Dealers Insurance – Not A Place You Expect To Get A Return On Your Investment Of Over 10%

I’m willing to bet that most car dealers out there don’t think of their insurance policy as an investment.  And the few that do probably don’t think that as an investment, their garage insurance policy will generate an investment return unless they have a loss.  But because insurance companies are always looking for ways to determine which of their clients will have losses and which will not, sometimes this search generates changes that can offer the dealer some very nice choices.  Such is the case with the paid in full discount. 

Dealers insurance is really not very different from other kinds of insurance policies when it comes to risk selection by the insurance companies.  Everyone understands that if the insurance company can tell in advance which dealers will have losses and which will not, then they will make a lot more money.   The search for just the right metric to help them determine this is a bit of a Holy Grail type search.  Now insurance companies have relied heavily on many different factors to choose which auto dealers to accept as clients and which ones to walk away from.  Some of these factors seem obvious to the lay person.  Some of the more obvious ones are the driving records of the dealers, the past loss history of the dealers or the general condition of the dealership location itself.  Others factors are less clear, like running a credit check on the dealer or refusing to insure dealers who have a buy here, pay here service on site.  But if the insurance companies have one thing going for them, it is past data.  If they can come up with a way to back check a new idea against past experience, then they will often assume that they can project this behavior and risk assessment into the future.  The paid in full discount idea was probably something that simply jumped into someone’s head one day.  They then simply had to compare the loss histories for dealers who paid in full for their garage policy against those that paid monthly or on some other schedule.  They must have found that the pay in full group had fewer losses and so this new idea was born.

Auto Owners Insurance Company, an insurance carrier who insures many dealers across many states must have made this discovery recently.  Once they knew that dealers who paid in full had fewer losses than those who used payment plans, they simply needed a way to add an incentive to these pay in full accounts so that they could attract more of them over time.  What they came up with, I think, is very generous, though it may just reflect the difference in loss histories between these two groups.   Auto Owners now allows a 10% discount to all dealers who pay in full on their garage liability and dealers blanket insurance policies. 

Now if you are a dealer and you purchase your insurance from Auto Owners, consider the math on what this means.  Saving 10% on the cost of your dealer policies by simply paying in full is like receiving a 10% return on your investment money. If you had to borrow the money from the bank to pay for your garage insurance, I doubt you would have to pay anywhere near 10% interest.    But actually the math tells us that it is even better than that.  Assume for a moment that the cost of your garage insurance policy is $1000 and you only have to pay $900 for the policy if you pay in full, then that is a quick 10% return.  But if you compare this to paying 10 monthly payments of $100 each then the return is much greater than 10%.  This is because each month that you pay off the balance, you have less and less left to invest somewhere else to obtain some return.  So in the long run a 10% discount might generate as much as 12% or more return, depending on how many payments you have and how quickly you pay off your garage policy.

Over time, this generous discount will probably go away.  That’s because although it is designed to attract the better risk dealers who usually pay in full, the incentive will now attract some of the monthly pay plan dealers as well since it is so generous.  Once that starts to happen, the risk assessment piece of the puzzle becomes less clear and over time the pay in full group’s loss history will more nearly reflect that of the monthly pay plan group.  So my advice would be to take advantage of this discount while it is still around.

Clinard Insurance Group, located in lovely Winston Salem, NC actively insures more than 300 used car dealers, all across North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia.  We would love to help you save money on your dealers insurance policies, so please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com.   

Garage Liability vs Garage Keepers Insurance – Confusing Terminology?

Most auto dealers are scrappy entrepreneurs with a lot on their plate.  These are independent business people with no real safety net beyond their own wits and cunning.   To survive and prosper, they need to understand the market value of many different types of vehicles and be able to find and deliver those cars to a fickle public who rarely trusts them.   With all of this going on, they still have to be garage insurance experts at the same time.  That’s a pretty tall order and confusing terminology doesn’t make things simpler for them.

Garage insurance is an outlier type of policy in the insurance world.  Garage insurance has such a specific function and is used for such a small percentage of businesses out there that most insurance agents just don’t understand it well.  A great example of this is the terms garage liability and garagekeepers insurance.   These terms, though they sound similar, have very different meanings and it is important for the savvy car dealer to clearly know the difference between these two terms and how these coverages may or may not be needed to properly protect his or her dealership.

