Archive for August 6th, 2008
Upside Down Turned All Around After An Auto Accident
Upside Down Turned All Around After An Auto Accident
The TV commercials are all over the networks showing two friends chatting away oblivious to what is happening around them and WHAM another car smashes into the them while air bags are going off with blank looks coming from their faces. The ad s apparent purpose is to demonstrate how safe this car is with front and side air bags with reinforced doors and multiple safety features where the driver and his passenger are able to walk away from it without an injury. This little 60-second commercial is over, but what happens next in the real world? Following this scenario a little further, Bob and Ray, the passengers, walk away unscathed. Bob reaches for his cell phone and calls the police. An officer shows up in an hour and commences to fill out a traffic report. Insurance information is exchanged and a traffic police report is given to all the drivers involved in the accident. This is a no fault auto insurance state. Blame is immaterial other than for assigning moving violation tickets. No tickets were issued, as this was a nasty intersection with five to ten accidents per week. Something should be done Bob mused. Bob s car is not operational. Everything is smashed and it looks like the frame is bent and twisted sideways where the front wheels are going in different directions. When the wreck occurred it caused a chain reaction in the rear and Bob s trunk became pushed up into the back seat. No drivers were injured however. Bob calls his insurance company to report the accident. After submitting to twenty questions and sharing the accident police report number Bob is advised to have the disabled and wrecked vehicle hauled to a frequently used facility where the auto insurance adjuster can view the damage and write a report as a basis for settlement and repair. Bob calls a wrecker and gets his smashed up auto to the recommended storage yard that doubles as a gas station and auto service. Upon arrival, Bob and Ray wait for a ride home from Bob s wife who leaves work early to pick him up. Both Bob and Ray are still shaken by the near fatal experience. The adjuster showed up at the storage yard the next day armed with a laptop and portable printer. Ray had to get a rental car till he got his car back in order to get to work and such. At work Ray received a call from the adjuster. The adjuster, Mr. Peabody, said the car was a total loss with nothing but salvage value left. The insurance adjuster went on to explain how the company set the values based on retail and wholesale composites with adjustments for mileage, upgrades, and such. With the conversation winding down, the adjuster stated the company was prepared to write a check to Bob and his lender for $14,500 including the salvage rights of the vehicle already reduced by the deductible. Bob began to argue and protest with the adjuster. Bob called his agent and further continued his rancor regarding the low payoff. Again, the insurance company emphasized the facts, with the insurance adjuster s report in hand they were offering all that was possible. Bob was told, take $14,500 or nothing, as they would not pay one penny more. Bob called his agent again. Perhaps the adjuster was just having a bad day. Bob had been a loyal customer of the insurance agent for over twenty years. Bob pleaded to have another insurance adjuster look at it and perhaps with an eye to using even more used parts in the car s repair. The agent agreed to give it a try even if he had to pay the adjuster out of his own pocket. Two days later, Bob received another call from work, this time the adjuster had discovered some minor damage with the engine and air conditioning system and the wire modules although prior market value remained the primary concern. These new findings may impact the salvage price. This adjuster was indicating a value of $13,500 after the deductible. Bob was really stoked and called a school buddy who was now a local attorney and shared his story. Attorney Roy said he would call the insurance company to see if he could boost the payoff. Insurance companies have a bevy of attorneys who specialize in small print all ready to battle. Attorney Roy with a few calls and faxed letters representing a shot across the bow of the insurance legal department was able to get the payoff up to $15,500 with little hope of getting any more. Bob settled and signed the check over to the bank. Like many American drivers who have financed their vehicles, they owe more than the car is worth. This is called being upside down. As it turns out, depending on how the wind blows, Bob was trading cars like every two years. Over time, to make deals at the dealership, the shortage of value of the trade-in was added to the new debt and rolled forward in a new car loan all with lender underwriting and approval. The house of cards is built one deal at a time. With most borrowers being payment sensitive, longer