Finance Tips

Auto insurance is purchased to cover liability upon vehicle accidents as well as the results of a traffic accident. This type of insurance is mandatory as per government legislation. Most states provide mandatory legislation requiring the car and the driver to both have an insurance policy covering them. However, the degree assigned to these policies varies across different states. Certain jurisdictions allow citizens to begin driving at the age of 16, thus a third party personal insurance is included in the license registration for person above this age. Other states implement a compulsory third party insurance that must be taken in order for the vehicle to legitimately use the state highways. This policy covers every other user of the vehicle.

The vehicle insurance includes the insured party, the insured vehicle, third parties and the insurer.

Coverage for liability owed to a third party may be considered without necessarily regarding to the auto accident in some jurisdictions. The excess payments made to the insurer are otherwise termed deductibles and may either be compulsory or voluntary. Compulsory excesses include the minimum amount your insurer accepts upon your policy agreement. This may vary in consideration of personal details, driving record and the insurer’s terms.

However, voluntary excesses are meant to reduce your premium payments. This includes the payment of high excesses than those required by your insurer. In the event of a claim on policy one may choose to surpass the amount of required excess paid to the insurer. This lowers the risk factor involved with your vehicle and the insurer charges you less premium.

Premium charges vary across different state legislatures.

These are either mandated by the state or set by the insurer in line with the state’s guidelines. The insurer however can be quite flexible in setting charges that involve physical damage, the liability charges however are more or less constricted since they are mandatory. Without government mandate, the auto insurance premium is determined through the practice of actuary where statistics are implemented. These focuses on the car characteristics, coverage favored together with all the deductible, limits and covered perils, the driver’s profile and the car usage.

Liability coverage is offered for bodily injury BI and property damage PD. These are paid where the driver was liable for the injury of said parties. Amount of coverage per money unit varies across jurisdictions with a minimum from which the insurer can increase coverage for additional charge.

There are many sides of having your health insured and it’s certainly a good thing because it allows to tailor a plan to your exact needs and make it as adequate as possible. But as with all things there are also negative aspects of this diversity that can lead you to misunderstanding and unnecessary spending if you aren’t aware of them. And these days additional spending could seriously harm an average family budget. If you’re trying to optimize your costs knowing about some common insurance traps is necessary in order to keep your costs as low as possible. So if you don’t want to become a victim of misunderstandings that will cost you money keep in mind the following health coverage traps when getting medical care:

Avoid going out of network

The vast majority of insurance plans you’ll find on the market are managed care plans. Whether group or individual these plans offer good premiums in exchange for certain limitations. One of such limitations is the place you can get medical care from. Each insurance provider has a network of medical facilities and specialists you can get your services from and have your bills covered. But once you choose to visit a doctor who doesn’t make a part of the network you will end up paying the entire bill out of own pocket, which is certainly not very convenient assuming the current medical prices. So the first advice would be sticking only to in-network specialists and facilities if you want all your services to be covered properly. Otherwise it really doesn’t make any sense having health insurance since you will end up paying for the larger portion of your medical bills.

Keep an eye for co-payments and deductibles

Co-payments, co-insurance and deductibles refer to virtually the same aspect of any health insurance plan. These are the payments that the customer has to make out of own pocket for getting the service he needs before the coverage starts to apply. These can be doctor visit fees or any other additional costs that you will typically find in a medical facility. Now, you have to be very careful with these payments since they can make up a good sum of money by the end of the year comparable to your premium. Usually they are higher in plans with lower premiums, however it’s not a necessary condition. So it’s highly recommended to check the co-payments and deductibles when assessing a health plan besides the usual premium comparison, since it adds up to the final cost of the policy in the long run.

Don’t get the first plan offered

One of the most common mistakes an inexperienced customer makes is that he or she buys the very first health insurance plan offered. The probability that this plan will be both affordable and adequate to your needs is very low, so don’t risk this way since it’s your money you are going to spend. Instead, take your time to consider all your options, shop around online, determine which plan type best appeals to your needs, compare quotes from different providers and only after doing some research buy the plan that appeals to you the most. You can save really good this way so don’t rush with your decisions if you have some time to compare different offers.

In many states, you can purchase insurance to cover your medical bills if you are involved in a car accident, regardless of who is at fault. In Washington State, this type of insurance is called personal injury protection coverage (PIP), and it’s mandatory unless you sign a statement that you are declining the coverage. It is considered “primary” over your health insurance (your PIP coverage must be exhausted or cut off before your “secondary” health insurance will start paying your bills). PIP insurance can be extremely helpful if you don’t have health insurance or if your health insurance requires deductibles or large co-payments. The down side is that many insurance companies try their best to limit your benefits or cut them off all together.

One of the main tools for limiting or cutting off benefits is the use of the “independent medical examination” (IME).

These examinations are rarely independent. The insurance company typically hires a health care provider to examine you and then provide a report to the insurance company. Usually of the same or similar type of health care provider that you are obtaining treatment from is used, but not always. I have seen orthopedic doctors do examinations when my client has only seen a chiropractor and vice versa. Most of the time (although not always), the IME report comes back and minimizes the person’s injury in some way. Either the injured person was not really hurt, or their injuries should already have resolved, or they have treated for too long, or the treatment they are receiving isn’t helping them. The insurance company then uses the IME report to limit or cancel payments for treatment.

