NC Steps Up Enforcement On Auto Insurance And Tag Possession

NC state law requires that every licensed vehicle in our state maintain continuous liability insurance in force.  This law has remained unchanged for many years but recently the NC Division of Motor Vehicles has started to change the way that they enforce this law.  And this change has caught many car owners off guard, resulting in nasty fines that were never expected by the car owner. 

The law requiring continuous liability insurance for all licensed vehicles is a good one and is designed to make sure that everyone who drives a car and puts others at risk has some way to pay for the losses that they cause.  In the past there was more flexibility in how this law was enforced, particularly for people who sold a car.  You used to be able to wait a week or so until it was convenient to run down to the tag office to turn in the tag and not risk a fine.  And we all know how this works, you sell a car and you immediately want to take it off your insurance policy and get your refund on the way to your mailbox.  The tag though is usually just a nuisance and you get around to turning it in when it is convenient for you.   That has all changed, and caught more than a few people off guard as the enforcement has been stepped up.  Now, with very few exceptions, if you have a tag in your possession even one day after your insurance has been cancelled, then you will probably have to pay the $50 fine, no questions asked.

There may be many reasons why the DMV has decided to stop going lightly on this rule.  I might speculate that perhaps the increased revenue associated with collection of these fines plays a part.  Or maybe there have been just too many uninsured vehicles out there involved in accidents and causing damages that the drivers can’t pay to fix.  Whatever the impetus behind this change, people who have become used to taking their time about turning in their tags after selling a car, will have to change their patterns or face fines.

After our office reached out to and spoke with a DMV officer, he confirmed that the DMV is more rigorously enforcing this rule and collecting more fines these days.  He also offered some pretty good advice for helping protect yourself from the system itself, even when you do turn your tags in on time.  He asked that we tell people to turn in their tags before they cancel their insurance on a car, and most importantly to ask for a receipt stating that the tag has been turned in.  This is necessary because your tag might otherwise be tossed in a box to be processed later.  This late processing might happen after you have called your auto insurance agent to remove the sold car from your policy.  If so, you would still be facing a $50 fine, even though you did everything correctly. 

At Clinard Insurance Group, we insure thousands of families all across North Carolina.  We hope that none of our clients get caught in this new fine trap.  If you would like any help with your home insurance, your auto insurance, your life insurance or even your business insurance, I hope you will give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557.  We look forward to helping you with all of your insurance needs.

Don’t Let An Auto Accident Turn Into An Identity Theft Loss

While auto accidents are a common occurrence all over the country on any given day, a recent NAIC study found that very few people know what steps they should take after an accident occurs and what information they should or shouldn’t share with the other parties to the accident.  The problem is that right after an accident happens; most people are so upset that they are not paying much attention to protecting their identity.  This momentary confusion provides a great opportunity for an identity thief to make his mark.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners study recently discovered that most consumers are unsure about what they should do after an accident and which information they should record and what they should share about themselves.  There was also a lot of confusion about when and whether to call the police after an accident.  Here’s a short list of some of the most common misperceptions that this study revealed:

·         Nearly 30% of drivers believe that they are required to share their personal phone numbers.  This is not always necessary and calling the police will help you sort out exactly what you need to share with the other party.

·         25% of consumers would share their home address.  This of course gives identity thieves one more place to go to sort through garbage or mail to find out more about you to give them an edge in stealing from you.
·         Nearly 20% believe that the only time you need to call the police is if someone was injured in the accident.  The truth is that if the accident occurs on public property, the police would like to be called in every instance.  If you are not at fault, then calling the police is probably going to be to your advantage and quite often the police report is very helpful in facilitating your auto insurance claims process.
·         Nearly 40% felt that they should share their driver’s license with the other driver.  One in six would let the other driver photograph their license to save time.  But, since some retailers use driver’s license information to verify identity over the phone, this could be risky behavior.

T    The NAIC does have a downloadablechecklist on their website of the information you should obtain if you are involved in an auto accident.  Below is a list of the information that you should get and write down somewhere or record directly into your phone after you have been involved in an automobile accident:

1.       The date, time and location of the accident.
2.       The weather or road conditions if there are conditions that are not typical.
3.       A description of the accident itself, add direction of travel and estimated speed of each vehicle involved.
4.       Describe any and all injuries and include information about emergency response, either police or medical.
5.       Describe damages and take photos or video with your phone where possible.  You should photograph the license plates of the vehicles involved, the damages to all vehicles involved, the damage to your vehicle, and any damage to any other property or objects at the scene.  Also take photographs of landmarks and street signs to help identify the location.