terms are sought to keep the family budget in line as a possible justification for making the purchase. However, as in this case, the value of the vehicle turned out to be $9,400 short of paying the debt off of $24,900.00. The house of cards began to fall. Bob had been paying $567.91/month for over a year now and had 60 months to go. With the lien holder getting all the money, that would leave $9,400 left or roughly 17 payments to go on what turned out to be dead money. Bob and his wife, Muriel, were beside themselves. Here they had a $567.91/month payment and nothing to drive. The finance company insisted on receiving all the money and would not reduce any payments. Bob and Muriel had just started getting back on track from some shaky credit the past six months due to some unexpected home repairs and medical bills. They had refinanced their home a year ago and had little equity at the moment. What to do they ask themselves? Bob and Muriel took delivery of the salvage vehicle. They ran ads in the local paper under auto parts and sold the engine, transmission, three doors that were good, the tires and wheels and junked the remainder for scrap and were only able to raise about $1,100 dollars due to the extensive damage on the car. The salvage yard was offering $600. The parts sale amounted to about two payments. However, Bob needed a car so he took the $1,100 and bought a beater used car for cash. At work, Bob learned of a co-worker who had a similar situation but owned like $13,000 in dead money from being upside down and due to the aggressive collection efforts by the bank, decided to go Chapter 7 bankruptcy by meeting the means test of not making too much money. His co-worker was renting a home at the time and had a mountain of credit card debt as well and not able to make choke this last payment down without the use of the vehicle as well. Bob and Muriel, however, took the bull by the horns and both got part time jobs and vowed to payoff the dead money on the totaled car as soon as possible. They were able to do it in six months and were actually starting to save a little money very week vowing to not get caught again in this death cycle of debt. Questions such as Do we want it? or Do we need it? were now asked before ANY purchase. All that glitters is not gold. Bob and Muriel found out the hard way about being under insured on their auto and where they owed more than it was worth. If anyone finds themselves in that situation, it will be necessary to break the cycle by paying down the loan in say 48 months in hopes that the value will hold long enough for the debt to go down below it. The alternative is devastating. While driving up and down the roads, due to aggressive selling and lending polices, you will find many vehicle owners who are upside down on the value versus debt. There might be one in front of you, beside you, or in back of you. There is only one sure way to find out. WHAM. One might be able to escape when an accident occurs IF the automobile is NOT TOTALLED. If the car is totaled and the owner is upside down then they will need to hold on for a roller coaster ride. Avoiding the symptoms of this malady is the only cure. Pay down the car note quickly otherwise the thin ice will not hold the weight of a ton of debt. The Credit Coroner s report showed Death by drowning in debt while being upside down and turned around. Dale Rogers www.brokencredit.com www.sellerhelpsbuyer.com All rights reserved. Article may be reprinted as long as the content remains intact, unchanged, and all links remain active.
Dale Rogers is a thirty-year mortgage veteran and frequent contributor to the Broken Credit Blog. The BCB is a free website created to assist the general public with information about credit repair and responsible mortgage lending. <A HREF="http://www.brokencredit.com"><B>www.BrokenCredit.com</B></A> <A HREF="http://www.sellerhelpsbuyer.com"><B>www.sellerhelpsbuyer.com</B></A>
Car Insurance ? New Style Policies Cut The Cost
Get ready for an avalanche of ?new style? car insurance policies to hit the market. One of the first insurers to enter the fray is Tesco, with the announcement of its new ?no frills? policy. Where Tesco leads, others will swiftly follow in their search for new customers.
The AA doesn?t seem too impressed with Tesco?s offering, saying that the excess is really high and if you look around you could buy the usual fully comprehensive for the same price. Taking the opposite stance is Norwich Union who believes that other insurers will compete with simple, non-gimmicky, cover. Getting ahead of the competition, they have been watching the patterns of 5000 motorists over a two year period and they are starting to offer new policies based on their research.
Both of these insurers will aim to keep at the top of the ?Best Buy? tables and the resulting competition between insurers to keep the premiums low and gain the business will be interesting to observe.
What is it that?s so different about these new policies?
