Archive for March, 2010

State Farm Insurance Quote Lower With iPhone App

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Young drivers have a new way to get a lower State Farm Insurance Quote.  State Farm introduced its second iPhone application last month and 9,000 people have already downloaded it.  This information is from “New State Farm app aimed at young drivers” by Ryan Denham of Pantagraph.  The application is called Steer Clear Mobile and is geared towards drivers under age 25.  They download videos, trip logs, and self-assessments to their iPhone or iTouch and go through this safe driving program.  The Steer Clear discount program can save young drivers up to 15% off of their car insurance.

State Farm’s mobile team wanted to take advantage of a media form that young drivers use and try to make them all safer.  Since they may not tell their parents or teachers that they have driving questions, the hope is that they’ll learn how to drive safer and buy State Farm car insurance because of the discount.  This program was previously available, but was done either through an agent or by downloading and printing out the forms.  The program takes a few weeks to complete and must be reviewed by an agent for verification.  Some added benefits to iPhone application users are a section on driving tips based on weather and places to find an agent.

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Cheap Car Insurance in North Carolina

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

The state of North Carolina has the eighth  lowest car insurance rates in the United States, according to “Report: North Carolina has eighth cheapest car insurance” by Lee Weisbecker of the Triangle Business Journal. If you’re looking for cheap car insurance, North Carolinians pay about $591.11 per year.  The National Association of Insurance Commissioners issued the report listing North Carolina as the southern state with the lowest insurance rates.  Residents of North Dakota have the lowest car insurance rates in the United States, averaging $511.79 per year.  The second lowest rates of $517.62 were in Iowa, according to the data collected from 2003-2007 in all 50 states.

The Insurance Commissioner of North Carolina was pleased with the report’s findings.  He recently rolled car insurance rates back to the 2006 price levels and froze them until at least 2011, helping to keep North Carolina as one of the most affordable states in his opinion.  State Farm car insurance and other companies operating in North Carolina have their rates set by the insurance commissioner.  These standardized rates put caps at the high and low ends of the scale, but are non-existent in most other states.  Offering discounts is the only way for car insurance companies to offer lower rates than the standards.  North Carolina’s car insurance rates are significantly lower than its neighboring states.

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Compare Car Insurance: Gap Coverage

Friday, March 19th, 2010

If you buy or lease a new vehicle and don’t have gap coverage, you should probably look into it.  No one wants to increase costs when they compare car insurance, but gap coverage can be important according to Russ Heaps of Bankrate Inc. Car gap insurance covers the difference between what you owe on your car and it’s cash value.  If you drive off of the lot with a new vehicle and total it or your new car gets stolen the first night you have it home, without car gap insurance you’ll have to pay the difference between what insurance covers and what you owe.  Standard car insurance pays your lender an amount equal to your car’s current cash value.  Since the value of cars depreciates rapidly in the first few years, unless you paid a large down payment you are likely to owe your lender more than your car’s cash value.

There are six groups of people that would benefit from car gap insurance from a company like Infinity Auto Insurance.  Those who lease their cars, get a loan for 60 months or more, do not put at least 20 percent down, drive over 15,000 miles per year, roll any negative equity into their new car loan, or get a vehicle with traditionally high rates of depreciation should definitely look into this type of insurance.  Most insurers offer car gap insurance and the cost is relatively low.  It is smart to ask your insurance company if they offer gap coverage rather than buying it from a car dealership because the cost can be much higher at a dealership.  On an average premium payment, gap coverage might add $20 to $30 per year to your premium.  That will save you a lot of money if your new car is totaled or stolen and you end up owing $10,000 more than insurance covers though.

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Car Insurance Fraud in Pennsylvania

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

This seems to be a case of another criminal that didn’t think their ill-willed plot through.  According to David Singleton’s article “Reported stolen car leads to insurance fraud arrest” in The Times Tribune, a man from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania committed car insurance fraud.  He reported his car stolen on Christmas Eve last year after it had been involved in a car accident only ten hours earlier.  The 29-year-old man told police that he left his car at Chick’s Diner in South Scranton with the keys under the floor mat.  He said that his brother picked him up at 3:30 in the morning on Christmas Eve.

Unfortunately for this would-be criminal, the police task force caught him in his lies.  After filing an insurance claim and saying that he was not in his car when it was involved in the accident, surveillance video from Chick’s Diner and cell phone records have shown that this 1999 Nissan Maxima was not stolen.  It was driven to and from Chick’s by the 29-year-old man.  Companies like Estrella Insurance and Dairyland Auto Insurance have to worry about crooks like this when they receive car insurance claims.  It’s people like this criminal that can make insurance rates go up for everyone else.  Thanks to stellar police work, this time the criminal didn’t get away with his crime.

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Car Insurance Companies Won’t Have New Hummers to Insure

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

It looks like the Hummer brand will be shutting down soon, according to “Hummer faces shutdown after Chinese sale collapses” by Dan Strumpf of The Associated Press.  Car insurance companies will no longer have new models of the hulking SUV’s to worry about insuring.  General Motors Co. was hoping to sell the brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co. of China, but the manufacturer was unable to get clearance from its Chinese regulators by the end of February deadline.  General Motors promises to honor the warranties of existing Hummers.  They are working with Hummer employees, dealerships, and suppliers to phase out the brand.

The potential for a deal with the Chinese manufacturer came in October,  six months after General Motors began trying to sell the Hummer brand because of the losses it was incurring.  But Chinese regulators showed a lot of resistance from the start because they do not approve of the rapid growth in the Chinese auto industry.  Sales of Hummers peaked in 2006, but Hummer only sold 325 cars last year.  The cars range in price from $42,500 to $63,000.  Hummer was hit  hard by the extreme gas prices of 2008 because of their lack of fuel economy.  It wasn’t easy to find cheap car insurance for the large, off-road vehicles either.  If Hummer closes as expected, they will join Saturn, Pontiac, and Saab as a brand that GM has discontinued or sold off.

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