At Clinard Insurance Group we insure several thousand families all across North Carolina.  We generally advise our clients to call us first before reporting their claim directly to the insurance company.  This is true for all types of claims from auto insurance and homeowners insurance claims, to business insurance or workers compensation insurance claims.  We may be able to better advise you the implications of your decision to either turn in the claim or not turn it in.  After that, you can make the choice based on this additional information.  We also provide a free phone app that will help you gather the information that you need after an accident.  You can find links to that app at www.ClinardInsurance.com or you may search for Clinard Insurance in the Android marketplace or the Apple app store.

Pay As You Go Car Insurance – The Future Of Car Insurance Rates?

Telematics is the process of gathering data on your driving habits and transmitting them to your insurance company to determine your risk and thus your final car insurance rates.  While this used to sound like science fiction, telematics for car insurance is no longer just an idea that may happen someday.  This new technology is gaining acceptance and traction and it promises to have impacts on our society far beyond just insurance rates.  The impact of this technology could save your life one day.

Telematics is also known as pay as you drive, or usage-based insurance rating.  It has been a bit of a rating nirvana that the insurance industry has been eyeing for a long time.  Originally insurance companies only hopes that they could determine how many miles a year that you drive and use this information to provide you with a car insurance rate that more accurately reflects your driving risks.  But with the development of this technology, telematics will now go far beyond that original goal. 

Telematics and car insurance have hit several brick walls in their merging process over the years.  The main limiting factors were cost, data management, and privacy.  In the early years, the cost to install a device in the vehicle that could transmit data to the insurance company only really made sense for large corporate fleets of vehicles.  But over time these costs have come down and the devices are now very affordable in a one car installation situation.  Some insurance companies are working on apps for your smartphone to do all of the work so that no installation costs come in to play at all.   Data management was a problem until recently.  With the expansion of smart phones, more and more bandwidth has been created which allows the flow of the huge amount of data that any car will collect on its driver.  Some pay as you drive systems are now able to track and transmit over 100 data points on your driving at any given moment.   Privacy is still the last hoop to jump through, but that problem may be fading away.  This is because today’s youth seem to not have a great a concern or desire to protect their privacy.  This is already evident in the number of phone apps that track your location and post them publicly for others to see.

Telematics will allow the insurance company to adjust your car insurance rate based on your driving habits.  The data collected is now so rich that they can track how fast you accelerate, how fast you drive, how hard you brake or take corners in addition to where and how many miles you drive.   All of this data allows the insurance company to much more accurately predict the likelihood of you causing an accident than they ever could by simply studying  your credit score or the number of speeding tickets that you have been issued. 

Trucking companies that have installed telematics in their fleets, almost universally report that accident rates go down right away.  It turns out that drivers who understand that everything they do and everywhere that they go is being measured and monitored, suddenly become much safer drivers.  Can this effect be extrapolated out  to the population as a whole if everyone were to have a telematics device in their car?  We don’t know for sure but there seems to be evidence that this may be true.

Of course telematics won’t benefit everyone.  If the car insurance world has inadequate information on which to base their rates today, then that means that some people are subsidizing others.  If the insurance company doesn’t know for sure if you are a safe driver or a risky one, then you can be sure that the safe drivers are subsidizing the riskier ones.  This means that as telematics become more common, some drivers will save money as a reward for their safe driving habits, while other drivers, or those that refuse to use telematics will have to pay more to make up the difference.  This is why I firmly believe that eventually telematics will be ubiquitous in the insurance world and in fact, cars may soon come equipped with the telematics devices as a standard part of the vehicle.  Eventually it will be much more, if not simply too expensive to purchase a car insurance policy that is not based on telematics.  The insurance company will soon come to the conclusion that the old fashioned rating system blinds them from seeing the bad risks out there.  When that happens, they will charge a much higher rate for those policies.  Eventually no one will be able to afford a policy whose rate is not based on telematics data.

If telematics do change our behavior behind the wheel and force us change our habits to drive more safely, then I think that this technology can be a real game changer.  Just how long it will take for this technology to be the standard way car insurance rates are calculated remains unknown.  But I’ve learned not to underestimate just how quickly something like this can become the norm.    It’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago most people had never heard of a smartphone.  Telematics could make this jump into ubiquity just as quickly.

At Clinard Insurance Group, we work hard to help all insurance buyers become informed consumers.   We would love to help you with your home insurance, your car insurance, your life insurance or even your business insurance policies.  Please call us toll free, at 877-687-7557.  