First of all there?s Tesco?s new ?Value? car insurance. This is a type of ?hybrid?, coming higher in the scale of cover than basic third party but stopping short of the more usual fully comprehensive. For example, if your car is off the road, you won?t get a courtesy car, it doesn?t cover young drivers and at ?475, the excess is much higher than usual. Your no-claims discount will not be protected and if repairs are needed these can only be carried out by designated garages. Normal guarantees on repairs are three years, but they have reduced this to only 12 months. If you can accept these restrictions, Tesco say there will be a saving of 12% on its standard cover. Another proviso is that you must buy cover on-line.
On offer from Norwich Union is a young driver?s policy. Not available to new customers for the time being, customers are charged according to their driving patterns. It has been found that younger drivers have a higher likelihood of accidents at night and so there is a charge of ?1 each time they drive between the hours of 11pm and 6am.
Direct Line, not to be outdone, has similar new products coming on to the market.
It all sounds slightly confusing and you have to consider what you?re missing out on in the way of cover. It is possible for the more conventional fully comprehensive policy to be reduced if you?re willing to sacrifice some of the cover or pay a higher excess. These deals are available on-line and easily accessible, but why tie yourself to one company? If you search on the internet for a car insurance broker and are specific about your needs, they?ll do the research and come up with the right deal for you.
Older drivers have car insurance problems too. The Government may be considering whether regular eyesight and certain other medical checks should be carried out three yearly. The Association of British Insurers have requested this as they feel that with declining eyesight and age, responses could be slower and therefore older drivers could be more at risk of accidents. Age Concern, a charity representing the elderly, argues against this, believing that fitness to drive should be based on skill, not age.
The Association of British Insurers report that in fact older drivers have more accidents per mile than drivers in middle age and also state that there is a higher likelihood of injury or death resulting from a crash, both for them and other road users.
From the age of 60, car insurance premiums will start to rise as underwriters begin to get wary of taking on new clients. The AA tell us that, as an example, a woman of 21, who pays a premium of ?326, will find it reduced to ?197 at 60, but by the time she reaches 80 the cost will be ?460. There are policies designed to serve the needs of older people, Age Concern, Saga and Help the Aged are just three of them, but again, if you contact an on line broker, they?ll have all the facts and be able to offer help on this.
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<b>Road Safety Guides - What to do if you break down</b>
If your vehicle breaks down, think about safety, first: Here s a straightforward safety guide from GEM Motoring Assist, the leading UK driver based road safety association.
Consider your own safety
- get your vehicle off the road if possible
- ensure your passengers are safe and that animals are kept under control.
Warn other road users
- warn other traffic by using your hazard warning lights if your vehicle is causing an obstruction
- put a warning triangle on the road at least 45 metres (147 feet) behind your broken down vehicle on the same side of the road, or use other permitted warning devices if you have them. Always take great care when placing them, but never use them on motorways as this may put you in danger from oncoming traffic
- keep your sidelights on if it is dark or visibility is poor
- do not stand (or let anybody else stand) between your vehicle and oncoming traffic
- at night or in poor visibility do not stand where you will prevent other road users seeing your lights
- wear a reflective/fluorescent jacket or tabard.
Calling for help
- do not use mobile phones if there is a danger from petrol spillage or fumes
- contact the emergency services by dialing 999 or 112 (new international emergency code), or if you are a member call GEM Motoring Assist Breakdown Cover or other breakdown organisation
- give clear instructions of your general location: road number, direction of travel and specific local landmarks will aid your rescue
- also tell them your vehicle type and colour, registration number and how many persons are in the vehicle
- an indication of the cause of the breakdown will also help
- when help arrives, ask for proof of identity.
On Motorways ” safety first
Leave the motorway at the nearest exit or pull into a service area. When this is not possible:
- use your indicators or hazard warning lights and pull on to the hard shoulder. Stop as far to the left as possible, with your wheels turned to the left
- try to stop near an emergency telephone (every mile on the hard shoulder) with the front passenger door as close to the phone as possible
- you must leave the vehicle by the left-hand passenger doors
- wear a reflective/fluorescent jacket or tabard
- do not cross the carriageway to reach a closer phone it is safer to wait on the verge. (Remember, 10% of motorway accidents are collisions with vehicles parked on the hard shoulder.)
