It can be difficult to obtain a good deal in car insurance if you don’t how the industry works. Before applying for insurance, you have to learn about the important factors that influence the premium rate.

Most car insurance companies will require you to show your credit report. They want to evaluate your credit report to learn about your financial circumstances. If you have good credit score, they will offer a premium discount.  Studies have shown that people who pay their premium on time tend to have a lower risk than people who don’t pay their premium on time. If you have a low credit score, it is recommended that you wait until your credit score becomes acceptable before applying for the insurance. To increase your credit score, you must pay your credit card bills on time.

Insurance companies charge a lower premium on customers who hold low risk occupation. The insurance company does research on the driver’s habit by collecting the record of the demographics. Afterwards, they classify the driving record based on the different occupation. In this way, they know people in which professions have the lowest driving risk. People who work in certain professions such as doctors, and engineers are considered low risk drivers. Sometimes, insurance companies give discount for people that achieve good grades in their college and university studies. When applying for insurance, make sure you offer information about your education and profession so that you can qualify for a low risk discount.

Most states require the car owners to make payment for the sales tax. Some of the states that require car owners to pay the sales tax include Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, Illinois, New York, Washington D.C., Nebraska, Wisconsin and etc. To avoid the sales tax, you must request for it. The insurance company will never take the initiative to pay the sales tax for you. Most insurance company will pay the sales tax if the customers make the request.

To reduce the auto insurance cost, it is advised that you don’t include your teenager in the policy. It is not necessary to include your teenager in the policy unless he or she had reached 18 years old. Most parents only add their teenager to the policy when they have a driving license. When filing a claim, make sure you inform the insurance company that your teenager is a licensed driver.

The model of your car will influence your premium cost. Car insurance companies use a rating system to evaluate the car model. The car is given a rating in between 1 – 27. If your car model has a high rating, you will be charged with a higher premium. To find the car model with the lowest rating, you can use the online vehicle ratings comparison tool.

Signing up for a car insurance policy automatically draws the question on the aspect of your deductibles – how high you would like to make your deductibles. The auto insurance policy once purchased has to include the level of your deductibles upon which you have to decide.

Deductible represents the amount of money that the beneficiary is supposed to pay on a claim before the insurance concluded begins paying. In order for you to have lower premiums (payments) you have to know that the high deductible is one of the aspects that draw the costs cuts in the rates of your car insurance policy.

The majority of insurers offer possibilities of deductibles in a range of $200 to $1,000, as well as others that have in their policies $2,000 deductibles options. Taking for instance the case in which you have chosen a policy with $500 deductible amount; if your car damages are estimated to $1,000, then you have to pay first $500, after which your insurance policy will deal with the rest. Therefore the deductible is the amount that you will be able to partially pay to get your car fixed.

But a question that probably bothers most individuals is how does one know what the most appropriate deductible is? This question raises in its turn other questions that you would need to answer. For instance, you have to be quite sure about the costs involved in the case of a collision. In this situation you must know exactly how expensive your car is?

If you own a luxury car, then you know by now how expensive to get it fixed must be. If you own a car that is imported, then you should consider the fact that there is a possibility for its spare parts not to be found somewhere else but in the manufacturing country. In this situation its repairing might take more of your money considering that these parts need to be ordered.

Thinking of paying a higher deductible and have the benefits of low costs car insurance rates, then the advantage could be seen in that once paying a large amount of deductible is a short term investment which has its profit in the long run of low costs.

The money you have put in the high deductible could be paid back through the lower premiums that are included in your car insurance policy. Otherwise, you might invest a small amount which will not be paid back in any long term profit, considering that the amount for the rate is constantly high.

Keep in mind to run a proper inquiry when it comes to pay your deductible, in this way you will take notice of the pros and cons of such payment, then the decision to choose what suits your ends is only up to you to take. Also bear in mind the option of compiling a large amount of quotes, in this case you are given the possibility to compare them and as such to take the best decision for the payment of your deductibles.