 Garage liability is the term that applies to the liability exposure associated with your autos and your inventory.  For dealers who are only involved in the sale of cars, this is the protection that you must have in order to obtain your dealer tags.  This should be the cornerstone of your dealers insurance program.  The most common insurance claim falling under garage liability happens when someone test drives one of your cars and causes an accident that injures someone else, or that damages some property.  It is easy to imagine how one bad wreck that puts a few people in the hospital could bankrupt most small dealers.  So you should always purchase the highest limits that you can afford when you are considering your garage liability insurance for your dealership.

Garagekeepers insurance is quite different from garage liability insurance.  Garage keepers insurance is for those dealers and repair shops that take in cars owned by others and perform repairs on those vehicles.  While both repair shops and dealers will need garage liability, the garagekeepers insurance is only needed if for those companies who work on vehicles that are owned by others.  While these cars are in your care, custody, or control, you can be held liable for damages to these vehicles.  For instance, if you work on a vehicle, then test drive it to discover the problem or to listen to a noise, then you could be involved in an accident that damages the customer’s car.  In that case you would need garagekeepers collision insurance coverage on your policy to protect you from having to pay for these damages out of your own pocket.  Garagekeepers insurance also has another subcategory of protection, called garage keepers comprehensive coverage.  This is protection for losses to the vehicles in your care custody and control that are not caused by collisions.  There are exclusions to this coverage, so be sure that you are familiar with them but  basically this is wind, hail, fire, theft and other losses of that nature to your customer’s cars that are left  with you for repairs.

Garage insurance is complex with many options to be understood.  And the number of insurance agents out there who will pretend to understand this coverage and will be happy to try and learn about it at your risk is astounding.  It is truly a mine field out there for dealers.  You need to select and agent who understands this complicated sector of the business insurance world and who already insures lots of other dealerships like yours.  Clinard Insurance Group currently insures over 300 used car dealers across the states of North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.  Our experience in this area, along with our volume of accounts means that we can help you get the protection you need at rates that will astound you.    If you would like help with your dealers insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com.

Used Car Dealer Insurance – An Overview

If you are in the car business, or thinking of getting into the car business, one area in which you will want to develop some expertise is used car dealers insurance. Insurance for a used car dealer is a bit of an unusual animal in the insurance world and there are many agents who don’t fully understand how it works. So how can a non-insurance person get it right? This article will give you the tips you need to get started in this important facet of your business. Note, the information in this article is aimed at NC used car dealer insurance, but most of the basics remain the same in other states as well.

Insurance for a used car dealer is different from a lot of business insurance policies because your inventory moves around. Not only that, your inventory is being driven by customers before they buy and is capable of inflicting huge damages on others. These factors alone make your insurance solution very unique from most other mom and pop businesses out there. So, to keep this simple, we will take these items one at a time and break it down for you.

Garage Liability – This is the place to start. You will need a garage liability policy in order to get your dealer tags. In NC, these policies are rated based on the number of tags you have and the number of salespeople you have. Also, if you furnish a tag to yourself or some other member of your family or an employee, then that will increase your premiums as well. The basic garage liability section of the NC garage insurance policy is designed to protect your business from damages done by your vehicles to other people or their property. Be very careful here to check the limits of liability that you are purchasing on your garage liability coverage. You don’t want to just chase the lowest price without considering your liability limits. The rule of thumb should be to purchase the highest liability limits that you can afford as you are trying to protect against large, unknown loss values that threaten to wipe out your business completely. Also be careful to choose adequate limits for your uninsured motorists and your underinsured motorists coverages.

Dealers Open Lot Coverage – This is protection for your cars themselves, your inventory. Here you need to select a limit that at least covers your highest level of inventory. Also, you should choose the highest deductible that you can afford in the event of a loss. Higher deductibles will reduce the costs of this insurance protection. And, if you work on cars that are owned by others, you need to consider garagekeepers insurance as well. To read more about that situation, see my blog on garagekeepers for car dealers.

