New or rent for vehicle insurance rate?
Trying to figure out what is going on with all of the vehicle insurance options when you rent a car can be crazy. There’s no one way to go. If you get all of the vehicle insurance that they offer you at the rental car company, you’re could end up paying twice what you were paying before. However, if you don’t get any of the coverage that they offer you, then you’re going to be out of luck, most likely, when you get into a car accident. You have to really think about it before you make a decision.
When you only have the minimum liability on your regular car insurance policy, then you should probably look into buying an LDW or CDW waiver for extra coverage. The company that you’re renting the car from might not offer both. Some companies offer different kinds of waivers, such as Alamo. The way that the Alamo waivers work is that there is one that is most expensive, which makes it to where you don’t have to be liable for any damages done to the rental car. The next level of cost makes it to where you only have to pay for anything under five hundred dollars. And the final level of cost makes it to where you only have to pay for anything under three thousand dollars.
If you already have collision and comprehensive on your personal vehicle insurance policy, then you probably don’t have to get the LDW or CDW. However, you should keep in mind that with your insurance company you have to pay a deductible, so you should weigh the costs.
If you’re renting a car because you don’t own one, then you probably don’t have a back up personal vehicle insurance policy. In this case, what you should look into doing is expanding your rental coverage with the supplement of liability coverage. It’s pretty cheap considering, but before you pay for it you need to check your state insurance laws. A lot of states have it to where you don’t have to pay for the minimum liability insurance on rental cars if you don’t already have personal insurance coverage. If that’s the case for you and you think that you’ll be safe with the car, then you can probably handle the whole thing without having to pay for any kind of insurance at all.
The car company that rents you the vehicle will usually offer you a bunch of other types of insurance that you probably won’t need. They might offer you coverage for property loss, medical, and death coverage. However, you might already be covered for these things under your life insurance, your health insurance, and your house insurance. The house insurance takes cares of anything of your property even if it is in a rental car. The life insurance is good whether you die in a rental car or get swallowed by a whale. And the health insurance takes care of you regardless of how you got injured. Because of all that, purchasing these coverages would just be insuring yourself doubly, and that’s a waste of money.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Instant new vehicle insurance
Buying a car is a long and arduous process. I know, because I’ve done it several times. One time I was at the dealership for five hours because my salesperson told us he’d be right back, and then went on a two hour lunch break. And that isn’t a unique experience, either. Another thing that clogs up the process is that most car dealerships won’t let you drive off the lot until you get vehicle insurance for your new car. This means having to call up your insurance company and go through all the trouble of giving them your information, getting a quote, and all of that, while you’ve already been on that lot for hours. A bunch of dealerships in California have found a solution for this hassle.
In these dealerships, they now have a way that you can drive off the lot with your car the second that the sale is finalized, without having to go through the trouble of calling up for that needed comprehensive and collision. Called TurboCoverage and operating out of Palo Alto, this new company is giving uninsured drivers who are buying a new car a way to get their vehicle insurance immediately when at the car lot, instead of having to spend yet another hour just on the phone.
Right now TurboCoverage is only selling their policies to people that are in higher risk pools and have more trouble getting insured, as well as people who don’t have vehicle insurance in the first place. According to the company’s CEO, once they’ve gotten their foot secured in what they call the non standard market, they tend to move on to marketing for lower risk drivers.
Twenty percent of the people who go to buy a car have to buy their insurance right there at the lot, claims TurboCoverage research. That’s a total of three million policies bought from the dealership. Now twenty five of the lots in California have TurboCoverage to help expedite this process, and by next year there will be another sixteen states under the TurboCoverage banner.
As opposed to the usual hour, getting car insurance through TurboCoverage only takes ten minutes, and you get to choose between several different car insurance companies. Right now they only have three different vehicle insurance companies that work with them, but they are working on getting about five more to expand the purchasers’ options.
