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How Do I Know if my Insurance Company Will Cover Me Hitting a Deer?

Written by Michele Wilmonen. Posted in Ask An Insurance Question Last Updated: 11/16/2011

If you have comprehensive coverage and the damages are more than your deductible, there should be coverage.

Whether or not our insurance company will cover damages to our vehicle after an accident is a worry for most drivers. What if there is a special exclusion for the accident that I was just in? What if I don’t have the right coverage on my vehicle? There are so many “what if” questions going through heads that we get worked up for really no reason.

For those that carry comprehensive and collision coverages on their vehicles, almost every type of accident that has caused damage to your vehicle will be covered. In the case of a deer hit, the damages will be paid out under your comprehensive coverage.

Also don’t forget about your deductible. What the insurance company pays out for your claim will depend on how high your deductible is. For example, say the deer that you hit caused $750 worth of damages to your vehicle. If you have a $500 deductible, the insurance company will only pay out $250 for the damages. You are responsible for paying the $500 to the body shop that you deductible is set at.

Farm Bureau Insurance: You Don’t Have to be A Farmer to Get It

Written by Michele Wilmonen. Posted in Advertising, Research Last Updated: 11/04/2011

Even barbers can get coverage from Farm Bureau Insurance.

Summary

Commercial opens in a barber shop. One of the barbers is speaking to a man under a towel that is sitting in his chair.

Barber: You know- I just don’t know if I can trust her anymore-you know what I mean?

Man in the Chair: Well, I’ve been trying to tell ya…….

Barber places towel on the man’s face further down to cover his mouth.

Barber: We’ve been together almost three years. I know you told me I could do better. I know I could do better!

Man takes off the towel and it’s Farmer Charlie (mascot for the company in some of the Farm Bureau Insurance commercials). He puts on his Farm Bureau Insurance hat.

Charlie: All I’m saying is that if you switch you could save a lot of money.

Barber: But, I’m not a farmer Charlie.

Charlie: You haven’t listened to a word I’ve said.

Camera pans from Charlie, to the barber and to another barber that is shaking his head.

Announcer: You don’t have to be a farmer to save money with Farm Bureau Insurance, get a quote today at fbitn.com

Commercial closes with the Farm Bureau Insurance (Tennessee) logo and the web address for Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee.

Point of the Commercial

Farm Bureau Insurance is getting the word out that you don’t need to be a farmer to get Farm Bureau Insurance. You know though, I never really thought that they would just write policies for farmers. With the way that Farm Bureau Insurance advertises in my state and also with companies like State Farm and Farmers Insurance; having special car insurance for just farmers never occurred to me.

What They Want you to Do

This commercial is specifically for Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee, you would never know though until the end of the commercial when it shows it. Farm Bureau Insurance does write insurance across the nation, but they have their products separated out for some states. For those in Tennessee that watch this commercial on television, Farm Bureau Insurance is encouraging contact online. This commercial never mentions any other form of contact to reach them.

For those that live outside of Tennessee, unless you do a search specifically for a Farm Bureau Insurance commercial online (like I do) you would probably have never seen this Farm Bureau Insurance commercial.

My Opinion

There is just something with this Farm Bureau Insurance commercial being set in an old fashioned barber shop that puts me at ease. I am not sure if it is because of the setting or if it is because it is filled with the stereotypical type of men that you can usually trust. Whatever it is, Farm Bureau Insurance did a great job.

It is a simple Farm Bureau Insurance commercial that gets to the point, has a little bit of humor and makes you want to go take a walk through an old fashioned downtown street.

I give this Farm Bureau Insurance commercial a thumbs up.

Insurance Agent Fraud

Written by Michele Wilmonen. Posted in Research Last Updated: 10/24/2011

When purchasing an insurance policy you have to be wary of insurance agent fraud.

Insurance Agent Fraud

Becoming a victim of insurance agent fraud can be prevented if you are careful.

The sad truth is that you can really trust no one these days. Gone are the days of being able to seal a business deal with a handshake and gentlemen’s agreements. Now we have to have legal contracts drawn up and signed by all parties involved.

Even in the field of insurance the one person that you are supposed to be able to trust with your money, your agent, can fail you. More and more we are hearing about agent’s being arrested or under investigation due to fraud. Most of the insurance agent fraud is agents keeping insurance premium that is paid to them from their clients and not sending it to the insurance company.

Statistically there are more agents out there you can trust than the ones that are committing the fraud. It is still always a good idea to protect yourself from insurance agent fraud though.

When Purchasing Your Policy

If you opt to buy a car insurance policy from an agent, never walk out of their office empty handed if you have given them money. The ideal situation is to walkout with temporary insurance cards and even possibly a printout of the declarations page of the insurance policy that you just purchased.