Workers Compensation – If you hire employees I highly recommend that you purchase workers compensation insurance. I find that in North Carolina, many dealers skip this coverage when they only have one or two employees. This is a dangerous approach and has the potential to bring your very business down. Please take a moment to read my blog on work comp for car dealers.

Dealer Bond – In NC each car dealer has to post a $50,000 bond with the state of NC in order to obtain and maintain a dealer’s license. You can purchase this bond through your insurance agent. You can read more about this regulatory requirement here.

Property Coverage – If you own your building, or if you have business personal property that you need to protect, be sure to purchase the commercial property insurance to cover these items. Often doing this reduces your garage insurance costs as some companies will give you a multi policy or package discount for combining these policies into one package.

Now that you have a better understanding of which types of policies you should consider, I want to spend a moment on how you should choose your agent. Insurance is a funny business because it is the one business that I can think of where hiring a specialist will generally cost you less money. This is not true of doctors and lawyers of course, the more specialized they are, the more it costs you to hire them. But to add to this oddity, there is also a danger. While most doctors and lawyers will refer you on to a specialist when you are dealing in an area that requires one, few if any insurance agents will refer you to a specialist if they don’t know much about insuring your business. The scary thing here is that they will actually try to help you, and learn on your nickel. This, as you can imagine, can be downright dangerous for the unsuspecting used car dealer. Just because you have a friend or relative in the insurance business, doesn’t mean that they are qualified to help you correctly insure your business. And best of all, insurance agents who specialize in used car dealerships generally have the lowest rates available to you.

When selecting your agent, do a little homework. Google their name with the words car dealer insurance. Do they appear active in this niche business? Do they seem to understand exactly how to insure used car lots? When you talk to them, ask them how many dealers like you they insure now. If they don’t insure at least 25 or more, you can bet they aren’t specialists. If you find one that insures hundreds, then you have probably found the guys with the knowledge and the rates to really help you get the best deal at the best price.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we insure over 300 car dealers across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. We want our dealer clients to be informed insurance consumers and to protect their businesses in a careful and considered way. If we can help you with any of your questions, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.theautodealershelper.com.

You can read the source article and others from which this article was created by visiting the Clinard Insurance Group Blog at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Garage Insurance – Making The Audit Easier

If you have a garage liability insurance policy for your repair shop insurance, or for your used car dealer insurance program, then you know that your policy must be audited each year. Garage liability insurance audits can be a huge hassle or they can be a quick and easy process. Some of what determines that is up to you. Here are a few tips to make your garage policy audits go as smoothly as possible. Some of this information is based on audit requirements for Auto Owners Insurance Company garage policies and may not necessarily be part of every insurance company’s garage audit process.

Start with an accurate estimate. You will have to estimate your payroll and number of employees when you first take out the policy. Start out by making this an accurate estimate. Estimating too high takes money out of your pocket and crimps cash flow now. Estimate low makes you vulnerable to the audit trap and can hurt cash flow later. Don’t forget that clerical employees are often required to be included in the total employee count. Also, remember that active owners, partners or members are included in the total as one full time equivalent employee.

With the Auto Owners Premier Garage Policy, there are caps on the payroll basis for owners, officers, partners or members as well as for employees. Your insurance company may or may not have caps on payroll so be sure to find out well in advance about this as it can limit your preparation time and may reduce your garage liability insurance costs in the long run.

Most garage policies will not charge for strictly clerical employees. But they are also usually quite strict about the definition of clerical workers. When they say clerical, they mean that employee only engages in clerical work. Few garage operations have a strictly clerical person, but if you do, you don’t want to include them as an employee in the employee audit count and in the payroll count.

Know your categories of employees as defined by the garage policy and have those numbers ready for the auditor. Category 1 employees are usually defined as owners, officers and members as well as salespersons, sales and service managers and anyone who operates vehicles on and off premises. The payroll amount for this type of employee is usually capped and most of your payroll will fall into this category. Category 2 employees are usually defined as all other employees. Typically the payroll for this category will be very small or even zero.

By knowing what your insurance company needs from you at audit time, you should be able to reduce the time and costs of having your garage liability insurance audited each year. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping used car dealers and garage and repair and body shops with their insurance policies. We write garage insurance for dealers as well as repair and body shops in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. If we can help you with your garage insurance, please call us toll free at 877-687-7557 and we will be glad to answer your questions.