TurboCoverage is essentially a company for the sell of vehicle insurance, not for the provision of vehicle insurance itself. They get their profit from commission for every sell and also a broker fee from the car dealerships. The dealerships that work with TurboCoverage have little kiosks in them so that all the buyer has to do is go up, sit down, grab the phone, and they’ll immediately be talking with a TurboCoverage sales representative. The salespeople at the dealership have no part in the process, allowing the buyer a lot more freedom so long as they stay within the terms of their lease.
There are several ways for a customer of this company to pay for thei new coverage. They can go with either a credit card or an electronic check so that the purchase is instantly finalized. Then they are sent two copies of their insurance card through the fax machine, one of which belongs to them, and the other of which goes to the car dealership. It’s simple!
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Hybrid vehicle insurance rate discount
The debate over whether hybrid cars are better to insure or not is raging in the insurance industry. Several insurance company, such as Traveler’s, have started giving discounts for people who insure hybrid vehicles with them. With Traveler’s the discount is around 10%, while with other companies, like Financial Services AG, it equals out to about 5%. Financial Services AG will give a discount for any hybrid car or any car that has any other form of alternative fuel usage for those that it insures in the state of California.
However, there are several other car insurance companies that beg to differ as to whether or not hybrid cars are cheaper to insure. State Farm won’t be offering any discounts for hybrids in the foreseeable future. The reason why? Hybrids are more costly to repair, being rarer and different and thus having more expensive parts. Another reason why State Farm declines to join in on the praise is because hybrid cars are so far untested very much in collisions, and it isn’t sure that the electric components will react so well in the instance of a crash.
Most car insurance premiums have a lot of factors that go into them before the discounts get applied. These factors include credit history and age, as well as claims history and driving records. The same method will apply to the hybrid car discount, which will be calculated into the total price once everything else has been added up and taken out.
One of the reasons that Traveler’s says that it is giving a discount for hybrid cars is that it claims that most of the people that buy hybrid cars are part of a preferred group of drivers who have less risk than all other drivers. These drivers tend to be middle aged, steadily employed, and married, with good credit histories. They usually have good driving records as well and qualify for several other discounts, so the hybrid discount will basically be discounting them twice over for the exact same qualities.
According to the vice president of the Traveler’s vehicle insurance company, they do this in order to attract customers. Many car buyers in the contemporary world are becoming more and more interested in not only ways to protect the environment, but in ways to cut down on their fuel costs. Offering a discount for hybrid drivers will attract these energy conscious drivers.
Hybrids have been gradually selling more and more as they have been marketed more and more. Years ago, there were only two hybrid models on the market, and now there are as many as eleven. While still not very many, those eleven models sell well on the market. The real necessity for having hybrid vehicles wasn’t brought to public attention until after Hurricane Katrina, according to again to the vice president of Traveler’s. Not only are there the environmental implications, but seeing the gas prices rise in the following days just showed the American consumer how volatile the oil market was and how easy it could be to go from one dollar gas to gasoline rationing.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Vehicle insurance rates between new and old
Reader question:
Is there a big difference between vehicle insurance rates with a new car and those with an older car?
Olive
Sure is.
It doesn’t even matter if the two cars in question are of the same make, model, color, and with the same safety and luxury features. You will not be charged the same price for a brand new car as you will for a used car, unless that used car is from the current model year. One of the main differences in price tends to be because, with a new car, you need to get more insurance coverage. This is often because the company that you are financing the car with requires you to have comprehensive and collision coverage, and often even gap coverage, in order to protect their interests.
Statistics also have a lot to play in it. People who have new cars are statistically more likely to drive recklessly, and so automatically it is going to cost more to insure people with new cars because they then become part of a high risk group. Another thing that places new cars in a high risk group is their rate of theft, which is higher among brand new cars than it is among older cars.
More expensive cars will require more expensive insurance. Your 2008 Jetta is going to be cheaper than your 2008 Mercedes-Benz. If you want to get a more expensive car then you should just take it for granted that you will be charged more when it comes to vehicle insurance rates for that vehicle. Some older cars might have extra costs due to the fact that they have fewer safety features, but typically the older they get the cheaper they are to insure, even if they were once an expensive car.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
How to make new car vehicle insurance rates lower
Reader question:
I just got a new car and the vehicle insurance rates are so high! How can I make them go down?