Your Car Has No Insurance And You Loan It To A Friend – Who Will Pay For An Accident?

Not long ago I was buttonholed at a party and asked this question:  If I were to loan out my car with no insurance on it and my friend had a wreck, who would be responsible for paying for the damages?  My first response was to blanche at  the question of course since driving any uninsured vehicle on the road would be counter to any advice I would ever give someone.  But to avoid being rude, I tried to lay out for this person just how this deal might go down.

I want to begin my answer here by stating that I am not an attorney and so I can’t give legal advice.  What follows is just my opinion and thoughts about the answer to this question.  I want to make is clear that I feel that no one ever drive an uninsured vehicle on the roads in North Carolina.  Having said that, I understand that at any given time,  up to 15% of the cars on our NC highways have no valid insurance in force.  This happens inadvertently when people forget to pay their car insurance bill or the payment gets lost in the mail or the check that they sent to the insurance company bounces.  And of course there are also a number of drivers out there that simply choose to be uninsured for all kinds of other reasons.

So, how will it play out if you loan an uninsured car to a friend and they have a wreck that is their fault?  Who will pay for the damages?  Well, keep in mind that different circumstances may generate different results but in general both the driver and the vehicle owner can be held liable for the damages.  Can you demand that your friend pay for the damages and leave you out of the matter?  Of course you can but whether or not you succeed will probably depend on if your friend knew the car was uninsured when he borrowed it, as well as the nature of what caused the accident and the degree to which your car’s condition had an impact on the accident happening in the first place.  Either way, I would advise that both parties hire counsel to help sort this out.

Your friend may have some insurance protection that from his own personal auto insurance policy if he has one in place on his own cars.  If that is the case, then he has protection for himself, but not for you.  If he relies on his insurance company to step in and pay the first dollar damages, then probably his insurance company will sue you for the damages that they paid out on his behalf.

Now, if you are choose not to insure your vehicle and you loan it to others, you should know that you are increasing your own financial risks by adding another driver and his or her skill to your uninsured liabilities.  What I said to the person at the party who asked me this question is that if you are taking the time to worry about this before you loan out your car, then why not  take the time to buy an insurance policy for your car before you loan it or even drive it yourself. 

If you find yourself without insurance on your car, please don’t drive it until you have insurance in place.  If you would like help with your auto insurance policy, or if you just have questions about car insurance in North Carolina, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.  We can also help you with your home insurance policy, your life insurance needs or even your business insurance.

NC Auto Insurance Advice – 5 Things To Do If You Have An Accident

Since most of us just aren’t frequently involved in auto accidents, if this happens to you then you might find yourself pretty flustered.  If you know what to do ahead of time, perhaps it may help you navigate those first few minutes after the collision.  So, here are the broad categories of things you should do if you find yourself in an auto accident.

At the top of the list of course is that you should call the police.  But read on, as there are a few caveats. If the accident was your fault, and there are only minor property damages; no one has been injured,  and you think you will want to pay for the damages yourself, then not calling the police might work out in your favor.  NC insurance rules dictate that you will be charged insurance points for accidents that are your fault.  Now if the accident only created property damage and the total damage is under $1800 and you have no other tickets or insurance points on your record, then you will not be charged for this accident.  In those cases, by all means, call the police right away.   But, if all of those conditions are not true and you want to avoid the insurance points, then avoiding a police report increases your odds of avoiding the insurance points.  The insurance company will only know about the accident if you file the claim or if the accident shows up on your motor vehicle record.  Calling the police means that your record will indicate you were involved in an accident.

The next step to cover is avoiding additional damages and risks to you.  Move your car away from the roadway to avoid additional accidents.  Stay safely away from the street or highway while you are out of your vehicle.

Step 3 is to  get the correct information about the other driver.  Of course this becomes even more important if you don’t think the accident is your fault.  Be sure to obtain the other driver’s name, his or her driver’s license number, phone number and insurance information and license tag number.  In addition, be sure to verify the name of the owner of the other vehicle.  So often we find that the driver is not the registered owner of a vehicle after an accident.  Knowing the owner’s name is going to speed up the process of filing a claim against his or her insurance policy.

Now you need to fully document the event.  Take as many photos as possible document the damages to each car as well as the accident site. If you use the video camera on your phone, then you can make comments as you go that may be helpful to the investigation.   Find and interview any witnesses and be sure to get their full names and contact numbers so that you can reach them later if needed.  The more information you can obtain, the better.  Clinard Insurance Group customers can request a vehicle claim kit, complete with a camera and other tools to help you in an accident.  Click here to learn more about this kit.

