An insurance company is required by law to be on time or face penalties from the state.

Insurance companies are accountable to you to observed legal time limits.

How much forgiveness does your insurance company extend when you are late on a payment? I would imagine that, for most, the answer would be either “none at all” or “not much”.

When we are late, the insurance company cancels our insurance because they didn’t get their money in time and they no longer want to provide coverage without that money. Okay, fair enough; it’s a business and they are in it to make money, not to be a charity.

But did you know that the insurance companies are also subject to deadlines? And these deadlines are not to the government, but to you. That’s right, to you!

What Deadlines Are Insurance Companies Accountable to Me For?

When an insurance company decides to make a change to your policy, your premium or to cancel your coverage they have to send you notification of these changes. The notification has to be sent out to you within a set amount of days, so that you can prepare for the change and take action on your end if necessary.

For example, say that you live in Maryland, and your insurance company is getting ready to charge you more for your collision coverage. They are required by Maryland insurance laws that they have to send you notification of this change 45 days before it takes effect.

Of course, like with most insurance rules and regulations, the number of days that have to be given for each change to your policy does vary from state to state.

What Happens if the Insurance Company Doesn’t Give Me Enough Notice?

If an insurance company doesn’t comply with the legal timeline of notifying you of changes to your policy, most of the time nothing happens to them. This is because most insurance customers are completely in the dark about these timelines, and they don’t report the insurance companies to the Department of Insurance or the Insurance Commissioner (depending on the state). If the state doesn’t know about the infraction, they can’t investigate.

In the end, it usually takes an audit of the company by the state to catch them.

What Happens if the Insurance Company Does Get Caught?

If the state ends up catching the insurance company for not giving their clients enough notice of changes to their policies, the punishment is usually fines.

Recently, the state of Maryland fined Erie Insurance $50,000 for not giving their clients the required 45-days’ notice that their insurance premium was increasing.

On top of the fine they were handed, the Maryland Insurance Administration also ordered that they pay their clients back the extra premium they had been charged with insufficient notice, as well as 10% interest. (onlineautoinsurancenews.com)

With any of these fines, the amount and how it is handled varies from state to state. It also depends on the situation, as well as how habitual the insurance company is in violating insurance laws.

Don’t let this tiny, 2012 Honda Fit fool you; it’s more impressive than it looks.

2012 Honda Fit

The 2012 Honda Fit is the perfect compact car for anyone looking for an inexpensive, but still good, car. With its high safety ratings, awards and low price, the 2012 Honda Fit brings everything a good car should be and wraps it up in a little package. Not to mention the pleasant insurance rates it will end up costing you.

Outside Opinions of the 2012 Honda Fit

Honda could go on until they were blue in the face about how spectacular their 2012 Fit is, but no one would really pay attention because we chalk it up to bias. However, when other people and organizations, not affiliated with Honda, start to sing their praises of the vehicle it’s time to take note. The 2012 Honda Fit has been positively acknowledged with the following:

• The AutoPacific’s Ideal Vehicle Award
• Top Safety Pick by the IIHS
• The 2012 Residual Value Award for “Best Sub Compact Car” by ALG
• The Best Resale Value for a Subcompact Car award from Kelley Blue Book
• Placed on the 10Best list with Car and Driver magazine

Lastly, the 2012 Honda Fit received high reviews from cars.com, MotorWeek and USA Today.

2012 Honda Fit Safety

As noted above, the 2012 Fit rated as a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. This means that the 2012 Honda Fit passed the front crash, side crash and rollover testing with high marks. Compared to the earlier models, this is an good improvement. In previous years the Honda Fit only passed the rollover test with average marks.

Insurance Review of the 2012 Honda Fit

Low, low, low is the insurance premium you are going to be looking at with the 2012 Fit. It’s not low enough the make the top 20 least expensive list, but it would have come extremely close.

First, even though the vehicle is small, it is also a Top Safety Pick; meaning that it is one of the safer small cars to be driving around. The safer the vehicle, the lower the premium is for the driver and passenger medical payment coverage.

Second, the vehicle is small and will not be able to cause a lot of damage to other vehicles or property. This translates into a smaller liability premium.

Finally, the 2012 Honda Fit starts at less than $17,000 and costs no more than $20,000 for the high-end model. A cheaper car has cheaper replacement parts and won’t cost an insurance company near as much to fix or replace after an accident.

Also, even though the Honda Fit has not been in the United States for very long, it was first introduced in 2001 in Japan. This means that there are plenty of aftermarket parts for the insurance companies to use in repairs. With the cheaper cost to repair and replace, the lower the comprehensive and collision premiums will be for your 2012 Honda Fit.

The coverage provided by the company to rent out your car may not be adequate for major damages done to your vehicle.

Making sure your vehicle is protected enough is important if you are going to rent it out.

In the first part of this article, we covered a few of the problems you may face if you choose to rent out your car. In this part, we cover the insurance coverage that is offered by the renting company, through an unnamed insurance company, for the owners and the renters of the program.

Insurance for Renting Out Your Car

The companies that set up the rental transactions for you claim to have insurance coverage they provide on the vehicles. Be very careful though! While these insurance policies do have high limits for liability coverage, that is for the people that are hit by your vehicle.

The coverage for your vehicle is not the same. This is the explanation of coverage from the company RelayRides:

“If the car is damaged during the reservation period, the owner is fully protected against the property damage to the car, and will receive compensation as determined by RelayRides in its reasonable discretion, up to the fair market value of the car. The renter is responsible for only the $500 deductible, unless they have engaged in any Prohibited Uses, in which case this limit will not apply, and they may be liable for property damage up to the full value of the car.”

