Auto Insurance
Pages (29) : « First ... « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 [17] 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 » ... Last »Insurance Cost To Homeowner Climbs Sharply
Across the country, the cost of insuring a home is climbing sharply and is expected to continue doing so for several years. Prices are rising at more than twice the 3 percent average of recent years, and by more than 10 percent in many states.
Allstate, the second-largest home insurer, has been leading the way, with increases of 10 percent to 25 percent in several states. State Farm, the largest home insurer, has been more reluctant to raise prices, lifting premiums 6 percent to 10 percent in a handful of states. Safeco, the eighth largest, says it expects increases to average more than 25 percent for its 1.5 million customers this year.
Though other companies are more circumspect than Safeco about overall insurance rates, analysts say higher prices are almost certain to spread. ‘’These are shock increases,'’ said J. Robert Hunter, the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America.
Insurance companies, which set their own rates, state by state, and zone by zone within each state, are responding to profit pressures. The companies are earning less on their investments and on certain types of personal policies while reeling from a surge in weather-related claims in the last few years. In addition to raising rates, some companies are also forcing homeowners to pay more out of pocket after they file claims.
Rising home values compound the situation for some people, since higher rates come as the values of their policies increase. And the average increases often mask outright price surges for those living in areas singled out by insurers.
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THE REGION; New Jersey Drivers Fret Over the Cost Of Their Insurance
NEW Jerseyans have known for some time that they pay the highest auto insurance premiums in the country. But as the cost continues to rise, while neighboring states seem able to restrain increases, the high price of coverage is emerging as an important political issue.
NEW Jerseyans have known for some time that they pay the highest auto insurance premiums in the country. But as the cost continues to rise, while neighboring states seem able to restrain increases, the high price of coverage is emerging as an important political issue.
In August, Kenneth D. Merin, the State Insurance Commissioner, announced $60 million in increases, including higher premiums for drivers found at fault in an accident and reductions in savings for motorists choosing certain reduced-coverage options. For thousands of New Jerseyans, that meant annual increases of up to $158 in their insurance premiums starting last week. Moreover, the State Insurance Department is expected to rule by the end of this year on a request for a 16 percent increase in the cost of basic coverage, which would raise the current estimated average annual cost of auto insurance in the state $105 - from $640 to $745 a policy.
Though state officials have said the request is unlikely to be granted in full, its size has made automobile insurance a major issue in this fall’s legislative races, with Governor Kean and the Republican-led Assembly at loggerheads with the Democratic Senate majority over how to hold premiums down.
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Car Insurers Don’t Pad the Bill for New Yorkers
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s contention that New York City residents have been treated in an ‘’unfair way'’ by insurance companies (news article, Aug. 23) is not supported by the facts.
We are pleased that auto thefts in the city have been reduced by 50 percent since 1990. But the Mayor’s contention that this should result in a 50 percent reduction in auto insurance rates shows a lack of understanding about how insurance premiums are set.
Comprehensive coverage, which protects against auto theft, fire, vandalism and damage caused by weather, is only part of the total auto insurance premium – just 18 percent of the average premium in New York State for 1990-94. Therefore, auto theft is only a part of the risk involved in calculating the comprehensive premium.
Most important, auto insurance premiums in New York are set by the state’s Insurance Department, which scrutinizes all rate requests before they take effect and requires each insurer to justify its rates. New York has an excess-profits law, which limits the profit an insurance company can earn. The department’s scrutiny, along with legislative oversight of the department, makes sure that insurance rates reflect the underlying cost of insurance products.
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Auto Insurance Rate Cuts Up to 25% to Be Filed Soon; Major Companies Would Favor Those Doing Limited Amount of Riding and Young Drivers Under Family Control REVISIONS PLANNED IN AUTO INSURANCE
A major revision in automobile insurance rates for private passenger cars, reducing the cost to adults who do a limited amount of pleasure driving and to parents with young “part-time” drivers in the family, has been adopted by leading insurance companies.
Source : select.nytimes.com
With the Questions Clear, The Voters Want Answers
According to a new poll released last week by Quinnipiac College, those are the issues that New Jersey voters want the candidates to discuss the most during this year’s gubernatorial campaign.
Not to worry. Voters can count on hearing a lot about taxes, education, and particularly auto insurance in the coming months, based on what three Democratic contenders had to say when they formally began their campaigns for governor last week.
On Tuesday, State Senator James E. McGreevey, a Democrat who is also the Mayor of Woodbridge Township, called for an expansion of pre-kindergarten programs, all-day kindergarten and a state income-tax deduction for state college tuition. He blamed Governor Whitman for the state’s high auto-insurance rates and promised to push for a constitutional ammendment so voters could elect an insurance commissioner rather than have the governor appoint one. On taxes, he did not mention that he voted in support of former Gov. Jim Florio’s tax increase. Instead, he chose to criticize Mrs. Whitman for rising property tax rates and poor fiscal management.
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PERSONAL BUSINESS; Insurance Shortcuts, On Line
DURING a lunch break at work this summer, Allen Crane tapped into the Internet on his desktop computer, looking for life insurance.
Within half an hour, Mr. Crane, a recently married computer programmer in Fort Worth, had looked at prices from more than two dozen companies. Later, he talked with his wife, Laura, and then, on another lunch break, went back to an Internet site called Quickquote and bought a $500,000 policy.
