Ohio car insurance requirements don’t even come near what you would need to be adequately protected.

To get the insurance protection you need, purchase more than the required Ohio car insurance limits.

Even the State of Ohio admits that its required liability limits are too low to be effective and recommends that you purchase higher insurance. When the state recommends that, you may want to pay attention.

Regardless though, to be able to drive or allow anyone else to drive your vehicle there are certain minimum Ohio car insurance coverage limits that you have to have. So even if you aren’t carrying limits that would adequately protect you as the state recommends, at least carry the minimum limits.

Ohio Car Insurance Requirements

Ohio car insurance requirements include $12,500 liability coverage for the injury or death of a single person and $25,000 liability total coverage for the injury or death of two or more people. Property damage liability coverage is at the low requirement of $7,500. Do you understand now why state authorities recommend that you buy higher coverage limits than is required by Ohio Car insurance law?

Alternatives to Ohio Car Insurance

If you would prefer not to purchase Ohio car insurance, the state does have alternative options for you. You can provide proof that you have a $30,000 bond set aside for a potential car accident. Deposit $30,000 in money or bonds with the Ohio Treasurer. Lastly, you can file a certificate bond for $30,000 that is signed by at least two people that hold real estate with an equity value of a minimum amount of $60,000.

How the State Verifies Ohio Car Insurance

The state verifies that you have Ohio car insurance at random through letters mailed out to registered vehicle owners. Per the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles they mail out 5,400 notices every week. The letter requests that the owner of the vehicle submit proof of insurance for a specific date within 21 days.

If there was no insurance, proof of why the vehicle is exempt from insurance must be provided. Including:

• The vehicle was not being used at the time as it is only used seasonally.

• The vehicle is not able to be driven due to mechanic trouble.

Penalties for not Carrying Ohio Car Insurance

Like with every other state, having no Ohio car insurance is a violation of the law and carries penalties with it. The first time you get caught without Ohio car insurance your driver’s license is suspended for at least 90 days (up to 2 years). Your license plate and registration for your vehicle is also suspended at this time.

Once you have served your suspension, you have to pay a license plate reinstatement fee and also carry SR-22 insurance with your car insurance for at least 3 years (up to 5 years). There are also additional fees you will be charged for not surrendering your driver’s license, license plates and registration.

If you keep driving without Ohio car insurance, the state will not only suspend your vehicle registration for 5 years, they will also just take away your car.

Connecticut UM/UIM coverage is not to protect your vehicles, it’s to protect you and your passengers.

Connecticut Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UIM/UM) pays only for injuries caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver to the passengers in your vehicle. UIM/UM coverage in Connecticut does not pay for any damages to your vehicle, that’s what your collision coverage is for.

So what type of vehicle you have should have no bearing on the amount of UIM/UM coverage you need. Instead you should be thinking about medical bills and how much they may cost if an uninsured or underinsured motorist hits you. As always we recommend that you sit down and talk to an agent as to your personally situation so that they may provide you with coverage counseling.

UIM/UM is not a required coverage in most states. It is instead considered an optional coverage and the residence of those states have the right to waive that coverage if they feel they don’t need it. In Connecticut, it is a mandatory coverage that their drivers must have. Here you have to carry the minimum amounts of $20,000 per person and $40,000 total for all injuries in the accident.

(Other than the posts we have concentrating on a specific state and their insurance laws, normally we don’t isolate a specific state when we answer an “Ask a Question”. However, because this particular coverage varies so greatly from one state to another we felt that it was best to specifically answer the question from the state that the question came from. If you have questions about this coverage for your own state, you may find a previous post for your specific state that can answer your question here on our site.)

We continue our post on reporting car insurance fraud with fraud from your agent, insurance company and how you can report fraud.

People that can report car insurance fraud are very important in saving you and I on our insurance premiums.

In “Reporting Car Insurance Fraud (Part 1)” we talked mainly about fraud on the claims side of insurance. How claims fraud can be a simple false claim being filed to an elaborate scheme. In this post we will cover fraud that is from the people you are supposed to be able to trust: your insurance agents and insurance company.

Car Insurance Fraud from your Agent

Agents are supposed to be there as trusted insurance advisors, but this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes they are just there for the take. They set up insurance agencies and for the first part of their careers they may be running a completely legitimate business. It’s when they decide to start keeping your insurance premiums for themselves that a good agent goes bad.

So while you are religiously paying your insurance premium month after month or term after term, your insurance policy has actually been cancelled for no payment. But, you should have received the cancellation notice right?

Nope, because your insurance agent updated your address with the insurance company so that all of your paperwork (including that cancellation notice) comes to them. You are without insurance and your agent is a little bit richer.

Car Insurance Fraud from your Insurance Company

Even insurance companies can be involved in a car insurance scam. The larger companies try to keep themselves legal, but you never know when a rouge employee is doing something illegal that hasn’t been caught yet.

Also insurance companies that you have never heard who are selling insurance online, have a good chance of being fraudulent companies. Here are some things to look for before you give that unknown insurance company any money:

• Look for an out-of-country address or no physical address provided on the website.

• Check with the Insurance Commissioner or Department of Insurance in your state to make sure that this company can legally write insurance in your state.

• Check with the Better Business Bureau for any complaints.

• If the insurance premium is too good to be true, it probably is.

• The absence of a customer service phone number to call or any contact information for a claims department.

As a consumer, anything that doesn’t seem right about your insurance company or potential insurance company needs to be reported. Better to report and be wrong, instead of being right and being a victim of car insurance fraud.