(Insurance News) – The Health Care Reform law, signed by President Barrack Obama on March 23, 2010, could potentially have a positive effect on medical malpractice liability, actuaries were told at the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) Seminar on Reinsurance.

John Mize, consulting actuary, Towers Watson, noted that some provisions of the law emphasize value-based compensation programs. “Hospitals will get penalized if they have a larger proportion of readmissions than others. Hospitals are already focused on loss prevention, and hopefully through this process there will be even more motivation for hospitals to provide better care, which will result in more favorable outcomes and fewer claims,” he said.

Paul Fields, vice president – underwriting, Odyssey Re, added that hospitals will need more stringent quality control measures. “How do hospitals integrate this into their system? What is the cost differential? What is the impact — better quality of care, better support services? It’s not clear, but there is going to be much more focus on primary care.”

According to Fields, accountable care coordination programs that are jointly managed by hospitals and physicians have the potential to create a smoother continuum of care. “As the programs are further developed, we’ll learn more about the benefits. Perhaps it could reduce or eliminate some of the gaps in the current structure,” he said.

In addition to enhanced hospital loss prevention activities, other potential favorable factors have improved medical malpractice loss experience in recent years.

When the cost of medical malpractice increased dramatically about 10 years ago, hospital systems became more focused on loss prevention, Mize said. “They looked at where their most expensive claims were occurring, and created loss prevention activities to reduce risks in those specific areas.”

“Plaintiff attorneys have also become more selective about their cases due to the high cost of litigation. This has helped drive claims frequency and costs down,” Mize explained.

Some of these favorable factors, however, may not hold over time. If medical malpractice is viewed as more fertile ground for plaintiff attorneys in the future, they may accept more cases, which would drive up claims frequency. Likewise, jury attitudes may change over time and become less favorable to healthcare providers. However, the loss prevention activities that hospitals have put in place should have a lasting impact, assuming hospitals are persistent in those efforts.

Looking at the potential of tort reform, Mize said that his sense is that the most effective tort reform seems to be passed when constituents feel that access to care is at risk. If a federal tort reform law pre-empted state laws, some states that currently have strong tort reform may see costs increase as a result of the change.

The panelists noted that there could also be negative effects from the health care reform law, including the short term potential for the primary care network to be overburdened. Physicians could become more leveraged, and increase their reliance on physician assistants or nurse practitioners. This burden may cause lesser trained care providers to look at more complicated health issues.

“While there’s a plan to educate and train physicians, it’s not broad enough,” said Fields. “The number of patients who are seen in a given day creates a strain. For example, if patients are seeing their doctor for 15-20 minutes now, that might drop to 5 or 10 minutes. If that happens, the error rates will go up.”

Fields added that there is also the potential to increase the administrative burden on physicians. “This could put more pressure on physicians to hire people to handle administrative duties, or if they handle the duties themselves, it will take away more time from patients.

“There also could be pressure to try to reduce costs, and testing could be an area that is cut back. Testing has improved the physician’s diagnosis so if testing is cut back, there could be an increase in cases of misdiagnosis or failed diagnosis. That has the potential to create bad outcomes and increase claims.”

Kelly A. Salmon, an actuarial associate for Guy Carpenter, moderated the panel session, which was held at the CAS Seminar on Reinsurance in New York City on May 6, 2010.

The Casualty Actuarial Society fulfills its mission to advance actuarial science through a focus on research and education. Among its 5,200 members are experts in property-casualty insurance, reinsurance, finance, risk management, and enterprise risk management.

(BUSINESS WIRE) – Nationwide Insurance claim representatives and agents are prepared to assist customers should Hurricane Alex become a weather-related disaster. As weather alerts and reports from around the country track the storm patterns, Nationwide has people and resources in place to respond quickly to its customers’ needs.

Policyholders with storm damage should call the Nationwide claims hotline at 1-800-421-3535 or contact their local agent.

“Claims reported by our customers will be assessed quickly to assure fast and quality service,” said Ken Enscoe, Nationwide’s director of catastrophe claims operations. “It’s important for us to prepare early and be ready to act quickly for our customers.”

