Finding car insurance savings in 2013 is as easy as these 13 steps.

These car insurance savings ideas can keep your money with you were it belongs.

Car Insurance Savings #1

Drop rental car coverage if you have multiple vehicles in the home.

Car Insurance Savings #2

Drop towing coverage if you already have it with another company. If you already have towing coverage somewhere else, don’t pay extra for it on your insurance policy.

Car Insurance Savings #3

Contact your insurance company or agent to make sure that you are getting all the discounts you can. Sometimes discounts, such as Good Student Discounts can be missed.

Car Insurance Savings #4

Combine your insurance coverages together. If you have your car insurance with one company and your homeowner’s insurance with another company you are losing money. By putting the coverages together under one company you can qualify for a multi-policy discount.

Car Insurance Savings #5

Combine the vehicles in one household together. If you are living with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or you have adult children living with you can put everyone’s vehicles together under one car insurance policy to qualify for a multi-car discount.

Car Insurance Savings #6

Remove liability and collision coverages from vehicles that are being stored and not driven.

Car Insurance Savings #7

Refuse to insure teens that are reckless drivers. Driving is a privilege, and if your teen driver is reckless behind the wheel don’t allow them to drive. Take their license away and remove them from your insurance policy. Why should you have to pay extra for insurance because your teen refuses to be responsible?

Car Insurance Savings #8

Make your teen driver pay for their own car insurance. When I was a teen driver if I wanted to drive, I had to be able to pay for my portion of the car insurance bill. My own child, who is only 13 currently, has already been warned that he will also have to pay for his own insurance if he wants to drive.

Teach them financial responsibility early and they will be able to function better in the real world when they are adults.

Car Insurance Savings #9

Remove comprehensive and collision coverage from old vehicles. There gets to be a point in the lives of vehicles where it costs more to insure them than what the insurance company would pay out if they were totaled.

So instead of paying the insurance company extra free money for coverage they will never have to pay out for you, put the money you will save by cancelling the coverage in a savings account to pay for the damages yourself.

Car Insurance Savings #10

Try the tracking devices. Insurance companies like Progressive are pushing tracking devices you can voluntarily use to track how safe you drive. Safe drivers are supposed to see decreases in their insurance premiums thanks to these devices.

Car Insurance Savings #11

See if your insurance company offers a pay for use program. These types of programs are perfect for those that don’t drive very much as your insurance premium is adjusted to match the lower than average use of your vehicle.

Car Insurance Savings #12

Work on your credit score. Yes, I know this one doesn’t make sense, but insurance companies still rate premiums on credit scores. The higher the credit score the lower the insurance premium.

Car Insurance Savings #13

Shop around for insurance coverage to find what company can get the best car insurance savings for you in 2013!

Drivers beware of new car insurance laws that became effective January 1st.

Life is definately not a day at the beach thanks to some new car insurance laws.

Okay, we are a month into a new year now and every year there were new car insurance laws that take effect as of January 1st. Were there any new car insurance laws in your state that you don’t know about and have been breaking for the last month? Was your car insurance coverage or premium affected by any new laws?

While we can’t cover all of the changes that were made January 1st, here 3 we wanted to share.

New Car Insurance Laws in Ohio

The Ohio legislature has passed this new insurance law, but it is still waiting to be signed by the governor before it becomes official. The new law would require a huge increase in the amount of liability coverage that Ohio drivers have to carry to be able to legally drive. The coverage would go from $7,500 in property damage liability coverage being required to $25,000 being required to drive.

You can be assured that this will raise your car insurance premiums if passed.

New Car Insurance Laws in Alabama

For Alabama, it’s not a new law that went into effect, but the enforcement of a law. As of January 1st, law enforcement officers, state employees that issue license plates, and the Department of Revenue all will now immediately check to make sure that drivers in Alabama are insured.

This immediate insurance verification will be verified through the State of Alabama’s Online Insurance Verification System. This information will be used whenever a driver is pulled over for a traffic violation, as well as when getting a license plate. The Department of Revenue will use the system to send insurance verification requests to residents that were convicted of violating the mandatory insurance law, had their driver’s license suspended, or have had their vehicle registration suspended.