The source information for this article comes from other articles which can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Garage Insurance – Division I or Division II?

It is often said that the garage insurance policy is one of the most misunderstood forms of insurance. The problem is that this form of insurance essentially is a hybrid of a general liability insurance policy and a business auto insurance policy. More than that though, this form is a specialized form, used only for auto body and repair shops and auto dealers. Given that, many agents, who don’t specialize in helping these specific industries with their insurance needs, don’t really understand the ins and outs of the garage insurance policy and as a result they may issue a policy to you under the wrong form. So how do you know if you have the right protection?

First of all, understand that although the garage liability policy is appropriate for both an automotive repair shop and an auto dealer, within that group, you need to have the correct classification on your garage insurance policy. There are 2 different divisions of coverage on the garage policy, Division I and Division II. These divisions not only affect the policy form itself, but they also impact on the rating structure and how your final premium is determined. For these reasons, it is important that you have your policy set up correctly in the first place whether you are buying auto dealers insurance or automotive repair insurance.

Division I is the division that should be used if your business is an auto dealership. If however, your business is automotive repair or body work, then your garage liability policy should be written as a division II garage insurance policy. If you are unsure whether or not your policy is set up correctly, you can check to see which division your policy is written on by checking the declarations page of your garage insurance policy.

What happens if you are involved in auto sales and auto repair? If that is the case, then your policy should be written on the Division I form.

As you can see, there are a lot of tripwires out there for business who repair or sale cars who are looking for a garage insurance policy. You need an insurance agent who specializes in the garage insurance policy and helping both car dealers and automotive repair shops with their insurance needs. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we are that specialist. Our used car dealer clients and our auto and body repair shop clients are located all over NC, SC, GA, TN and Va. If we can help you with your garage insurance questions, or if you would like a quote on your current insurance program, please give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us our auto repair and body shop web page or our used car dealers insurance help site.

The information used for this article can be found in its entirety at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Auto Dealers Insurance – Are You Prepared For Hail Storms?

Used car dealers have a seasonal demon to watch out for and this is the time of year it rears its head. I’m talking about hailstorms. If one sweeps across your lot you are likely to suffer a huge amount of property damage. In fact, some of the biggest claims we see are from these Spring and Summer hailstorms. Do you know if you have the right protection?

Hailstorms are often local in their impact but if it happens over your lot, you can expect huge losses to your inventory. Most used car dealers have their inventory stored outside and are vulnerable to hail losses but this is the type of protection that many car dealers don’t think about until it is too late. So how do you know if you have coverage?

Well fortunately the garage insurance policy is a standardized form so it is easy to know if you have the coverage. Hail coverage is a part of your comprehensive coverage which is part of the dealers open lot coverage for your cars. The dealers open lot insurance coverage will have a section with a limit and deductible for both collision and comprehensive coverages.

Pull out your policy right now and check to see that you have a limit of coverage for comprehensive coverage on your dealers open lot section. Now, also check out how the deductible reads. The standard form has a per vehicle deductible and a maximum per loss deductible. The per loss limit is typically 5 times the per vehicle deductible. So, if you have a $500 deductible on your comprehensive per vehicle, then you probably also have a $2500 maximum deductible per event. There are a few companies out there that set their policies up so that the only deductible is per loss, not per vehicle. This is an important distinction. In my previous example this would increase your claim payment from the insurance company by $2000. For more information about per vehicle deductibles and what is available out there, read my earlier blog here.

If you need any help at all interpreting your deductibles or how they might pay in a claim, please feel free to give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com. We specialize in helping used car dealers with their insurance needs all across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia

The source information for this article can be found on articles at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Garage Keepers Insurance for Used Car Dealers

Most used car dealers understand that they need a garage insurance policy for their business. And some even understand that they need dealers open lot coverage for their inventory. But there are some dealers out there who perform a hybrid function for their clients and we often find that these dealers have overlooked a garage coverage that leaves them wide open for an uncovered loss. If you are a used car dealer who does some repair work, you really owe it to yourself to read this article, and then check your policy to make sure you are covered properly.