Last of all,  file an accident report.  If you are not at fault, then call the other party’s insurance agent and file a claim with them for your damages.  You should expect the insurance company to contact you and perhaps ask you to provide a recorded statement of what happened.

Clinard Insurance Group is an independent insurance agency located in beautiful Winston Salem, NC.  We service thousands of NC auto insurance policies for clients all across NC.  We can also help you with your home insurance and your life insurance needs.  Give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.  

Clinard Insurance Group Named Rough Notes E-agency Of The Month February 2011

In this blog, I usually try to focus on insurance policy and coverage help that will allow insurance consumers out there to become more informed buyers of the insurance product they need. In this article, I want to deviate from that tack just a bit and take a moment to sing the praises of Clinard Insurance Group in particular.

The occasion for this change in approach on this blog is that Clinard Insurance Group, an independent insurance agency in Winston Salem, NC has been named the e-Agency of the month by Rough Notes magazine. Rough Notes is a national insurance industry magazine with over 40,000 subscribers. So this is a big honor and we want to let all of our readers know about it.

The Rough Notes article focuses on our digital marketing efforts in particular but does give a lot of other information about our agency and our more traditional marketing methods as well. This is an important marker for those of you out there considering an agent for your business insurance. The reason this is so, is that we take our digital and traditional marketing expertise and we use it help our business insurance clients grow their businesses as well. We understand that if your business grows, then so does ours. One of the ways you can see us working hard for our clients is through our partners page that is a place where our business clients can offer coupons to the online world to help increase their client base.

If you would like to read the rough notes article and see photos of some of the people behind the scenes at Clinard Insurance Group, just click here. I hope you enjoy this inside look at our agency.

At Clinard Insurance Group we want all insurance consumers to be informed buyers. We work hard to try and disseminate information to the public about insurance issues that affect their lives and their businesses. If we can help you with your home insurance, your auto insurance, your life insurance or business insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com. Also, keep in mind that we also specialize in used car dealer insurance, auto repair and body shop insurance, restaurant insurance, and insurance for small contractors and landscaping companies.

The source information for this article was originally posted to a blog at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com and you can find the full version at that site.

Replacement Cost Protection - Is It Missing In Your Insurance Policies?

Almost any type of insurance policy that you purchase that has a property insurance element will either include or exclude replacement cost coverage. This article helps you understand what it is and isn’t and where you may want to double check to be sure it is there for you when you need it.

Let’s start with a definition of replacement cost coverage. This is essentially a valuation clause that determines how your lost or damaged property will be covered under your insurance policy. The common choices are either replacement cost or actual cash value. There is also a functional replacement cost coverage but it is rarely used. For more information about functional replacement cost, please click here. Replacement cost is usually defined as the cost to replace the lost or destroyed item with a new one of like value and construction. For example, if lightning ran in on your 45 inch flat screen television, and you had replacement cost coverage on the contents on your homeowners insurance policy, then the replacement value would be what it would cost to purchase a brand new 45 inch flat screen TV. When policies don’t carry replacement cost protection, then the claim is usually settled using the actual cash value of the damaged or lost item. Actual cash value is usually defined as the replacement cost of the item minus any depreciation based on the age and past use of that item.

It is important that you take the time to review your insurance policies that include coverage for property to determine if you have bought replacement cost coverage or actual cash value (ACV) coverage. The difference in the size of the claim check that you will receive after a loss can vary a great deal, depending on which of these you chose. Most homeowners policies provide replacement cost coverage on your home automatically and allow you to choose RC or ACV coverage on your contents. There may be an additional charge for the RC coverage. Business property insurance policies rarely charge extra for replacement coverage, you just need to be sure that you are carrying high enough insurance limits to avoid any coinsurance penalties that might result from your policy form.

One oddball policy when it comes to RC versus ACV coverage is the auto insurance policy. If you carry collision coverage on your auto insurance, then you might have an opportunity to purchase replacement cost coverage on your newer vehicles. This form often allows you to replace your old, totaled vehicle with a brand new one even if the wrecked car is up to 5 years old. For more information about replacement cost coverage on the personal auto insurance policy, read my blog on that topic by clicking here.

