. Make sure that any extras are included.
These will increase your premiums, of course, and may even cause you some costs, but really, it pays when you go around town in your classic car and not having to worry about anything else than random people taking you photos.
Popularity: unranked [?]
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Inexpensive Auto Policy Rates in CA
Let’s face it, nobody likes to pay insurance, be it auto insurance, or insurance of any kind. It’s like taxes, we know we have to pay them but we don’t like to (well, maybe it isn’t as bad as taxes).
At the same time, we want coverage in case we have an accident. Some people worry that they might get in legal problems because of any damage they may cause. Others worry that the hospital bills may run so high that they’d be in debt all their lives. Yet there are others who worry about being covered for proper medical attention for themselves and their loved ones in case something happens to them in an accident.
Whatever the reason, that’s enough to make you prefer to purchase insurance, even if the law didn’t require you to (and in California, it requires you to).
In fact, the state of California takes insurance so seriously, that the California Department of Insurance keeps an average of rates. Here are some of the rates they have by company.
- Amica- $1,776
- Geico- $3,043
- Progressive West- $3,746
- Victoria Fire- $5,659
As you can see, insurance prices vary greatly from company to company, so it pays to consult several companies before making a decision.
Note that these are averages calculated by the California Department of Insurance, not quotes. So, Geico might have sold an insurance policy at $2,500 and another one at $3,000.
Another thing to consider when seeing this numbers is that they might not reflect your situation. These prices are given considering the following conditions:
- Standard insurance policy (as opposed to basic, which is the minimum required by law).
- Single male (as opposed to single female or with a family).
- Located in the Sunset District of San Francisco. This means that if you live in a much less populated area, your quotes will be lower.
- With 9 to 15 years of having a license. If your license is more recent, then your quotes will be lower.
- Annual mileage between 13,000 and 15,000 miles. Obviously, increasing or decreasing your mileage will affect your quote accordingly.
- Driving record. 1 at fault accident. If you’ve never had any accidents, you will be paying less for insurance.
- Vehicle. Honda Accord. Obviously, the type of car you drive will affect the price of the policy insurance.
Take these prices with a grain of salt. In fact, get in this site a real quote that reflects your situation. You’ll get a much better price.
Popularity: unranked [?]
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California Law stands in the middle of the scale between strict rules and relaxed regulations related to auto insurance in the United States.
It has two main requirements, bodily injury of a minimum of 15,000 dollars for one person, 30,000 dollars for two or more people, and property damage coverage for at least 5,000 dollars. Of course, while those are the minimum requirements, some people prefer to get greater coverage, for example, in case of auto theft. Others prefer to increase the amount covered beyond what is required by law. For example, owners or companies who have big trucks, which are heavier and more likely to inflict greater damage than a car.
The law provides four different ways for becoming legally financially responsible.
- Coverage by an insurance company. The easiest choice of them all. It isn’t more difficult than buying any other type of insurance in any part of the United States. It’s also the one that allows you to customize the coverage according to your needs. In specific, if you want coverage against thefts, this is pretty much the only way to go. It’s also the best choice by far for people who live in California and drive everyway. The only exception is if your car is so old or in a condition that it’s in such a bad condition that makes it unsellable. In that case, just get the cheapest auto car insurance or go for option 4 while you buy yourself a better car.
- A deposit of 35,000 dollars made to the Department of Motor Vehicles of California. As you can imagine, this is a very impractical option and it’s very hard to think of a situation where someone would prefer this over just buying a much cheaper insurance policy. People with low incomes certainly won’t have 35,000 dollars around and use them on a type of car insurance. And people who do have 35,000 dollars to spend can afford insurance with the whole bells and whistles. Really, at this price, you might as well get your own car.
- A certificate of self-insurance. The Department of Motor Vehicles will issue one for you if you have 25 or more vehicles, with your own vehicles being a guarantee of payment.
- A surety bond. The bond has to have a value of $35,000 and is obtained from an insurance company, so you might as well get a regular insurance policy instead.
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Everybody wants to get cheap California auto insurance, and there are several ways to get it. However, it’s just as important to get an insurance policy that complies with California law. By following the basic California auto insurance requirements, it will make things much easier for you in case of an accident, a situation where you will probably have much more than you can handle anyway.
Thus, when looking at different auto insurance policies in California, you shouldn’t only look at the price, but also at the coverage it provides.
The governing law in California that regulates auto insurance is called the Compulsory Financial Responsibility Law. Its objective is to create responsibility and liability for every driver or car owner that is involved in a car accident or incident inside the Californian territory.
It does so by requiring all drivers and car owners to have coverage of two types.
- The first one is body injury. This is the amount of coverage for expenses incurred due to injuries or the death of people during an accident. These might include the other occupants of the car, the occupants of the other car, bystanders, and the driver him or herself.
- The other mandatory type of coverage is property damage. This is the amount of coverage for damage to the property of others in case of accident. The most obvious one is the damage to the other person’s car or your own car, but it might also involve non-moving property; for example, if you crash into someone’s house or business.
