Insurance companies were the last of the hold-outs. For years, they insisted everyone should pay them a lump sum once a year. Then, slowly, there was a cave. First it slipped to every six months, then quarterly. Now almost every company across the nation accepts monthly. What’s the problem for the insurance companies? Well, they estimate the likely total cost of the claims they will have to pay over the next twelve months and divide that amount between all the policy holders as the premium. If the company has done its sums properly and everyone pays once a year, the company always has the cash in the bank to pay out on all the claims. If people pay monthly, they can easily change to another insurer. They can miss one month’s payment when the family budget is under pressure. That means the insurer may not have enough money to pay the claims. So, to encourage all you people with some savings (or some slack on your credit cards), they offer discounts if you agree to pay every six or twelve months. It gives them more security and saves you some money. Paying monthly costs you the most.

That said, paying monthly gives you flexibility. You can use the online search engines to find auto insurance quotes at the lowest price. Then for just one month’s premium, you can be driving. In effect, this becomes a monthly policy. You can keep shopping around for new premium offers from different insurers. If you find a better monthly rate, you can transfer at the end of the month. But if you pay once or twice a year, the insurer will hit you with high cancellation charges to lock you in. Whatever you might save disappears. Worse, if you change the make and model of your vehicle during the longer policy term, it can be too expensive to move the policy to a cheaper company. You end up paying the higher premium until the six or twelve months end. So make a wise decision. Auto insurance is never cheap. Avoid making it too expensive.

The following points should be considered:

How many vehicles and drivers need to be covered?

Coverage is often determined by the number of vehicles and drivers requiring insurance. Businesses with several vehicles and drivers should opt for fleet insurance. This is likely to be less expensive than insuring by individual and vehicle but there are other factors that vary from insurer to insurer such as the class of vehicle.

How is Commercial Use defined in the Policy?

The terms for commercial use of a vehicle will not be included in your personal policy so it is necessary to establish terms with a dedicated commercial policy. The policy should be determined following a consultation with your insurer. It is important that both parties understand the level of insurance required to guarantee coverage in the event of an accident.

Lowering Premium Costs?

The following can help to lower commercial car insurance premiums:

Business Location. – Premiums will be affected if vehicles are located in high-risk areas for theft.

Driver Records. – Qualified drivers with clean records will mean lower premiums.

Vehicle Type. – The lowest premiums are reserved for mid-sized hatchbacks/saloons.

Excess. – If your company can afford to share the risk by pay a high excess, premiums will be lower. Safety and anti-theft devices. – Premiums are sure to be reduced if vehicles are fitted with devices such as alarms, GPS, air bags and seat belts.

Special commercial Coverages and Considerations

Things to consider regarding commercial coverage:

If your business is subject to federal and state regulations, insurance coverage can be affected. For example, transporting cargo interstate requires specific terms must be met in line with the Department of Transportation. All such matters must be declared to the car insurance agent or company to ensure a clear understanding. If haulage involves equipment belonging to others, this should be reflected in the policy too.

Who is insured under the car insurance policy?

The structure of the business can lead to confusion over who is covered. Businesses with a large fleet of vehicles often form a separate company with the sole purpose of leasing the vehicles to the main company. In such cases, it is important to clarify this structure to the commercial car insurance company to guarantee the policy covers all vehicles, individuals and companies.

No matter what you do – please consider staying safe. There is nothing more precious than life and realization of it makes you not wise but also caring about others. There are so many people on the road with us everyday and we owe to think about them too. They don’t have to pay for our mistakes. You car and you are one and the same. Make both of you behave well!

Why think about it now? Well, let’s take the worst case scenario. Suppose you or one of your family are struck down. Suddenly, you are looking at big bills and worried about the extent of the cover available under the policy. This is not the best time to open negotiations with the insurer. You are emotionally weak. Worse, the reality of large losses will color the reaction of your insurer. The best time for these negotiations is when you are calm and all the losses for the insurer are in the future. This allows everyone to deal with hypotheticals and not get alarmed when big numbers are mentioned. So why do insurers start talking about big numbers? The national statistics show claims for long-term care almost always fall into the range of three to five years. That’s a big bill when you add in all the different services potentially required, whether in your own home or a nursing facility.

