Buying Car Insurance Online

Shopping around is essential in finding cheap car insurance no matter how you choose to search, but it is especially important when searching for cheap car insurance online. When shopping around for cheap car insurance online, make sure your search is a thorough one. However, shopping online for products such as music, software, or clothes is a radical world of difference from shopping for car insurance online.

Essentially you first need to analyze your fundamental needs for car insurance. It helps to know the minimum required, but many sites will offer that information up for you as well, so it isn't difficult to find out. You do need to know how much and what type of coverage you need, you can then look at other online car insurance companies to do some comparison shopping. Many insurance companies that do business solely online charge much more for car insurance than those you do business with in person; however, at the same time, there are so many car insurance companies online that they must compete with each other in order to obtain customers, and one way they compete is by matching or offering lower prices. A simple Internet search will lead you in the right direction if you're looking for companies that will give you online car insurance quotes.

Get googling, and you will find many companies offering online car insurance - many of them fighting for top organic and paid search positions. So you know they want you at their (online) store first! You can request for a car insurance quote online from most sites, but keep an eye out discounts provided by auto insurance companies which should be clearly visible on their sites. While requesting for car insurance quote online provide all your details to the auto insurance company such as your name, age, address, your marital status, car's annual commuting miles and safety features of your car. Certain features like high density impact bumpers, side-impact airbags, and rear-cams may help reduce your premium, but you need to mention them.

There are also some middleman sites that collect quotes from many insurance companies that may pay them for referring your business. This type of search for car insurance online saves time and money--you just fill in your details, get a quote, do a comparison between quotes from different providers, choose the most beneficial one, fill the application, save it, pay the premium and in some states even print out the insurance card yourself. Insurance is often a tedious thing that nobody really looks forward to, so this can make it as painless as possible. Because it's so much easier, a lot of people feel more comfortable buying car insurance online, in a click-and-point process that doesn't involve sitting through ten minutes of automated questions and answers.

After all this, if you still choose to buy insurance in person, you can use this research as a tool for getting true value for your premium agreement. You'll have a clear understanding of why researching and buying car insurance online has increased in popularity with many drivers over the past few years and you can use that to your negotiating advantage.

The great thing about looking for car insurance online is that very often just getting your car insurance online will gain you a discount. The system is fine-tuned to the extent that you can shop online for car insurance that is tailored to suit your financial needs. But probably the biggest advantage is in the fact that it is now easy to find a car insurance company that is focused on meeting your exact needs.

Thousands of drivers just like you have taken advantage of the Internet to find car insurance that provide the necessary protection at the most affordable price. Insurance is a price sensitive product to be sure and car insurance online quotes are a good way of comparing prices, but you need to know a little more about insurance other than just the price.

Get Event Insurance Online

One of the first things you will do when asked to find something online is to search it on Google. You will likely do the same with event insurance. As with other things, you are likely to get good results. Here is a tip to get better results: Check out the ads too. These are seen at the top and at the right of the search results, and these are companies paying good money to Google so they can reach you. Help them do that!

You may be surprised at this suggestion to click on ads, but this is hardly surprising. Google is not a directory of insurance companies - rather it is a search engine. The results that you see on the top of the Google results page are hardly the best insurance sites - rather they are the sites which Google thinks are relevant to the search. They did not get to the top of the results by being the best insurance site, rather Google's algorithm found them most relevant, and Google's algorithm is not the last word on event insurance. Trust me on this one.

The second tip I have for you is to know your own requirements first, and take only the policies that offer the cover you want and nothing more. When you know a number of vendors that can take the place of the current vendors, you do not want to bother with vendor insurance. This is applicable for online insurance because the comparison websites will ask you the cover you want, and based on that information they will present the appropriate policies for you.

One big advantage of searching and finding insurance online is that you can check the feedback from different customers. There are review sites such as yelp.com that will have reviews not just of the latest live rock show, but also of their event insurer. Check out the feedback from customers before you go with your insurer.

Save Money on Your Online Auto Insurance

The first thing most people don’t do is shop around, and try to get auto insurance online. We get used to one company and we tend to stick with them through the ups and downs, but their is money to be saved by venturing out to look for others. You should request quotes from as many companies as possible about every six months to see who has the cheapest deals for you. One company that gives you a great rate now may double the price in six months while the one that was the most expensive might be the cheapest in the same time frame. With the internet you can have dozens of quotes at your fingertips in minutes and you just might save some money for your effort. Progressive and other companies offer rate comparisons that can make the process of online auto insurance shopping go a lot faster as well so even if you don’t want to go from website to website filling in information for quotes you can get a Progressive rate along with some of the competitions rates based on the same information all in one place.

Discounts are another way to save big on your online auto insurance policy. Most companies give discounts for having multiple policies through them so insure your home, boat, RV and anything else that requires insurance through the same company so you can cash in on that huge discount. Check your current policy as well to see if there are any discounts available that you might have missed before. Things you may have not mentioned to your agent in the past may be able to be reported now for a significant decrease in your premium. Things like anti-lock brakes and security systems are typical discounts that almost every company offers Don’t be afraid to ask your agent about the discounts they offer and if you qualify.

One of the most important factors in keeping premiums you can afford is your driving record. Be careful out there and avoid any collisions. Collisions can raise your rates extremely high and usually stay on your record for about 3 years forcing 3 years of high risk driver premiums upon you. Also be careful to avoid getting tickets. Speeding and moving violations will stay with you for around 3 years also and your premium will stay high until then.