Storm centers are planned for areas hardest hit to receive and handle claims from customers. Claims representatives will set out from these locations to assess property damage.

Texas residents can take the following steps now to help prepare for Hurricane Alex:

• Protect the four critical areas where wind can enter: roof, windows, doors and garage doors. Either you or a building contractor can build and install temporary protection, such as approved wind shutters or plywood on windows, and coverings for patio and entry doors. You can also strengthen and stiffen garage doors and install heavy-duty door hardware.
• Turn off power and water.
• Move any items from your yard that can become flying debris into your house or garage.
• Protect mementos in waterproof containers and/or take them with you if you evacuate. (Other household items can be replaced.)
• Inventory valuables and contents in the home with pictures or video. Note the approximate value of each item and the date of purchase.
• Make sure important documents, such as an insurance policy or mortgage papers, are stored in a safe deposit or fire safe box.
• Follow the safety instructions of local authorities.

About Nationwide

Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and is rated A+ by A.M. Best. The company provides a full range of personalized insurance and financial services, including auto insurance, motorcycle, boat, homeowners, life insurance, farm, commercial insurance, administrative services, annuities, mortgages, mutual funds, pensions, long-term savings plans and health and productivity services. For more information, visit nationwide.com.

(Bloomberg) – The BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will push up the price of insurance on offshore drilling, said Lloyd’s of London Chief Executive Officer Richard Ward.

“Rates have to go up quite significantly,” Ward said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “In Business With Margaret Brennan” today. “Rates had fallen to quite a low level in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore energy. We’d been questioning the profitability of insurance in that region for quite some time.”

Insurers are charging 50 percent more for policies covering oil rigs after an explosion on the Deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico triggered the worst spill in U.S. history, Moody’s Investors Service said on June 3. London-based BP has spent $2 billion to respond to the disaster.

Lloyd’s estimates its insurers will pay $300 million to $600 million in claims related to the Deepwater Horizon rig. Lloyd’s underwriters insured the rig, owned by Transocean Ltd., and has caps on the coverage it provided for environmental damage caused by the spill. BP, which didn’t buy insurance, will cover the majority of the costs, forecast to be at least $20 billion by the U.S. government.

‘More Capital’

“We should see more capital come in,” Ward said of the capacity of insurers to cover greater risks in the Gulf. “With these major catastrophes, you always get a rate adjustment after the catastrophe,” Ward said in a separate interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York before his TV appearance.

Lloyd’s, the three-century-old insurance market, is composed of more than 80 syndicates that underwrite risks on commercial property, marine risks and celebrity assets. The syndicates that insured Transocean have already contributed about half of a $570 million payment tied to the rig’s destruction, Ward said.

Lloyd’s underwriters have sued BP in U.S. district court, asking the judge to declare that they have no obligation to cover pollution-related liability claims resulting from the spill because contracts between BP and Transocean stipulated that the rig owner wouldn’t be responsible for contamination that originates below the surface. BP made an attempt to provide the insurers with a notice of claims in May, Lloyd’s underwriters said in their complaint.

‘Not as Clear Cut’

“Policies are not as clear cut as you might expect, there’s always a bit of ambiguity,” Ward said of the dispute with BP. “No one, I don’t believe, has a good understanding at this point in time as to what the cause was. And until you do have a good understanding of the cause, it’s difficult to know where are the liabilities.”

Judge Melinda Harmon called a pretrial conference for Sept. 9 in Houston.

Lloyd’s insurers reported record profits last year on a benign North Atlantic hurricane season and higher investment returns. The market keeps about a third of its assets in corporate bonds, a third in cash and a third in government obligations, mostly from the U.S. and U.K., Ward said.

“We have significant exposure to the U.S. and significant exposure to the U.K., and we’re comfortable with that,” Ward said. “We are not going to shift that portfolio significantly in the next few years.”

