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It’s easy to state facts than to explain them. So, we’ll start with some basic information and then look for possible answers. Every year, at least 8,000 drivers aged between 16 and 24 manage to kill themselves by driving with too much alcohol or disabling drugs in their bodies. As if that were not enough, not less than 50,00 others will be seriously injured but avoid death. Put into a more general context, drunk driving is the biggest cause of teen death with a mere 85,000 aged between 15 and 19 managing only minor injuries. In quoting these numbers, which are repeated year in, year out, we are not implying the police are ineffective. Young drivers are the group must likely to be arrested for dwi/dui offenses.

These numbers suggest a major cultural problem that’s not eased by policing. Nor is it affected when colleges and universities impose limits on the availability of alcohol at “official” functions. A dozen states impose a curfew on teen drivers. Yet the number of injuries and deaths remains steady. There seems to be a genuine resistance from teens to the idea they should say “no” to drinking and driving. Even states which divert additional resources to police patrols in the hope of increasing the chances of detecting and arresting drunk drivers have made no impact. Teens seem not to care whether they are arrested. Fear of punishment is not a deterrent. Worse, where the teens are supposedly responsible for paying their own insurance premiums, many ignore the law and drive uninsured.

This has two consequences. For parents who assume the burden of paying the premiums for their teens, the premium rates strain the family budget at a time when the recession lingers on and unemployment remains high. In the majority of states, the increasing risk of being hit by an uninsured or underinsured driver is also rising fast and should be protected against. For those teens and young adults under the age of 24 who opt to pay their own premiums, the rates are a sobering reminder of the terrible price we are paying for the number of accidents and death on our roads. Although younger drivers will earn discounts by building up a record of safe driving, avoiding tickets and accidents, all younger drivers pay higher premiums than adults who learn driving later in life. It’s not a question of driving experience. It’s about attitude. Second, auto insurance rates are becoming an instrument of public policy. Although high premiums do force some to refuse insuring their vehicles, the insurance companies are using price to try forcing younger drivers to act more responsibly. When the police and education services have failed to make an impression on youth culture, it’s left to the auto insurance industry to start high and then offer discounts to the young who are prepared to drive safely. It should not have to work this way. Somehow parents or other authority figures should be able to change the behavior of the young. But, when all else fails, it comes down to simple economics. Young drivers are bribed into driving more carefully.

During the last two years many people who have never though about bankruptcy before have found it as a necessary step to cope with the consequences of the economical crisis. It’s not something that means that you have failed completely anymore. Only during the initial phase of the crisis there was a drastic increase by 34% of persons filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy as the only possible option to protect personal assets such as households.

Why using Chapter 13 bankruptcy in the first place?

Chapter 13 is different from the common Chapter 7 bankruptcy as it allows organizing debt payouts in a way so that the personal assets of the person filing for this type of bankruptcy are not affected or used for paying out debts. Chapter 13 bankruptcy (also referred to as Individual Debt Adjustment) allows the person to kip all his personal belongings and pay out the debts during a specified period of time, usually 3 to 5 years. During this period the debtor is protected from any claims that the creditors may file, which is a very good option if you have some assets you want to protect. Still, such protection comes for a price and it may seem like a small one to pay initially, but in the long run it only gets bigger.

What escapes the attention of those who file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy is that any form of insurance and loans will come at a higher cost than before. And over time these costs will make up the actual price of using this form of financial protection.

Why does bankruptcy affect insurance rates?

When you’re getting car insurance quotes or applying for a home loan most insurance and lending institutions will use your credit report in order to assess the risk they are taking by working with you. And your credit report will be severely affected by bankruptcy, persisting for up to 10 years after you’ve filed for bankruptcy. Your credit rating will drop and it will be much harder for you to find affordable insurance or loans, if any at all.

How will bankruptcy affect my car insurance quotes?

The degree of impact Chapter 13 bankruptcy will have on your insurance rates and quotes depends on how good your credit rating was before you’ve filed for bankruptcy. If it was good enough, you will typically face a minor increase in insurance rates, and in some cases it may remain the same. However, if you already had problems with your credit record then a bankruptcy entry will certainly force your insurance rates and cost of any types of loans to rise substantially. That is, of course, if the company you got car insurance quotes initially uses credit rating in the process of calculating your rates.

What to do id filing for bankruptcy is the only option?

First of all, make sure to check your payment options with all insurance providers that you’ve previously paid using a credit card, as through bankruptcy most of your credit lines will be closed. In situation like this it’s best to have an insurance provider that doesn’t rely on credit ratings when calculating rates. So you may want to take your time and look for home, health and car insurance quotes from providers who make part of this group of insurers. They are not as numerous, but still there are plenty of companies to choose from.