Please note 3 things about the above paragraph if you decide to rent out your car with them:

• The owner will “receive compensation as determined by RelayRides in its reasonable discretion, up to the fair market value of the car”. In other words, if you have a vehicle that is paid for, but is only worth $5,000, the company will pay you the $5,000. This leaves you having to find a new vehicle for that amount, or using it as a down payment on a new vehicle that you will now get to make monthly payments on again.
• “The renter is responsible for only the $500 deductible”. What happens if they don’t pay the $500? Are you stuck with paying it on repairs to your vehicle or are you stiffed the amount when the company sends you the check for the fair market value of the vehicle?
• “Unless they have engaged in any Prohibited Uses, in which case this limit will not apply, and they may be liable for property damage up to the full value of the car”. Does this mean they will be paying the insurance company back for the damages they pay you for your vehicle, or does it mean the driver has to pay you, because the insurance company isn’t going to pay now?

Please, please, please be wary before you decide to participate in any program like this. If you do decide to do this, you need to talk to your insurance agent and ask the company you will be renting out your car through a whole lot of questions.

If you rent out your car for a little extra money, you may find yourself with financial headache.

Think twice before choosing to rent out your car for a profit.

Allowing a perfect stranger to rent out your car is the newest business idea that has hit the streets, quite literally. The basic premise is that you contact one of the renting companies (RelayRides, JustShareIt, etc.) to let them know that you are interested in renting out your car. You can rent it out for an hour up to a couple days, depending on how long you are willing to part with your vehicle. The company you are working with then pairs you up with a screened party who is interested in renting your car.

While this may seem like a good idea, this is not like getting your car wrapped and becoming a moving advertisement. This is letting someone you don’t know, drive something that is a large asset of yours.

You should not only be wary about doing this, but you need to check with your insurance company before you do.

Rent Out Your Car = Unhappy Insurance Company

Renting out your car to another party could put you in jeopardy with your insurance company.

First, you are allowing people who are not on your insurance policy to drive the vehicle. Insurance coverage follows the vehicle and your insurance is liable for whatever damage is done by your vehicle; regardless, of who is driving it at the time.

Two, by renting out your car you are engaging in a commercial pursuit. Any vehicle used for commercial activities cannot be covered under a personal insurance policy, giving your insurance company grounds to cancel your policy. If you have lienholder or leaseholder on your vehicle and you lose your insurance, you are subject to having forced place insurance put on your vehicle. Forced placed insurance is considerably more expensive than your regular insurance.

Potential Problem of Choosing to Rent out Your Car

Even with the high limits of liability that the renting agencies have out for your vehicle, your insurance company, and you can still be on the hook in the event of an accident. In the case of a bad accident, if the medical bills and lawsuit awards exceed the amount of the policy, your insurance company is next in line. I know this doesn’t seem right and that the driver should be the next in line to pay the damages. Remember though, the insurance coverage follows the vehicle, not the driver.

The next piece of bad news is that your insurance company could get out of having to pay. Because renting out your vehicle is a commercial activity, it is excluded for coverage under most personal auto policies. Meaning that you will end up responsible for an accident you are only connected to because you chose to rent out your car.

To be continued…….

The 2012 Chevy Avalanche is the larger beast of the popular hybrid vehicle.

The 2012 Chevy Avalanche is an insteresting hybrid of a truck and a huge SUV.

When we talk of the 2012 Chevy Avalanche as being a hybrid vehicle we are not talking about the hybrid gas/electric running vehicles. We are literally talking about this vehicle being a physical cross between two vehicles, with a little bit of tweaking in the middle.

With a little bit of this and a little bit of that, the insurance premium may end up a little interesting.

What Exactly is the 2012 Chevy Avalanche?

The 2012 Avalanche is a literal cross between a crew cab truck and a Chevy Suburban. Chevy basically cut the back end out of the Suburban and threw a truck bed there instead.

Now, before you scratch your head at the thinking behind this one, you also need to know that the Chevy Avalanche is also a convertible vehicle. You can remove the window behind the back seats, lay the rear seats flat and then you have an 8-foot truck bed. So with the Chevy Avalanche you can either carry a lot of people or a lot of payload.

Insurance Thoughts in the 2012 Chevy Avalanche

The first thing that comes to mind about the 2012 Avalanche insurance is that it is going to be expensive. First, there are no safety ratings with the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety for the 2012 Avalanche. Also, the only safety rating with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is for the rollover test, and it only rated as being mediocre.

With absent safety information, the insurance companies are going to have to rely on accident information from previous years. However, when there is an absence of data though, they will always err on the side of higher premiums to cover potential medical loses.

The second thing that comes to mind is that with a hybrid vehicle like this, making repairs is going to be more expensive. The vehicle is already pricey to begin with (as compared to regular trucks); which is going to make your parts more expensive, so you are looking at potentially higher comprehensive and collision coverages.

Finally, all we have left is liability coverage. So I put it to you in a question. If a Chevy Avalanche hits a sedan, who is going to sustain the most damage? The sedan – right? With the Chevy Avalanche being able to cause more damage and injuries than other vehicles, more than likely you are going to be looking at a higher liability premium.

Of course, for a more specific insurance premium on the 2012 Chevy Avalanche you need to get a quote from your insurance company.