Body injury requires you to cover a minimum of $15,000 dollars for a single person in case of one accident, and a minimum of $30,000 dollars for all the people involved in the accident. However, I recommend that if your car has a greater than average risk, like for example, being used by several drivers or in high speedways with regularity, you increase a bit the $30,000 coverage.
Property damage should cover at least $5,000 per accident. However, if you have a risk that’s greater than average, you should consider increasing this at least a bit. If you’ve ever been in an accident, you know how fast “only” $5,000 dollars can go.
It’s important to have all these considerations in mind when getting auto insurance in California. Remember than in case of an accident, you will be stressed and maybe injured or in the middle of an emergency. You may also have to face an angry person if he thinks you’re to blame for the accident. It really pays to make things as easily as possible for you beforehand.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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Nobody denies that California is one of the most beautiful and interesting states in the United States. It’s a great state to live in and to drive around. However, California auto insurance law requires that all drivers carry insurance. It makes no difference if you are driving your own car or someone else’s car.
What is the California Auto Insurance Law?
So, here are already three pieces of advice that you can get from this.
First of all, if, for some reason, you are driving someone else´s car, make sure that the other person has insurance. Or else, take a taxi. It doesn’t matter if the person is very close to you or you’ve known him or her for several years. Also, don’t think that because the distance you’re going is very short you’re risk free. Yes, the risk is lower, but it is still there, and the penalty for getting caught overrides the low risk. If you feel too embarrassed to ask the person if the insurance policy hasn’t expired, you can look for it in the glove compartment.
Second, if you rent a car in California, make sure that it has the proper insurance. Don’t just trust the word of some clerk; ask to see the actual policy. If you don’t think that the policy is enough to cover your risks (which will depend on where you will be driving in California), you can always buy extra coverage. Fortunately, all major car rental companies have basic insurance as part of their plans. That’s why it’s a good idea to go for an established and well known company than an unknown and obscure one.
Types of Vehicles Covered Under California Auto Insurance Law
Third, the California law applies to all vehicles in the state of California, regardless of whether they are registered in California or elsewhere. Thus, if you come into California from Oregon, Nevada, or Arizona, make sure that your state insurance also complies with the requirements of California law. The same applies if you come from Mexico, with the added inconvenience that an immigration officer will check your car papers, including your car insurance, of course. If you are coming from Mexico, it’s highly advisable that you get informed on the exact insurance requirements beforehand, as any irregularity may stop you from crossing the border.
California auto insurance law is not only for people who live and buy cars in the state of California. If you drive in California at all, even if you come from another place, or rent a car, or borrow somebody’s car, you must have an insurance that complies with California’s law.
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What Types of Factors Will Influence Your California Auto Insurance Rates?
So you’re looking for the best California Car Insurance Rate? Well, everyone has to have at least liability insurance on their vehicle. This is the law for every state in the United States. The problem is that a lot of people do not understand what affects the rates of their insurance policy. There are several factors that will increase your policies premium. It is good to know all of these factors before you call or walk into an insurance office.
Save Hundreds On California Auto Insurance Payments:
Your age is one factor that can greatly affect how much your insurance premium will be. If you are a teenager and have just received your driver’s license then your rates will be much higher than an older more experienced driver. Even with teenagers though there are some exceptions to the rule. A teenager who has had Driver’s Education in school can get a reduced rate on their car insurance premium. Good grades will also play a major role in getting your teenager a better discount.
Vehicles that are considered sports car and luxury vehicles will have a higher insurance premium on them. Insurance companies look at the price and the rate of speed a sports car can go. Luxury cars are very expensive. It would cost your insurance company a lot of money to replace one, so they charge higher rates for insuring these types of cars.
There are some factors that an insurance company may consider that might seem unfair to you. These factors include whether you are a man or a woman, if you are married, single, or divorced, and if you are older than sixty five. Insurance companies consider women to be a better risk to insure. When they are looking at your marital status they are looking to see how stable you are. For people who are over sixty five though, you will be able to get a discounted rate if you have taken a driver’s course that has updated your driving skills.
Driving history is very much considered when obtaining an insurance rate. Insurance companies look at whether you have had any accidents that were your fault or any moving violations in the past three years. These factors will make your insurance policy go up considerably. You may even have to pay for special car insurance such as SR-22.
Most vehicles are installed with theft devices in this age of modern technology. Installing one of these devices on your car will help your insurance premium to go down. Thieves will be deterred from stealing your vehicle with one of these devices and insurance companies consider this fact.
You do have a say so in your car insurance rates. When it comes to insurance deductibles you are the boss. It is up to you to decide whether you want to pay a higher deductible if you have an accident. Paying a higher deductible will lower your insurance rates. Paying a lower deductible of course will make you pay a higher premium rate during the year.
It is best to get more than one quote on insurance rates for your vehicle. Knowing the factors that can affect your California vehicle insurance rates will help you in this process.
Popularity: 6% [?]
