Tag Archives: car insurance

11.13.12
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Good information on spotting vehicles that were damaged in a flood

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and as part of the vehicle inspection process, you may identify cars that have sustained flood damage.
Here are some reminders on identifying possible flood damage. Please be sure to:
> Examine upholstery and carpeting closely; if it doesn’t match the interior or fits loosely, it may have been replaced. Discolored, faded or stained materials could indicate water damage.
> Look for signs of mud or silt on the exterior, including the wheel wells.
> Look for signs of mud, silt, water, or moisture on the interior, including the dashboard.
> Identify moisture, or water lines, in signal lamps.

Alerting your customers to these conditions and identifying a potentially unsafe vehicle, as they will have time to return the vehicle,
or at least to take some action, you may be doing them an enormous favor. These situations should also be reported
to the Frauds Bureau, or at least to CARCO, as it may help prevent others from suffering the same trouble.
Any information you can gather would be helpful.

12.10.10
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Appreciate your agent…if

Yes I believe the agent, me, works for you, the customer.  This is no different than any time you are spending money on a product or service.  This relationship tends to go better if you appreciate the person providing the product or service.  How do you do this?

UPDATE 5/19/2015

How do you “appreciate”‘ the person you are paying for a service?

  1. Give them a chance to work for you.
  2. Rather than carrying over the poor previous experience you may have had give your potential new agent the chance to shine without thinking he or she is as bad as the last one.
  3. Ask questions without questioning.  You should ask lots of questions and the agent should have lots of answers.  BUT, at some point you need to trust the person you hire.
  4. You pay them.  As they saying goes, ” A deal is a deal…”
  5. Life happens and buying  insurance is no acception.  Remember, we are all, first and foremost, human.

Sure we could get into buying gifts, sending referrals, etc.  But these five are a great start.

 

Just some thoughts.

11.22.10
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Saving money is bad…sometimes

You hear it constantly on the radio and T.V. It shows up in your mail on a weekly if not daily basis, heck a banner ad probably popped up before you even got here.  Each insurance company quoting exactly how much money they can save you or how many discounts are available and rarely getting specific on coverage.

Yes, I think saving money can be bad.

If you have not taken the time to review your insurance plans on a regular basis you may actually be saving too much money.  Yes I just said too much money.

Having watched insurance cycles for 8 years it is reasonable to save in the neighborhood of $200-$300 simply by a change in the market.  This, in my opinion, is ok.  If you are saving more than this you may have missed a change in the market.

So, step 1 is establish you and/or your family’s base line of coverage.  Step 2 schedule the time every 12 to 18 months to review your coverage and review your rate to make sure it is still competitive.  Saving a few hundred dollars is good but saving much more than that just means you have not kept up with your regular insurance reviews.

Update 5/13/15

The more things change the more things stay the same.  The industry is getting close to taking advantage of this massive opportunity.   That’s correct, the inherent laziness of humans combined with an old and tired purchasing structure is a massive opportunity.  Good things should be coming soon.  The savings, on the surface, will look smaller.  The reality is your average price over a ten year period will be better.