Affordable Automobile Insurance

When a teenager receives his or her driving license for the first time, it’s a time to celebrate. The first thing that comes to the mind is how quickly they can jump behind the wheel. Getting affordable insurance rates is something that occurs to them last. Finding affordable automobile insurance for teens is difficult (not impossible), and it requires a strategy.

Insurance company officials look at teenagers as an extremely high risk group due to reasons such as inexperience and they don’t have a record. That’s the reason they have to pay higher insurance premiums. Statistics are also against teenagers, as accident data shows young people are more irresponsible while driving their cars. A study by Illinois Department of Insurance says that above 60% of teenagers involved in accidents were also guilty of drinking. The teenagers need to understand, they need to be responsible drivers after getting their driving license. If they do not manage to avoid accidents and violations; their insurance premium will only increase in future.

There are several ways in which young drivers can reduce their insurance costs. The first obvious step is to shop around for the cheapest rate in the market. If the young drivers can club themselves in the existing policy of their parents, they can reduce insurance costs substantially. Keep an eye open for discounts. Student discounts are very popular among the teenagers. Even those student who have had good grades in their report cards, are seen as responsible drivers. Other teenagers can enroll themselves for safe driving courses which will be beneficial when insurance premium is being calculated. Even for parents, safe driving course is a great idea because it reduces accident and insurance rates at the same time. If the teenagers lean driving from a professional, they are likely to look up to him and continue with safe driving practices, even at a later stage.

California witnessed about 25% increased in automobile arson fraud in the last year, says the California State Commissioner. He further said that there has been marked increase in automobile insurance fraud in an effort to get more insurance money. It is believed due to financial challenges being faced by the people due to economic downturn; they are committing insurance fraud to get access to some quick money. Investigators suspect that many car arson and theft cases are actually fraud related, and the enforcement experts are making sure anyone trying to cheat insurance companies is caught.

The suspected fraud cases are referred to the Department of Insurance by insurance companies. Every suspected case is very carefully examined by the officers.
Overall, there were about 300 additional automobile theft and arson cases in 2008, whereas about 200 additional automobile theft cases were referred to department in 2008. Although the total number of referred fraud cases remains the same, only arson and theft referrals have increased substantially.

Insurance frauds are a major financial problem for both consumers and insurance carriers. According to National Insurance Crime Bauru report, insurance frauds send the industry back by about $ 30 billion every year. Every American household faces, on an average, the cost of $300 every year due to higher insurance premium charged to compensate losses caused by accident staging. Whenever an insurance company loses money due to false claims, the losses are passed on to the customers by increasing insurance premium. About 90% insurance fraud loses are due to claims padding, in which those who have filed the claim add injuries, damage, non-existent passenger in their claims. Rest of the losses comes from organized accident staging groups. It is difficult to pursue these crimes since these are not a priority among enforcement officers. Even insurance companies believe they can not stop this practice, and they simply transfer the cost to the consumers paying the premium.