If you can’t get the printout of the declarations page, you need to at least have a receipt and the temporary proof of insurance. If you are provided with anything less than this; you should be worried about insurance agent fraud. The agent has given you no proof that you purchased anything and can easily keep the money without anything in return to you.

Have Mail Sent to You

Never have your mail from the insurance company sent to your agent. Yes, some people actually do this.

This increases the chance of insurance agent fraud as you won’t receive the mailed information from the insurance company about your policy. This includes missed payment notices, policy cancellation notices and changes to coverage levels. All of which would alert you to the possibility of insurance agent fraud if you had been making your payments on time to your agent and had never requested any changes to your policy.

Get a Receipt

Whenever you make a payment at your insurance agent’s office always get a receipt. You need to keep proof that you have been making payments in case you are a victim of insurance agent fraud. So if you have an accident, you will have proof that you had been paying for your insurance coverage.

If your agent refuses to provide you with a receipt, do not make the payment to them. Instead contact the insurance company directly about the situation. While you the insurance company on the phone check to make sure that any other payments you made to your agent made it to them.

If you Suspect Insurance Agent Fraud

If you believe that you are a victim of insurance agent fraud contact the Department of Insurance or Insurance Commissioner in your state. They are going to ask you what proof you have so it is a good idea to have the evidence of the suspected insurance agent fraud in front of you. If they feel that you have a valid complaint of insurance agent fraud, they will advise you as to the next steps you need to take.

Shopping for Female Car Insurance

Written by Michele Wilmonen. Posted in Research Last Updated: 11/17/2015

When purchasing female car insurance, start the process by educating yourself.

Shopping for female car insurance

Most women know more about the quality of their shoes than their car insurance, it’s time to change that.

Purchasing female car insurance is no different than purchasing male car insurance. The process is the same and the only real difference is that female car insurance is generally cheaper than it is for the men. But, since all things auto are usually handled by the men, we as women sometimes face the same chauvinistic treatment when we buy car insurance as we do when buying a car.

Here is some advice in how to arm yourself for the process of purchasing female car insurance and getting the best coverage for your money.

Researching Female Car Insurance

Don’t start blindly calling around for car insurance when you are ready for a policy. Do your research and know what you need and what you want first.

You can do this by:

  • Asking family members for help.
  • Older friends that have been buying insurance for a long time.
  • Friends that work in the insurance industry.
  • Sitting down and talking to several insurance agents.
  • Visit websites like Car Insurance Guidebook that provides insurance advice.

Knowing what you need and want from your insurance policy will protect you from getting talked into buying coverages that you really don’t need. Some agents will do this just to get their commission from the sale of you policy to increase. But, by being informed you will not feel helpless and will know what the agent is talking about. Then you can confidently tell them that you don’t need the extra coverage they are trying to sell you.

Shopping for Female Car Insurance

Now that you know what coverages that you need to get for your female car insurance, you are ready to start shopping around for a company. There are three ways that you can start getting quotes to purchase female car insurance: through an agent, directly from a company or a quote aggregator.

When you call an agent you will find that some agents (independent) will write for a number of different insurance companies and others write for just one company. The agent that sells insurance for multiple companies will be able to provide you with more than one quote for female car insurance and can be a big time saver.

Another approach is to get female car insurance quotes directly from the insurance companies themselves. You can call them on the phone or go to their website to get the quotes. The nice thing about getting quotes directly from the insurance company is that you skip the agent and their commission; making your premium automatically cheaper.

Lastly, and my favorite way of getting insurance quotes, is to use a quote aggregator online. A quote aggregator is an independent website that allows you to put in your information and provides you with quotes from multiple insurance companies. It is very similar to getting a female car insurance quote from an independent agent, but without the agent there to try and sell you things you don’t need.

Purchasing Female Car Insurance

It is recommended that you obtain at least 3 quotes for female car insurance when you are shopping around. But, this is just a recommendation feel free to get as many as you need to make a good decision.

Chose the company that you feel most comfortable with and that provides that best coverage for your money. You will find that when you are looking at all of the quotes, all of the coverages may be the same. The only difference is the price that is charged for the coverages.

This would be a good time to research the companies themselves to find out which one provides good claims and customer service. You can do this by:

  • Talking to friends and family.
  • Contacting the Better Business Bureau for complaint records.
  • Finding customer reviews on companies.
  • Reading reviews from other businesses.

Once you have a company and a quote that you feel comfortable with, it is time to contact them to purchase your female car insurance policy.

