Auto insurance

Auto insurance is an extremely important if you operate a vehicle. Auto insurance is used to protect you the individual or a business or organization from financial loss in regards to a motor vehicle. Financial loss can happen due to many reasons, and having auto insurance can cover your losses in a variety of ways. There are six major types of coverage’s available through auto insurance companies, they are:

Liability for Property Damage
Liability for property damage is coverage against damage you or a person driving your vehicle with your permission does to someone else’s property. Damages can include the other vehicle, utility poles, fences, buildings, homes, businesses, or almost any type of structure your vehicle comes into contact with.

Liability for Bodily Injury
Liability coverage for bodily injury is to pay for damages that you or someone given permission to operate your vehicle causes to another person. Because, bodily injury can be quite expensive, it is important to make sure that you and your family has enough of this type of coverage.

Collision
Collision coverage protects your vehicle from damages resulting from an accident (collision with another car, pot hole, car flipping over, etc). Collision coverage will pay for repairing your vehicle, or if your vehicle was totaled in the accident it will reimburse you for the value of the vehicle (subtracting deductible and in many cases other costs).

Comprehensive
Comprehensive coverage will protect you against losses from theft or other types of damages that are other than a collision, including fire, hail, vandalism, contact with animals, and acts of god (such as hurricanes, flooding, etc)

Medical/Personal Injury Protection (PIP)
Medical/PIP coverage pays for treatment when you are injured in a motor vehicle accident either when you are driving a vehicle or are a passenger in your own vehicle. Some policies include broader coverage such as rehabilitation costs, lost wages and even funeral costs.

Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist
Uninsured coverage will protect you from damages when a driver without insurance or a hit an run driver causes an accident with you, your family members or your vehicle.
Underinsured coverage can be useful in covering damages by an at fault driver that is underinsured or doesn’t have sufficient resources to pay for your damages. For instance, this coverage can protect you if you are hit by a vehicle as a pedestrian.

It is important to note that the above types of coverage’s can require separate fees and each type of coverage can have different deductibles.

By: Connie Barker

Car insurance is a cover provided to automobiles on the payment of a premium, against any kind of loss. It means that in case of an accident, the insurance company will compensate any financial loss. A person is required to pay a fixed amount, which is known as premium, to the company on a regular basis. Classic car insurance is different from regular car insurance on the basis of, the type of coverage offered and the terms of claims. Classic car insurance in California has insurance laws and coverage options designed according to the state laws.

In California, classic car insurance can be applied for, only if the car is more than fifteen years old. The owner of the car must have held a driving license for more than ten years, and must also have at least one other car, for regular use. Further, it is mandatory for a classic car owner in California, to provide a garage to house the car, when not in use.

Regular car policies that are available are Actual Cash Value and Stated Value policies. Actual Cash value policies pay the insured the adjusted value of their cars in case of irreparable damage to the car. This adjusted cost is calculated by subtracting the depreciated value from the original value of the car. Stated Value policy is where the insurer pays ?up to? a certain amount in case of a claim for total loss. Both these policies are unsuitable for classic cars, as their value does not depreciate but rather, appreciates.

Therefore, the type of insurance policy preferred by the California classic car owners is the ‘Agreed Value’ policy. Under this type of policy, in case of total loss, the insurer is liable to pay a sum that, the insurer and the insured agreed upon while drawing a contract.

There are also many driving restrictions, while purchasing classic car insurance. There are limits on mileage, as well as speed. The owner of the car is also not allowed to use it for daily errands or commuting as a regular car might be used.

By: Josh Riverside

In the United States auto insurance fraud is becoming one of the biggest fraud problems this country is faced with. In this article we’re going to discuss some of the more common auto insurance fraud scams and what somebody can do to prevent them.

Today one of the most popular insurance fraud scams involves auto insurance and auto accidents. More specifically, staged auto accidents. These have actually become quite complex to the point where they involve multiple participants. There are many variations of these. We’ll cover the main ones here.

First there is what is called the swoop and squat. This scam involves three vehicles. Two are driven by the criminals and the third is driven by the victim. The driver of the “squat” vehicle positions himself in front of the victim. The person driving the “swoop” vehicle pulls ahead of the squat vehicle and intentionally cuts the vehicle off. This causes the driver of the squat vehicle to slam on his brakes and stop short. Usually, the victim can’t react quickly enough and rams into the squat vehicle. In the meantime, the swoop vehicle that caused the accident takes off and is never seen again. The victim tells police that the swoop vehicle caused the accident, but because that vehicle can’t be located the victim ends up having to pay for the damage and any personal injury claims.

Then there is what is known as the side swipe. This type of accident usually happens at busy intersections with dual left hand turn lanes. The criminal positions his vehicle in the outer left turn lane. When the victim’s vehicle drifts into the outer turn lane the criminal side swipes him. To make sure the scheme works the criminal does preliminary surveillance to make sure that the intersection is busy enough where drifting will occur because of the amount of traffic.

Another common auto accident scam is what is known as the Panic Stop. In this scheme the criminal drives a late model car filled with a lot of passengers. The criminal will then position himself in front of the victim and have one of the passengers look out the back window watching to see for any signs of distraction such as answering a cell phone call or changing a station on the radio. Any sign that the victim is taking his eyes off the road. Once this happens the passenger signals the driver who then slams on the brakes thus causing an accident. The victim will claim that the criminal stopped short for no apparent reason but usually to no avail. In the meantime the victim has to pay for all damages and injuries reported.

Unfortunately there is only one way to avoid these type of accidents and that is to be observant at all times and keep a safe distance from any vehicle ahead of you. The sad truth is, if all motorists would just obey the speed and distance laws and rules, accidents like these would never happen. But people drive too fast and too close and thus these type of frauds will always be pulled off. Drive safe and smart and your chances of being the victim of auto insurance fraud will be greatly diminished.

By: Michael Russell