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.

Whether a check will be written to you for a claim depends on who you are insured with.

Each insurance company has their own policies and procedures in place to pay for claim damages. If you choose not to use one of their preferred shops, they will have you get quotes from other body shops for damages. Some insurance companies are okay with you just getting one quote from the body shop that you are going to use. Others want quotes from 3 different body shops.

Once you get the quotes, most insurance companies won’t have a problem with just writing you a check (minus your deductible) for the amount of the quote. Others prefer to have the body shop do the work and then send them a bill so they can send them a check directly.

Again it all depends on your insurance company.

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.

Changing your insurance agent will take a little bit of your time, but may be worth it.

To start the process of changing your insurance agent, you must first ask yourself a question. Are you unhappy with the agent or unhappy with the insurance company?

If you are unhappy with your insurance agent, but you want to stay with the same insurance company, contact the insurance company. Let them know the situation and that you want to change agencies. They will give you the contact information for all of the other insurance agents in your area that sell their insurance.

Once you find the insurance agent that you like, the new agency will file a paper with the insurance company to switch your policy from your old agent to your new agent. No changes will be made to anything on your policy and you will have a new insurance agent.

If you are unhappy with the insurance company and you have an independent insurance agent, contact your agent. Have them get you quotes from the other insurance companies that they sell for. Your insurance agent is going to want to keep your business and will work to find you an insurance company that will make you happy. If they refuse to get you any new quotes, it’s time to look for a new insurance agent also.

If you are unhappy with both your insurance company and insurance agency (or you have an agent that only writes for one company) then start calling around to other insurance companies and agencies for new insurance quotes. At this point it is probably going to be in your best interest to just start from scratch.

When you purchase your new insurance policy don’t forget to contact either your old insurance company or agency to cancel your old policy.