If you are unsure about where you do and don’t have replacement cost coverage on your insurance policies, please take a moment and pick up the phone and call your agent. This could make a huge difference in the amount you might receive after a large loss and it is always easier if your expectations more nearly match what will really happen if and when you have a large property claim.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we strive to help all insurance buyers become more informed consumers. If we can help you with your auto insurance, your home insurance, your business insurance or even your life insurance, please feel free to call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

You can find the source article for this document at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Crash Taxes – They Could Make You A Double Victim

Imagine you are cruising on the interstate in a driving rain and you lose control of your car and slide into the guardrail. Thankfully you are ok and you don’t feel any pains as you get out of your car to see the new shape you created out of your front bumper. A passing motorist sees your accident and dials 911 as he drives on through the rain. 5 minutes later a police car, a fire truck and an ambulance arrive to check on you. 3 weeks later you receive bills from each of these organizations for their time and trouble checking on you. You turn in the $2763 in emergency response bills to your auto insurance company and they decline to pay them. Welcome to the brave new world of crash taxes.

Crash taxes have been on the books of many local governments for years but until this recent economic downturn, they have not been used. Now we are seeing a trend sweeping our country to apply these charges for emergency responders to those involved in the accident. While there are some creditable arguments in favor of crash taxes, I see more running against.

First of all, let’s start with who pays. In most cases your auto insurance is not going to pay for these crash taxes. That could leave you holding the bag and if you don’t pay you can damage your credit or possibly even face misdemeanor charges. If we do choose to have our insurance companies cover these costs, then the costs of insurance will go up and we will have just one more expense being paid by an entity with little control over the costs that go into this expense.

Another possible problem with this approach is that some people may become reluctant to call for emergency services if they know they will have to pay for them. This failure to call or even a delay in calling may cost us dearly in lives lost as well as property damaged, the latter especially in the case of chemical spills on our highways.

I also have a fundamental problem with this approach in that some cities are amending their program to only charge the out of state, at fault parties. While this is politically expedient for the local politicians, it has a ring of unfairness to it and leads to a lot of uncertainty for travelers as they leave their home territories.

Last of all, is the idea that local taxes already go to pay for these services and those are controlled, if distantly by the voters in that area. Why should they be charged again?

Currently, 10 states have banned crash taxes, so you can travel safely in them. They are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennesee.

So, what should you do if you get billed for an accident response of some sort after an accident? First of all, contact your insurance agent and forward on the bill to determine if there will be coverage for the charges. Then get a copy of the police report detailing what medical assistance was actually provided. Last of all, if your insurance company declines to pay for these charges (and in most cases they will), check with an attorney to understand what criminal liability you may incur should you decide not to pay the bill yourself.

My sense is that crash taxes are generally going to be disliked by most of the public. This will probably mean that they don’t last long and of course if the economy gets better they should go away. A rising tide floats all boats after all. In the meantime, as you travel, be aware that this trend could catch you in its trap.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we work hard to help our clients become informed insurance consumers. Knowing about crash taxes before you get a bill in the mail is just one small example of our knowledge outreach program. If you need help with your NC auto insurance policy, your NC home insurance policy or even your personal umbrella or life insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles which can be found in their entirety at www.insuranceanswerguy.com.

Rental Car Loss of Use Coverage - Does your North Carolina Auto Insurance Policy Have This Protection?

If you occasionally rent cars for pleasure use, or even to use while your primary car is being repaired, then you have probably wondered about how your auto insurance policy will work with the rental car. At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we get questions about rental car coverage all the time. But almost no one asks about loss of use coverage. And this can be a big, uncovered loss for you if you don’t take the right steps to protect yourself.

I will save the discussion of how your NC auto insurance policy responds to protecting you from losses in a rental car for another blog. In this discussion I want to tell you about a rental car coverage that is almost always overlooked but that has the potential to take a big bite out of your wallet. This is called loss of use coverage.

Loss of use addresses the issue that arises when you cause damage to a rental car that you are driving. As soon as that car is damaged and has to be put into the shop for repairs, the rental car company begins losing money on that car. If they cannot rent it each day, then they have losses associated with that loss of use of their car. If you’ve ever rented a car you know how expensive it can be on a daily basis. Now imagine that it takes the car rental company 3 – 4 weeks to put that car back in service after you have damaged it. They have to go through the claims process with their insurance company, track you down for a statement, appraise the damages and then get it in the shop. The shop has to order parts, wait on parts, and then repair the vehicle. All of this takes time. And while that clock is ticking, you will be on the hook for the lost rents on that car. It can easily run into the thousands of dollars.

Now I know that for some people a several thousand dollar claim may not seem to be a high enough exposure to warrant purchasing insurance. But in this case, the insurance coverage is so cheap that you would be crazy not to buy it. In North Carolina you can add rental car loss of use coverage to your auto policy for $4 per year. If you ever rent cars, this is a coverage you should not do without.

