If you have a car and want to drive it, you’re legally required to insure it. Unfortunately, insuring a car isn’t cheap. Average car insurance costs $1,323 per year, according to U.S. News Cheapest Car Insurance Rankings, and many drivers pay much more. But just because you need car insurance doesn’t mean you have to let this bill break the bank.
There are many ways you can lower these costs and make auto insurance easier on your budget. Wondering how to save money on car insurance? To get you started, we rounded up some easy, quick steps you can take to reduce your insurance costs….Story continues….
By: Elyssa Kirkham & Jess Ullrich
Source: How to Save Money on Car Insurance | FinanceBuzz
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Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bodily injury resulting from traffic collisions and against liability that could also arise from incidents in a vehicle.
Vehicle insurance may additionally offer financial protection against theft of the vehicle, and against damage to the vehicle sustained from events other than traffic collisions, such as keying, weather or natural disasters, and damage sustained by colliding with stationary objects. The specific terms of vehicle insurance vary with legal regulations in each region.
Widespread use of the motor car began after the First World War in urban areas. Cars were relatively fast and dangerous by that stage, yet there was still no compulsory form of car insurance anywhere in the world. This meant that injured victims would rarely get any compensation in a crash, and drivers often faced considerable costs for damage to their car and property.
A compulsory car insurance scheme was introduced in the United Kingdom with the Road Traffic Act 1930. This ensured that all vehicle owners and drivers had to be insured for their liability for injury or death to third parties while their vehicle was being used on a public road.[1] Germany enacted similar legislation in 1939 called the “Act on the Implementation of Compulsory Insurance for Motor Vehicle Owners.”
In many jurisdictions, it is compulsory to have vehicle insurance before using or keeping a motor vehicle on public roads. Most jurisdictions relate insurance to both the car and the driver; however, the degree of each varies greatly. Several jurisdictions have experimented with a “pay-as-you-drive” insurance plan which utilizes either a tracking device in the vehicle or vehicle diagnostics.
This could address issues of uninsured motorists by providing additional options and also charge based on the distance driven, which could theoretically increase the efficiency of the insurance, through streamlined collection. In Australia, every state has its own Compulsory Third-Party (CTP) insurance scheme. CTP covers only personal injury liability in a vehicle crash. Comprehensive and Third-Party Property Damage, with or without Fire and Theft insurance, are sold separately.
- Comprehensive insurance covers damages to third-party vehicles, other third-party property and the insured vehicle.
- Third-Party Property Damage insurance covers damage to third-party property and vehicles, but not the insured vehicle.
- Third-Party Property Damage with Fire and Theft insurance covers the insured vehicle against fire and theft as well as damage to third-party property and vehicles.
CTP insurance is compulsory in every state in Australia and is paid as part of vehicle registration. It covers the vehicle owner and any person who drives the vehicle against claims for liability for death or injury to people caused by the fault of the vehicle owner or driver.
CTP may include any kind of physical harm, bodily injuries and may cover the cost of all reasonable medical treatment for injuries received in the crash, loss of wages, cost of care services and, in some cases, compensation for pain and suffering. Each state in Australia has a different scheme.
Third-Party Property insurance or Comprehensive insurance covers the third party with the repairing cost of the vehicle, any property damage or medication expenses as a result of a crash by the insured. They are not to be confused with Compulsory Third-Party insurance, which is for injuries or death of someone in a motor crash.
In New South Wales, each vehicle must be insured before it can be registered. It is often called a ‘greenslip’, because of its colour. There are five licensed CTP insurers in New South Wales. Suncorp holds licences for GIO and AAMI and Allianz holds one licence. The remaining two licences are held by QBE and NRMA Insurance (NRMA). APIA and Shannons and InsureMyRide insurance also supply CTP insurance licensed by GIO.
A privately provided scheme also applies in the Australian Capital Territory through AAMI, APIA, GIO and NRMA. Vehicle owners pay for CTP as part of their vehicle registration. In Queensland, CTP is included in the registration fee for a vehicle. There is a choice of private insurer – Allianz, QBE and Suncorp and price is government controlled.
In South Australia, since July 2016, CTP is no longer provided by the Motor Accident Commission. The government has now licensed four private insurers – AAMI, Allianz, QBE and SGIC – to offer CTP insurance SA. Since July 2019, vehicle owners can choose their own CTP insurer and new insurers may also enter the market.
There are three states and one territory that do not have a private CTP scheme. In Victoria, the Transport Accident Commission provides CTP through a levy in the vehicle registration fee, known as the TAC charge. A similar scheme exists in Tasmania through the Motor Accidents Insurance Board. A similar scheme applies in Western Australia, through the Insurance Commission of Western Australia (ICWA).
The Northern Territory scheme is managed through Territory Insurance Office (TIO). The Progressive Corporation launched Snapshot to give drivers a customized insurance rate based on recording how, how much, and when their car is driven. Snapshot is currently available in 46 states plus the District of Columbia. Because insurance is regulated at the state level, Snapshot is currently not available in Alaska, California, Hawaii, and North Carolina.
Driving data is transmitted to the company using an on-board telematic device. The device connects to a car’s OnBoard Diagnostic (OBD-II) port (all petrol automobiles in the USA built after 1996 have an OBD-II.) and transmits speed, time of day and number of miles the car is driven. Cars that are driven less often, in less-risky ways, and at less-risky times of day, can receive large discounts.
Progressive has received patents on its methods and systems of implementing usage-based insurance and has licensed these methods and systems to other companies. Metromile also uses an OBDII-based system for their mileage-based insurance. They offer a true pay-per-mile insurance where behavior or driving style is not taken into account, and the user only pays a base rate along with a fixed rate per mile.
The OBD-II device measures mileage and then transmits mileage data to servers. This is supposed to be an affordable car insurance policy for low-mileage drivers. Metromile is currently only offering personal car insurance policies and is available in California, Oregon, Washington, and Illinois.
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