California Auto Insurance Claim Denied Because of Teen Driver?

Reader question:

I heard that you can get a claim denied if your teenager is on your  California auto insurance policy. Is that true?

Phillip

Thank you for your question, Phillip.

I’m not sure where you heard that, Phillip, but it’s definitely not true that your California auto insurance company will deny your claim just because you have a teenager on your policy. Heck, you’ll probably get your claim denied if you decide not to add your teenager to your  insurance policy, because if you don’t provide such important information, then your  auto insurance company is unable to adjust your car insurance premium to fit the amount of risk you pose to the company.

One thing that I think you might be thinking about is the recent report done on parents whose claims were denied because they had claimed themselves to be the main drivers on vehicles of which their high risk teenagers were actually the main drivers. I think this might be the result of a bit of miscommunication.

Many people who deal out auto insurance advice, myself included, have urged parents to make sure that car insurance companies don’t automatically add the teenagers to the most expensive and costly to insure vehicle on their policy. This is definitely something that you should worry about, since car insurance companies tend to, if not told otherwise, put the highest risk driver with the highest risk car, even if the driver in question never touches the car.

However, making sure that your teenager’s name isn’t added to a car that they don’t drive isn’t the same as deliberately putting your teenager’s name on a car that they don’t drive. This is called fronting, and is considered fraud, so I advise every parent thinking about doing this on their California auto insurance policy to think again. The truth is that most parents who do this don’t even know they’re committing fraud, at least according to sixty percent of the parents in the report.

Make sure that you give accurate information and that your  insurance company follows it when rating your policy, but giving inaccurate information yourself could land you in trouble.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarram.

California Commercial Insurance – How To Get a Cheaper Rate

If you are a self employed person who spends a lot of time on the road, then you might need to get California commercial insurance, which would provide you the extra protection that you need while being your own boss. However, in order to get the best deal on commercial insurance, you need to live up to much the same standards as required by a regular car insurance policy in California. In order to do this, and to make sure that your commercial insurance rates come out very cheap, you need to make sure that you are conducting your business in the safest vehicle you can get.

Now, you may need to make some sacrifices if you are on the road a lot, such as choosing a gas mouse over a gas monster, and it will never be possible to point out which car is the absolutely most safe one skidding over the cement, but you can get pretty close by paying attention to a few major aspects of your car. Your California commercial insurance premium will thank you.

• The bumpers in the back and front need to be well placed and strong. These take in a lot of the force of a headlong or rear end crash, so if you want to protect your valuables in the trunk or yourself and passenger in the front seat, then you need to have these two things as strong as possible.
• The size of your vehicle is better off being neither small nor large, as large vehicles inflict more damage while small vehicles take more damage. A mid sized vehicle both protects you and the other car.
• The weight is also important, because the more your car weighs, the more force it will bring to a crash, and the less it ways the more fragile it is. Proper care of tires will keep your weight where it needs to be.
• Restraints like headrests, belts, and as many air bags as possible are more protections against serious injuries in a car accident.
• Stability controls, be they electronic stability control, rollover detectors, or traction control, can be great aids in preventing you from getting into an accident in the first place. Many accidents are caused by simply turning the wheel the wrong way when you start to slide, and these devices can compensate without you panicking and making the situation worse.
• Anti lock disc brakes also help to keep you from losing control of your car, and are able to give you more control of your brakes on difficult surfaces.
• Daytime lights make your car more able to be seen in the day.

Lower Your California Car Insurance Rate With Anti Theft Devices

Criminals are typically a few nails short of a full toolbox, but people too often underestimate their prowess when it comes to stealing cars. As Houdini was to getting out of water while chained up, so are many experienced car thieves to getting into your car when layered with all the technology in a presidential cavalcade. However, although your car may still be stolen or vandalized while it is heavily protected by anti theft devices, you will at least discourage most hardy car thieves and possibly all of them, and in the meantime you will be able to get a discounted car insurance rate, which is one of the best parts.

Here I am going to give a description of the many common anti theft devices. When you look at the descriptions and the prices, think of how much that device will cost you know versus how much it will save you on your California car insurance rate.

• Lock for steering wheel.

