Here is a nice item to keep in your car at all times. It is a vehicle accident report form. If you are in a car accident, big or small, you will not be thinking clearly and might not gather all of the information needed to properly handle your insurance claim.



In fact, I once had a client stop into my office with a single name 'Tony' with a phone number after his car was hit in a parking lot. I called the number for him and reached a pizza parlor. Needless to say, they didn't know anything about any accident and there was no one named Tony there.



The bottom line is that you need to gather all of the pertinent information to process your claim properly and effieciently. You don't want to forget to gather witness information as well. An independent witness, who can verify the fault of the accident, could mean the difference between an accident costing you money on your insurance or not.'


Accident Report

New York has released its annual ranking of auto insurance company compalaints. You can find the a link to the document at the NY State Insurance Department web site: 2005 Auto Complaint Ranking. The 2005 report is based upon data for the year 2004.

The Insurance Department's Consumer Services Bureau closed a total of 13,023 private passenger complaints in the year 2004, with 7,233 of them either being withdrawn by the consumer or not upheld by the bureau.

SAN FRANCISCO - California motorists living in mostly black or Hispanic neighborhoods are charged substantially more for the same amount of auto insurance provided to drivers from white communities, according to an analysis released Monday by Consumers Union. After dissecting the price among the state's three largest insurers in more than 500 ZIP codes, Consumers Union found car insurance in black neighborhoods costs 37.5 percent to 83.5 percent more than in communities dominated by non-Hispanic whites. That means the biggest auto insurers would charge a good driver an additional $537 to $974 per year for moving from a mostly white to black neighborhood, according to Consumers Union, the nonprofit group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. Good drivers living in Hispanic neighborhoods aren't hit quite as hard. Consumers Union concluded the pricing increase in California's Hispanic communities ranged from $103 to $214 annually, or 7.9 percent to 18.4 percent. The study further illuminates how a driver's home address sways the price of auto insurance - a thorny issue that has bedeviled California for nearly two decades. "It took far less time to put a man on the moon" than to close the regional pricing gaps in California auto insurance, said Mark Savage, a senior attorney for Consumers Union and the author of Monday's report. An insurance reform initiative passed by California voters in 1988 was supposed to minimize the geographical differences, but the industry so far has been able to retain territory's influence on its prices. Insurers have long maintained that their reliance on motorist's ZIP codes is justified, citing their higher frequency of losses in some neighborhoods and the different traffic patterns in densely populated cities and sprawling suburbs. "Insurance companies don't use race as part of their rating criteria," said Sam Sorich, president of the Association of California Insurance Companies, a trade group. "The Consumers Union study is a distraction from the fundamental point that insurance companies should be using data that predicts the likelihood of losses. Territory is a significant predictor." Consumers Union and other industry critics believe the current pricing practices unfairly discriminate against minority and low-income households, reflecting insurers' focus on more affluent policyholders. The high prices prompt more motorists to drive illegally without insurance - a problem that ultimately increases costs for everyone. About 3.2 million, or 14 percent, California's vehicles are uninsured, according to the state Department of Insurance's most recent estimates. Not everyone in the insurance industry believes ZIP codes are the best way to parse auto insurance prices. Earlier this month, an influential risk assessment firm released a study arguing insurers should base their rates on how close drivers live to certain types of businesses or local landmarks. For instance, motorists living within a mile of a church typically are involved in fewer accidents causing property damage than drivers living near restaurants, according to Quality Planning Corp. In its study, Consumers Union created the hypothetical profile of a good driver and plugged all the same characteristics into the pricing formulas of California's three largest auto insurers - State Farm, Farmers and Allstate. Combined, the three insurers cover more than 30 percent of California's drivers. The study spanned 1,838 ZIP codes under State Farm's 2004 rates and 531 ZIP codes for the 2002 pricing criteria used by Farmers and Allstate. State Farm's 2002 prices also were examined, covering 531 ZIP codes. Consumers Union expanded the scope of its State Farm's analysis primarily because its rating formula wasn't as complicated as the other two insurers, Savage said. State Farm also is the market leader, covering nearly one in every seven of California's insured drivers. The Personal Insurance Federation, a trade group that represents State Farm and Farmers, believes Consumers Union's study is flawed, said spokesman Jerry Davies. He also emphasized that the rates of all auto insurers are approved by state regulators. Proposition 103, the package of 1988 reforms approved by voters, mandated that auto insurance prices be based primarily on a driver's record, annual mileage and experience. But those rules also allows "other factors" to be considered, a provision that helped the industry persuade then-Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush to approve 1996 regulations that preserved ZIP codes as a major pricing factor. The rules so far have been upheld by California courts. Current Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has promised to unveil new pricing guidelines sometime during the next two weeks, concluding a more than two-year examination of the disparities created by the current rules. "It's a complex issue," said Norman Williams, a spokesman for the California Department of Insurance. "It was done wrong before, so (Garamendi) wants to make sure it's done right this time."

Thursday December 15th, 2005

Sainsbury's Bank has suggested that the number of financial products purchased online is set to continue to grow in 2006.

The insight from the bank comes following hits on its own website rising by some 73 per cent since in the last 12 months with people looking for savings, loans and other financial services.

"The internet has become an important life tool, playing an increasing role in the way we conduct our daily affairs – whether it's shopping, booking a holiday or sorting our finances," said Kevin Barrett, director of e-commerce at Sainsbury's Bank

"The general acceptance of buying goods or services online means that the web is now a mainstream and vital channel for businesses to interact with and sell to customers."

The bank's web user behaviour survey also found that the most popular products bought on the bank's website were life insurance, pet insurance and car insurance.