A long time ago, we realized you can’t stop the aging process. No matter what the marketers may try to tell you about their latest products, there are only two things responsible for us living longer. That’s better food from birth – makes us all grow up bigger and stronger – and better medical care – even if you have a terminal disease, doctors can still keep you alive (bit of a mixed blessing, that). So there’s good news and bad news following from that. First the good: as we age, we pick up a vast amount of experience in driving. Mostly this is defensive. We learn how to stay out of trouble or, if trouble finds us, we can often get out of its way. This means the accident statistics show older drivers are less likely to get into an accident or, if there is an accident, it will be less serious. The bad news is we are all living longer. It used to be the case that, a few months after retiring in their sixties, men would give up and die. They used to run on empty to get that pension and then not hang around to enjoy it. The Boomers’ approach to life is rather different. They’ve not been working themselves into early graves. Many retired early or are working part-time into their golden years. So far as anyone can be as they come into their sixties, they are fit and healthy. Sure, the reflexes are not what they used to be and the eyesight is a bit fuzzy round the edges, but they compensate by driving more slowly.

Why is increasing life expectancy bad news? Well, fifty years ago, most older folk died or found themselves too dangerous and stopped driving. Insurers did not need to treat them as a separate class of drivers. They could be included in the low-risk group and benefit from the generally low levels of claims. But now thousands of older drivers are continuing to drive, the insurers are separating them into age bands. Between 55 and 64 years, the premium rates will tend to rise a little but not noticeably more than for younger drivers. Between 65 and 74, however, the rates will rise slightly more sharply. Over 75, the statistics show drivers have the second-highest accident rates after the teens. You really can’t stop age from affecting your physical abilities. Botox injections may give you skin free of wrinkles, but they can’t restore your eyesight.

So, as you age, start paying attention to the advice offered by the insurance industry. You will keep lower rates if you prove you drive less and only at off-peak times of the day. There will also be potential discounts if you fit safety features into your vehicle or go on a defensive driving course. Car insurance quotes fall when you prove you remain a safe driver. So no giving up. Shop around. Check out the forums and advice from organizations like the AARP. Car insurance quotes can be controlled so long as you look after your health and stay safe on the roads.

Let’s start off thinking about the purpose of discounts. Here’s this big insurance company. It employs many people with high salaries and bonuses. Put another way, the premium installments you make pay these salaries and bonuses. So how come the company gets all generous and decides to offer you the chance to pay less? If you pay less, that’s less money to pay those bonuses. Well, there’s a lot of psychology goes into selling. All companies want your business so long as they can make a big profit out of you without having to work very hard. So they use price to attract the right people and drive away those it would rather not have. Insurance companies want to collect in as much money as possible from the safest drivers. These are the people who pay on time and never have an accident. No insurer wants bad drivers. All that paperwork when it comes to claims and actually having to pay money out – definitely don’t want them. That means adjusting the prices.

The insurers pitch the premiums high to the bad drivers and lower to the good drivers. Being honest about this, if the bad drivers pay these premiums, the insurers can afford them to be bad. But why only “lower” quotes to the good drivers. Well, this is the second law of selling. If the buyer is inexperienced, he or she may just accept the quoted price and the profit is higher. You have to ask for discounts to receive them. You might be surprised how many people just accept the quotes and don’t push for the extra discounts.

Anyway, no matter how well you drive, the other big variable is the make and model of the vehicle you drive. This is where price really comes into its own. The actuaries who collect in information about all the accidents in the US, work out the probability of any make or model either being involved in an accident or stollen. So the rates quoted to you are a direct reflection of this work. Now it’s up to you to decide how to react. If money is no object, you drive whatever vehicle and pay the asked premium. But if your budget is limited, you do your homework. The best place to start is http://www.safercar.gov/. This site is run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, offering 5 star safety ratings for all the vehicles sold in the US. This safety information is backed up in http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ where the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety also lists the safest vehicles in each class. Finally, you should have a browse around http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov which gives clear guidance on safety features and practices. You will find the pdf, http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/administration/program_development/2010_Comparison_Insurance_Costs.pdf particularly helpful in comparing insurance costs.

Although safer vehicles are more boring to drive, they are cheaper to insure. The car insurance industry uses premium rates to encourage you to buy modest cars and drive them carefully. If you cannot afford to change your vehicle, talk to the insurers or get multiple car insurance quotes to find out what discounts are available if you fit safety features. Acting safe gets you discounts.

Most drivers, especially the younger ones. Probably know that insuring a teen driver will cost you much more than a driver of any other age below 70. This is because teen drivers are considered to be the highest risks when it comes to assessing insurance risks. Still, there are effective ways of lowering your auto insurance costs, and if you’re determined to get what you want for a lower price, then you should definitely follow the general tips mentioned below.