This is one of the cheapest kinds of devices. It might get you slight decrease in your comprehensive  car insurance rate, depending on the company you are with. It makes it to where the thief can’t turn the wheel, and while it is more easily disabled than many devices, it works well with other devices and if a thief has to choose a car with a lock over a car without, in most cases he will choose the car without.

$25+

• Alarm.

This is the most common kind of anti theft device, and usually comes equipped on the vehicle. The better kind, though, will add horn honking and light flashing into the mix to attract more attention to the car.

$150+

• Kill switch.

This will impede the flow of electricity to the engine, making it impossible to start the car. This type of anti theft device is extremely cheap and will get you a big decrease in your California car insurance rate if you have comprehensive coverage.

$10+

• Tracker.

This is different from all of the others in that, while it doesn’t prevent car theft, it does what no other anti theft device does–it sends out a signal allowing police officers to find it. This is unusual because almost all cars that are stolen are never recovered. It is somewhat expensive, though, even for the cheapest one.

$400+

• Code entry.

There are a few cars that have a set of numbers on the front driver door to them which, if the code is entered correctly, allow the vehicle to be started with the help of the key. This is somewhat effective, but remember that thieves are known for breaking codes. It would be best if used with another feature.

Can’t be bought. Has to be installed while the car is being made.

• Steering column collar.

One of the more common ways of hot wiring a vehicle is by going through the steering column. While this anti theft device does not prevent the thief from entering the car, it does prevent the thief from starting it without an actual key. If you want to get a good California car insurance rate, then you need to get one that is always active, not one that has to be installed every time you leave the car.

$100+

• Locks for tires.

These are frustrating, making the vehicle immobile until the tire locks are removed. However, removing them is difficult, for you and the thief.

$80+

• Decals.

There are a lot of decals that can be found in most stores stating, like the kind of decal you’ll find on a house, that the car has some kind of alarm system or theft prevention device. It may be true, it may not. I had one of these years ago, although I didn’t have so much as an alarm on my car, and my car never got stolen. Of course, this may be because no one wanted my car, but I choose to blame the decal. This is a good way to go when you have no cash to spend on anti theft devices, because it does act as a deterrent even if it provides no real protection. It also won’t get you a better California car insurance rate.

Why California Car Insurance Quotes For Teens are High

Reader question:

Why is my California car insurance quote for my teen driver so high?

Amy

Thank you for your question, Amy.

I know the feeling. I didn’t drive very much when I wa a teenager, and since my mother didn’t have a car insurance policy, neither did I. Before I graduated from high school, I had managed to save up enough money to buy myself a car. It was cheap, several years old, a piece of junk all around, but in its hey day it had been considered a sports car, which was one of the reasons for why I liked it. Seeing as I now owned a car, I had to get a California car insurance quote.

The number blew me away. And it makes you wonder. Why is your  car insurance quote always going to be higher if you’re a teenager or if you’re the owner of a sports car, no matter how old?

It’s what the people who give you that car insurance quote live by, and it’s called risk.

The way the car insurance companies see you is as a stack of risks. Think of yourself, your life, everything about you all boiled down to how likely you are to file a claim. Everything about you is related to this, and some things will get you a better insurance quote, and others will get you a worse  insurance quote. There are some things you can do to lessen your risk, but it’s pretty much set in stone.

However, even stones can be chipped away. Just because you fall into a certain high risk group does not mean that every  insurance quote you get is going to be the same. The California Department of Insurance imposes pretty strict rules on the car insurance companies, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that they are competing. So if one company is able to save its policy holders more money, then you will be able to get a better  quote there, regardless of your risk.

If you go shopping for a new California car insurance quote every time your risk changes, then you’ll save yourself hundreds, maybe over a thousand dollars a year.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Best Cheap California Car Insurance Company?

How is it that you go about looking for a used car that will score you a good car insurance quote with your California car insurance company? Ask your body shop mechanic, or some friends? You could do either, but it’s best to take a variety of steps to make sure that you get the best deal on your quote with your California car insurance company.

First, figure out what you want. A good way to do this, if you don’t have any clear idea, is to ask people you now for suggestions. Everybody has their favorite car, the car that they pine for, so you’r bound to get a thousand different answers. With enough information, some will be useful to you and others just won’t be.

