December 28th, 2009 | 
Author: I wanted to hi-lite each person that came through our $25 restaurant gift card giveaway but I’m already behind from the weekend. We had a lot of winners from Hobart and Portage, and still have about 20 gift cards left! Fill out your auto insurance application and it will be on it’s way.VXS4Y2HT8NSB
This has been fun. Gene S from Hobart filled out our online auto insurance quote form and won a $25 dollar restaurant gift certificate. We found three quotes for Gene that were right in line with his current insurer. After some thought he felt he was satisfied with the service at his current agency. Gene we wish we could have saved you a few dollars but thanks for getting a quote and enjoy the gift certificate.
NWI Quotes is giving away $25 restaurant gift cards. They serve over 50 restaurants in Porter County and many more in Lake. All you need to do is fill out an auto quote no purchase needed. To qualify you must fill out a complete app. All apps must be in by the Jan 01. We have over 50 cards to pass out. Enter you e-mail to receive notice of our ongoing contests and giveaways. Merry Christmas from NWI Quotes.
Posted in Auto Insurance | 
Tags: chesterton, hobart, portage, porter county, valparaiso | 
No Comments »
Posted in Auto Insurance |
Tags: chesterton, hobart, northwest indiana, portage, portercounty, valparaiso |
No Comments »
However, not all car insurance companies take the same view of young drivers as there are even discounts available to help you cut costs. Generally, insurance companies use this principle: the higher the risk, the higher the cost of insurance premiums.
Here are 10 suggestions to help lower premiums and keep your teenager’s license free of violations:
1. Enroll them in driver education courses. Discounts are available for teens who take recognized driving classes. But call your car insurance company to find out which schools are covered before paying big bucks.
2. Set a good example. Do you break the speed limit and tailgate? Do you yell at other drivers when you’re behind the wheel? If you do these things, how can you expect your children to act differently? Start watching your own driving long before they get their license and you’ll have a much easier time convincing them to be safe drivers. Remember, actions speak louder than words.
3. Put your teenager on your policy. Rather than setting up an independent policy for your teen driver, put them on your auto insurance policy as an additional driver. In this way, all the discounts applied to your policies will be passed on to them.
4. Pay your teenager to get good grades. Here’s a creative tip — find out how much you save if your teenager gets a good grade point average and pass it on to them. Usually, having a 3.0 or higher GPA will reduce your car insurance premium by 10 percent. Figure out exactly how much this saves you and give that money to your teenager. This accomplishes two things. First, it provides a direct reward for academic performance. Secondly, it motivates them to continue getting good grades.
5. Help your teen learn the laws. By far, the best way to lower car insurance costs for teens is for them to keep their driving record clean. In some states, restrictions apply to new drivers. Parents should know what the laws are and insist that their sons and daughters follow them.
6. Steer clear of sports cars. Don’t try to live vicariously through your teenager by giving them the hot car you couldn’t get in high school. Getting your teenager a safe car to drive, with the latest safety equipment, will lower your premiums. Not only will you save money on car insurance, but fast driving will be less of a temptation.
7. Get their support. Don’t assume that your teenager wants to vacuum clean your wallet. Ask them for help cutting costs and point out that you will share in the savings (see rule #4). Tell them how much car insurance costs and show them how this fits into the family budget. If nothing else, you will score points for treating them as adults.
8. Talk to your kids about drugs and alcohol. This is a tough subject to broach with teenagers, who think they have everything under control. But the consequences of saying nothing can be catastrophic. Take the time to lay down some guidelines in this important area.
9. Take traffic school to beat tickets. Once a ticket is on your teen’s license, it takes months to get the violation removed. Instead, encourage them to take traffic school if the judge allows it. A day spent thinking about the consequences of unsafe driving can bring rewards for years to come.
10. Ride with your teenager. Your teenager was a safe driver last year when he or she got a license. But what’s happened since then? Let your son or daughter take the wheel while you sit back and relax in the passenger seat. If you see them doing something that breaks rules or seems unsafe, point this out in a diplomatic way.
