Even with ridiculously low liability requirement, Pennsylvania isn’t playing around when it comes to requiring Pennsylvania car insurance.

Don’t be caught without Pennsylvania car insurance or you will lose your driving liberties.

Pennsylvania car insurance requirements are so low that one wonders why they are even required. But, it isn’t recommended to go without the required Pennsylvania car insurance, even once. When it comes to penalties for violating the Pennsylvania car insurance requirements, they are one of the least forgiving states in the nation.

Scarily Low Pennsylvania Car Insurance Requirements

Pennsylvania car insurance requirements are partially one of lowest in the nation. To be able to drive in the state legally you must carry at least $15,000 in bodily injury liability coverage for a single person and $30,000 in bodily injury coverage for the accident total. But, you only have to carry $5,000 in liability coverage for property damage to be able to drive.

5,000 dollars! That’s all!

That amount would barely buy you a clunker, let alone having to try and fix a decent vehicle with it. What would you do if you totaled the other parties’ vehicle and it was a high-end model that was worth $35,000 at the time of the accident?

I will tell you exactly what will happen. Your insurance company will pay the $5000 that they are responsible for. That leaves you with a $30,000 bill that the other insurance company is going to make sure that you pay.

May we offer the suggestion to purchase more than the state minimum requirements when it comes to property damage liability coverage?

Reporting Pennsylvania Car Insurance

Pennsylvania doesn’t have an electronic reporting system to keep track of your new insurance like California does. Instead, it sends out letters to vehicle owners that they are required to respond to. The letter requests information on insurance that should be in place, about any lapses in coverage and the status of the vehicle if the person no longer owns it.

It also requires that a “Statement of Non-Operation of Vehicle” be signed by the owner if there was a lapse in coverage for less than 30 days. This is for the owner to legally state that they did not drive the vehicle in that time period. If the state finds out that you did, you are in trouble.

On the flip side, Pennsylvania car insurance companies are required to report to the state whenever an insurance policy is cancelled. So don’t bother trying to lie in the letter that you have insurance, they already know that you don’t.

Don’t Go Without your Pennsylvania Car Insurance

If you drive without Pennsylvania car insurance not only is your vehicle registration suspended, your driver’s license is also. There is no first time “teaching you a lesson” in Pennsylvania, it goes straight to a 3 month suspension of both your registration and your license. Plus you could see a fine of at least $300 if you are caught driving without insurance.

Also keep in mind that your suspension does not officially begin until you have surrendered your driver’s license, your vehicle’s plate, sticker and registration card. If you fail to turn these in, you could be suspended indefinitely.

To get your license and registration back, you have to pay a $50 restoration fee for both your license and registration ($100 total) and provide proof that you now have Pennsylvania car insurance.

Thanksgiving Day driving can be filled with distractions and difficulties that are usually spread out over multiple days during the rest of the year.

Wishing you and your family a safe Thanksgiving!

“Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go……..”

We all know the song and most of us will be acting out our own version of it this Thanksgiving Day as we travel to be with friends and family for the holiday. There are so many things that can go wrong during Thanksgiving Day driving that we at Car Insurance Guidebook wanted to remind you to drive safe and undistracted this Thanksgiving Day.

Bad Roads for Thanksgiving Day Driving

Like it or not we have started the winter driving season. This means snow and ice on the roadways for your Thanksgiving Day driving. To make sure that you get to your destination safely, always give yourself enough of a time cushion in case you have to drive slower than normal for bad road conditions. It is better to get to your Thanksgiving Day driving destination early and in one piece than never get there at all.

Also make sure that you have enough insurance coverage on your car in case something does go wrong. Sitting down and talking to your insurance agent to make sure you have enough coverage should be on your pre-Thanksgiving Day driving list.

Thanksgiving Day Driving with Wandering Deer

Don’t forget that November is deer breeding season, which means they may be wandering across a road during your Thanksgiving Day driving. Stay vigilant after you have driven over the river and are now in the woods. If you see a deer next to the road, slowdown in case they or their travelling partner decide to jump out in front of you.

If you don’t already have it, adding comprehensive coverage to your insurance policy in case you hit a deer may be a good idea. This is especially true if you plan on doing any major Thanksgiving Day driving.

Thanksgiving Day Driving with Hot Food

Hot food is just one of the many distractions that you may have during your Thanksgiving Day driving to your dinner destination. Hot food that is not secured properly can spill all over the place distracting you when it first spills. Then again if you try to clean it up while you are driving. Distractions lead to car accidents.

