Smart Auto Insurance Blog

Pretty much everyone is looking to save a dollar where they can in this struggling economy and luckily there are companies out there willing to help their customers.  Auto insurance rates are causing many consumers financial stress, and these people often are not aware of the dozens of discounts out there that they may quality for.

Donegal Insurance is an example of a company going above and beyond to offer substantial discounts to their customers.  Their auto insurance policies not only offer a wide variety of options for every type of driver but they give discounts based on good behavior.  Some of these discounts include good student discounts, high chargeable accident thresholds, first accident forgiveness, extra edge discounts for superior drivers and a PACE protector endorsement.

According to the Donegal Group website, you can also save money on your auto insurance if you have passive seat belt restraints and/or airbags in your car.  There are additional discounts for anti-theft devices, and anti-lock brakes.  Even more discounts are made available for those who have completed a driver’s education course or who participate in car pooling.  There’s a multi-car discount and savings if you have multiple product policies with Donegal.  As you can see, there is a long list of readily available discounts for a variety of drivers on auto insurance

offered through Donegal which is headquartered in Pennsylvania.  This is great news for those of us pinching pennies, and it’s useful to know where we can save a little bit of money.  It adds up over time and can make a big difference.

According to the press release “Legislators Take Aim at Ohio Auto Insurance Verification Program” found on OnlinePRNews.com, Ohio state representative Matt Huffman re-introduced a bill that would stop an auto insurance verification program given by the state of Ohio.

The Random Selection program has sent out letters to car owners who are asked to mail in proof of auto insurance to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles since 1998.  The point of the program was to cut down on the number of uninsured drivers on the road.  If the person did not respond within 90 days their license was suspended and they had to pay a fine.  Based on a report from the Columbus Dispatch, approximately 5400 letters were sent out weekly and about 500 of those did not carry auto insurance.

The Insurance Research Council says that about 16% of Ohio drivers were uninsured in 2007 and that number is believed to have risen since unemployment has risen steadily throughout the state.  This may mean that the verification program is not effective in which case the BMV could save a lot of time and money by cutting back on the program.  Rep Huffman advised a panel that there were some unfair instances related to the mailings and this type of problem could be resolved fixing or eliminating the program.

The Freeman Auto Report found that new car sales in the greater Austin area increased 10% in 2010 compared to 2009.  This is still far off pace from new car sales in 2007, when over 100,000 new cars were sold in Austin according to the article “Texas New Car Sales Increase in 2010″ on USInsuranceonline.com.

General Manager of Jaguar Land Rover Austin said in an interview with the Austin American-Statesman that this is a good sign and that 2011 will be a good year for everyone.  The economy is slowly picking up and this is definitely affecting new car sales as well as car insurance quotes in Texas.

The Texas Department of Insurance says the market has recently added 9 new providers which could make prices more competitive for Texas auto insurance rates.  This is just in time since minimum liability rates just increased causing overall premiums to increase.  With more providers in the market, hopefully they will compete for consumer business making rates stay flat or even decrease.

Texas is not the only state to feel the economy creep back through car sales and car insurance policies.  At this point there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for the economic slump that’s been keeping us down for the past few years.

Safe Auto, a popular Columbus-based auto insurance company, is rolling out its jingle contest for the third year in a row.  Anyone interested in competing in the contest can simply upload a video to enter.

There is a lot of leeway when it comes to submissions according to the article “Safe Auto Launching Jingle Contest” by Adrian Burns on BizJournals.com.  Safe Auto is looking for unique interpretations of the original jingle and it can even include the actual jingle in the video.  Whatever video gets the most votes by February 28th wins.  The winner receives $5,000 as well as an appearance in the Safe Auto advertising campaign.

There are additional prizes for other highly voted videos.  It’s a fun way for Safe Auto to get consumers involved in the highly competitive advertising world of auto insurance.  The winner from 2010 received 58,415 votes so people are really getting involved.  The winner was featured in an actual Safe Auto commercial so it may be a way to get your foot in the door if advertising is your interest.

SmartAutoInsurance.com is proud to announce the launch of its new ‘Auto Insurance City Guide’.  The Guide provides city-specific information including minimum coverage requirements and DMV locations.  Vehicle thefts, percentage of uninsured motorists, and number of auto accidents reported are also presented for each city.

The purpose of the City Guide is to simplify the auto insurance shopping process by providing consumers only with the information relevant to the city in which they live.  Statistics including ‘average commute time’ and other city-specific factoids aim to make the guides more interesting and informative.

The Auto Insurance City Guide launched with 25 U.S. cities, and intends on expanding to others in the near future.  Check out your city today!