- do not leave the keys in the car. If possible, lock all the doors except the front passenger door, which you should leave fully open so you can get back in quickly if needs be
- keep passengers away from the carriageway and children under control. Make sure children are safe ” do not leave them in the car by themselves
- if you are an elderly or disabled person, or have small children with you, you may decide it is more sensible to stay in the vehicle. If so, park it as close to the verge as possible
- you must leave animals in the vehicle, with windows only far enough down to let in air. Only let them out of the vehicle in an emergency, but keep them under proper control on the verge
- do not attempt even simple repairs and do not leave the car bonnet open.
On Motorways ” getting help
- walk to the nearest emergency telephone, following the arrows on the marker posts every 100 metres at the back of the hard shoulder. Calls are free and connect directly to the Police - they will know where you are. Stand behind the phone and watch out for passing traffic, or anyone approaching you
- give full details, also inform them if you feel vulnerable. Tell them the number of your breakdown organisation, your car registration and the number shown on the nearest marker post
- return and wait near your vehicle, preferably behind the barrier on the motorway embankment
- when help arrives, ask for ID and check that the breakdown person knows your name
- NEVER get into a car with a stranger or try to hitch a lift
- if someone offers help, stay inside your car with the doors locked (keep windows partially open) and ask them to phone your breakdown organisation for you
- if a car stops while you are waiting for help and you feel uneasy, stay in the passenger seat of your car and lock the door. Phone the Police and give them the car s registration number
- when rejoining the motorway, always increase speed on the hard shoulder and watch for a safe gap in the traffic.
Established in 1932, GEM Motoring Assist is the leading UK driver based road safety association. <a href="http://www.motoringassist.com">GEM Motoring Assist</a> provide a wide range of driver services including low cost <a href="http://www.motoringassist.com">car breakdown insurance.</a>
Free Auto Insurance!!
http://autoinsurance.x8web.com/ s Your Insurance Policy Right For You? By Kevin Wynn Take a moment and ask yourself: is your insurance policy just right for you and your family? This question is important, considering the recent statistics wherein more than 30 million families in the United States of America alone do not have the correct insurance coverage. Their insurance policies purportedly are not right for them. In fact, in the year 2006, fifty eight percent of American households were undervalued at a staggering rate of twenty one percent — definitely unfavorable numbers especially because these insurance policies are supposed to be the topmost things families should turn to when there are emergencies, accidents and the like. To know if your insurance policy is right for you, there are a couple of things that you must consider. First off, if you just got married, that is one ground for you to change your insurance policy. Remember, there are insurance premiums that become cheaper because of spousal clauses in the policies. If you and your spouse are employed, both of you may be entitled to discounts in terms of premium payments. Also, even if one of you is not working, the other may still benefit from the spouse s insurance policy. http://autoinsurance.x8web.com/ We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to insurance that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time. http://autoinsurance.x8web.com/
Welcome to Free Auto Insurance!! your comprehensive insurance resource. Our mission is to give you the facts you need about insurance fast so you can get on the road to taking action right away`. The Free Auto Insurance!! website provides a ton of information about insurance. In addition, you will find extensive information on leading insurance to help you on your way to success. Please have a look at our insurance articles, products, resources, and additional information located throughout Free Auto Insurance!!. We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to insurance that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time. And again, thank you to those contributing daily to our insurance website. http://autoinsurance.x8web.com/
How to Get a Cheap Car Insurance ” Your 7 Steps to a Good Deal
Are you wondering how you can purchase cheap car insurance? Worry no more! Here you’ll get the seven easy steps to getting the cheapest quotes and the best deals available. Use one or use all, each of them is sure to lower your rates.