Lily
Great question.
Whenever you get a new car you are suddenly flooded with all kinds of crazy costs that can set you far back and tighten up your budget for at least a few months before you get into it. Vehicle insurance plays a big part in this budget crisis, because with a new car not only to you have to add on as much coverage as the financer you got the car with wants, but your insurance company is also going to be charging you more for your new car than it did for your old car. It’s almost like a punishment for treating yourself to a new car. Fortunately, there are ways that you can make your vehicle insurance rates cheaper, even if it does cost a little in the short term.
- Safety features. Many newer vehicles come with a wide range of safety features standard. Even if your new car doesn’t have many standard, it’s often offered as an option to get extra safety features. Things like electronic stability control and a tire pressure monitoring system make insurance companies happy because they prevent accidents.
- Get an alarm system. It should be an active one the immobilizes your vehicle, because if you get on that is just whistles in lights it won’t make any difference to your car insurance company.
- Get with a car insurance company that will give you a replacement for a total loss. Many companies do this, but they don’t do it with a brand new car. It’s better for you to be with a company that will replace your new, but destroyed car with another new car without factoring in depreciation.
Just taking a few precautions can help you get cheaper rates on your car insurance, and when you have a new car and will be paying so much, there really is no excuse for not doing the best you can to save money on car insurance.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
New vehicle insurance rates affected by car crash tests
Reader question:
I’m buying a new car and will need new vehicle insurance. Before I make a decision, though, I’d like to find out how my choices did on car crash tests. Where do I go to get results?
Kyle
No problem.
There are a lot if different aspects that go into whatever your new vehicle insurance rates will come out to be. Some of them involve only the fact that the car is new, others are more directly rated to you personally and your own features, but one of the really big ones that will affect your vehicle insurance rate is how well your new car did on car crash tests conducted both by the government and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
It is true that insurance companies will take in their own crash history with a certain car as well as the crash test rates, so if your car did great and perfect on all crash tests you can not be absolutely sure that it will also do great on rates. Statistics could be skewed out of its favor with the company of your choice, so it may be that although the car is overall a good and safe one, according to the insurance company’s experience it is not at all any of that.
You should really be considering all of this while you’re out looking for a new or used car to buy. That way once you have the car and it’s time to get it insured, you aren’t going to be met with any unpleasant surprises. That’s why it is so important for you to look at car crash test ratings, which a car is put through as soon as it is out on the market. There are certain government standards that a vehicle has to live up to in order to be released, so many cars have certain safety precautions installed, but not always enough to satisfy a car insurance company.
To see how well the car of your choice fared on government and private crash testing, check out this site. It gives both crash test ratings and estimated cost of repair for various vehicles.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
New vehicle insurance policy cancellations
Every new vehicle that gets financed has to have comprehensive and collision new vehicle insurance. It isn’t law. The only thing that the law states is that you must have the minimum liability coverage. However, it might as will be, because what the bank or individual company that finances you requires determines whether that car you’re paying out for every month really gets to be yours. You may have already paid ten thousand dollars on it, but it is still no more yours than your neighbor’s house. When the dealer takes it back, you aren’t going to get a refund.
Why are we talking about this on a car insurance website? The only way you can get your car taken from you is by missing a payment, right? That’s right. However, the payment for your car purchase is not the only missed payment that can bring along the risk of you losing your car. Your car insurance payment is also a factor here. Financing companies are very forceful about you having full coverage car insurance on the car that they paid for, and so if you don’t get car insurance right away once you buy it, it’s often the case that they will take it out for you.
Once you already have new vehicle insurance on your car, you need to be very careful about making payments, because your ability to have the car depends entirely on your ability to take financial responsibility for it, and that means having a car insurance policy. If you miss a payment on your car insurance premium, then your coverage can be cancelled. If your coverage is cancelled and you don’t immediately restore it, or don’t restore it all, then you could lose your car.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
New vehicle insurance with gap insurance
Reader question:
What is gap coverage, and should I add it to my new vehicle insurance policy?
