Smart Auto Insurance Blog

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that Geico car insurance must pay for damage and injuries from a rental car crash, even though the driver was not their insured.  Geico argued that they were not liable for the coverage because the person driving was not an authorized driver under the rental contract.  But after all was said and done through multiple courts, Geico lost the battle.  Since the driver who got in the car accident was authorized by another driver who was authorized by the insured driver, that trumps the fact that their name was not on the rental car contract.

Insurance Journal’s article, “Insurer Must Pay for Florida Rental Car Crash by Unauthorized Driver,” shows that car insurance quotes which cover any authorized driver on your vehicle include rental cars.  The rented car was a “temporary substitute auto” for the insured driver, so those authorized to drive the vehicle are covered in the case of an accident.  This trumps the fact that the insured driver was the only one authorized by the actual rental car company.  Sadly, the reason for all of this litigation is that minors were badly injured in the car crash and one passenger lost their life.  Be sure to know the details of your car insurance policy if you are authorizing someone else to driver your vehicle.

Written by Sara Smart

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/SaraSmart55

A reporter recently set out to see if it was possibly to hide a car insurance claim from someone like your husband or parent.  In the article “Can You Make a ‘Secret’ Car Insurance Claim,” Lynnette Khalfani-Cox explained the findings published on the Fox Business website.  Those who would be looking to hide an auto insurance claim are called ‘omnibus insured’.  This means that while they are not the primary insured, they have the permission of the primary insured to have their car covered by the policy and submit claims for accidents or other damage.

After speaking with experts at the Insurance Expert Network, the reporter found that while there is the slightest possibility that you could hide your car insurance claim, it is extremely unlikely for many reasons.  Insurers like One Beacon auto insurance don’t keep claims secret like you might expect health insurance companies to do.  Insurance companies are likely to telephone the primary insured to confirm information and claims.  If for some reason they didn’t call the primary insured, they would likely mail them some type of correspondence.

Not only will a check for the deductible most likely have to be written, but the primary insured will have to sign over the check from the insurance company to the dealership fixing the car.  If an omnibus insured person managed to keep all of this from the primary insured, the insurance company is still probably going to send a survey asking how their claims service performed.  And maybe most importantly, there is a good chance that the primary insured’s auto insurance rates are going to increase because of the accident.  A 10% increase will not likely go unnoticed.

Written by Sara Smart

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/SaraSmart55

A few months after Hurricane Irene, the National Insurance Crime Bureau warns consumers about buying cars that were flood damaged in the hurricane.  According to “Used-Car Buyers Are Warned of Flood Vehicles In Wake of Irene” from Insurance Journal, the NICB warns both consumers who know in advance that the vehicle was flood damaged as well as those who could be the victims of fraud.

New Jersey auto insurance companies as well as those in many other cities have seen an influx of claims related to flood damage on vehicles involved in Hurricane Irene.  This August, insurers belonging to the NICB recorded almost 12,000 claims related to flood vehicles.  Last year there were fewer than 1,000 flood related claims in August.  New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina saw the most claims.

The NICB offers many tips to avoid being taken of advantage of with a flood damaged Hurricane Irene vehicle.  Use reputable car dealers, do a thorough exam for anything like water damage, and be wary of newly shampooed carpet.  Look for interior fading, rust, and any mud or sand in crevices.  Ask about the car’s history, have a mechanic look it over, search the title, and look for any fraud in the car’s paperwork.  The National Insurance Crime Bureau can offer more helpful tips to avoid buying a flood damaged used car.

Written by Sara Smart

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/SaraSmart55

The car insurance fraud in Florida related to PIP insurance is rampant, and a recent inquiry showed that there is little hope something can be done to fix it.  According to the Bradenton Herald’s “For Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Cabinet, a windfall of bad insurance news,” no one is willing to work together to find a solution to this car insurance fraud.  The consumers, insurers, lawyers, doctors, hospitals, and clinics involved in the inquiry all had their own best interests in mind and could not find a common ground.  Florida auto insurance quotes have gone from $500 to $3,000 for one company in only three years because of the PIP fraud.

Florida requires residents to carry $10,000 of PIP, or personal injury protection, coverage.  Unfortunately, crooks have been staging accidents, filing fake claims, and working with lawyers and medical professionals to carry out fraudulent acts related to the PIP insurance coverage.  Miami and Tampa have the worst PIP fraud, but it is all over Florida.  Auto insurance companies are at a loss and are hoping that some legislation in 2012 will help with this insurance fraud problem.  But officials in the state said that auto insurance companies are not as forthcoming with their data as the researchers would have liked.  The bottom line is that everyone needs to work together to get this problem under control.

Written by Sara Smart

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/SaraSmart55