How to cut your car insurance costs

One of the most optimal ways of cutting insurance expenses is of course buying a car that is insurance friendly and safe in general. Look for a vehicle that has both front and side airbags, additional seatbelts, antilock breaks, anti-theft alarm and improved locks. Most insurance providers will give you a discount if your car can be considered as safe and protected from theft. Besides, if speaking of discounts, you should join an auto club as members of such usually get some discounts as a part of their membership.

In case your vehicle is rather old and has low market value, you may want to drop collision and comprehensive coverage altogether. While this type of coverage is really useful with new cars, the deductibles you will have to pay after filing a claim with an old car may be even higher than the actual value of the vehicle. So it’s better to be off without any collision and comprehensive at all.

If you’re planning to become married in the near future, this is your chance to get lower insurance rates as well. Married drivers are usually regarded as lower risks by the insurance companies, even if you are a rather young driver. Besides, reaching the age of 25 will also give you a drop in insurance rates, since drivers aged 25 and older are viewed by the insurance companies as having more driving experience and posing less risk on the road.

In case you still live at your parents’ house and don’t have a vehicle on your own, you might want to stay under their policy as they will usually have better insurance rates. But if you decide to purchase your own vehicle, with most insurance providers you will be obliged to purchase an individual policy for owning the vehicle.

Don’t forget that you can drop specific types of coverage in certain situation in order to avoid double insurance. For example, if you have good health insurance rates or are covered by an employer-sponsored group plan, you may want to drop personal injury protection from your car insurance policy since you will be covered by the health insurance policy in case of an accident. So why paying twice for the things you already have?

And of course, you should take some time to compare car insurance quotes before buying a policy in your own. Get as many car insurance quotes from different providers as you can as it will give you a good opportunity to get the most competitive rates out there. So take your time and do some comparison shopping as you can get really good quotes if you’re persistent.

There’s always quite a big political edge to issues surrounding the insurance industry. In the case of vehicles it comes down to two big question marks. The first is whether the insurer should focus interest on the driver; the second on whether the insurer should use price as a lever to change driver behavior. You see the first in the ongoing debates on whether premium rates should be based on the ZIP code or the driver’s credit score. You see the second in the continuing environmental debates about pay-as-you drive insurance.

The argument is easily put. At present, the insurer creates big groups of drivers and shares out the cost of the risk between them. This means all the safer drivers subsidize all the more dangerous drivers. Obviously there are some trade-offs, but the range of premium increases for individual drivers who prove unsafe is limited by the “profit” the insurer makes from all the safer drivers. Now look around you. We are living in the middle of a technological revolution. The vehicles we now drive are full of chips and many of us carry cell phones and other technology that allows service providers to track where we are. If we wanted, all vehicles could be fitted with technology to capture how and where we drive. This information could be transmitted on a continuous basis to our insurers. Those that drive the lowest number of miles and have the fewest accidents could then pay less to insure. Everyone who breaks the speed limits and travels thousands of miles a month would pay more.

The environmentalists love this idea. Price will be used to encourage people to drive less. There will be fewer greenhouse gasses released into the atmosphere. The world will be a better place. Law-enforcement are also excited by the possibility of being able to monitor all vehicles close to the scenes of reported crimes. Just think how useful it would be to know that seconds after a bank robbery, a car drove away from that location at 100 mph and was then abandoned in an alley where a second car then left. . . and so on. A recent study by the Conservation Law Foundation looked at the relationship between mileage and insurance claims in Massachusetts. It estimates that switching to pay-as-you-drive insurance would encourage drives to use the car less, reduce CO2 emissions, and cut accident costs.

Well, if you live in California, you will be able to try it out as from February 2011 when you apply for your auto insurance quotes. If you work from home, are unemployed or retired, or just generally drive less than 19,000 miles a year, you could be in line for a discount. State Farm and the Automobile Club of Southern California will be offering you the chance to self-report your odometer readings or to have a communications device installed that saves you the trouble of that cellphone call. So use this chance with your auto insurance quotes to save the planet and save dollars. Drive less, keep the gas in the ground and have better air to breathe.

USA has lots and lots of services you can rent. But together with each service companies like to sell their bloody insurances. If we are honest, insurances are for the best. At first you get an idea of payment for nothing but believe us, when the time comes, and if it does, you are very lucky to be insured under a good insurance plan. Each plan has its own limitation, condition, provisions, exclusions and specifics. You might want to consider them before you make a purchase. Where can you always collect the information that will help you go further with the insurance? You can find it either from an agent in the company or online.

Military personnel often have to adjust to a quick change of plans. Maybe you are deployed. Maybe you are just transferred to a new base. No matter what the reason, your primary concern is your family.

