With the current tough economic times, the question of what would happen if you don’t pay your auto insurance premiums is one that some people are considering. However, while some people may think that not paying for their auto insurance is a way to save money, it can hurt you both financially and in a number of other ways, as well.

What Happens When You Miss a Payment?

Auto insurance companies are not like other creditors in that there is generally not a grace period for paying your auto insurance premiums. If you don’t pay by a certain date, your auto insurance will be cancelled as of that date. If you do miss a payment, you will probably receive a phone call and a letter in the mail, letting you know that your payment was missed and what you need to do in order to keep your auto insurance coverage from lapsing. Usually, you can get your auto insurance reinstated without ever having been uninsured by making a payment immediately. However, this is something that you would have to discuss with your individual auto insurance carrier in order to find out exactly how they do things.

What Are The Consequences?

Some of the consequences of not paying your auto insurance is that you won’t have insurance. If you are in an accident, you will face legal consequences, which can involve an expensive ticket for not having insurance. Your vehicle can even be impounded by the police. Even worse, you can be sued by the other people in the auto accident if it was your fault and you have no insurance to pay their accident claims.

Another consequence of not paying your insurance premiums is that you will be reported to the credit bureaus. Your credit history is one of the criteria used to determine auto insurance rates, and people with bad credit pay more for auto insurance than people with good credit. In addition, your insurance company will be listed as a creditor you failed to pay, and other auto insurance companies are not going to want to take you on as a customer. This is because if you didn’t pay your other auto company premiums, chances are good you won’t pay theirs, either.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that not paying your auto insurance premiums is more costly down the road than it is to just find a way to pay it every month. It also helps to set up an automatic payment plan that debits your checking account on a certain day every month so that you never miss a payment, even by one day. Auto insurance companies are not forgiving when it comes to missing payments, and the financial and legal consequences are not worth the headache and expense. You can always do some shopping around to find another auto insurance company that can give you lower rates than the ones you are paying now.

Conclusion: You can start comparing quotes through Leading Insurance Quotes Today! We have a partner-ship with the leading insurance companies. You can get quotes from companie such as Geico, Progessive, AIG Direct, and many more through one form.

Many people wonder if they make a claim with their auto insurance, will it affect their premiums? The fact is, claims made against your comprehensive coverage should not raise your auto insurance rates. However, claims against your collision insurance can raise your premiums, and depending on the severity of the claim, they can go up significantly, or your auto insurance company can even decline to renew your insurance when it comes time to do so.

What Does Collision Insurance Cover?

Collision insurance basically covers you for damage and injury that result from an auto accident of some kind. Collision insurance is the kind of insurance that most states require drivers to have.

What To Do After an Accident

The first thing to do after you have been involved in an auto accident of some kind is to let your auto insurance agent know. They will assign your case to an auto insurance claims adjuster, who will assess the damage and let you know what the insurance company is going to pay. They generally do this by getting a copy of the police report and coming to look at your vehicle. They will most likely take pictures of the damage and ask you some questions about the accident.

How Does the Insurance Company Decide to Raise Your Rates?

There are a number of issues at stake when it comes to the auto insurance company deciding if they should raise your premiums after an accident. The best case scenario is that the accident was not your fault, and your insurance company is able to recoup their losses from the other person’s insurance company. Generally, your auto insurance company will not raise your rates for an accident such as this.

However, if the accident was your fault, you might see an increase in your auto insurance premiums up to as much as 20% more than you are paying now. Of course, this depends again on the severity of the accident. If you were just in some kind of fender bender in which the damage estimate was less than $2,000, you might see only a small increase in your auto insurance rates. But if you were the cause of a multiple vehicle accident, you will probably not get your auto insurance renewed. So if your accident is somewhere in the middle of smallest to largest, you will most likely see a corresponding rise in your auto insurance rates.

Accidents and Accident Forgiveness

Some auto insurance companies will forgive you for one small accident, because if you are a good customer and don’t make claims, they understand that one small accident can happen to anyone. On the other hand, if you are involved in accidents regularly, and make claims to your auto insurance company regularly, you will find yourself having a hard time keeping auto insurance. You can even be cancelled by your auto insurance company if you are a person who makes multiple claims.