So, take a moment and call your insurance agent today and add this coverage. It could save you a huge bite in your wallet. If you want to know more about this or other protections that are available to car rental customers like you, then please feel free to call our office, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.ClinardInsurance.com. We will be glad to help you with all of your car rental questions.

This article was sourced from information which can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com

Car Insurance Marketing Cheap Tricks – This One Could Ruin You

In the world of cheap trick marketing gimmicks, this one could put the auto insurance consumer in a world of hurt. I recently saw an ad on TV by an insurance company advising the customer to go online and build their own policy. And the hook line was, you choose how much you want to pay each month and we will build your policy to that price. This sounds like the consumer is choosing their own price but the opposite is true.

As much as the online direct writing insurance companies would like you to believe otherwise, auto insurance is a complicated contract between you and the insurance company and there are many elements to this contract that make it a poor do it yourself project. How many online clients are going to take the time to read the fine print of the conditions, terms and exclusions of the auto insurance policy? The answer is very few. And those that do will not have the experience in the ins and outs of this industry to understand exactly how this will affect them after an accident or a loss.

If you fall for the marketing ploy that you can name your price and the online wizard will create a policy for you to match that price, you are immediately discounting the primary value of a car insurance policy. That is to protect your assets. The only people who should view insurance as only a price to be paid to keep the car on the road are those who have no assets and no dependable source of income. They are the only people in a position to walk away from their financial responsibilities if they cause and accident and injure other people or damage other people’s property.

So how will the insurance company write you a policy to meet your chosen price? Simple really, they will cut your protection down to the point where they can meet that price. And this may or may not reflect what you need to protect your hard won assets if you cause a large loss. Please don’t try and do it yourself when it comes to buying insurance. Choose an agent that can help you through the process. Better still, choose and independent agent who can help you access many different insurance markets to get you the exact protection you need and the lowest possible cost.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we work very hard to develop personal relationships with all of our clients. We take all the time that each client needs to discuss their own personal insurance needs to help create for them the right policy, not just one based on the lowest price. If you are tired of going it alone, or if you don’t feel your current agent is giving you all the help you need, please feel free to call us, toll free, 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information for this article was drawn from information at www.insuranceanswerguy.com

Automobile Replacement Cost Insurance, a NC Auto Insurance Policy Extra You Should Consider

You’ve probably heard it before; your brand new car drops about 20% in value the minute you drive it off the lot. Let’s face it, the first few miles you drive a new car are certainly the most expensive on a cost per mile basis. And if you borrow money to purchase the new car, you are even more vulnerable. If your new car is totaled, then a standard NC auto insurance policy will not protect you completely, but there is a way to cover yourself more fully.

I’m talking about replacement cost coverage on your new car. You may be familiar with this concept in terms of home insurance. If you house is burglarized and they steal your television set, if you have replacement cost coverage on your contents, then your insurance company will pay to replace your old TV set with a new one. But if your new car is totaled on the way home from the lot, without replacement cost coverage on your car (and most people do not have this protection), then you are paid the used car value of that car at the moment before it was lost. And this won’t be enough money to replace that car with another new one. This seems unfair and I can tell you, to most people who find themselves in this situation, it is unexpected.

Good news though, there is a simple solution. Most insurance companies can offer you replacement cost coverage on your new car. This means that if your car is totaled in an accident, the insurance company will pay for you to replace your vehicle with a brand new one of the same make and model. This is true even if the car is up to 5 years old.

Ok, you probably want to know what the catch is. And there are catches. First of all, this coverage will not apply to total loss by theft. And the insurance company will typically delete this coverage from your car after it gets to be about 5 years old. And, you must add this coverage within a short time of purchasing the vehicle brand new. Usually that time frame is 60 to 90 days. Last of all, you have pay for this additional coverage. The cost is usually around 15% more for your comprehensive and collision coverages.

If you are thinking about purchasing a new car, I would suggest that you seriously consider adding replacement cost coverage to that car on your North Carolina auto insurance policy. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we have several insurance companies who offer this feature. If you have any questions about replacement cost coverage on your car insurance, or if you would like a free auto insurance analysis and quote, please feel free to call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at http://www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source data for this article can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

The North Carolina Personal Auto Policy – There’s A Hidden Gem In There

If you have a car that is tagged in the state of North Carolina, then you almost certainly have a NC auto insurance policy to cover that car. While car insurance seems like a necessary evil, there is a hidden gem of a coverage in there that might be something that could come in handy for you. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance consumers to be informed consumers so take a moment to read this short article to discover and inexpensive coverage that might be a big help to you someday.