The hybrid dealer that I am referring to is one who not only works on his own cars, but who works on cars owned by others. In this situation, the dealer is performing a double function from the insurance company’s perspective: a seller of cars and a repairer of cars. And this creates the need for a coverage endorsement to the garage policy that is often unfamiliar to a used car dealer.

The coverage that you need to add to your dealers policy is called garage keepers insurance. This coverage is designed to protect you for losses to your clients cars that are left in your care, custody or control. Garage keepers insurance can be broken up into two main coverage areas. One is called garage keepers collision coverage and the other is called garage keepers comprehensive coverage.

The comprehensive coverage is for fire, theft, windstorm, flood and other loss types that could occur to your customers vehicles while you have them in your possession for repairs. The collision coverage is for damages caused by collision to your clients cars while they are in your possession.

Within the broader category of garagekeepers insurance there is additional information you need to make a good decision about how much and which type to purchase. I have written other blogs on those issues and you can read them by clicking on the links below. There are also some video links if you prefer watching videos.

How much garage keepers insurance to buy – blog version

How much garage keepers insurance to buy - video version

Garage keepers Insurance explained Part I blog

Garage Keepers Insurance explained Part II blog

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping used car dealers with their insurance needs. We insure hundreds of used car dealers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia. If you would like help with your dealers insurance, please visit us online at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com or call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.

Much of the information for this article was sourced from www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com

North Carolina Used Car Dealers – The Garage Insurance Policy That You Started With May Not Be The Right One Today.

North Carolina used car dealers insurance starts with the garage insurance policy. Many new start ups find their way to an agent who is able to help them set up their garage policy and the begin selling cars. And for many used car dealers, they just pay their renewal premiums each year without realizing that time is on their side. You see, because of a law in North Carolina that requires insurance companies to offer you a policy when you ask for a quote, there is a two tiered system of policies in North Carolina. If you haven’t checked lately, you might be in the high risk rate class and not even realize that you are paying too much for your garage liability dealers insurance policy.

Since NC is a mandatory insurance state, all dealers who ask for an auto insurance quote must be offered coverage. For this reason, most insurance companies can write a dealers policy but if they don’t specialize in used car dealers insurance, they will simply place your garage insurance policy through the state reinsurance facility. This means you will have to pay the highest possible rate and you will face limited choices on how much liability insurance you can purchase. And last of all, this market of last resort doesn’t offer you any dealers open lot coverage so you won’t be able to purchase comprehensive and collision insurance on your inventory.

Even insurance companies who specialize in used car dealers insurance in North Carolina may still place your policy in the higher rated North Carolina reinsurance facility. Why would they do this? Well there are several reasons and the reasons certainly change over time. As I write this we are seeing many dealers forced to offer buy here, pay here financing in order to sell their cars. The insurance companies don’t like this as it increases the chances that the dealer will be involved in repossessing a vehicle and the claims and losses that might be associated with that activity. So, since they have to offer insurance at some price to those that call, guess what, if you do buy here, pay here financing, you may find yourself in the NC reinsurance facility.

Another reason dealers end up in the facility pool with its higher rates is that they simply have not been in business long enough to develop a track record that helps the insurance company feel comfortable with their business practices. Some companies require as much as 3 years experience before they will move a dealer into their preferred rates policy. I have also seen this problem apply to dealers who wholesale vehicles and never take title to or possession of the vehicles they are selling.

If you are a dealer who used to do on site financing, wholesale, or if you simply bought your current policy when you had less than 3 years in business, there is a good chance that you might now qualify for better coverage at lower rates. You might not be able to find these preferred policies from your current agent though. The reason for this is that insurance for used car dealers is a specialty market and most agents just don’t have access to the preferred policies for used car dealers.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in used car dealers and we insure over 300 dealerships across 5 different states. If we can help you with an insurance second opinion on your garage insurance, or if you would like for us to give you a quote on your dealership insurance, please call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com

The source information for this article can be found among the many articles at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Used Car Dealers – Has Your Peak Season Been Left Out Of Your Garage Insurance Policy?

In many retail businesses there is a peak season where inventory runs higher than the rest of the year. For most retail establishments, this ocurs the months leading up to the Christmas holiday shopping season. And most insurance policies for retail businesses have a way to account for this fluctuation in inventory. The dealer’s garage policy does not, but there is a way that used car dealers can protect themselves from this hidden monster without paying an arm and a leg to do it.