Another thing that you ought to do is, once you have an idea of a few cars to consider, go to Kelley’s Blue Book on their website and look at what the manufacturer suggested retail prices (MSRP) are for each car on your list. Remember that the more expensive the car, the higher the quote with your California car insurance company is going to be, although of course this is not the only factor. Whenever you look at the values, get the values for different years, since you’re buying a used car.

The next step is to find the car. You can get listings in several places, such as Craigslist and the newspaper. Whenever you go to see the car you are considering buying, you ought to either bring someone you know who is pretty auto savvy, or you need to take the car to a mechanic so they can look it over and see what kind of condition this is. This may sound like too much trouble to you, but believe me, I’ve bought cars before who worked perfectly until they got off the lot and that is not something you want to get in to.

Normally it won’t cost you a lot of money to get your car inspected, because if you vouch to the mechanic that when it breaks down you will have him or her fix it, then they will usually give you a discount.

But perhaps even that would be too much money for you. But if you want to have a safe car that will get you good quotes with your California car insurance company, then you at least need to have documentation of the cars accident and repairs history, as well as documentation stating that it has had a timing belt change and oil changes and everything else needed for upkeep.

What Does Insurable Interest Mean?

Reader question:

What does the term ‘insurable interest’ mean?

Maggie

Thank you for your question, Maggie.

I’m surprised that I missed that one on my list of terms for California car insurance. If you’re confused about any other wording and want to look at the list, it’s a few posts down and explains all of the common terms used in the car insurance business. Now, I will get to the subject at hand.

An insurable interest is, essentially, when you have some sort of property which, if it were to be damaged or somehow lost, would also cause you some degree of financial harm. For example, if your house was severely damaged in a flood, then that house would be an insurable interest (before or after the flood) regardless of what you choose to do with the house itself. Maybe you decide to remain in its damaged surroundings and fix it up, which would be considered financial harm, or you sell it for less than its value was before the flood, which would also be categorized as financial harm. Either way, you would lose out, which is why we have California car insurance (and homeowner’s insurance).

What makes an interest insurable, according to California car insurance, is that it directly affects you. For example, if the person’s house across the street from you is flooded, but it doesn’t quite make it to your own house, then it isn’t considered an interest of yours. If you want to get an insurance policy for it, then the interest has to be something that is your own, and something that is insurable.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Things To Consider Before Selecting a California Auto Insurance

There are several things that you need to be aware of when you are going into the battle for California auto insurance. Here is a list that will make you aware of what to expect and what to demand.

• Your name is .0001%.

California auto insurance providers, like car insurance companies everywhere, deal in statistics. When they see you, that is what they see, not a living breathing person. Therefore, no matter how many protestations you make that you are the most angelic and able driver in the world, if you are part of a demographic (or if your car is) that files a lot of claims, you are high risk as well. There are a number of things that can push you either way on the risk spectrum, from your job to your car, so it’s something you have to get used to.

• One is not like the other.

Not all California auto insurance companies are the same, which is why it is necessary to shop around.

• Price isn’t everything.

While getting a great insurance quote is ideal, it is also important for you to have a bunch of other things from your insurance company. First of all, you will need good rates, but also good service and an easy claims process. You will need to look at several aspects of a company before you decide that it’s the one.

• Rise above it.

In California auto insurance, you have to have a minimum coverage of $35,000 self insured, and $40,000 if you go through a insurance company. However, most of the time these tiny amounts will not help you when push comes to shove. Think about what you need and consider upping your liability insurance coverage.

• Get paid.

Every California auto insurance company offers discounts, but so many people just ignore them. According to several studies, Americans spend $500 billion more on car insurance than they would have spent if they had gotten discounts that they are eligible for.

• Tell the difference.

Many auto insurance providers will try to get off by repairing your car with aftermarket parts when you file a claim with them. While these are just as safe as other parts, if you don’t get the parts from the original manufacturer then your vehicle will lose value.

• Look out.

Your  insurance company is there to serve you, but that doesn’t mean they will be all enthusiastic about it once the time comes for them to do so. It is your responsibility to fight for the money that you deserve.

• Think ahead.

Don’t wait until the last minute to read your auto insurance policy as you are waiting for the firemen to pry you out of your wrecked car. If you know what you need to do in the claims process ahead of time, then you don’t have to worry about it when you’re stressed and possibly injured from a collision.