Travelers Insurance - Prized Possession (Dog Commercial)

I thought this was a clever commercial.  Travelers is a good company that does a great job with their advertising.  I liked this commercial because every person has prized posessions in their life that they spend almost every waking hour thinking and worrying about.  Insurance is a good way to protect the things you value.  Hope you enjoy the video!

How to Review Your Homeowners Insurance Renewal Statement

For most of us, our home is our single largest and most important investment. Many of us have poured thousands of dollars and countless hours into maintaining, improving and (hopefully) paying off our homes. Many people own their homes free of any mortgage. These assets are pure equity. Certainly its worthwhile to invest 15 minutes a year to be sure it's properly insured.

Thankfully, the insurance company offers you a perfect reminder and opportunity in sending out your annual renewal statement. Even if your insurance is paid by your mortgage company as part of your impound account, the insurance company still mails you a statement of renewal every year to update you with your current coverage limits and deductible.

Here's a few important steps you can take to be sure that HOME SWEET HOME is properly protected.

1. Check the basics. Check your name, address and any other description of the insured property. Make sure there's been no change of vesting or ownership that needs to be updated. Check your address to be sure no numbers are transposed.

2. Check the mortgagee clause. Here's where you can be sure that the current mortagee on your home is listed correctly. Check the lender, address and your loan number. Be sure there's no old information there. Maybe you had a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) or a second mortgage that no longer applies. Be sure to get them removed.

HEADS UP: Whenever you have a significant claim, the mortgage company will be one of the payees on your claim settlement check. Just that alone can be an inconvenience. But it becomes a major hassle when one of the institutions listed no longer has a vested interest in your home. The insurance company is bound by contract to include the mortgage company on all settlement checks beyond a stated threshold.

*3. Check the coverage on your home (dwelling or building). This is without question the single most important coverage to examine, consider and adjust whenever necessary. Having been an agent during the two raging firestorms in San Diego, CA in this decade, I can tell you that underinsured homes are just NO FUN! Two of my clients lost their homes in the 2003 fires and fortunately they were both adequately insured. (we call all our homeowner clients once a year to review their coverages and suggest improvements and adjustments) But I can tell you that there were literally hundreds of people in the area that were not so fortunate. Many were underinsured by over $100,000! Contractors were giving rebuilding bids on homes for $400,000 with insurance policies with limits less than $300,000. See if that doesn't tweak your financial well-being just a little. Here's the solution.

Get an accurate rendering of the square footage of your home. Check county records, take a look at zillow.com, call your favorite Realtor, or get a tape measure and do your thing. Usually you don't include the garage in this calculation. Once you get your square footage, then you need to determine the building cost per square foot in your area for a home like yours. Call a local contractor for a quick estimate or you can call your insurance agent. Average costs in San Diego run about $200 per square foot. With that, a 2000 square foot would take about $400,000 to rebuild. Custom homes can be significantlly more. For a more complete discussion of this, check out: How Much Homeowners Insurance Do You REALLY Need?

Your contents coverage is usually 75% of the amount you have on your home. For example, if you have $400,000 on your home, you'll have an additional $300,000 to cover your personal property (furniture, clothing, dishes, TV, collections, shoes, tools, etc) Usually this is enough, but think through it anyway. If you have antiques, art, collections of any kind then you may need more. Ask your agent for help if you need to.

4. Look at your Personal Liability Coverage. This is the coverage you need when you get sued. Little Johnny runs across your front yard and trips on one of your sprinklers and ruins his chances to become America's Next Top Model and his parents sue your for $250,000. Make sure you don't scrimp here. It's not too expensive to get $500,000 or even $1 Million of liability coverage. If you have $100,000 or less, you could be setting yourself up for a mess just waiting to happen. Put a really big checkbook between your assets and someone who sees an injury as a lifetime paycheck. You might even consider a Liability Umbrella.

5. Check your 'special limits'. This is a REALLY BROAD subject that I just can't do justice to here in this post. Simply stated, there's limits on many things such as cash, computers, cameras, jewelry, furs, goldware, silverware, tools, etc. Call your company and ask for a review. You can increase many of these limits for just a few dollars a year. Sometimes the available increase isn't enough. That's the perfect time to consider a Personal Articles Floater (or it's called many different names) It's a policy that's designed to place stated amounts of coverage on many items from jewelry, business tools, iPods, hearing aids, cameras, musical instruments and on and on. If you have more than 'the average Joe' of ANYTHING, then check this out FOR SURE!

6. Check your deductible! This can be a tremendous cost-control tool in your insurance spending. Simply stated: The larger your deductible, the greater your savings. Usually you can save close to $100 per year just by going from a $500 deductible to $1000. Pick the largest number you can stand without losing sleep at night and ask your agent or company the savings you'd realize by changing. If you have a $250 or smaller deductible, it's definitely time to change it UP! Keep in mind that you usually hit a point of 'diminishing returns' once you get to $4000 or more. This means that you'll save less and less for each additional $1000 you choose. It might make sense to go from $1000 to $2000 if you save $85 a year by doing so, but not from $5000 to $6000 if you only save another $21 by making that jump.

Monitoring your insurance costs and coverages can result in a lot of savings AND peace of mind. Be sure you keep notes and file your thoughts and changes from year to year. These recoreds will make your annual call quicker and easier each year.

Feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions.

Till next time...


It's a Good Life !