Auto Insurance
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San Joaquin was added to a list Monday of eight counties targeted for expansion of the California Low Cost Automobile Insurance Program, which provides eligible low-income good drivers with state-required liability coverage for less than $400 a year.
A town-hall meeting conducted by state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi will be held next Tuesday to gauge the community’s interest in the program.
With enough support, the low-cost insurance program could be rolled out in San Joaquin County…
Source : accessmylibrary.com
EDITORIAL: Real insurance reform.(Editorial)
-The auto insurance titans have paused in their internecine battle over the airwaves, and each side has testified before a legislative committee. It’s a good time to step back and consider whether Massachusetts consumers would be best served by tuning up the current auto insurance system or demolishing it.
Proponents of scrapping the system, including Governor Mitt Romney and Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., decry the state’s fourth-highest-in-the-nation premiums, rampant fraud, and anticompetitive environment that they say drive away large national carriers. Defenders of the tightly-regulated system, including Commerce Insurance and many consumer groups, point to the state’s modest premium increases in recent years – including a reduction this year, affordability compared to median incomes, and low rates of uninsured drivers. Where an insurance company lines up on this debate often depends on how well it is prospering under the current system.
There’s more than a grain of truth to the arguments on…
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Myths and realities of car insurance.(Life in America)
COPYRIGHT 2005 Society for the Advancement of Education
The color of an automobile influences how much it costs to insure it. Comprehensive coverage protects drivers in all situations because, after all, it is “comprehensive.” Car insurance companies can charge whatever they want. Have you ever thought one or more of these statements to be true? You are not alone. A survey conducted by DriveSM Insurance, Mayfield Village, Ohio, from The Progressive Group of…
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Official proposes premium changes: INSURANCE CZAR: AUTO RATES AREN’T FAIR.
Turning up the heat on a long-running debate over auto insurance rates, California’s insurance commissioner proposed new rules Thursday that would require insurers to give people’s driving habits more weight than their home ZIP code when setting their rates.
The proposal came three days after a consumer group’s study found that residents with good driving records were charged substantially more – in some cases 37 percent more – if they lived in heavily African-American or Latino ZIP codes. But the debate has been running since consumer ire led voters in 1988 to approve a ballot…
Source : accessmylibrary.com
The Boston Globe Downtown column.(reforming health and automobile insurance by Governor Mitt Romney )(Column)
With the clock running out on his resume-enhancing tour of the State House, Governor Mitt Romney has set an ambitious agenda for himself for the homestretch: reforming both the health and auto insurance systems. And if Romney gets his way, young people will get the bill.
In his push to require nearly everyone to have health insurance, the governor wants to bring young people into the system. Young, healthy people, he knows, are good risks and will help offset (subsidize) the higher costs for older, less healthy people.
His auto insurance reform, on the other hand, will undermine the subsidies that help keep down rates for young and…
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Maruti forays into auto insurance market
Leading car maker Maruti Udyog has ventured into the domestic auto insurance market in line with its four-pronged foray into the services sector.
Announcing this, MUL managing director Jagdish Khattar said that the company had joined hands with private insurer Bajaj Allianz and state-owned National Insurance Company to sell their insurance products to its customers under ‘Maruti Insurance’.
“We will act as a corporate sales agent and sell their products at all our sales outlets,” he told a press conference here on Friday.
For this, two insurance distribution subsidiaries have been formed - Maruti Insurance Distributors Services (MIDS) and Maruti Insurance Brokers Ltd (MIBL) - to sell products of Bajaj Allianz and National Insurance Company, respectively.
MUL, India’s largest car maker, has 253 dealerships in 156 cities, besides 333 workshops in 804 cities.
The insurance venture is the last of the four businesses Maruti has entered as part of its ‘Project Vistaar’ programme that has been drawn up in alliance with consulting firm A T Kearney.
The company already operates used car business, car finance, and corporate lease and fleet management.
Apart from new cars, the insurance cover would be made available to about one million Maruti vehicles which had been on the road for the last three to four years, MUL general manager (new business) R S Kalsi said.
MUL follows other car makers like Hyundai and Ford who already have separate insurance arms to sell insurance products to their customers.
The domestic general insurance premium market has been estimated at Rs 13,000 crore, of which 40-45 per cent is generated from motor insurance.
More : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Drive safely with auto insurance
Third party insurance is mandatory: If you own a car, buying at least third party insurance is mandatory under law. You would be safer buying comprehensive insurance since repair/replacement costs are very high in case the car meets with an accident or is stolen.
How much insurance should you buy: For a new car, the amount of insurance you buy would be equal to the price of the car. The problem arises with how much cover to buy in subsequent years. At the time of claim, the insurance company will pay you the market value of the car and not how much you have insured it for.
You could find out market value of your car from second hand car dealers or even ask the insurance agent to give you an estimate of the insurance company’s assessment of your car’s market value.
All companies will charge you same premium: In India the Tariff Advisory Committee of IRDA determines premium rates, so rates are uniform for all companies. Premium rate depends on car model, engine size, seating capacity and market value of the car. It does not depend on the company’s evaluation of how risky you are as a driver (as in the US, where you are charged higher premium if you have a record for recklessness).
Premium rate of premium also depends on geographical area (in case of comprehensive coverage, not third party insurance, where rates are uniform everywhere). The country has been divided into two zones: Zone A and Zone B. Premium rates in Zone B are higher (because the frequency of accidents/claims is higher here). Delhi, as you have probably guessed, falls in Zone B.
Demand discounts: Insurance companies reward your safe driving record. If you have made no claims during a year, when you go to get your policy renewed, you will be charged less. On the other hand, if you have made a claim, you will be charged more at the time of renewal.
More : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Whitman Offers Proposal On Auto Insurance Reform
Responding to public opinion polls that show voters remain unhappy at paying what are among the nation’s highest auto insurance rates, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman held a public forum at the Ikea store here today to announce a proposal that would cut rates by up to 25 percent for consumers who give up their right to file lawsuits for pain and suffering.
Based on a similar proposal that she offered in the spring but that was rejected by the Republican-controlled State Legislature, Mrs. Whitman again suggested that drivers should be able to save money by having the option to choose different levels of coverage.
‘’It is your choice, your ability to control your costs,'’ Mrs. Whitman, a Republican who is running for reelection, told the shoppers and store employees in the store’s sofa department who sat back on the couches and politely listened to her plan.
The critical difference between her new proposal and the previous one is that she is now calling for insurance companies to provide a set amount of savings, even though she had criticized mandated rate rollbacks as unconstitutional when they were proposed by her Democratic opponent in the gubernatorial race. Mrs. Whitman contended that her proposal would be constitutional because it would allow insurance companies to offer less coverage, rather than forcing them to offer the same level of coverage at lower rates, and would therefore not threaten their ability to earn a profit.
Since reports of her proposal began to circulate over the weekend, Mrs. Whitman’s Democratic opponent, State Senator James E. McGreevey, has attacked it as ‘’an election-year reversal.'’
More : query.nytimes.com
Auto Insurance Crash Course; Getting the Best Premiums Is More Complex Than Ever
WHEN Amy Salvatore looked over her auto insurance bill last month, she figured that she could save about $300 a year by eliminating coverage for theft and collision on her 10-year-old Chevy Astro minivan.
With a $500 deductible, she said the extra protection was hardly worth it. She had long ago dropped collision on the 1982 Ford pickup that her husband, Thomas, a carpenter, uses for work.
But after calling her insurance company, Ms. Salvatore said she was surprised to learn that the time-honored practice of reducing insurance coverage to lower rates would not work under the state’s new automobile insurance pricing system.
In fact, her premiums would rise to $1,857 a year from $1,812 if she eliminated her theft and collision protection. It turns out the the new pricing system allows insurance companies to disqualify customers without full coverage from getting the best rates.
‘’I thought this must be illegal,'’ said Ms. Salvatore, 44, who uses her minivan mostly to cart her three school-aged children and their friends around town. ‘’I thought that this could not possibly be allowed. I should be able to save money by having less coverage.'’
As the state’s long-awaited automobile insurance law takes effect tomorrow with its promise to cut rates by 15 percent, Ms. Salvatore and hundreds of thousands of drivers in New Jersey are finding that getting the best auto insurance rates and policy has become more complex than ever before.
More : query.nytimes.com
Servicemen Found Rated as Auto Insurance Risks; Allstate’s Reasons
Military personnel, as a class, are treated as exceptional risks by 18 of 19 leading automobile insurance companies recently surveyed by the investigative staff of a House Judiciary subcommittee.
Source : select.nytimes.com