friggin car insurance

[miniConvert]

My car insurance costs more than an average car, mostly due to my age. However, that's not the problem I had.

Initially I found it very hard to get any car insurance at all for one of my vehicles. It seemed that the mechanism supposedly in place in the UK to help when companies refuse car insurance couldn't help either. Surely every car insurance company should be forced to at least offer insurance, even if it's at an insanely high price? I got insurance in the end, of course, at a price, but not from any of the major insurers in the UK.

 

[Doctor Q]

I can see both sides of that argument. The government has an interest in making sure everyone is insured, but they could do that either by requiring every company to offer insurance to every customer or by sponsoring a state-run "insurance company of last resort", just to make sure there is at least one that will sell to a given customer.

Either way, if you aren't a choice customer, you pay through the nose.

It's easy to avoid the higher prices, however. At least in the U.S., you simply have to be the right age (definitely not young, but not too old either), drive the right kind of car (not too old, not too new, not too expensive), live in the right area (not too accident prone), be female, and have a perfect driving record. No problem!

 

[Timepass]

I can see both sides of that argument. The government has an interest in making sure everyone is insured, but they could do that either by requiring every company to offer insurance to every customer or by sponsoring a state-run "insurance company of last resort", just to make sure there is at least one that will sell to a given customer.

Either way, if you aren't a choice customer, you pay through the nose.

It's easy to avoid the higher prices, however. At least in the U.S., you simply have to be the right age (definitely not young, but not too old either), drive the right kind of car (not too old, not too new, not too expensive), live in the right area (not too accident prone), be female, and have a perfect driving record. No problem!

I know in the state of Texas there is the "insurance of last resort" Which the state itself does not run will have a few insurance companies do and make them offer it to people but at a high price. It not cheap when you get to that point nor is the state going to force it to be cheap. State basicly is say break even on them and when you are at that point it is high.

Another way to advoid high rates is be with a company for a while and go though an agent not just a resaler. The reason you go though an agent is they are more willing to go to bat for you with corpate than just dealing with the courpatation. Heck our agent has help us out quite a bit when I got in my wreck 5 years ago. They "delayed" the paper work a few extra days to make sure that it was not put on the up coming policies renewal (just happen to be really close to it. needed like 4 days more days to jump it) Which over all helped keep our rates down since at the next renewal there where some discounts on mine that I would be elegible for.

Also going though on company for all your insurance needs also reduces the rates. Since any overlap in the policy would still come from one place they reduce you rate for only paying for stuff once and not for the over laps (plus when you need money it easier to get your money than trying to agrue with 2 company saying the other is the one who covers you. here there is no argument who is responible to pay. They can figure out which policy it will be under).

Getting married reduces rates for both males and females. More so for males. yeah it sucks having to pay it all but you need it. Last thing you will want is to get in a wreck that you are at fault and not having insurance. Because not only will you be introuble for it but you will also have to pay for the daamges you caused and legel fees that you get for being sued. (and most people have uninsured motorist insurance which mean the incurnce company will be the ones sueing you and you not going to win against them and the legal fees will be a lot higher, alone with the huge black markets are you creited history)

 

[rhsgolfer33]

But it seems like a lot of the kids here have parents that pay the tab, I sure wish it was like that when i was 16....

Ed

I've just been lucky, my parent understand that it's impossible to get a 4.0 gpa, play high school golf(minimum 3 hours a day practice) on a good team, and work enough to pay for car inusrance, gas, and fun. It came down to them paying for things like car insurance and gas or having me work for a measly couple grand a year and not get a 4.0, play golf, get a scholoarship or get into a good college. Their not forcing me to work actually saved them money in the form of scholarships, it actually helped cut the cost of private college in half.

 

[Doctor Q]

One company I talked to gave discounts for people with degrees in engineering. I claimed that my degree in computer science from a university School of Engineering should qualify, but they said it didn't - it had to be "hard" engineering, because their discount was based on some statistics about people with those degrees having fewer accidents. In any case, they later changed their minds and decided I was a qualified engineer after all. I suppose if left-handed people had proportionally fewer accidents, they might give discounts for that too.

 

[mactastic]

Yeah, that report listed architects as a high risk, most likely because we're always on our phones and late for job-site meetings...

 

[quigleybc]

at least in the USA you have options

in BC

there is ONE place to get insurance, and if you dont' want to go that route, you dont' get insurance....


If I were to go get one year of insurance full coverage, I'd be looking at over two thousand dollars......and that's normal...