We have been testing about 10 days now. All the behind the scenes programming and security is working as well as planned. Thank you to all the folks that have checked out the site, about 120 unique visits. 13 people from Lake and Porter County have filled out a request for an auto quote and 3 have been happy enough to switch carriers. Not bad for a test run.
In the next few weeks we will be adding a few more insurance forms while talking to a few leading lenders. If all goes well NWI Quotes will be able to connect you to banks and mortgage lenders.
Ran across this article online, explaining how a few states average premiums have dropped. One official attributed the decline to more competition. It’s fun to watch insurance carriers respond to the market. While I haven’t seen posted declines for NWI, consumers still have the option of looking at different auto quotes . One disagreement from some experts, the cheapest policy upfront is not always the best way to go. Poor advice and help from an agents staff can cost consumers more than a few dollars a month in savings.
According to estimates from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), auto insurance fraud adds $200-$300 a year to your individual insurance premium. A rather insignificant sum compared to its overall impact because every business has to pay for insurance as well.
Businesses must charge you more for goods and services when fraud raises their insurance rates, . That means that not only consumer goods and insurance premiums, but taxes and anything else with a dollar sign in front of it are affected by insurance fraud.
Forms of Fraud
Auto insurance fraud is generally classified as “hard” or “soft.” Hard fraud, which involves staging or inventing an event that would be covered by insurance, includes:
- 1. Staged accidents, such as an intentional rear-end collision
- 2. Phony injury claims, where criminals lie about trauma sustained in an accident
- 3. “All-ins” — inventing injuries to people who were not in the vehicle at the time of the accident
- 4. Claiming a one-car accident was a hit-and-run
Staged accidents are the most harmful type of insurance fraud for the average driver, as a victim of a staged accident could be injured or killed. Even if the victim was not at fault, their premiums may rise or their policy could be cancelled. They can also lose wages and be bogged down in an endless chain of claims paperwork and vehicle repairs.
Soft fraud, also known as “build up,” is more opportunistic, involving policy holders who pad an otherwise legitimate claim. They may:
- 1. Add previous damage to a current claim
- 2. Conspire with a body shop and/or claims adjuster to boost a repair estimate
- 3. Devise a plan with doctors to obtain unnecessary medical treatments
Hard to believe that it’s not just the policy holders who participate in auto insurance fraud. Organized fraud rings have become a major problem nationally and can include dishonest doctors and lawyers, auto mechanics, even insurance salespeople.
Funding the Fight
The nation’s property/casualty insurers have created special investigative units to fight insurance fraud, and many states have dedicated bureaus and specific laws and regulations to combat fraud. Though these sophisticated systems designed to protect insurance companies (and their customers) from fraud can also take a toll on the policy holder who’s filing a claim.
“A claim flagged as potentially fraudulent takes longer to settle because it has to be investigated. Meanwhile the policy holder who could be facing expensive medical and vehicle repair bills, waits for the insurer to reimburse him or his doctors. If the policy holder gets fed up waiting or is wrongly denied he can file a suit or take legal action. That’s a heavy financial and emotional burden, if you happen to be wrongly accused.
Ironically, insurance companies can be so guarded concerning fraud that they occasionally victimize the victims. Stories abound of honest drivers whose cars were stolen, only to be accused by both insurers and police of dumping their car and filing a fraudulent claim.
Cost to Consumers
After tax evasion, fraud is the second most costly white-collar crime in America . And the specific problem of auto insurance fraud is so widespread that almost a quarter of bodily injury claims resulting from vehicle crashes, and at least a tenth of property/casualty insurance claims, are fraudulent, according to industry studies.
These costs adds up. The Insurance Research Council estimates that excess payments made by auto insurers due to fraud totaled as much as $6.8 billion in 2007. But any statistic involving auto fraud dramatically understates the problem, because it relates only to claims already paid, not to claims dropped by the filer or dismissed due to suspicion of fraud.
And none of these estimates incorporate the “soft” labor costs involved in dealing with fraud, including the drain on businesses, law enforcement, the civil justice system, regulatory agencies and local emergency services. While auto insurance fraud seems to most people like an “invisible” crime, its true cost to the consumer is far greater than we may ever know.
(If you suspect insurance fraud, call the NICB at 1-800-TEL-NICB. You can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward.)