The coverage that many people don’t know about but might be of great benefit to them is called towing and labor coverage. This is an add on benefit to your policy that will pay the costs of towing your car after a breakdown or accident, or pay the cost to of labor to have a mechanic come out to your vehicle breakdown site and help you get your car started again. So if you needed a jump start and had to call a mechanic for help, the labor costs associated with this would be covered and if they had to tow your vehicle, then the towing charges would be covered as well.

So what does this cost? In North Carolina the towing and labor coverage on your policy has three different limits so first of all you must choose the limit that will apply to any one breakdown event. Your choices are $100, $50, and $25. The cost per year, per vehicle are $6 for the $100 limit, $4 for the $50 limit and $2 for the $25 limit. Remember that in order to add this coverage to your policy, you must have comprehensive coverage or collision or both on that vehicle beforehand.

You might be thinking that this is not such a great deal because if you file a claim, then the insurance company will probably just raise your rates. Not true. Insurance companies in NC cannot raise your premiums for filing towing and labor claims. If you file too many claims, their only option is to remove the towing and labor coverage from your policy. High claim frequency for just towing and labor coverage will almost never impact the general underwriting opinion of your full auto policy in the company’s eyes.

So take a moment to pull out your auto insurance policy and check to see if you have towing and labor coverage. If you think this coverage is a good deal and might benefit you, call your agent and ask them to add the coverage. In some cases, the additional premium for adding this protection will be below the insurance company’s billing threshold so you won’t even be charged until the next renewal.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping families all across North Carolina with their insurance needs. If we can be of help to you, or if just want a no charge insurance “second opinion” on your car insurance or your home insurance, please give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information for this article was drawn from information on the blog at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

How To Avoid Unnecessary Bank Fees.

With the current economic crisis in which we now find ourselves, look for your local bank to be increasing fees for services. In fact, I recently spoke with a banker friend of mine and he said that with the new FDIC insured deposit limit being increased to $250,000, the banks’ costs of that insurance will nearly double. The only way for them to get that money back is to increase their fees. With that in mind, here are a few tips to help you avoid some of these fees.

Many of these fees come from “courtesy” services that banks offer on overdraft policies. These services allow the bank to clear your check that might otherwise bounce when you don’t have sufficient money in your account to cover the check. Worse still, many banks simply use software to handle these situations without regard to the account holders ability to pay back the overdraft and it’s associated fees. If you have teenagers with checking accounts, you probably know just what I am talking about. I have had my kids essentially borrow less than a dollar and have to pay over $100 in fees for the privilege.

Here are some of the ways your bank might trip you up with pricey overdrafts:

Debit and ATM cards

Many people mistakenly believe that using a debit card will prevent them from overdrawing their account. In fact, debit card use triggers 46% of all overdrafts according to the Center For Responsible Lending. Most banks will allow the debits to go through even when no money is available in the account.

How do you avoid this? Ask the bank to set the debit-overdraw limit on your account to zero. Transactions that would put your account in the red will now be rejected.

Reordered Debits and Deposits

Banks often change the order in which debits and deposits occur in your account. Some banks pay daily transactions in order from highest to lowest, while others use any order they choose. Banks will try to justify these practices as a way to ensure the most important debits get paid but in fact this is simply a way to increase the overdrafts. Let me give you an example. Assume you began your day with $200 in your account. You get a coffee ($5) and then gas ($50), then purchase an mp3 player ($130) and then get lunch ($8) and finally stop for groceries on the way home ($35). If these are processed chronologically, only the last item will trigger an overdraft. But taken from largest to smallest triggers 3 overdrafts. Voila, more money for the bank.

How do you avoid this? Buffer your account with an extra $100 or so that you never dip in to.

Time Is Of The Essence

If your bank pays a courtesy overdraft, then they have essentially loaned you money. You should expect the interest rate on this type of loan to be very high. Worse still, they can add processing fees as more time goes by. Some banks add another $35 after 7 days on each overdraft! The worst part of all is that you may not know about it until your statement comes in at the end of the month. This is how my teenager spent over $100 to borrow 65 cents one time.

How do you avoid this? Set up another line of credit from a savings account to immediately pay off any courtesy overdrafts. Also, if possible, ask your bank of the fastest way they can notify you of an overdraft and make sure your agreement stipulates that form of notification.

They Keep On Lending

Only 30% of the major banks have a limit of courtesy overdrafts. This means that many small items can keep on upping the ante for you as they come in. Worse still, many banks have a tiered system that increases the fees for each additional overdraft. You can get into some pretty serious money pretty quickly over one small mistake.