The dirty little secret is that often these “independent” health care providers are making a substantial income from doing these examinations for insurance companies.

The bias is clear: the health care provider has to write something negative in the IME report to justify the insurance company continuing to send people for these examinations. These “usual suspects” appear again and again in personal injury cases. Some people in the know refer to them as a not-so-nice word for “the oldest profession”. This term is actually quite appropriate if you consider that these health care providers are essentially selling their expertise to the highest bidder regardless of the medical ethics involved, and there is no doctor-patient relationship in these examinations. In fact this industry became not so secret recently when the New York Times profiled IME examinations, particularly in the New York State workers compensation system:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/nyregion/01comp.html?_r=1

The problem is that if you refuse to attend an IME they insurance company cancels your benefits anyway because it usually states in the policy that you have a duty to cooperate with the insurance company, and failing to attend the IME is “failing to cooperate.” I typically counsel my clients to attend these examinations, but I prepare them for what to expect. I also request that the PIP insurance company pay all outstanding bills up to the date of the IME, and not disclose the IME results to any outside parties because often an at-fault insurance company will try to obtain the IME report to use it against an injured person. Although the IME report is probably not going to be fair, with some caution and preparation, you can minimize the damage to your case.

This is known as the Third Party Insurance and is mandatory by law. It can cover damage caused to life or property of a third party. The damage caused to the insured vehicle is not covered in the Third Party insurance. Car insurance rates are also heavily dependent on the type of insurance chosen.

The other type of vehicle insurance is the comprehensive insurance which provides a much wider range of coverage. The comprehensive insurance can cover not only the requirements for third party insurance, but also can protect the insured person’s car from damage due to fire, earthquake, and other natural calamities, accidents and theft and loss of the same.

The amount of insurance which in turn decides the amount of premium depends on:

Insured’s Declared value(IDV)
IDV is calculated on the basis of manufacturer’s listed selling price after deducting the depreciation for every year according to the schedule provided by the Indian Motor Tariff.
Price of accessories fitted in the car as extra.

The car insurance rate depends on a number of factors:

Insured Declared Value
Age of vehicle
Type of model
Cubic capacity of engine

Car insurance rates are different for different companies as they differ from each other in the premium amount. There are a large number of car insurance companies in India and they offer specific matters of coverage and car insurance rates of vehicles. One of the factors in these rates is the No Claim Bonus. This is a discount on premium when the policy is renewed, provided no claim is made during the last policy period of one year.

Another variable factor that determines the car insurance rate is called the voluntary deductible. This is the portion of the claim that the customer voluntarily agrees to bear in each insurance claim. You can see the voluntary deductibles for your car by visiting designated sites online, such as marutiinsurance.com. In fact you can make a comparison of car insurance rates online of different companies and make a choice after evaluating different options. In case you do not want to look at different insurance sites you can just look at a comparison site as well.

Thus, when you compare car insurance rates online there are bound to be differences amongst the rates. You can also look at the different coverage options as well offered by insurance and non insurance companies in India.

Auto insurance is another name for security of your vehicle. As the name suggests auto insurance is all about insuring one’s vehicle against all kinds of threats for instance theft, accident and other related dangers. The basic types of auto insurance coverage are -

1. Bodily injury liability, which provides coverage for bodily injury claims from the people who might get injured in an accident with your vehicle.

2. Property damage liability covers any property damages to third parties such as another person’s car you damaged or are responsible for.

3. Medical expenses to the policy owner and other passengers in the policy owner’s car.

4. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage saves the negligent driver with or without insufficient insurance. In most states, this covers only bodily injury losses while in other cases property damage losses are also included. However it is quite important for everyone to get this coverage because it protects us from all expected as well as uninvited problems. For instance at some places an uninsured motorist caught driving with a suspended license in a car with a revoked registration goes to jail.

5. Physical damage stands for damage to your car that can be through accident or any other means such as collision, storm etc. In this the collision coverage pays for the physical damage caused to a person’s vehicle through collision.

However prior to purchasing an auto insurance policy there are quite a few things, which should be borne in mind. For instance- shop for the best policy available, always ask for high deductibles, check the insurance of the car or any other vehicle prior to purchasing it, coverage of the car varies with its worth, the profile of the company through which you will buy the insurance and last but not the least go with a low cost auto insurance for instance at places such as Santa Clara, San Marino Mateo and Alameda counties low cost auto insurance has arrived at premium rate of $322 and $355 respectively.

Whereas the auto insurance rates are concerned the American Farm Bureau suggests that the insurance rates for a driver should be based on the risk of that the driver should be based on the risk that the driver confronts for having an accident or loss and since rural drivers in the rural areas are less prone to risks, they should not be asked to pay more for their auto insurance.

In California there is a debate over the auto insurance policy rates. While on the one hand due to the rules offered by California Department of Insurance the rates of auto insurance are expected to touch the sky, on the other hand the California Farm Bureau strongly opposes it and claims that the new rates presses rural residents to shell out more money in order to subsidize the cost for urban residents.

However nowadays auto insurance companies are troubled with excess of crime or fraud in this area. Lately in North Carolina thirteen people were arrested accused of staging motorcycle wrecks to collect insurance money. Many such cases are reported in other parts of the world. As a result the government of different countries is looking for ways and means to combat the crime situation.