The cheapest car insurance is not necessarily the best auto insurance. But, as car insurance is mandatory for registering and driving your car, it is necessary to purchase insurance for your car. The next seven tips will help you choose, if not the cheapest, then the best deal:
- Compare auto insurance quotes online ” insurance companies save money on man power with online quotes and purchase, some of that money goes back to the client and makes your insurance cheaper. There are many companies providing instant quotes. Depending on your auto (and make sure you provide honest answers) or the number of cars you want to insure, you’ll get a preliminary estimation. Don’t take this sum as the final quote and don’t choose the cheapest quote without analyzing the coverage offered in the insurance policy.
- A clean credit history ensures significant discounts. To put it simple: car insurance gets cheaper if the owner (that’s you) is a reliable payer. However, most insurance companies will have an option of “bad credit quotes”. If you have a bad credit history, don’t waste your time (your time is also valuable) on the companies that don’t give you this option.
- To get an advantageous insurance it is recommendable that you put al the cars you own under a single policy. Some insurance companies offer very good discounts for multiple cars insurance policy.
- There are many underinsured or uninsured drivers. You’ll need coverage in case of an accident caused by an uninsured driver. Make sure your insurance covers such mishaps.
- Choose the insurance that fits your financial possibilities and the condition of the car. Once your financial status improves or the vehicle deteriorates, you should update the status of your policy.
- If you plan on moving soon, choose a short-term car insurance plan ” we recommend a one year car insurance. Insurance plans vary from country to country and even from state to state.
- Make your vehicle as safe as possible both in terms of driver and passenger safety (seat belts, air cushions etc.) and is terms of theft (a car alarm an immobilizer etc.) ” this will lower the premiums, thus providing for a cheap insurance plan.
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car transport, auto transport, auto moving, car moving, car shipping
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Online Car Insurance Advice
Stop wasting money and cut your car insurance bills in half! There’s no reason why you shouldn’t consider purchasing online car insurance. Buying online car insurance is extremely easy and very convenient. It’s an extremely fast process and only requires filling out a simple form. Everyone knows that shopping around is the only way to find a good deal and save money. What’s the fastest way to shop? Well, you can look through the phone book and dial phone numbers only to get an automated message or you can use the internet to multiply your efforts. Buying online car insurance has literally no drawbacks. All you need is a computer with an Internet connection. After you have found a quote that you like, purchasing online car insurance allows you to accept the quote right then and there or save your information and come back later. I would recommend using as many web sites as possible to make sure you find the lowest premiums. There’s plenty of online car insurance providers out there and the more time you put into it the better the outcome.
Online Car Insurance Features:
- Save Time: One of the many great features of shopping for online car insurance is the ability to start your insurance application, save it, and finish later if you get pressed for time.
- Privacy: Privacy while shopping for online car insurance is taken very seriously. Any information you provide is kept secure with encryption technology.
- Your credit score won’t be affected by applying for online car insurance.
Here are some great ways to reducing premiums:
- You can combine you and your partner’s insurance if married.
- You can install anti theft devices in your vehicles.
- You can take advanced driving courses that enhance your driving skills.
- Paying annually for your policy as apposed to monthly. Check for insurance companies that offer discounts for being affiliated with particular organizations or companies. Example: Some credit card companies offer discounts on auto insurance.
- Insuring all your vehicles, home and valuables with the same company may earn you a loyalty discount.
- You can save around 15 to 30 percent by increasing your deductible! What are the odds of you getting in an accident? Just put your deductible away in a savings account and save it for that rainy day.
- Drop collision and comprehensive and just stick with liability. Especially if you have an old car because the value of your car won’t add up to all those previous payments you’ve been making.
- Maintain good credit
Things to remember when shopping for online car insurance:
- Make sure that they can actually provide an insurance quote for the state you currently reside in.
- Always double check the information you provide on the insurance application. All it takes is the smallest error to affect your rates.
- Make sure the insurance company is reputable. Future claims are only honorable if your company still exists.
- You’re never under any obligation to accept any insurance quote provide.
So what are you waiting for? Fill out some forms and save some money. Good luck, live well, and prosper!
Jon B loves to write if his words benefit others in a positive way. <a href="www.tamtamsreviews.com">Are you ready to get a free online car insurance quote?</a>I've collected a hand full of recommended online car insurance companies and posted them on this page for your convenience.