So what happens to people without long-term health insurance? The worst happens to those who have built up assets. Instead of providing for their families, they find all their assets sold to cover the apparently endless series of bills. Of course, some families have one or two who can be persuaded to act as carers. They sacrifice their earning capacity to provide home nursing. This, of course, is the worst case, where the losses just keep mounting up as families cope with the emotional and financial costs of the care. Health insurance provides protection for retirement savings and the assets readied for the children to inherit. Long-term policies cannot remove the emotional burden of living with an injured or dying loved one, but it can make the time less financially stressful.

1. Inform your company about filing the claim as soon as possible. Contact your insurance agent to discuss any damage that you think your insurance policy should cover. This is the person that will help you with information and advice on how to proceed according to the coverage your policy delivers. It’s better to have all the information regarding your policy and your agent’s contact information somewhere outside your home (in the wallet for example). It is also recommended to record all your conversations with the agent to have a reference if needed.

2. Evaluate and document the overall damage to your property for the claim. The best way to do that is to have a digital video or photo camera to record all the damage along with comments and documentation immediately after the property was subjected to any influence. Keep these recordings and documents available when needed, having multiple copies will also be handy.

3. Make intermediate repairs before your policy kicks in. You have the responsibility for your property after the damage and should prevent it from getting even worse. If there’s a leak in the roof, try stopping it in order to avoid getting your house flooded. Remember to store all the receipts from the store when buying repair supplies, but keep the expenses reasonable in order to avoid reimbursement denial from the insurance company.

4. List all the items on your property you think are missing or damaged. Ask your family for help, inspecting one room after another and listing all the items that are damaged. It is very important when you have replacement cost coverage, because all of the damaged items will be replaced by new ones even if the old ones were much cheaper in value. Having an inventory list of your property before the damage done will be very helpful for processing the claim so take your time to do that after taking even a cheap home insurance policy.

5. Be patient. In case the damage was caused by a natural disaster with the whole area being affected it may take a longer time for you to get coverage, because those with more serious damage are likely to be covered first. Keep track of what is going on with your claim and speak to your insurance agent from time to time. In case you suspect that your insurance claim is not processed properly and laid off, even if it’s cheap home insurance, you should contact your state insurance department with a complaint. This is especially important if the damage to your house makes it impossible to live in it.

1. Consider changing the amount of your coverage

Quite often getting a bigger amount of insurance coverage will actually give you a lower rate. For example, most companies will offer a $260 annual premium for $250,000 in coverage, while having $245,000 will cost you about $20 more in annual premiums. Make sure to learn what is the premium per every $1000 of your coverage with every particular company you think getting a policy from. This way you will be able to get the most coverage for the lowest price.

2. Look for a compassionate insurance provider

Some insurance carriers tend to offer affordable rates to individuals with conditions such as cancer, diabetes or other serious diseases. It is better to work with a company, the employees of which tend to study each case individually and offer a respective rate rather than giving everyone with the same condition just one price tag.

3. Change your lifestyle

Kicking bad habits like drinking and smoking, starting to exercise regularly and loosing extra weight will put you into a lower risk category and your rates will drop significantly. Some companies charge smokers with a double rate of what non-smoker pay for life insurance. However, you should be absolutely honest with the insurer here, because if you lie and end up having habit-related disease, the company is likely to not pay out your death benefit at all.

4. Drop the riders

Riders are a good way to add up the overall value of your life insurance policy, but in most cases it is just an additional and unnecessary expense. While riders may add value to your life insurance policy in certain situations, many are simply an unnecessary expense. After all, you want to pay less for your policy, so why paying for covering an event that is very unlikely to happen?

5. Learn your hidden fees

Paying in “reasonable” installments on a monthly basis may seem like a nice idea but is likely that you will pay much more for your insurance policy than you think. That’s why it is important to spare some time at comparing both payment options before you actually choose a payment plan for your insurance policy. The math will definitely tell you whether the convenience is too pricey or not.

6. Do the shopping

When looking for insurance offers, comparison shopping is definitely the first thing you have to think about. Compare the offers from different companies – sometimes the rates differ substantially for the same amount of coverage, so make sure you have studies all of the options before getting your policy. There are many sites out there offering life insurance quotes from different providers.