The first step is to analyze your dealership to understand if you have a peak season. I have found that most used car dealerships do have a peak season and this season generally runs from February to May. This is the time when income tax refunds are arriving in mailboxes and people go out and buy cars with the new found money. Next, take a close look at how you plan for and deal with this higher sales season. Do you purchase more cars and build up your inventory? If so, when do you start? When does your inventory get back to lower levels?

There are 3 ways to deal with this inventory fluctuation from an insurance standpoint.

The first way is to simply ignore it. This may seem like the least expensive approach at first unless you have a large loss to your lot, such as fire or hailstorm and you discover that you are underinsured without enough insurance to cover all of your damaged inventory.

The second way to handle this inventory fluctuation is to increase the limit on your dealers open lot coverage to the amount that represents your highest inventory level at any time during the year. This is certainly better than ignoring the issue altogether, but why pay for $100,000 of dealers open lot coverage if for most of the year you only need $50,000?

The third way is one that I see very few dealers take advantage of, yet it is the easiest and least expensive approach. Just call your agent when your inventory increases in February or January and raise the limit on your dealer’s open lot coverage. Then, when your inventory has dropped down in late May, give another call to your agent and have them drop your limits back down. It’s easy, simple and it affords you the coverage you need without over paying for insurance the rest of the year. Why more dealers don’t pay attention must only be because they don’t know that this is an option available to them.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping used car dealers all across North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia with their garage insurance policies. If we can be of help to you with advice or answers to your questions, or if you just want to find out how to get the best policy for the least amount of cash, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com.

The source information for this article was found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Dealers Insurance Policies – Two Easy Steps To Keeping Your Rates Low

Used car dealers understand that their garage policy is one of their big expenses in their annual budget. But few dealers understand how simple it can be to control the costs of auto dealers insurance. Here are two quick and easy steps you can take that will significantly reduce your garage insurance policy rates over time.

To start at the beginning, the rate that each dealer pays for garage insurance is in large part a direct result of that dealer’s insurance loss history. Our garage policies have available good experience credits of up to 40% of the policy premium. That means a dealer with excellent loss experience can pay as much as 40% less for the same coverage than a dealer with a loss or two in their garage insurance loss history. So, if you can find a way to reduce the number and severity of losses against your policy, you not only will have an easier time maintaining insurance coverage, you will be able to access the best rates out there.

One of the biggest contributors to loss history for a dealer is the accidents that happen while a prospect is test driving one of their cars. First of all, the car is unfamiliar to them, secondly they want to test out all the features so they are fiddling with the stereo, the navigation system and other features and this increases the likelihood of an accident. So how can you reduce these types of claims against your dealers insurance policy?

The first step each dealer should take is to make sure that their garage policy form is one that forces the test driver’s personal auto insurance policy to step in and pay the claims caused by the test driver of their vehicle. Not every garage insurance policy is created the same, but there are policies out there that state that as far as protection for your customer are concerned, your policy only pays if your customer doesn’t have a policy. There are two big advantages for you as a dealer to make sure that you have this type of policy. First of all, if the test driver can’t file claims on your policy, your claims will go down and you will have a better loss history and access to the best rates out there. Secondly, if your policy does not have to build in enough money to pay for test driver losses, you will find that your rates will be lower in the first place. To learn more about these types of policies, read my blog here.

Once you have the right kind of garage insurance in place, you need to make sure that all of your test drivers have their own auto insurance policy in force. It will be impossible to do this with 100% certainty but at the very least you should ask them if they have auto insurance in force now. Then ask them the name of the insurance company that they use just to sort of check on their honesty. If you want to go a step further, you can ask to see a copy of their insurance id card in their glove box. One more important question you should ask them is if they have collision coverage on their current policy. If not, then you will probably have to file a claim against your dealers physical damage coverage on your own policy if they wreck your car. This will be the only way to collect for the damages to your vehicle.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we write insurance for hundreds of used car dealers all across NC, SC, GA, VA, and TN. If you would like for us to help you with your garage insurance, please call us at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com.