The bottom line is that if you are a safe driver who very rarely gets into accidents or makes insurance claims, you can expect to have good rates.

Talk about insurance agents, and most people groan at the very thought of dealing with them. We all have a picture in our minds of the pushy salesman who tries to make you spend more than you want to while offering you something different than what you wanted in the first place. Knowing what to look for in an auto insurance agent can help you steer clear of the ones we all dislike and help you find one that you can feel comfortable working with.

First of all, don’t forget that this is your money! You have every right to ask questions, ask for clarification on things that aren’t clear, and purchase exactly what you want to, no less and no more. Any auto insurance agent that doesn’t listen to your needs is not the insurance agent for you. Also, auto insurance agents that try to sell you insurance you don’t need are not what you want, either. You need to find an agent that you can sit down with and have an honest conversation about your auto insurance needs. You should always feel like you can ask for another agent to deal with if you don’t feel comfortable with the one you are talking to.

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Gap insurance is an auto insurance word that is tossed around a lot, but there are a lot of people who don’t know exactly what gap insurance is for. Gap insurance is a type of auto insurance you can buy that covers the difference between what you owe on your car and what the insurance company says that your car is actually worth.

For instance, if you buy a new car for $22,000, you know that as soon as you drive your car off the new car lot, it depreciates. New vehicles depreciate quickly. So you drive your new car for two months, and then you are hit by a semi and your new car is totaled. When your car is considered totaled by the insurance company, it means that it would cost more to fix it than it is worth. However, you have only made one car payment on your new car, so you basically still owe $22,000. But your auto insurance company will only pay $19,000 for your new car due to the depreciation factor. That leaves you with roughly $3,000 that you still owe to your bank for your new car, which you can no longer drive. So what do you do about that $3,000?

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Auto insurance quotes are not all created equal. They don’t all contain the same types of coverage, and the rates for coverage can be as different as night and day. Since smart people comparison shop when they are looking for auto insurance, it pays to know a few things about the do’s and don’ts when it comes to those auto insurance quotes.

Do’s

• Do request auto insurance quotes from more than one auto insurance company. Requesting quotes from three or four is good, and requesting five or six different quotes is even better. There are tons of reliable auto insurance companies out there providing excellent insurance. Your chances of getting good insurance goes up if you have more quotes to compare.
• Do submit accurate information to the auto insurance companies when getting quotes. The quote is only as good as the information it is based upon, so tell the truth. Besides, they are going to find out your credit score is only fair anyway.
• Do make sure the quotes are for the same type of coverage. You can’t compare auto insurance quotes if they aren’t for the same thing. You want to do an ”apples to apples” comparison, not an “apples to mangos” comparison. You want to make sure you are getting the best deal possible.

Don’ts

• Don’t let an auto insurance salesperson talk you into making a decision about their insurance offer right away. When you request auto insurance quotes, you are going to get calls from salespeople, and they are going to want to sign you with their insurance today. Don’t give into pressure. Simply tell them that you are considering several different offers, and if you decide to go with theirs, you will get back to them.
• Don’t fall for flashy, gimmicky sales tactics. Auto insurance companies want business, and they often offer some type of gimmick in order to get more customers. You need to keep in mind that you are looking for auto insurance for the long term, and you probably won’t end up needing the gimmick that hooked you in the first place. Gimmicks don’t sell good auto insurance, good coverage sells auto insurance.
• Don’t get auto insurance quotes for only one deductible amount. Raising your deductible may save you a fortune in auto insurance. Getting quotes for a range of deductibles will let you be able to decide if you can afford a higher deductible in order to pay less for auto insurance. You might be surprised at how much you can save by getting a different deductible than you currently have.

Knowing how to get the most from those auto insurance quotes can help guarantee that you are getting the best deal possible for the lowest premium. Quality auto insurance at reasonable rates is realistic if you know what you are doing and are willing to spend some time and effort on comparison shopping with auto insurance.

Some people are under the impression that if they have collision and comprehensive auto insurance coverage on their vehicle, they are covered for everything that could possibly happen. This is not necessarily true. What this means is that you will be covered if someone runs into you, and if someone steals your car, or if you hit a parked car in the grocery store parking lot. While it is true that having collision and comprehensive auto insurance will protect you in most cases, there are things that those two types of insurance won’t cover.