How do you avoid this? If the cause of the problem is one mistake, go to the bank and ask them to waive the fees. If you can show that it all evolved from one item and that your account has not had overdraft issues in the past, you may be successful.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we help thousands of people living in NC with their personal insurance needs such as auto insurance and home insurance as well as their business insurance and life insurance needs. We are an independent agency and our trained professional agents will take the time to listen to your needs and then find you the protection you want and need at the lowest possible price. Give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from the Clinard Insurance Group lifestyle tips and tricks blog.

Hey, does the air bag in this thing work?

If you’ve ever shopped for a used car you are probably a pretty savvy buyer after the experience was over. But did you check the air bag? It turns out that airbags are a quick and easy part for thieves to remove from the car. And since few buyers think to check for this part, most get away scott free.

So how do you know if the car you want to purchase still has an airbag? How do you determine if the airbag will still function correctly?

First of all, you should inspect the steering wheel for signs of tampering. Thieves often leave dings and dents in the interior plastic when they remove the airbags. Another thing you can do is watch the air bag indicator light when you turn on the car. It should glow briefly, then turn off. If the light never comes on, or if it comes on and stays on, then the air bag probably isn’t functioning correctly.

You can also visit the site, www.safercar.gov, and type in the vehicle’s VIN or vehicle identification number to see if one of more of the airbags in the vehicle has been permanently deactivated. Click on “Air Bags”, then under “Air Bag Basics” on the left, click on “Air Bag – VIN number” to search the database. The data at this site may not be complete since the site relies on third parties to report whether an air bag has been removed or disabled. As a last resort, you can have a mechanic you trust inspect the car for air bags.

For the most part, air bags are an “out of site, out of mind” kind of issue. But since replacement could run from $600 to $800 it may be worth your while to consider this issue next time you shop for a used car.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we want all of our clients to be as safe a possible on the road. We can also help you get the best protection on your home insurance and your auto insurance at rates that will make your head spin. Check us out at www.ClinardInsurance.com or call us toll free at 877-687-7557.

The source material for this article was pulled from The Insurance Answer Guy

What Happened to the Grace Period On My Insurance Policy?

Over the years at Clinard Insurance Group, helping people with their insurance needs, I have heard this question many times. It doesn’t matter if they are talking about auto insurance, home insurance, general liability insurance or workers compensation insurance, people still assume that there is some magical grace period that allows them to pay their insurance payment after the due date. I’m not sure exactly where the terminology comes from but I think I have an idea where the concept arose.

In NC, if you don’t pay your insurance policy when it is due, then the insurance company cannot just cancel your policy that day. The law requires that they give you a legal notice of cancellation. The time frame for this notice varies by policy type but it is generally around 15 days. So, if your policy is due on the 5th of the month and you don’t pay the bill on time, then somewhere around the 10th of the month or so, the insurance company will send out a notice of cancellation on your policy. This notifies you that if your money is not received by a certain date (here is the legal notice time frame), then your coverage under that policy will cease.

I think this notice period is what has led some people to believe that there is a “grace period” which allows them to pay their premiums after the due date. But paying late and relying on this legal notice time frame is a dangerous practice for several reasons.

First of all, the insurance company doesn’t have to accept your money after the due date and they can let the cancellation stand. If you have had a loss during this time, you might not even be protected since in some cases (particularly on policy renewal dates) the notice of cancellation states that the effective date for when protection ends is the same as the original payment due date.

Secondly, there is a growing trend among insurance companies to charge hefty fees for payments that are late. Some companies charge as much as $35 to reinstate your policy after a cancellation notice has been issued. These changes tell me that the insurance industry has decided that as times are hard and people are letting some bills slip a bit, they want to be first in line. So if you are having some cash flow issues and think you might want to pay your insurance bill a little late, be sure that you understand all of the late penalties and fees that will apply. You might choose to prioritize the insurance bill closer to the top of the pile.

There is a sure fire solution to prevent a late payment on your insurance policy and thus prevent lapses in protection and costly late fees. Most all insurance companies can now take your payment on a monthly bank draft. This means that they will draft the money from your checking or savings account on the due date automatically. Of course this will fail if there is not enough money in the account to pay the bill, but for protection from forgetting or misplacing an insurance bill, this one could save you a lot of money. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC we try and make this option available to any an all of our clients who might be interested. If you would like to know more about the specific fees your company charges for late payments, or if you would like to have your policy set up on bank draft, please call our office at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.clinardinsurance.com.

The source information for this article was drawn from www.insuranceguy.com.