New Car Insurance Laws in Florida

In the state of Florida, big changes were made to their PIP coverage as of January 1st. The states already mandatory PIP coverage was amended to try and cut back on the amount of car insurance fraud in the state. I have my own reservations about this reasoning as it seems that the only thing they really cut back on was the coverage that you are provided versus the amount you have to pay for.

Regardless of my opinion, the new law requires that any medical attention has to be sought within 15 days of the accident or your claim will automatically be denied.

The new law also splits the mandatory $10,000 in coverage that you have to purchase into two different categories: emergency and non-emergency. There will still be $10,000 for emergency coverage, but per the new law an emergency only exists if the patient health is in serious jeopardy, there is a serious impairment to bodily functions, or a serious dysfunction to an organ or body part.

All other injuries will only have $2,500 in coverage thanks to this new car insurance law.

The 2013 Kia Optima is 1 of only 13 vehicles to earn a new special safety designation.

The 2013 Kia Optima not only looks good, but it is very safe.

The 2013 Kia Optima is an ideal car for those that are looking for a safe car for themselves and their family. It is also perfect for those that are looking for a vehicle that won’t cost them a lot to purchase or to insure.

Recalls for the 2013 Kia Optima

No recalls could be found for the vehicle at this time.

2013 Kia Optima Safety

The safety of the Kia Optima has come a long way in the last 10 years. From 2001 to 2006, the Kia Optima could barely manage to earn an average rating for safety with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

In 2011, all of that changed. With a redesign of the Kia Optima that year, it looks as if the company started to take the bad ratings that their car was receiving to heart, as from that year on the vehicle has consistently earned much better safety ratings. In fact, Kia has managed to make such a drastic improvement in the safety of the vehicle that the 2013 Kia Optima was awarded the title of “Top Safety Pick+” this year.

A “Top Safety Pick+” designation means that a vehicle passed all of its safety testing with a “good” rating. The “good” rating is the highest rating that the IIHS give to vehicles. The only category that a “Top Safety Pick+” can get a lower rating in is the Small Overlap Front Crash Test., and the rating can be no lower than “average”; which is just below a “good” rating.

Being a “Top Safety Pick +” means that the vehicle is the safest of the safe vehicles that earned the ratings of being a “Top Safety Pick” or received “good” ratings in some of their crash tests. This special designation was just started in 2013 and only 13 vehicles were good enough to earn this rating.

Insurance Thoughts for the 2013 Kia Optima

Owners of the 2013 Kia Optima are going to enjoy the insurance rates they will have, as long as they themselves have a good driving record.

The liability coverage on this family sedan, that is smaller than an SUV or truck, is going to be close to average if not below. The vehicle is not going to be able to cause the type of damage that larger vehicle will, so the insurance company would pay out less for property damage and medical bills than they would for a larger vehicle. The Kia Optima is also not associated with reckless drivers; which means that the accident statistics on the vehicle will be lower than they would be with sportier vehicles that are more likely to be driven by higher-risk drivers.

Comprehensive and collision coverage is also going to be average if not below. The Optima has been around long enough to have a fairly decent after-market parts supply for insurance companies to use to keep repair costs down. For total loss value, the price of the 2013 Optima ranges from $21,000 – $26,800 putting it on par with the other sedans in its class.

Medical payments and personal injury protection is where the biggest savings will be, thanks to the “Top Safety Pick+” rating from the IIHS. A rating like this means that the occupants in the 2013 Kia Optima are safer than in other vehicles and the insurance company is less likely to be paying out very much in medical bills for those in the vehicle.

Every year winter driving sends many people straight into car accidents because they forget how to winter drive.

Even the prettiest roads in the winter can hold dangerous winter driving conditions.

I don’t have to tell most of you that winter is here. From freezing temperatures in places that are usually sunny vacation destinations to overnight snow accumulations that are breaking records, not only is winter here it is here with a wallop.