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

Used Car Dealers – Who You Buy Your Garage Liability Insurance From Could Matter A Great Deal

Used car dealers in North Carolina certainly have many options regarding which insurance company they choose for their garage liability insurance. But very few of these dealers, no matter how insurance savvy, understand the impact of using a company with their own special garage form. This form can save the dealer thousands of dollars in premiums and claim costs as well as dozens of hours in the claims process. But you have to have the right form to benefit.

Let’s start with a scenario that is all too familiar for used car dealers in North Carolina. In order to sell the car you need to let your customer test drive it. Now we all know that dealers are busy and often the customer goes out alone in the car. The customer starts messing with the stereo and other unfamiliar items on the dashboard and suddenly they have hit another car. Now your product is damaged and there is damage to a third party and their car. When you file this claim with your garage liability insurance company you will be entangled in hours of claims processing from statements to phone calls and on and on. In addition, you will now have a claim against your record which might result in higher rates with your insurance company and higher rates from other insurance companies when you decide to shop around. Or worse yet, you may be cancelled by your insurance company for this large claim and you will find it hard to replace this coverage. Without garage liability insurance, you are out of business.

There is a way to avoid all this heartache, simply by choosing the right garage liability insurance company. There are insurance companies out there who write North Carolina Garage Liability Insurance for Used Car Dealers on their own policy form. And this form excludes protection for your customer driving your car unless your driver has no personal auto insurance, or your customer’s auto insurance limits are below the state mandated minimums. So now, in the above accident scenario, if your client has his or her own personal auto insurance policy, then that policy will have to pay this claim. This protects your policy from claims, keeps your claims record clean, and keeps you out of the awful time sucking claims process.

There are three caveats to this trick. First of all, if your garage policy limits protection for your clients you still need to do two things to make it work. First of all, verify that they have an auto insurance policy with liability insurance equal to or exceeding the minimum liability limits required by law in your state and secondly, make sure that they have collision coverage on their policy on at least one of their cars. The collision coverage will be necessary for you to be paid for the damages to your vehicle that they are test driving. The third is that you will need to have an agent who specializes in used car dealers who will understand this policy form and who can help you intervene in the claims process and get the necessary information to the customer’s insurance company so that the claim never gets filed against your garage policy.

So what must you do? Call your agent and ask them if your garage policy will pay on behalf of a customer test driving your vehicle. If they answer yes, then you may need to find another agent, one who specializes in used car dealers. If you need help with this process, please fell free to call Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, toll free at 1-877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com. We can help you find a company using their own garage liability form that can give you these advantages.

The source material for this article came from an article at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

NC Used Car Dealers – Don’t Forget About Workers Compensation Insurance

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping used car dealers with their dealers insurance policies. And 95% of the time, when a dealer calls us for insurance, the only policy on his mind is the NC garage insurance policy. But there is another, very important policy that all dealers must consider. And leaving this one out can do a lot more than just ruin your day. It could wipe out your business.

Why so few used car dealers remember to purchase workers compensation insurance is a mystery to me. It probably stems from the nature of their employees since many hire their salespeople as independent contractors. But while hiring them as independent contractors may change how taxes are paid, it will not allow the dealer/owner to avoid paying the losses under North Carolina Workers Compensation law.

In NC, purchasing workers compensation insurance is voluntary if you have 3 or fewer employees. And you don’t have to count your independent contractors as employees either. But here’s the rub. Just because you don’t purchase the insurance, doesn’t mean you are safe from the losses. In fact, not purchasing the insurance policy means you are putting your own assets on the line to pay all claims required by the NC workers compensation statutes. So, if your employee is injured or killed on the job, then your business will have to pay the statutory benefits required by law. Essentially, you have chosen to put yourself in the position of the insurance company for all losses. And a big loss could put most small used car dealers out of business.

Insurance is a good deal for the consumer any time that the consumer can trade a small, affordable, known loss – in this case the workers compensation premium, for a larger, unknown and possibly catastrophic loss. If you own a used car dealership and you have anyone besides yourself working for you in any capacity at all, you owe it to yourself to get a price on a workers compensation policy. You may be surprised at how affordable it is. In this case, going bare is a huge risk. If you are going to go without insurance, please recognize that you have only chosen to shift the risk of loss to yourself in exchange for not paying an annual workers compensation premium that is probably very affordable for you.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance consumers to be educated consumers. If you would like help with your dealers insurance, or if you want a workers compensation quote, please call our office, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.clinardinsurance.com.