Getting a Cheaper Military Auto Insurance Rate

The company USAA originally started as an establishment which offered a competitive auto insurance rate to any officer of the military. Since that date when it began, it has changed and is now more open, not only to everybody in the military, but to the members of their family as well. The military is meant to include both those who are currently in service, as well as part time reserve members, and retired members of the military. Their family is meant to be their immediate relatives.

USAA also helps out members of the military and their families by creating plans where they can buy things, such as video cameras, through their auto insurance coverage. They offer credit cards, and are very understand of members of the military who are deployed. While these soldiers must keep any vehicle on United States soil insured, while they are away there is really no reason for them to have liability insurance if the car is in storage. In order to help them save money, USAA offers cut coverage auto insurance rate by allowing soldiers to only pay for comprehensive auto insurance on their vehicles while they are deployed outside of the country.

USAA isn’t the only company which offers these perks. Other companies, such as GEICO, have plans that allow members of the military a break both while on base and while abroad. You’ll find that around a base area, your California auto insurance rate will be much lower if you are a member, active or retired, of the United States military than it would be if you were in some other area of California. Unlike GEICO, though, USAA does not only have a history of serving the military, but it continues to do so even today, when most companies find they make more money serving lower risk members of the entire populace.

California Auto Insurance Lemon Law

California auto insurance law has a few things to say about lemons, which will without a doubt get you both higher rates for car insurance and a higher amount of repairs while you own the so called vehicle. But what is a lemon, anyway, at least according to California auto insurance law?

• A lemon is…

The word lemon, when referring to a product, typically means that it has defects which make it to where it cannot complete its usage. It goes for any type of product, but is most often used as a name for vehicles which consistently have break downs and other mechanical problems over a short period of time. I had a lemon once, and believe me, it is not fun to constantly be broke because you have to pay for a huge car repair once a month or more.

These lemons are such a huge problem, that a subsection had to be created in California auto insurance law to make way for the lemon laws. The lemon laws define what a lemon is, allowing the owners of the lemons to sue the sellers if their vehicle fits the description. It also makes sure that the companies are protected by only allowing lawsuits over cars that do indeed fit the definition in the lemon laws.

According to California auto insurance law, a lemon is when a car continues with the same problem after three attempts at fixing it, or has continued with the same problem after an attempt at fixing it and as a result has been broken down for at least twenty days (which do not need to follow one after the other)

In order for you to be able to file a lawsuit under the lemon provision of the California auto insurance law, though, the lemon has to:

• have racked up at least 18,000 miles when you first informed the manufacturer about it
• either the manufacturer or the dealer has to try to fix the car, not just some guy you know who knows about cars
• has to be big enough to get in the way of the use or value of the vehicle

Should You Tell Your Auto Insurance Company You Bought a Lemon?

Reader question:

I bought a used car. I think it is a lemon. Do I have to tell my California auto insurance company? Should I file a lawsuit?

Laura

Thank you for asking, Laura.

You absolutely can get your lemon car insured through a California auto insurance company. However, since the car is not in good condition, you might find that the California auto insurance company charges you more because it is a higher risk and also less safe than other cars. If you shop around a bit, though, you can find the best price on your car, which can also be done by applying discounts to your policy with your California auto insurance company.

As for filing a lawsuit, unfortunately you are out of luck since you bought a used car. According to California auto insurance law, a lemon is only defined when you are able to deal with it through the original dealer and manufacturer, so it is only a term for new cars. The only way to make sure that you don’t get a used car that is a lemon is to get a mechanic to look at it and determine that it’s in good shape before you sign any papers.

California auto insurance law doesn’t protect you from sneaks and liars, so you have to practice the utmost responsibility on your own part. You should also consider that many used cars are simply run down pieces of junk, and not necessarily lemons. Lemon mostly applies to new cars with persistent problems which couldn’t or shouldn’t have been cause by the standard wear and tear.

However, if you do buy a used car that was called a lemon when it was new, then your dealer is supposed to tell you that it was a lemon. If the dealer does not do so, then you can get something out of it. However, you should check your CLUE report first and make sure that the car is really a lemon.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

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