Unfortunately, the little nagging concerns like insurance need to be dealt with as well. If you’re leaving family behind, you have to make sure that they are covered and the payments get in on time. If you are single, you’ll have to either cancel your insurance or arrange payment while you’re gone.

At least, that’s what you thought.

Some insurance companies actually have special policies for military men and women, and their vehicles of course.

Readying Your Information

There is some basic information companies will need to know from you.

Classification

They are going to need to know if you are listed as active, reserved, or retired.

Time of Duty

If you know when you will be out of the country on active duty and when you or someone else will be using the vehicle, insurance providers will want to know.

Risks and Disasters

If you are going to be driving in another part of the world or country, make sure you get coverage for specific risks, like tornadoes, hurricanes, monsoon, typhoon, earth quakes, fires, floods, volcanoes, and even vandalism.

Deductibles

Like any other insurance, you will need to know how high a deductible you are willing to pay. Remember, the higher you can go, the lower your premiums will be. Just make sure to set the deductible money aside for when you need it.

Special Skills and Abilities

If you have specific training when it comes to driving, don’t hesitate to let the insurer know. Mark down any special training or programs you have participated in and be prepared to provide a certificate or some kind of proof. You may get a discount.

Emergency Deployment Clause

If there is a chance that you’ll be deployed all of a sudden, you should find an insurer that has something called an emergency deployment clause. With one of these, you will have a set special arrangement to sort out what happens to your insurance policy if you are deployed or transferred to another state or country. You may be able to terminate the policy with no penalty.

If you are planning on storing the vehicle should you be deployed, make sure you have covered storage. This may save you money on car insurance as well.

Finding a Provider

Military personnel have the special option of using a dedicated military company for their insurance. One such company is the Government Employees Insurance Company, which has special coverage-including car insurance-for military combat personnel and other employees. These dedicated companies will be able to offer lower rates and more flexibility. However, it is still worth checking around to see if you can save any more money.

Start by getting some free quotes. Just use these quotes as guidelines about who has the cheapest prices. You are still going to have to do some calling around if you want to make sure you really get the best deal. Give the cheapest companies a ring and ask about military pricing.

As it should be, America’s best get the best deals on car insurance.

Many people, when looking for health insurance quotes or other types of insurance premium pricing information, begin to feel like they would be better off just saving their money rather than sending it to an insurance company to make a premium payment. They often feel this way because they think that the likelihood that they will actually use the insurance that they are paying for is low, so they will spend all this money on premiums and then have nothing to show for it, which leads many individuals to decide that it would be better save their money and put it into an interest-bearing account and forgo the insurance policy.

Savings vs. Insurance

An insurance policy pays for large expenses – things it would likely take you years to save enough money to pay for on your own. And these expenses aren’t just big in terms of cost, they are important. For instance, staying with the example of health insurance – let’s say you need knee surgery. If you haven’t saved enough money (tens of thousands of dollars) to pay for this and you don’t have insurance, then you need to wait until you have the money in your account before you can get it done. That means you will have impaired mobility for years until you have enough to pay for the surgery. If you have insurance, however, you can get the surgery post haste. You can also get treatment for emergency medical needs and not have to leave the hospital wondering how you are going to pay for it.

Making Insurance Affordable

The real issue here is making sure that you can afford the insurance premiums you are paying. Avoiding insurance and trying to save the premium dollars will probably leave you high and dry when you actually need the money. But creating an insurance premium that you can actually afford to pay – and don’t resent doing so – will be a better plan. Here are a few tips to help you do so:

1. Look for discounts: Whether they come from bundling several insurance policies through one insurer, from taking the necessary steps to be a low-risk customer, or from paying your entire bill annually, take advantage of all the discounts you can. They add up!
2. Get only the insurance coverage you NEED: No matter what type of insurance you’re looking at, get only the amount you actually need to cover that individual risk. Being over-insured doesn’t provide you with any extra protection. Insurance is meant to make you whole, so the insurance company isn’t going to give you an extra payment if the value of what you are insuring wasn’t worth that much (the exception here being life insurance, which pays out your death benefit in full).
3. Continually review your policies: Your lifestyle and situation can change continuously and when it does, so too should your insurance. Every year before you renew, make sure there isn’t anything frivolous that you are paying for and no longer need and adjust anything else that could have a bearing on your premium.
4. Get new quotes: Insurance rates vary from company to company, and the initial search that you do for insurance quotes is not always relevant a year or two later. Getting regular quotes from other insurance companies can help you to ensure that you really are getting the best deal out there.

If you plan it well and stay aware of discount opportunities, you will maximize your insurance premium dollars without sacrificing the coverage you need.