To prevent this, see if it is possible to make your dish where you will be having dinner instead. This will allow you to just bring the unprepared ingredients, decreasing your risk of spilling. If you have to have the dish already prepared, try to put it in a container large enough that it can move around without spilling out. Also a container with a lid, not just tinfoil, will be best to keep the contents in the container.

Lastly, place the container on the floor with a towel under it. The floor is the flattest surface in your vehicle and will decrease the chance of the food sliding around. The towels will soak up anything that may spill out.

Sleepy Thanksgiving Day Driving

Falling asleep at the wheel is a major cause of accidents every year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that there are about 100,000 accidents each year as a result of driver’s falling asleep at the wheel.

Unfortunately, Thanksgiving Day feasts create the perfect combination of food and atmosphere to make you sleepy. No, it’s not the turkey that is the key culprit as you may have been told. But, it is the combination of fatty food, alcohol, overeating and being relaxed with friends and family that slows your body down. When your body slows down, sleepiness kicks in.

So before you laugh at Uncle Ned for conking out in the recliner during the football game, you may actually want to join him. A nice nap after dinner may keep you from having an accident on Thanksgiving Day driving home from grandmother’s house.

The Hartford teams up with AARP to help Grandma through the trauma of a car accident.

Summary

Commercial opens on a rainy night with a damaged car in what we assume is a body shop. A woman is holding a box and a man is talking to her as a taxi pulls up behind them.

The Hartford Claims Specialist: So I’ve arranged for a rental car to be dropped off at your house. You sure you got everything out of your car.

Woman: I think so.

The Hartford Claims Specialist: Let’s get you home.

Announcer: Why do drivers fifty and over switch to The Hartford, the only auto insurance program endorsed by AARP? More than savings and benefits.

Woman is at home going through her box, looking specifically for a CD case from her granddaughter. She finds that the CD is not in the case and is visibly upset.

Announcer: We handle the problems you’d expect and the ones you never knew you had.

Woman goes out to the rental the next morning and finds her missing CD in her rental car.

Woman (shown on phone): You don’t know how much this means to me. I’m serious, thank you.

The Hartford Claims Specialist (shown on phone): It’s my pleasure

Commercial closes with The Hartford contact information screen.

Announcer: The AARP auto insurance program from The Hartford.

Point of the Commercial

The point of the commercial is to make you feel that The Hartford will have you, their client, in their best interest. That they will be there with you every step of the way and help you get through any car accident you may be in.

Just like they directly say in their commercial, they want you to think that they will be there to do everything that you expect (fix your car and provide a rental). Also that they will be there to take care of the little things that you don’t expect to come up during the claims process.

As the target audience is seniors, this is important. With of all the bad things going on right now with the economy and corporation scandals draining their retirements, they need something to depend on.

What They Want you to Do

The Hartford has three things going for them in this commercial. One, they evoke emotion during the course of the commercial. Emotional purchases can be dangerous for your budget because emotion takes over your rational thinking.

Two, The Hartford is a solid insurance company that has been around for a long time and most seniors know of them. This gives a feeling of something being solid and consistent in a world that is in upheaval.

Three, they are partnering with AARP. Everyone that receives mail, watches TV, listens to the radio or uses the internet knows about AARP and the benefits that they offer to seniors.

The Hartford wants your trust and is hoping that it will lead to you contacting them for a quote.

My Opinion

I am of two minds about this commercial. As I have been in insurance and have been in several car accidents, I know that the process doesn’t work like they show in the commercial. There is no insurance professional there to hold your hand through the process (in person). Rental cars don’t show up in driveways and you only get one if you purchased insurance coverage for it.

But, I still get that warm and fuzzy feeling about The Hartford that they trying to invoke in the viewer. I am pretty sure that is connected to the fact that they took good care of grandma and most of us are softies when it comes to grandma.

I give it a thumbs up.

If you don’t keep your Alabama car insurance current, you could be made to pay for insurance on a vehicle that you can’t drive.

Alaska

Trying to drive without Alabama car insurance could leave you with an insurance premium to pay and no car to drive.

Each state likes to do things their own way. They all have different insurance requirements and consequences for not carrying insurance. The only thing that they all have in common is that they all require drivers to carry a minimum limit of liability insurance.

Alabama’s required liability insurance is not the highest or the lowest requirements seen across the nation. But, if you fail to keep insurance on your vehicle multiple times, the state goes so far as requiring you to pay for insurance coverage on a vehicle they will not allow you to drive.

What Alabama Car Insurance is Required?

For a person to be able to drive they are required to have Alabama car insurance that has at least:

• $25,000 in liability coverage for bodily injury or death to another party (one person).

• $50,000 in liability coverage for bodily injury or death to another party (total).

• $25,000 in liability coverage for damages that you cause to another’s property.