Insured losses tied to natural disasters have increased this year as carriers pay claims tied to rainstorms in the U.S. Northeast, the earthquake in Chile and windstorms in Europe. Yesterday, AccuWeather Inc. boosted its forecast for the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season to 18 to 21 named storms, up from 16 to 18. Climate change, Ward said, is pushing up catastrophe risk, while increases in global trade are raising the cost of disasters.

‘Reassess the Risk’

“Everyone is having to reassess the risk arising from climate change and recognize that severity and frequency is increasing,” Ward said. “We now suddenly discover we are exposed to risks around the world. Supply chains are getting more complex. Supply chain risk is a big issue. With greater wealth comes greater risk.”

(UPI) – Earning a college degree may make the difference for women in getting health insurance, compared to those with a high-school degree, U.S. researchers said.

Lead author Roberta Wyn of the University of California, Los Angeles, said the study found women without a high-school diploma were nearly four times more likely to be uninsured as women with a college degree.

Wyn and colleagues found that in California in 2007, 2.5 million women ages 18-64 were uninsured at some time of the year.

The study found 75 percent of women with a college degree had health insurance from an employer, compared with 49 percent of those with a high-school degree and 23 percent of those who had not graduated high school.

In addition, 42 percent of the women without a high-school degree did not have health insurance, in contrast to 11 percent of college-educated women, the study said.

“Health insurance coverage and education are clearly linked,” Wyn said in a statement.

(HealthcareDigital) – Issues in health care coverage attributed to unemployment, lack of education.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has released two reports conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) on the nation’s health insurance coverage. The reports revealed some staggering numbers, the biggest being that 46.3 Americans are uninsured, a figure that spawns concern about the passage of health care reform bill.

Statistics have shown 46.3 million persons of all ages (15.4%) are uninsured, 58.5 million (19.4%) had been uninsured for at least part of the year, and 32.8 million (10.9%) had been uninsured for more than a year. Of those uninsured, 21.1% were adults aged 18-64, 8.2% were children under the age of 18, and the remaining 17% was attributed to seniors over the age of 64. With the COBRA health care subsidies ending, this number is likely to rise over the next year.

According to a CDC report, the largest problem for Americans who lacked insurance for part of the year correlated with the lack of employment, as 60.6 percent of unemployed adults (ages 18 to 64) experienced a lack of health coverage during that time as compared to only 21.8 percent of employed adults. And of the people uninsured for more than a year, 32.9 percent of them were unemployed, while only 13.3 percent of them were employed. With the U.S. financial crisis rendering many people unemployed or underemployed, health insurance has become one of the casualties.

It’s to be expected that the largest uninsured group was aged 18-24, those out of high school, who were not enrolled or under-enrolled in college, unemployed or working in jobs that do not offer health care benefits. Typically wages earned in this demographic cannot be stretched to buy an individual health insurance policy.

Lack of health insurance coverage was greatest in the South and West regions of the United States. Among adults who lacked a high school diploma, 32.9% were uninsured, 36.4% had been uninsured for at least part of the past year, and 27.4% had been uninsured for more than a year. These rates are two or three times as high as individuals with more than a high school education. Approximately one in four persons under age 65 in Florida and Texas, and one in five persons under age 65 in California and Georgia, lack coverage.

The number of Americans insured under individual plans dropped over the last year by almost 3%, with approximately two-thirds (65.8%) of adults aged 18-64 covered by a private plan, compared with 55.7% of children under age 18. Those covered by public plans consisted of 21% total, more than one-third of them being children.

Insurance are usually known to “serve and protect” those who have decided to conclude insurance policies in no matter what aspect of their life. The same purpose is conferred to the auto insurance policy: it has to financially come to your rescue when you have the misfortune of getting your car damaged in an accident.

Once you set your mind on checking out the car insurance policy one tip is to make sure of having a hitch free claim process, in this way you are enabled to get the payout that you need. To do this you will have to perform some steps at the scene of the accidents. Depending on their execution that will draw the way the collision occurred, you will have the chance to claim for a hassle free process.

