Teen auto insurance

Driving in ice and snow can be very hazardous. Each year, thousands of insurance claims are filed for drivers who have skidded into other cars or stationary objects while driving in icy conditions.

Here are a few tips to help you navigate the roads safely when winter weather comes to town.

1) Don’t go out. It seems simple enough to say, but many people do not realize just how important it is to stay in when the roads are hazardous.

If you simply have to get to the store for that quart of milk, you might want to think about better planning—lay in supplies of food and do your errands in batches while the weather is good.

If you are going to be driving no matter what, get snow tires. Check your state’s laws about studded tires or chains; some states do not allow them between certain periods. Have your snow tires put on early in the season; make sure they are well-maintained and checked periodically.

2) Decrease your speed. Most accidents on icy roads can be contributed to driving too fast for conditions. This does not mean the posted speed limit; it means driving at a speed which allows you time to correct for possible hazards. You will need at least three times the stopping distance on ice as on dry pavement, so slow down and give yourself plenty of time to negotiate corners and intersections.

When you are driving in ice, you should also brake gently. You should not ever slam on brakes while on ice; this is a recipe for disaster. Instead, slowly brake in increments, giving yourself time to stop safely. Stop well before a stop sign or traffic light; better to be a few feet back than in the middle of an intersection.

3) Use your lights. Even in broad daylight, your lights will help you stay visible to other motorists. Use your windshield wipers to keep your screen free of snow and debris. De-ice your windshield before you begin driving by starting the car, letting it run for a few minutes, and scraping the ice from your windshield.

You should also use lower gears. Many cars and trucks come equipped with four-wheel drive. This has actually increased the problem with driving in snow, because many four-wheel drive owners mistakenly believe they can navigate roads with four wheels they would not tackle with two. Instead of relying on four-wheel drive, engage your low gear to keep traction.

4) Be careful on bridges. Bridges often form icy patches well before the regular roadbed, so use extreme caution when crossing them, even if the temperature is above freezing.

5) Know how to handle a skid. If you begin to skid, take your foot off the accelerator, and steer “into” the skid. What this means is that you turn your front wheels in the direction you want to go, opposite what the rear wheels are doing. If you have front-wheel drive, do not steer but put the vehicle in neutral while you regain traction.

6) Keep sand or litter in your trunk. Not only will this help weight your vehicle down, giving you more traction, but it is very useful if you get stuck. Do not spin your wheels if you are stuck—this only makes the problem worse. Instead, “rock” the vehicle gently by shifting from forward to reverse and back again.

Besides sand, you should also keep an emergency kit in your car. Road flares and a jack can be lifesavers in dangerous conditions. If you are stranded, do not leave your car unless help is within sight.

Instead, turn on your flashers, put out flares if needed, and call for help. Keep blankets and hard candy, as well as water, in your car at all times in case you are stuck for some time.

 

Enjoy driving- be safe and get cheap teen auto insurance quotes now.

Teen auto insurance

Teen auto insurance

Car insurance and speeding tickets.

Texas is a long way across, and the state allows speed limits of up to 85 mph on its most remote stretches of highway. The Texas Highway Patrol last year wrote 3,726 citations for drivers traveling a speed of 100 mph or more.

In July, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety ticketed 21 motorists for driving more than 100 mph. One driver was going 135 mph.

More than 300 drivers in Chicago clocked in at 40 mph or more over the posted limit in 2010.

We are a nation with a heavy right foot. But some of us have feet made of lead.

Not all speeding tickets are created equal. The heavier that lead foot gets, the more severe the consequences. In such cases, your speeding fine will be the least of your worries.

Get tapped for a 100-mph ticket, and in many states you’ll automatically face a reckless driving charge. Several states levy hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in administrative fees and penalties.

And your insurer will react exactly as you’d expect: with a dramatic increase in your car insurance rates .

Speed increases the distance a vehicle travels before its driver can react to an emergency, and it increases the distance needed to stop once a driver can hit the brakes. And it greatly increases the amount of energy released in a collision. When impact speeds rise from 40 mph to 60 mph–an increase of 50 percent–the force generated increases by 125 percent, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

Speeding was a factor in 31 percent of motor vehicle crash deaths in 2009, the IIHS says. That’s 10,591 deaths related to speed.