Esurance Car Insurance: Dating Profile Sent

Written by Michele Wilmonen. Posted in Advertising, Research Last Updated: 11/07/2011

Frank from Esurance Car Insurance learns to never question how hard a computer tech works.

Summary

Commercial opens at one of the Esurance Car Insurance office buildings. On one side of the room are the online insurance employees (techs) and on the other side of the room are the call-in insurance employees (specifically, Frank).

Tech: Phew, I need a break from programming all these car insurance discounts-online.

Frank: I’m dishing out discounts all day. Doesn’t the Esurance website do most of your work? (sound effect) Safe Driver Discount (sound effect) Home Owner Discount (sound effect) Multi-car Discount.

Tech: (sound effect) Everyone has your online dating profile.

Frank: Huh?

Girl Behind Frank: You DJ on the weekends?

Frank: (DJ sound effects)

Announcer: Tons of discounts. See for yourself at Esurance. Technology when you want it-People when you don’t.

Point of the Commercial

You would think that the point of the commercial would be the Esurance Car Insurance discounts that the tech and Frank are talking about, but it’s not. The point of the commercial is that Esurance Car Insurance offers you the option of being able to take care of getting your insurance online or by calling them.

It sounds like Esurance Car Insurance is trying to correct the misconception that they are strictly an online company. This is actually smart on their part as it opens up the demographic of older insurance customers that do not use the internet to conduct business. Now they know that Esurance Car Insurance can be contacted by phone to get a quote, if they didn’t know it already.

What They Want you to Do

Esurance Car Insurance says nothing about calling to get a quote anywhere in the commercial. Don’t believe me? Go and read back through the summary above.

Instead Esurance Car Insurance does something else. They ask you to come and visit them to see what other discounts that they offer. This is very tricky of Esurance Car Insurance. Because once you get to their website, you have to get a quote to find out what discounts that they offer apply to you personally.

My Opinion

I like that Esurance Car Insurance is going away from the strictly cartoon commercials. This commercial is simple, gets the point across that Esurance car insurance has a lot of discounts that they give, can be contact with or without the internet and it is funny.

Honestly though, if you watch this commercial just once I can almost place a wager that you won’t even remember what discounts Frank names off. The sound effects that they are making with their mouths have completely captured your attention and you can concentrate on nothing else.

This is good, because even if you think that they are stupid noises, they are still funny. It also means that Esurance Car Insurance has done their marketing job as you will tell your friends about the funny commercial from them with the dumb mouth sound effects.

I am giving this Esurance Car Insurance commercial a thumbs up.

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Car Insurance Guidebook Unravels the Car Insurance Mystery

Unless you work in the car insurance industry, the topic is probably a mystery to you. The words deductible, comprehensive, collision, liability, premium, loss of use and bodily injury are all gibberish when they reach your ears.

Unfortunately, insurance is something that you are required to have by law if you want to drive. Because of how confusing it is many people go around in almost an insurance daze while they get car insurance quotes from the auto insurance companies that they have heard of. In reality, they are completely lost as to what they are actually buying.

Instead of looking at what each insurance company offers in the terms of protection for both themselves and their car, they are instead looking for cheap car insurance. Finding the cheapest car insurance coverage makes having to buy the required product all that much less painful, but misses the whole point of having insurance.

Learning about insurance through your insurance agent or websites like Car Insurance Guidebook will give you the upper hand when you looking for car insurance. You can take your knowledge and not only find the best price for insurance, you can use it to find really great insurance to protect you and your assets. Then you aren’t stuck settling for just average car insurance that can hurt you financially if you ever need it because there isn’t enough protection.

For example, when looking for insurance the car insurance rates are just the first of many factors that need to be taken into account when you are shopping around for car insurance. You also need to take into account the type of vehicle that you are driving. Many people don’t know this.

Are you driving around a vehicle that is a new sedan and can be protected under any blanket insurance policy? Or do you have an old car that you fixed up that needs special protection and could be better covered under classic car insurance?

Don’t just assume that when you compare car insurance that it will be a one-size-fits-all policy. This is where the insurance knowledge will come in handy; you will know what you need to protect yourself and your vehicle.

You will understand what your insurance agent is talking about when they use insurance terms and you will actually be able to make an informed decision. This is much better for you instead of the “nod and smile” approach people take in their insurance agent’s office.

Also just like your life changes your insurance needs will change. This year you may just need to learn about the best deductible to have. Next year you may need to educate yourself on car insurance for young drivers. As the years pass, motorcycle insurance may be something you will need to know.

Many wise people say that you never stop learning, so take their advice and educate yourself on the insurance that you spend a lot of money on and can’t get away with not having.