The collision of your car is not a thing that is desired to happen, but if so, in this case you should consider yourself lucky to be alive. You have to bear in your mind that a car is a car and as many other things it can be fixed or replaced; and besides there is this car insurance policy to cover for your loss, therefore the car being damaged should be the least of your concerns.

A tip that is useful to consider in case of a collision is to make sure first that the passengers who were with in the car at the moment of collision are not injured. On contrary, if you notice that there is someone hurt do call the ambulance without touching or moving the injured person. In the happy situation of no one being hurt, you should perform some steps in order to be sure that your claiming process will end up successfully.

These tips are meant to help you in this respect. First you have to write down every detail that can describe the collision, such as taking note of the registration numbers of other vehicle which might have been involved in the accident as well as name or names of the drivers involved. Next you will need to write down the names of the existing witnesses and their contact details. In case the accident was way too serious, then the presence of police will be required at the scene of the accident.

When police officers arrive and you feel yourself well enough, ensure to take all their badge numbers, names and number of their precinct. Think of the range of your cover you have signed for once you have concluded a auto insurance policy and depending on that you should call the insurance company to be sure they have someone sent to the scene of the collision.

In case this doesn’t happen, then it is up to you to register every detail as accurate as possible for a potential re-enactment for the insurance company. This will help you recollect exactly the information required in drawing the diagram of the collision in the future time.

The Senate has readied some backup legislation designed to ensure that the National Flood Insurance Program doesn’t lapse after its current authorization expires May 31.

The bill, S. 3347, was introduced last night on the Senate floor by Sen. David Vitter, R-La. It would extend the program until Dec. 31, giving Congress additional time to deal with a long-term extension.

Companion legislation has also been introduced in the House.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, took the first procedural step Tuesday night to ensure that the Senate could pass the bill quickly if the Congress is unable to complete work by May 31 on omnibus bills containing the extension until Dec. 31, according to Blain Rethmeier, an American Insurance Association spokesman.

The program has lapsed twice in recent months because Congress was unable to pass bills to extend unemployment benefits, COBRA health insurance benefits and other programs, which had provisions for extension of the flood insurance program attached.

“Both the House and Senate now have free-standing bills to extend the NFIP through the end of this year,” Mr. Rethmeier said.

“This allows such legislation to be considered outside the context of the other “extenders” that will also expire on May 31st,” he said.

“Our message that lapses in the program are not good for anyone has been heard,” he said.

The House Financial Services Committee recently passed legislation reauthorizing the program for five years as well as reforming, amending and modernizing it.

But, the Senate Banking Committee has not had time to consider the issue because it has been spending its time crafting financial services reform legislation since last December. That bill is now on the Senate floor.

(Montgomery Life) – Teenagers Joe Bennett of East Vincent and Morgan Scott of Harleysville learned that mixing driving with texting or talking on a cell phone could be a recipe for disaster.

Bennett, 18, and Scott, 16, squashed fluorescent yellow traffic cones Monday as they tried to maneuver vehicles through an advanced driving course while purposely distracted by phone calls, texting and rowdy passengers as part of Allstate Insurance Company’s “Family Driving Challenge.”

“All of my friends are going to hear about this one,” Scott said while getting out of the driver’s seat of her family’s blue Saturn sedan after she skewered several traffic cones while talking on the cell phone and driving. “I will tell them how dangerous it is to drive on the phone … and that you need both hands on the wheel all the time.

“I learned that I can’t drive while talking to anybody, to hang up the phone pretty fast,” added Bennett, revealing his mother Dee’s rule about not using the cell phone while driving was reinforced when he was forced to do so. “It’s nearly impossible for me to try.”

Dee Bennett said the event was an eye-opening occasion.

“You actually experience what can happen if you’re talking on a cell phone to somebody who’s asking you questions or making plans and you see that if you have to avoid something you don’t have the capability of doing it,” Dee Bennett said. “It’s evident to me, whether I am a driver or a passenger or the person in the other car, it’s just not a good idea.”

Scott’s mother, Penni, said the safe driving rules she set for her daughter were reinforced through the driving challenge.