Without this coverage you are not allowed to drive or even register your vehicle in the state of Alabama. It is also illegal for you to allow another person to drive your vehicle if you do not have Alabama car insurance on the vehicle.

How is Alabama Car Insurance tracked?

The state of Alabama does not use an electronic tracking system to track all of its drivers as to whether or not they have insurance. Instead they send out questionnaires to drivers that have to be returned within a specific timeframe. If they are not returned, the vehicle registration is suspended.

Questionnaires are sent out to:

• Drivers who have been issued a ticket for having no Alabama car insurance.

• Drivers who have had their license suspended or revoked.

• Owners of vehicles whose vehicle registrations have been suspended sometime within the last 4 years.

• Owners of vehicles that are registered in the state, chosen at random.

What are the Consequences for Not Having Alabama Car Insurance?

If you are caught without Alabama car insurance your vehicle registration will be suspended. To reinstate the registration the current fine is $100 for the first offense. This $100 is in addition to any fines that you may have if you were issued a no-insurance ticket by a police officer. Once you pay the reinstatement fine and provide proof that you do have Alabama car insurance now, the state will reinstate your registration.

If you just didn’t learn your lesson the first time, the reinstatement fine doubles to $200 if you get caught without Alabama car insurance again. When you pay this reinstatement fine and provide proof of current insurance, the state won’t immediately reinstate your registration this time. Instead, you get to sit out of the game for 4 months (from the effective date of the suspension) before they will reinstate.

In other words, if you pay the fine and get the insurance before the 4 months are up, you will be paying for insurance on a vehicle that you cannot legally drive. It may just be my silly way of thinking, but it is probably just easier (and cheaper) to keep continuous Alabama car insurance on your vehicle.

You can find additional information at the Motor Vehicle Division of the Alabama Department of Revenue in regards to your Alabama car insurance.

We make sure that our vehicles are ready for winter driving, but don’t forget about your car insurance as well.

Even the best driver falls victim to winter driving conditions.

It’s November, and while we haven’t yet reached the winter solstice, a good deal of us are already seeing winter driving conditions. For those of us that deal with snow and ice as a normal part of our winters, we are used to the annual winter driving checklist. Which includes: putting on our snow tires, making sure that the snow brushes and ice scrapers are in the car and that the emergency weather kits are restocked and back in the trunk for the season.

But, is your insurance ready for the winter driving as well? Even the most prepared driver can get into a car accident in the winter. It doesn’t even have to be on the snow and ice. Warmer areas see an increase in rain during the winter months which can still make the roads more dangerous than what you are used to.

Do You Have Enough Coverage for the Winter Driving Season?

Unless you don’t drive during the winter at all, we all have an increased chance of getting into a car accident this time of year. Even those that are used to winter driving conditions still fall prey to Mother Nature’s winter temper tantrums.

If you were to get into a car accident, do you have enough insurance coverage? The minimum liability insurance limits that the states require for you to be able to drive are extremely low. If you were to cause an accident and only had state minimum insurance, there is a very high chance that you won’t have enough coverage. Any damages that you cause that are above and beyond what your insurance limits are at, will come out of your pocket.

Where’s Your Deductible At?

Going into the winter driving season is a good time to take a look at your insurance deductible. Is your comprehensive and collision deductible set at an amount that you can afford to pay if you were to get into a car accident?

For example, say you hit winter driving conditions and got into an accident. The accident resulted in $2000 worth of damages to your car. If you have a $1000 deductible, you are responsible for paying $1000 of the $2000 worth of damages. Do you have the money set aside to pay this?

If you were to get into an accident where the damages were less than $1000, you would be responsible for paying the total amount of the damages. If you couldn’t afford this and the damages made it so that your vehicle could not be driven; you are going to be without a vehicle.

With the increased chance of an accident during winter driving, make sure your insurance deductible is at a level that you can easily pay.

Storing Your Car for the Winter Driving Season?

For many, the car that they drive around in during the summer is not used for winter driving. This is especially true for classic and antique car owners and also snowbirds. But, it also applies to those that don’t drive in the winter because it is too dangerous.

No matter the reason, if you have a vehicle that sits in storage during the winter months you may actually have too much insurance on your car. State law only requires that you carry the mandatory liability insurance on a vehicle that is being driven. So if you aren’t driving it, you don’t have to carry liability insurance on it. You also don’t need medical coverage, towing or rental car coverage for a vehicle that is sitting the season out.

Just keep in mind though, that if you fail to secure your vehicle and it rolls out and causes damages, you are still liable for the damages. Your agent will be able to provide you with advice as to the best insurance for you personally during the winter driving season.