Marcel
I think you should.
Gap coverage is especially good for new vehicle insurance because with a new car you have such a greater financial burden than with a cheaper used car or even with a car that you already own. You can insure a new vehicle up to the maximum amount that your car insurance company offers, but that doesn’t always give you all the coverage that you need. If you get into a collision and your car is a total loss, perhaps your insurance will replace your car and take care of your hospital expenses, but what about what you still owe on the car that is now a piece of pulp?
That’s where gap coverage comes in. It is a sort of blanket extension on your car insurance coverage that will provide for any coverage once the normal coverage funds have run out. It can go up to very high amounts, sometimes as much three million. It doesn’t necessarily have to apply to paying off the rest of your ruined car. Gap insurance coverage can even be used for paying for extremely high medical bills and other things. You can’t get gap insurance, though, unless you buy all of the insurance that you are able to get. No minimum liability with gap insurance.
Many finance companies will require you to get gap insurance when you buy a new car, although not all of them will. The reason they ask you to do this is because once your car is destroyed and you have a new one, you have very little reason to keep paying them the money that you owe them, so they have to make sure that they get their money. Even if it isn’t required, you should get gap insurance coverage because it means that if you do find yourself in this situation, you won’t have to ruin your credit or pay for a car you don’t get to have.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
What kind of new vehicle insurance coverage?
Reader question:
I’m buying a new car. What kind of new vehicle insurance coverage should I get?
Lucille
That’s not really up to you, is it?
If the finance company that you are buying your car with just lets you choose whatever kind of car insurance coverage you want for your new car, that’s up to them, but I really doubt it’s the case because it is such bad business practice. If you pick liability and the car gets destroyed, guess who is going to end up paying for it? Not you, and they already paid for it, but it’s really impossible to get someone to pay two car notes when they only have one car. It’s on the same principle why many people will refuse to make car payments while their car is broken down.
Most finance companies will require you to get comprehensive and collision coverage on your new vehicle insurance policy. Comprehensive coverage covers pretty much everything else that wouldn’t be involved in an accident. It is basically the kind of insurance that is used when there is no interaction between cars, the car is not in motion, and so on. Comprehensive coverage applies to a variety of situations such as theft, vandalism, floods, fires, and the like. If your car is damaged by flood waters or completely destroyed by an explosion or lost by a theft, then you can get it repaired or replaced with comprehensive.
Collision is for the other end of the spectrum and involves car accidents. A collision will not cover your car if it just breaks down. What it will cover is any damage to your car or, in some cases, the other driver’s car in case you get into a car accident. In some cases it will repair any damage. If the vehicle is considered a total loss, then you can get it replaced if you have collision car insurance coverage.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Details of gap coverage for new vehicle insurance
Gap insurance is one of the car insurance industries best kept secrets. It exists to save the insured from getting into a total mess, and not only when you are getting new vehicle insurance coverage. Gap insurance can take care of you when you run out of all your other coverage, so long as you have already bought the maximum amount.
Gap insurance is similar to an umbrella policy, in that it covers whatever the money that you are provided through your regular insurance policy does not reach all of the costs for a claim. If you get into a car accident and your vehicle is declared a total loss, or if your car is stolen or falls into a volcano or a similar disastrous act, gap coverage can pay the rest of what you owe on the car, get you a new car, and get medical care for your magma burns.
Sometimes it is required by your finance company, but not always. Even if it isn’t, it is a good idea to buy some. Look out for this when you’re looking for gap insurance:
- you can get gap insurance any time while you are buying a new car, even at the end, although many people buy it at the beginning.
- some leases require you to have gap insurance, so you have to purchase it even if you don’t think it’s necessary.
- sometimes you can get gap insurance while having minimum coverage, but that could cause it to not be honored. If you want gap insurance, then you have to get collision and comprehensive coverage as well.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
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