It would be impossible to tell you how much any given ticket might cost you. It varies with the laws of the state, the jurisdiction within the state and even the mood of the specific officer who pulled you over.

In most states, the fee associated with a speeding ticket increases in proportion with the degree to which you are exceeding the speed limit.

At the low end, there is great tolerance. For instance, you may get off with a warning or a small fine if you’re driving 52 in a 45 mph zone. Texas won’t put any points on your license for infractions less than 10 percent over the speed limit, and insurers generally don’t penalize you for a single minor violation.

Of course, it also matters where you speed. Keep yourself in check in school zones and construction zones, or expect hefty fines.

On the upper reaches of your speedometer, your wallet becomes fair game.

Georgia last year passed a law targeting “super speeders.” Who is a super speeder? Anyone caught driving more than 75 mph on a two-lane road or 85 mph on a freeway. Those drivers get to pay an additional $200 on top of the speeding ticket fine (which can reach $1,000 all by itself). Tennessee is reportedly considering a similar law.

At a certain point, you’re not getting a ticket for speeding anymore.

In California, if a driver is caught at a speed above 100 mph, the infraction becomes a misdemeanor and possibly a reckless driving citation, says Pete Moraga, spokesman for the Insurance Information Network of California. Being caught at that speed also results in an automatic suspension of the driver’s license for up to 30 days, a stiff fine and 2 points on the driver’s record. Four points in 12 months will also result in suspension.

Speeds that are de facto reckless driving include:

Over 80 mph in Virginia, North Carolina and HawaiiOver 85 mph in Oregon, Connecticut and ArizonaOver 100 mph in Minnesota and California.

Other states look at how much you’re over the posted limit before labeling you reckless, ranging from 15 mph over the limit in Arkansas to 36 mph over in North Dakota.

In all states, your license can be suspended or revoked if you have enough points on your record or the offenses are severe enough. Some states up the ante by charging drivers with bad records an annual “driver responsibility fee.”

At least four states–Michigan, New York, New Jersey and Texas–charge an annual fee to drivers with excessive points. In Michigan, drivers face yearly fees that range from $100 a year for seven moving-violation points to $1,000 a year for a DUI. Other states’ programs are structured similarly.

Then there’s the issue of being tossed in jail: Half of the states allow for jail time for speeding, with the maximum sentence ranging from three days in Nebraska and Washington, D.C., all the way up to a year in many others. In general, jail time is completely up to the judge in any particular case.

The nature of the offense determines the impact on your car insurance coverage, says Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

“A higher-speed ticket often includes additional charges, such as reckless driving, that also carry higher points,” she says. The citation “will likely affect your insurance premium and could even result in you losing your insurance, particularly with a preferred company that may consider you too high a risk.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that the cost of speed-related crashes is more than $40 billion each year.

To get an idea of what a Dukes of Hazzard-quality ticket does to your car insurance  premiums, we ran insurance quotes for a 23-year-old male driving a 2011 Honda CR-Z, comparing rates for drivers with no violations to rates for drivers with a single speeding ticket for 20 mph or more over the limit.

We also ran quotes adding a prior violation, assuming that if you just got busted for 100-mph-plus, it’s probably not your first rodeo.

A single violation 20 mph or more over the limit is enough to move the needle in all five states we sampled, with increases in rates ranging from 14 percent to 44 percent. If we add a previous minor speeding violation to the mix, the jump is even more emphatic. A sample rate in Middleton, Ohio, went from $1,136 a year to $1,592, an increase of 40 percent. In Biloxi, Miss., the sample rate went from $1,918 to $3,014 a year, up 57 percent. This is just an estimation based on our information gathering.

Get your cheap teen auto insurance quote now.

 

 

Teen auto insurance

Teen auto insurance

How Points on your Driver’s License Affect Your Auto Insurance Premiums?

You know that sinking feeling you get when a cop car pulls up behind you and flashes its lights, and the officer broadcasts (so passersby can hear) that you should pull over?  If you do, you are probably one of the millions who have been ticketed for a moving violation.  In most states, moving violations, like running a stop sign, running a red light, speeding, illegal u-turns, unsafe lane changes, etc., will earn you points.  These aren’t the kind of points you get to trade in for goods and services.  If these add up in a short period of time, these are the kind that can cost you more money for your insurance and possibly cause you to lose your driving privileges.