‘’I liked being able to comparison-shop,'’ Mr. Crane said.
Internet shopping is booming these days, and shares in companies like Amazon.com, which peddles books, and Ebay, an on-line auction service, are surging. But it is not just books, collectibles and electronic gear that are popping up on computer screens. As Mr. Crane’s experience shows, more and more people are searching the Internet for good deals in insurance as well. Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., says it expects Internet insurance sales to approach $155 million this year and to soar to $4 billion within five years.
Two years ago, when insurance sales were just beginning on the Internet, about the only kind you could buy was term life, the least complicated form of life insurance. But now, several companies are offering auto insurance over the Internet – listing various companies’ offerings on a single Web site – and some have added homeowners’, health and disability policies, too.
Pricing of auto insurance, with its many variables, is hard to translate over the Internet. But because it is mandatory in almost every state, it holds the most potential. ‘’Eighty million households have to buy or renew auto insurance each year,'’ said Linda Maurer, a spokeswoman for Insweb, an Internet company in Redwood City, Calif., that is betting heavily on auto insurance. ‘’About four million people buy term life.'’
For most people, shopping for insurance is not quite as onerous as major surgery. But it is a long way down the pleasure list from planning a vacation in the tropics. Many customers say they just want to see what is available, know how much it will cost, make decisions and pay.
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Ruling Favors Auto Insurers, Citing Fraud In Claims
A New York State judge yesterday upheld stricter no-fault auto insurance regulations that the Pataki administration had been trying to put into effect for two years in an effort to curb soaring auto insurance fraud in the state.
The new administrative regulations decrease to 30 days from 90 the period an injured party has to report an accident to the responsible insurer, and to 45 days from 180 the time for doctors to submit compensation claims for treating the injuries.
A spokeswoman for the State Insurance Department said the agency would put the regulations into effect immediately, meaning that the stricter rules would apply to all newly written policies and to existing policies upon their renewal.
But the chief lawyer for a coalition of medical, legal and consumer groups that had brought the lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to try to block the tighter regulations said it was highly likely that the coalition would appeal the decision and also seek to keep the regulations from going into effect pending the outcome of an appeal.
In refusing to declare the adoption of the new rules ‘’arbitrary and capricious,'’ as the coalition of groups argued, Justice William A. Wetzel held that their adoption was ‘’well within the authority'’ of the state. He said the regulations were justified in the effort to remedy a no-fault system ‘’diseased by fraud of a dimension which threatens the economic viability of the program and carries enormous financial consequences for insurers and insureds throughout the state.'’
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A Recurring Theme Plays On: Auto Insurance
The gubernatorial campaign of United States Representative Robert E. Andrews released its first television advertisement yesterday. The Democratic primary is on June 3.
PRODUCER – Axelrod and Associates.
ON THE SCREEN – Scenes of highways, automobiles and Mr. Andrews in Congress.
THE SCRIPT – ‘’In Christie Whitman’s New Jersey, auto insurance rates are out of control. Seventeen hikes in four years. Highest in the nation. Who’s fighting back? Rob Andrews. In Congress, Andrews took on the big polluters, pension raiders and the N.R.A. for working families. As governor, he’ll go after the insurance companies. He’ll end automatic rate hikes and force companies who want to sell health or home insurance to cut auto rates first. Let’s fight back. Rob Andrews for governor.'’
Source : query.nytimes.com
Republicans And Whitman Reach Accord On Insurance
Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and Republican legislative leaders resolved a dispute today over last-minute changes that Mrs. Whitman had made in proposed auto insurance legislation that had threatened to scuttle it. The agreement cleared the way for final approval of the bill by the State Senate and the General Assembly in the next couple of weeks.
It appeared that Mrs. Whitman and legislative leaders had reached an agreement on the auto insurance overhaul last week. But within days after the State Senate approved a measure, lawmakers discovered that Mrs. Whitman had made a revision that would give panels of doctors the final say over disputed medical bills. The original legislation continued to leave the decisions up to arbitrators, who are mostly lawyers.
After some lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Jack Collins, criticized the change, Mrs. Whitman and Republican legislative leaders looked for a compromise. Under the agreement reached today, arbitrators would continue to make the final decisions. But they would have to rely heavily on the findings of review panels made up of doctors.
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PERSONAL BUSINESS; That Dazed Feeling on Insurance Prices
IS it time to renew your car insurance? Nowadays, the advice to comparison-shop makes more sense than ever.
Prices for the same coverage typically differ by as much as several hundred dollars from one company to the next. Now rates are rising in general, and many discounts are being discarded while new ones are being offered. And some major insurers have started adjusting prices based on the safety performance of vehicles.
Some drivers of big cars and sport utility vehicles that can heavily damage lighter cars in accidents can expect to pay more for liability coverage than drivers of smaller cars. However, owners of those large vehicles may pay less for personal injury and other medical coverage because their passengers are generally better protected.
‘’At no time in recent history have so many things been happening that can affect what you pay for auto insurance,'’ said Robert P. Hartwig, the chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, an insurance trade group based in New York.
By shopping, consumers can make the changes pay off. But it takes work – in many cases, more work than most people put into pricing and buying a new car. There are hundreds of insurance companies and, even with the Internet, no single place, like the Kelley Blue Book for car values, to find the best deal among the myriad combinations of rates.
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