Car Insurance Fraud Costs you Money

The more money that is paid out each year in car insurance fraud is bad news for everyone, especially for you as an insurance consumer. The amount of fraud money that is paid out is one of the factors that increase your insurance premium every year.

Is that fair? No, but insurance companies are in the game to make money not be charitable. In order for them to make money they have to recoup their losses by bring in more income. This income comes in the form of your insurance premium.

Where to Report Car Insurance Fraud

There are a number of avenues that you can take to report car insurance fraud. What way you choose will depend on the type of fraud that you are in need of reporting.

Car insurance fraud can be reported directly to the insurance company in the case of a claim or a fraudulent agent. The insurance company is going to be more than willing to act on the report of fraud as they aren’t going to want to lose money to a fraudulent claim. They also are not going to want to be associated to an agent that is supposed to be representing them and is instead stealing money from their clients.

Any type of fraud can be reported to your state Insurance Commissioner or Department of Insurance and also to your local authorities. If the local authorities can’t help, they will direct you to who possibly can take action.

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud also has additional information on how to report car insurance fraud or any type of insurance fraud for that matter. Their website is a great resource to use for more information on reporting car insurance fraud and ways that you can even report fraud anonymously.

Allstate Insurance capitalizes on the visuals with a grocery store analogy and free toy.

Summary

Commercial opens in grocery store with the Allstate spokesman and a woman walking down the aisle towards him.

Spokesman: If insurance was sold in the grocery store….

Woman grabs a red can of State Farm off of the shelf in front of the spokesman.

Spokesman: Whoa-wait-whoa whoa-wait a minute.

Woman: What?

Spokesman: Just like that? Did you even see the Allstate?

Cameras pans back and we see a long row of 5 shelves with cans of Geico, State Farm, Allstate, Farmers and Nationwide.

Woman: It’s cute. What is it?

Spokesman: Great insurance. You get accident forgiveness, deductible rewards, safe driving bonus checks; plus a free lifetime membership in Good Hands Road Side Assistance just for calling.

Woman: (grabs the can of Allstate that has a toy tow truck on the top of the can) Sold.

Woman walks away with her new can of Allstate.

Spokesman: Tiny tow truck, works every time.

Commercial goes to a blue screen with “Call Allstate” “Shop Less Get More” and the words “Local Agent” and the Allstate phone number.

Spokesman: Shop less, get more. Make one call to an Allstate agent.

Point of the Commercial

Allstate Insurance is promoting their “free lifetime membership in Good Hands Road Side Assistance” along with the other perks that Allstate Insurance offers its clients. Also that there are a lot of insurance companies out there that all seem the same, but that Allstate insurance can offer you more (toy tow truck represents this).

What They Want you to Do

First, Allstate Insurance wants you to mull over all of the perks that they can offer you. They want you to ask yourself if you are getting all of this stuff from your insurance company.

Second, they want you to call an Allstate Insurance agent. Yes, they put their phone number on the screen, but they also put up the words “Local Agent”. They also specifically tell you to call an agent.

Third, they are putting the idea in your head to not just grab the first quote that you get from an insurance company. Shop around first and look at other companies. Specifically, look at getting a quote from Allstate Insurance before you decide to purchase a policy.

My Opinion

I like this commercial. The voice of the regular Allstate Insurance spokesman is soothing and in this commercial he is funny. The visuals of treating car insurance like grocery shopping is a great visual analysis and will make this commercial stick out in people’s minds. It also makes the “free lifetime membership in Good Hands Road Side Assistance” easy to remember with the mini tow truck.

I give this one a thumbs up.

Anyone can play an important part in helping to stop car insurance fraud.

Car insurance fraud can be a simple false claim or an elaborate scheme.

In a perfect world there would be cheap insurance rates and no car insurance fraud to have to deal with. Actually, in a perfect world car insurance probably wouldn’t be needed because there would be no car accidents. But, since we don’t live in a perfect world and we do have to deal with car insurance fraud, you need to know how to handle it.

Car insurance fraud can happen anywhere in the car insurance process. It can be found in the claims process, buying insurance through an agent and at also with the insurance companies you are supposed to be buying this protection from.

Car Insurance Fraud in Claims

Car insurance fraud is most rampant in the claims department with people filing fraudulent claims. Fraudulent claims can happen with any party also. There are claims that are reported by people claiming to be victims of accidents when there was no accident. Also when there was an actual accident but it was so minor that there should be no damage or injury.

People also report accidents with their own insurance company for damages that they cause to their own vehicles on purpose. Why would they do this? To get cash from the insurance company for the damages for the car; this is most often done when someone is in financial trouble.

Elaborate Car Insurance Fraud Schemes

When I worked in the claims department the most elaborate fraud scheme that I had ever seen involved multiple parties. Multiple vehicles would box in a car (one in back and one on the side) and then another car involved in the scheme would cut in front of the victim and cause an accident. All of the people in the other cars would claim that they witness the victim rear end the front car, but would leave out that the car cut them off.

This scheme even involved doctors filing paperwork for false medical treatment and fake injuries. So the doctors would get the money from the insurance companies for treatments never performed. Then the people in the front car would get huge settlements from the insurance company that would then be split up between all of the parties involved.

They were finally stopped when someone caught on to the scheme, but not before they had scammed a very large sum of money already. This was a very elaborate scheme, but no matter how complex or simple most car insurance fraud is not caught until someone reports that it is happening.

To Be Continued………..

(Because car insurance fraud is such a large problem, all of the information couldn’t fit into one post. Please join us December 5th for part two of Reporting Car Insurance Fraud. Part two will include car insurance agent fraud, car insurance company fraud and the different options that you have to report car insurance fraud.)