So what are some of the things that comprehensive auto insurance doesn’t cover?

Comprehensive auto insurance coverage doesn’t cover a number of things, including theft of items from your vehicle, things that are considered an act of God, (such as a tree that was struck by lightening falling on your car), the tires on your car, damage due to poor maintenance on your part, and if your family or employees steals or vandalizes your car. Read the rest of this entry »

Car crashes happen every ten seconds. There are over two hundred million drivers on the roads right now. There is a 14 in 100 chance that a driver with no auto insurance will hit you. One in every twenty drivers had no auto insurance just a two years ago, in some areas, it is one in four. There are more uninsured drivers in large cities than in smaller, more rural areas. You can sue a driver with no insurance, but you probably won’t get anything out of it besides being out of pocket for the accident and the lawyer fees. This is because chances are, people without auto insurance don’t have any assets to be sued for anyway. In addition, the legal penalties for not having insurance vary widely from state to state, so the person who hit you may not get much of a penalty for not having insurance. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been said that a car crash occurs every ten seconds in this country. With the millions of drivers on the roads, that is not much of a surprise! Crashes are something every driver wants to avoid, for a number of reasons. First of all, no one wants to be involved in a car crash or be injured in a car crash. In addition, experienced drivers know that if you are involved in a crash, your auto insurance rates can go up. Depending on the severity of the crash, they can go up a little or a lot.

Knowing what to do, and what not to do during a car crash can make things a lot easier when dealing with your auto insurance after the fact. There are some things you can do at the time of the crash that will make it easier for your auto insurance company to do their job, and hopefully get you back on the road in no time at all. Read the rest of this entry »

Teenage drivers. The very phrase sends a shiver down the spine of auto insurance paying parents everywhere. There are so many issues when it comes to teen drivers, and getting a good rate on auto insurance for them is one of the top goals for parents in addition to teaching their teen to drive safely.

So what can you do as a parent to help your teen get the best possible insurance rate?

Teach Those Teens to be Safe Drivers

Teaching your teen to be a safe driver in all situations is the best way to feel good about them as a driver. The good news is that if they are a safe driver, you generally get the added bonus of a good insurance rate. Studies suggest the most difficult and risky driving situations for teens include:

• Driving while distracted
• Driving at night
• Failing to wear a seat belt
• Driving in bad weather conditions
• speeding
• driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol

All of these things can be major safety issues for teens, and if they engage in these risky driving practices, they have a much higher chance of getting into accidents. Of course, teen drivers that are prone to getting into accidents or receiving speeding tickets means that their auto insurance rate is going to be higher. So make sure that you have talked with your teen about these risky driving situations. It is also a good idea to let them practice driving at night, and driving during bad weather so that they can become more familiar with how to do it well. Read the rest of this entry »

We all know someone who engages in episodes of road rage while they are driving. To be honest, most people have had at least one episode of road rage themselves. It is very difficult not to get angry when another driver cuts you off in traffic, or takes the last parking place you have been waiting to get into for the last ten minutes, or someone is talking on their cell phone while driving and almost hits you. Then there is the person that weaves recklessly in and out of traffic, and the guy that rides your bumper, which you really dislike. Everyone has a personal pet peeve when it comes to bad drivers. These episodes are frustrating, and most people are sorely tempted to hit the horn, or display rude finger gestures to the driver in error. What kind of poor driving can make you totally upset? If the answer is everything, then you need to re-evaluate your driving attitude.

Practice Patience While Driving

While road rage may make you feel better, it doesn’t really solve the problem. Plus, you have no idea why the other person is driving erratically. Sometimes it can help to imagine that perhaps the other driver that is driving poorly is having a really bad day, or was simply not paying attention to the road and the drivers around them as well as they should. Cut the bad driver some slack, and try not to get upset with them. When you get upset, your blood pressure rises, your actions can become less relaxed, and you can have a hard time focusing on the big picture, which is getting where you need to go safely. You are much more likely to get in an accident when you are upset. Read the rest of this entry »