Every winter, even the most experienced winter drivers have to be reminded that winter driving requires adjustments in the way they handle the roads and our vehicles. For those that are experiencing winter driving for the first time, here are some simple suggestions to get through this winter.

Avoid Winter Driving if Possible

The best way to prevent getting into a winter driving accident is by not driving in the winter. When the roads are bad, and you have no place to go, stay home. There is no reason to put yourself and others in danger by driving on bad roads just because you are having a craving for fast food or you really want to go shopping.

Practice Responsible Winter Driving

Winter driving is a whole monster in itself, and there are things you need to do to be ready for it. Here are some ideas to try and swing the odds back in your favor of not having an accident this time of year:

• Have winter tires put on your vehicle to increase traction.
• Drive slower when there is any hint of the roads being slick.
• Clean all the ice and snow off your windows.
• Leave more room between you and the person in front of you.
• Take turns slower to prevent slid outs.
• Give yourself more time to get where you need to be so you don’t get in a hurry.

Winter Driving May Require Different Insurance

Because the chances of you getting in a car accident in the winter is higher than during the warmer months, you may want to take a look at your insurance coverage to make sure that you have is enough.

For example, if you are carrying the minimum liability limits that your state requires, what would happen if you hit a patch of black ice and caused a multi-car accident? Your state minimum insurance coverage is not going to be enough to cover all of the other vehicles. What is left after your insurance coverage is exhausted you will have to pay for yourself.

If you don’t carry rental car insurance because you can walk to where you need to go if your vehicle is ever in the shop after an accident

, are you going to want to walk everywhere when it is in the 20s and snowing?

Regardless of how safe of a driver you are, winter driving accidents happen to even the safest drivers.

For those drivers that are always looking for the safest cars to drive, the IIHS has just the list for you.

Did the car you’re looking at buying make the list of the safest cars?

Year after year the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) tests vehicle after vehicle and provides ratings of the safest cars. These safety rating not only help consumers that are looking to purchase a new vehicle, they also help the insurance companies.

Insurance companies use the safety rating to determine the base premium of some of the coverages for each car with this information. The safer cars will have lower premiums, and vehicles determined to be not as safe as they should be will have higher premiums.

Of all the vehicles tested by the IIHS, here are the safest of the safe cars for 2013, and how the IIHS determines which ones make the cut.

How the IIHS Determines the Safest Cars

The IIHS tests vehicles on how well they perform in front crash tests, side impacts, rear impacts, and rollover crashes. After the testing, each vehicle is rated as good, acceptable, marginal, or poor in each test and overall.

The safest cars that pass these tests are rated as a “Top Safety Pick” and the safest of the safe are rated as a “Top Safety Pick+”. To be a “Top Safety Pick+” the vehicle has to earn a good rating in at least 4 of the 5 official categories of “moderate overlap frontal crash, small overlap frontal crash, side impact and rollover, plus evaluations of seat/head restraints for protection against neck injuries in rear impacts” (IIHS). The 5th category can have no lower of a rating than acceptable.

While the IIHS has been awarding vehicles with the “Top Safety Pick” designation since 2006, the designation of “Top Safety Pick+” is something that was just introduced in 2013.

The Safest Cars for 2013 per the IIHS

These are the vehicles that were rated as a “Top Safety Pick+” of the 2013 models. The list is alphabetical and not in any particular order of one vehicle on the list being safer the other vehicles below it.

Of the 13 vehicles that made the list, all of them are midsized cars and 11 of the 13 are moderately priced.

• Acura TL
• Chrysler 200 (4-door)
• Dodge Avenger
• Ford Fusion
• Honda Accord (2-door)
• Honda Accord (4-door)
• Kia Optima
• Nissan Altima (4-door models built after 11/12)
• Subaru Legacy
• Subaru Outback
• Suzuki Kizashi
• Volkswagen Passat (built after 10/12)
• Volvo C60

Which of these safest cars are you looking at buying