While the details vary from state to state, most point systems typically work in one of two ways:
•    State system 1: Each ordinary moving violation counts as a single point, but two points are assessed for speed violations that are far in excess of the speed limit.  A license is suspended when a driver receives four points in a year, six in two years, or eight in three years.
•    State system 2: Two points are assessed for minor violations such as an illegal turn or slightly exceeding the speed limit.  Three, four or five points are assigned for more serious violations, such as running a stop sign or a red light.  A license is suspended if a driver gets 12 points over three years.

Some states also assess points for accidents if you are at fault. 

If you get a ticket for a moving violation, check the vehicle code violation number with which you are charged—it should be written on the face of your ticket.  Then call your department of motor vehicles and ask three questions:

1.    Will the violation add points to your record?
2.    How many points do you currently have on your record? (That might require a trip down there to get a printout.)
3.    How many points does it take to have your license suspended?

Insurance Rates
Most insurance companies regularly review your record and may raise your premium if you get a certain number of points. Some states, such as California, do not allow insurance companies to raise your  car insruance premium for getting only one point on your record.  In other states, drivers can be assessed two different types of points, driver’s license and insurance points. Call your insurance company to find out their policies.  Depending on the laws in your state and your insurance company’s policies, your insurer will likely allow one moving violation every three to five years. Anything more than that and your premiums increase. Accidents will raise your premiums, as well, if you were at fault. The auto insurance rates may go up as much as twenty to thirty percent depending on the severity of the accident or the number of points for your moving violation. 

How to Avoid or Remove the Points
•    Contest the ticket
One way to avoid moving violation points, (something you’ll want to do, especially if you are getting close to having your licensed snatched), is by contesting the ticket. (You might want to consult the national edition of Nolo’s Beat Your Ticket for some potentially winning strategies.) But there is another way.

•    Traffic School
If you pay your ticket and go to traffic school, the points from the traffic offense will not go on your record.  While traffic school may involve spending up to eight hours in a classroom listening to a lecture and watching films about gory accidents, it can be well worth it to avoid the increased insurance premiums.  It may seem like an inconvenience, but it is a path that provides more certainty than contesting your ticket in court.  How often you can attend traffic school varies by jurisdiction.  Some allow attendance once a year; others are stricter at once every eighteen to twenty-four months.  If you were ticketed for driving at least fifteen miles per hour over the posted speed limit, local law may prevent you from attending traffic school at all. 

Some states, such as California , allow you to complete online traffic school, but others require you to sign up through a court clerk or even to appear before a judge.  When you’ve completed the class, you receive a certificate to prove you’ve taken it.  Some traffic schools go out of their way to attract customers by injecting humor into their curriculum.  You get the same basic information, but with a twist, to make the day go a little faster.

•    Defensive Driving Classes
In some areas, you can take defensive driving or other types of drivers’ education classes to have points removed from your license once they are on there.  Check with your state’s department of motor vehicles for your options.

No insurance company wants to insure a bad risk and one of the strong indicators of that risk is whether or not the insured has been convicted of a number of moving violations because these bad habits may lead to accidents.  Accidents create claims, which cost the insurance company money.  Your best bet to keep your insurance rates down, of course, is to avoid getting moving violations at all.  No one is perfect and insurance companies do understand this, but you must understand that they will ask you to pay for your transgressions.

Teen auto insurance

Teen auto insurance

Charlie Brown : Why is speeding a great deal? A speeding ticket makes teen auto insurance suck.

Response :

Speeding is a great deal especially for teen auto insurance rates, not giving you cheap car insurance.

Speeding is a great deal especially for teen auto insurance since speed causes auto accidents, which means goodbye for cheap car insurance. Secondly teens who are not experienced drivers would certainly not be able to control the car at speed and hence the chances of accidents increase. This is the reason why the auto insurance or car insurance rates increase by over 10-15% if you have speeding tickets. Naturally, since the teen auto insurance rates are higher the increase of 10 -15 % would be even higher for teen car insurance.