“You can tell her a million times that it’s not safe to pick up your phone when you’re driving, but to have her actually do it, and run over just about every cone on the course, I think drove the point home,” Penni Scott said.

Allstate sponsored the driving challenge, a controlled environment with professional driving instructors, on the parking lot of the King of Prussia Mall complex to draw attention to the dangers of distracted driving practices.

“It provides both the parent and the teen a hands-on experience of what these distractions do to their ability to drive,” explained Tracey King, spokeswoman for Allstate. “It absolutely drills the point home.”

A total of eight families participated in the event, during which teens and their parents were timed as they navigated a series of traffic cones, first without distractions, and then with distractions, such as cell phone usage and disruptive passengers.

The families, who hailed from Montgomery, Berks and Chester counties, were selected through area Allstate agents.

One by one, as the teenagers, and then their parents, navigated the course, the traffic cones went flying across the parking lot as distractions were added to the mix. Professional driving instructors from Swerve, a Washington state organization that assists Allstate with the challenge, called the drivers on cell phones as they navigated the course and the drivers were forced to read a text message sent to them while driving.

“With the introduction of distractions they truly can’t navigate through the course as safely as they were able to undistracted,” said King, adding each cone that was struck resulted in a five-second penalty to the driver’s course time.

The teenager who was able to navigate the course in the fastest time with the least number of cones struck was considered the victor.

The event also provided Allstate officials the chance to show their support for pending Pennsylvania House Bill 67, which would provide more stringent restrictions for teen drivers, including prohibiting the use of all interactive wireless devices by drivers with a learner’s permit or junior license. The bill, passed by the House in April 2009, is currently in the state Senate and some senators have proposed amendments that supporters believe will weaken the bill.

A vote on the bill in the Senate could come as early as May 24.

“People who influence lawmakers are more likely to be the parents, rather than the teens themselves. So we’re putting our stake in the ground saying that this bill is important to ensure that our teens make it home each and every time they take the responsibility behind the wheel of a vehicle,” King said.

In addition to banning cell phone usage by driving teens the bill would: restrict the number of underage passengers in vehicles operated by teens; add 15 hours of practical driving experience as a prerequisite to the holder of a learner’s permit under 18 before obtaining a junior license; and make it a primary offense to not wear a seat belt for drivers and front seat occupants under 18.

Penni Scott supports the restrictions proposed under the bill and said the law would help “back up” rules set by parents. She added parents who might have a difficult time saying no to their children can rely on the law to help them enforce driving rules.

“I think they would be putting our children at risk to weaken the law,” said Penni Scott, who urged legislators not to water down the proposed restrictions.

Dee Bennett said she supports House Bill 67 “100 percent” and even suggested it doesn’t go far enough. She recalled that she didn’t allow her daughter to have any passengers in the car for six months after she obtained a license. After six months, she allowed only one passenger in her daughter’s car.

“It’s tough as a parent but I think it’s good if you have a law that reinforces it,” said Dee Bennett, also urging lawmakers not to weaken the proposed law. “It’s much safer to have your eyes on the road and have your hands on the wheel than to be distracted by anything. A passenger alone is a distraction.”

Parents were included in the driving challenge after a recent study by the Allstate Foundation found that nearly 90 percent of the teens surveyed indicated their parents were the “biggest influencers on their driving habits,” King said.

“Teens are watching what their parents are doing while driving and it influences their behavior. This is why it is so important for parents to put down their phones, limit their distractions and overall, set a good example in the car for their teens,” said King. “The significance of (the survey) was that it was contrary to normal beliefs that teens look to their peers for information on how to behave. We were pleasantly surprised to hear that on this very important topic that they truly do look to their parents for advice behind the wheel.”

King said Allstate also has developed a “tool kit” for parents to help them begin the discussion about safe driving techniques with their teenagers. Known as Allstate’s “Parent-Teen Driving Contract,” the information is available online at allstate.com/teen or at local Allstate agencies.

The King of Prussia driving challenge was the fourth of 38 that Allstate is sponsoring nationwide this year.