The source information for this article was taken from data found at www.insuranceanswerguy.com.

Used Car Dealers – There May Be Hidden Funds In Your Garage Insurance Policy

This economy has required all types of businesses to tighten their belts and make more with less. Used car dealers in NC, SC, TN and GA are no exception to this problem. But very few of them have thought to look at their garage insurance policy as a source of funds. Here’s how you might take money out of your garage insurance policy.

Basically there are two areas of possible overpayment on your garage insurance policy that might be sources of funds for you. One I call the payroll update test and the other I refer to as the inventory study.

The payroll update test simply means that if you have cut back on your number of sales persons, then you might be sitting on a return premium audit at the end of your garage liability policy term. If this is the case, you can request a change in the number of salespeople charged on your policy and have those funds returned to you now, rather than waiting for your current garage insurance policy term to run out.

The inventory study technique refers to the possibility that as sales have slowed, you may have reduced your inventory on your lot. If you insure the comprehensive and collision coverage for your inventory under dealers open lot coverage, then you may find that you are carrying more coverage than you really need. Take a moment to try and figure out what your current inventory levels are and check that against your garage insurance policy to see if you are over-insured. If so, call your agent and ask him to reduce your dealers open lot coverage to a more appropriate level. This will generate a return premium due you.

It is important to remember that both of these techniques are useful in a downward moving economy. But, when business picks up, and you hire more salespeople and begin to increase your inventory, it is important that you call your agent and have him update your policy to reflect the increased exposure. If you fail to do this, you may find yourself without enough dealers open lot coverage, or you may be facing an additional premium audit which could lead to a cash flow problem I call, the audit trap.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping used car dealers all of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee with their insurance needs for their used car dealerships. If we can help you answer questions about your dealers insurance, please feel free to call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at http://www.theautodealershelper.com/.

The source material for this article can be found at http://www.insuranceanswerguy.com/

Garage Insurance – Used Car Dealers and Repair Shops Watch Those Symbols

Garage insurance is a much misunderstood policy form. Very few insurance agents understand exactly when to use it and more importantly exactly how. You can use a garage liability policy to protect a used car dealer, often referred to as dealer’s insurance, or you can use this same form to protect an automotive repair shop or to set up body shop insurance. The trick is to know the symbols. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in garage insurance and we understand the difference in how to set up used car dealers insurance and auto repair shop garage insurance.

As I mentioned earlier, both types of businesses, auto repair and or body shops and used car dealers both need the garage policy. But what is covered in these policies is driven by the symbols on the policy. This is very important. If you your business is automotive repair or body work but your policy is set up with symbols that would apply to a car dealership, you could find yourself without coverage in the event of a liability loss.

So how do you know if you have the correct symbols and thus the correct form? Pull out your garage policy and look at the first page. Beside each type of coverage, usually to the left, there will be a least one two digit number between 21 and 31. These symbols will describe what is protected by the coverage described beside the number. Here is a list of the most common symbols and what each one protects:

21 Any auto
22 All owned autos
23 Owned private passenger autos only
24 Owned autos other than private passenger
25 Owned autos subject to no fault laws
26 Owned autos subject to Uninsured Motorists law
27 Specifically described autos
28 Hired autos only
29 Non-Owned autos used in the Garage Business
30 Autos Left for Service/Repair/Storage
31 Autos on Consignment

As you have probably figured out, if you are an automobile dealer and you have code 30 on your policy, you would find yourself without coverage. So why not just put code 21 on all coverages? Well, since code 21 is the broadest coverage, you would have to pay more for this insurance policy and in some cases you might be purchasing insurance protection that you didn’t really need.

Take some time to look at your policy carefully and review the symbols for each line of coverage to make sure that they are appropriate for the work you do. If you need help with this process, please feel free to call Clinard Insurance Group, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at http://www.clinardinsurance.com/.

The source material for this article was pulled from http://www.insuranceanswerguy.com/.