Facts of speeding that leads to higher teen auto insurance rates and auto accidents

Below are some facts which can clarify for you the why speeding leads to higher teen auto insurance rates and auto accidents.
• Speeding Triples the Odds of Crashing (AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety))
• It is not unusual for speeders to be clocked in excess of 40 mph (and even 50 mph on occasion) in 25-mph zones. (KKAD25)
• Speeding extends the distance necessary to stop a vehicle.
*At 20 mph the total stopping distance needed is 69 feet.
*At 30 mph, the distance needed is 123 feet.
*At 40 mph, the distance needed is 189 feet which may not be enough distance and time for you to avoid hitting an object or person on the road (USDOT, NHSTA)
• If you hit a pedestrian:
*At 20 mph 5% will die
*At 30 mph 45% will die
*At 40 mph 85% will die
(Source: NHTSA)
• At night, when you can see only as far as your headlight (160 feet in front of your vehicle), the situation worsens.
• The effectiveness of restraint devices like air bags and safety belts, and vehicular construction features such as crumple zones and side member beams decline as impact speed increases. (USDOT, NHSTA)
• Speed, defined as exceeding the posted speed limit or traveling too fast for the conditions, is cited as a contributing factor in approximately 30% of fatal crashes. (NHSTA)

Five reasons why speeding needs to be avoided and gives you cheap car insurance and teen safety

As per the Governor’s highway safety association stopping speeding leads to savings :
• Save lives – Slowing down increases the likelihood of surviving a crash. Researcher Rune Elvik found that a 1% decrease in travel speed reduces injury crashes by about 2%, serious injury crashes by about 3% and fatal crashes by about 4%. Over 12,000 people died in speed-related crashes in 2008. Don’t become a statistic.
• Save money – Speeding reduces fuel efficiency, causing you to buy gas more often. The Department of Energy estimates that, as a rule of thumb, drivers can assume that each 5 mph they drive above 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.20 per gallon for gas.
• Save the environment – According to Ford Motor Company, driving a vehicle at 65 mph consumes about 15% more fuel than driving the same vehicle at 55 mph. More fuel consumed means more CO2 released into the atmosphere.
• Save yourself a ticket – Highway safety agencies and law enforcement are cracking down on speeders. Obey the sign or pay the fine!
• Save your license – A speeding ticket could lead to points on your driving record. Too many points and you could lose your license and your insurance premiums could go up.
Most of all save your hard earned money. A good driving record would give you cheap teen auto insurance or cheap car insurance quotes, get them now.

Teen auto insurance

Teen auto insurance

Zinedine Zidane: My teen daughter’s teen auto insurance premium has increased a lot with a speeding ticket. Why so?

Getting cheap teen auto insurance for girls will be difficult

Response :As per the recent insurance companies reviews and the surveys carried out it has been established that the girls are becoming more aggressive drivers. “ In a survey of teenage drivers, Allstate Insurance found that 48% of girls said they were likely to drive 10 mph over the speed limit. By comparison, 36% of the boys admitted speeding. Of the girls, 16% characterized their own driving as aggressive, up from 9% in 2005. And just more than half of the girls said they were likely to drive while talking on a phone or texting, compared with 38% of the boys.

The reality is that the girls are more likely to indulge in talking on the phone, getting distracted whilst driving. One of the nation’s largest insurance companies says that its auto coverage premiums for teenage boys are about 40% higher than for girls. In 1985, that gap was about 60%, says Vicki Harper, a spokeswoman for State Farm, which has more than 42 million auto policies. Most girls still get a break on premiums, she says, but “their premium rates reflect there isn’t as much of a difference as the rate for a teenage boy.”

Presently the comparisons for two hypothetical 19 year drivers show that the gap between the girls and boys premium is becoming less – for 6 months full coverage including a speeding ticket in last 3 years the difference is only $311/-, which is very marginal.
It is time for you to start educating the girls also on better driving habits and to avoid speeding if you are looking for cheap teen auto insurance quotes. Yes, compare teen auto insurance quotes and get cheap car insurances, however teen safety is another factor that you need to keep in mind.

Teen auto insurance