An auto insurance policy protects you against financial loss if you are involved in a car accident. General types of auto insurance coverage include liability coverage, property damage and first medical benefits, all of which are required by law. Uninsured and underinsured coverages pay you and the other passengers in your vehicle if a driver with no insurance or insufficient auto insurance crashes into your vehicle. Auto insurance also gives the option to add coverages that will cover damage to your own vehicle. Comprehensive coverage will cover damages to your vehicle caused by fire, theft, vandalism, deer, and cracks to your windshield. Collision coverage covers damage to your vehicle caused by an at-fault accident.

Also, road service and rental reimbursement coverages are available to add to your policy at an additional cost. There are many discounts available for auto insurance, including: Safe Car Driver, Multi-Car Discount, Age 55 or Over, Passive Restraints, Anti-Theft Car Devices Discount, Auto Anti-Lock Brakes, Multi-Policy Discount, Auto Insurance Payment Plan Discount, Auto Accident Prevention Course, Driver Training, and Reduced Car Usage Discount.

Homeowners Insurance

A standard homeowners insurance policy includes four types of coverage. The first is Coverage for the Structure of your Home and Other Structures. This part of your policy pays to repair or rebuild your home for damage caused by most common risks.

Typically, damage caused by fire, wind, hail, or lightning is covered under this part of the policy. The second coverage involved is Coverage for your Personal Belongings. This part of the policy coverage personal belongings that are stolen or destroyed in an insured disaster such as a fire. The third part of the policy is Coverage for Additional Living Expenses. In other words, if damage from a fire, storm or other insured peril forces you out of your home, this part of the policy covers the expenses incurred while your home is being rebuilt. Finally, the last section is a homeowners policy is Liability Protection. This covers you against claims or lawsuits for bodily injury or property damage that you or your family members negligently cause to other people or property. Your policy also provides medical coverage. In the event a friend or neighbor is injured in your home, he or she can submit the medical bills to your insurance company. At an additional price, other coverages offered include; Replacement cost, Sewer or drain water back-up, Earthquake insurance, Flood insurance, and Identity protection. If you rent instead of own, you can purchase Renters Insurance for a cheaper cost. This would cover the contents in your apartment if something were to happen to them.

Personal Catastrophe Liability – Umbrella

An umbrella, or PCL policy, is extra liability protection for the actions of covered family members, above and beyond your already established auto and homeowner’s policies. It provides an additional million coverage against lawsuits arising from personal injury or property damage claims. If someone is severely hurt on your property or as a result of an accident that you caused, this liability protection would kick in if you have already exhausted your normal limits.

If you live in Western Pennsylvania and would like a free, no obligation quote to see how much money Erie Insurance can save you on your home, auto, and/or commercial insurance, please contact:  Jessie Balicki, J.E. Balicki & Assoc. Inc. – 724-226-1300, jebalickiassoc@verizon.net

Risk assessment is done by the actuaries. These are the math wonks who collect details of every accident reported in the US. This is not just the data from claims on vehicle insurance. This is every incident reported to the police, attended by the firefighters or ambulance crews, or dealt with through claims on health insurance. Put all this together and the actuaries can tell you the probability of an accident in any make and model of vehicle, given its color, whether it was fitted with any additional features, who it was driven by, the time of day or night, whether the driver and passengers were badly injured, so on. Yes, it’s that detailed. Turning this around, if you drive a vehicle that’s statistically unlikely to be involved in an accident or stolen, your premium will be lower than average. Put a safe driver in a safe car and the chances of the insurer having to pay out are small and the profit is higher. Everyone is happy. So how do you find out which are the safest vehicles with the lowest premium rates? Well, you start with http://www.safercar.gov/, a site run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This allows you to get the safety ratings from all the tests carried out by the NHTSA. There’s a guide published at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/Vehicle%20Safety/Articles/Associated%20Files/2009_Insurance_Costs_Comparison.pdf which is also helpful. Finally, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety publishes its own list of safe vehicles at http://www.iihs.org/ratings/

The safer the vehicle you drive, the greater the discount on the premium rate. So when you are filling out the questionnaire for those auto insurance quotes, aim to have a safe vehicle. If you vehicle is not safe and you cannot afford to change it, try to upgrade it by fitting safety features. Look at the questions asked in the questionnaire and talk to insurance agents to find out what features save the most money. Similarly, fit better locks and any systems making your vehicle more difficult to steal. Anything you can do to reduce the risk of a claim will be reflected in low rates in the auto insurance quotes you receive.

The primary factors determining the price you will pay for insurance are risk and claim history within your demographic group. Insurance companies analyze the costs of insuring each age group and set their rates respectively. And due to a set of reasons, young adults are considered to be the most risky car owners, thus the high rates a young driver will receive when getting insurance quotes. That’s because young drivers have a larger claims history as a group, and the accidents they end up in tend to be more devastating and costly. Of course, it doesn’t mean that all teenagers and young adults get crazy on the road and have serious accidents. But that’s the situation when one has to pay for other’s mistakes, and unfortunately there’s little you can do about it.

But little doesn’t mean nothing. If you are a young driver looking for cheap auto insurance, you still have chances of getting better rates if your follow some of the following advices. Of course, they won’t drop your rates instantly and dramatically but by combining them you will be able to get quite reasonable car insurance rates.

Be a good driver

Being a good driver with a clean driving record with no accidents or traffic violations always pays of no matter how old are you. But you can go beyond that. Enroll in special driving schools and employ a defensive driving style – having proof of your good safe driving abilities will definitely give your significant discounts from the insurance company.

Buy a safe car

When you are young, you want to be fast and furious. That’s your right, but if you buy a fast sports car don’t expect to get advantageous auto insurance quotes for it. Sports and muscle cars are considered to be risky and have high insurance costs, so insurance companies will always charge more for owning a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo than for a VW Golf. That’s why you should think about the car you want to drive before actually buying it.

Do some comparison shopping

Shopping around has never hurt anyone. In fact, getting more auto insurance quotes from different companies will help you find a really competitive policy. Some companies give young drivers lower rates than others, so why not spending a bit of your time on comparing auto insurance quotes if you can save quite well on it? Besides there are so many free quote sites out there that it would be simply a crime to leave such a great opportunity for saving some money on car insurance unnoticed.