Transcription Slide 1: Hello! I'm Dan Lyles with Lyles Insurance. This video is about understanding your auto insurance declaration page. Slide 2: A declaration page is basically a summary of the auto insurance coverage you have. It will show you which vehicles are covered, which drivers are insured, what coverage you have on each of the basic parts of an auto insurance policy (and the levels you're carrying on each part). And for those of you who financed your vehicle, it will also show if a lienholder is listed. Slide 3: It's very important that you know what coverage you have on your policy. You need to understand what each part of your policy covers and how much coverage you have on each part. And also, whenever you compare rates with other auto insurance companies, you need to know the levels you are carrying so you're able to compare apples with apples. Slide 4: It’s important that you understand the five major parts of an auto insurance policy. So let's go over each one briefly. Number one: Liability coverage. That pays the other guy if you're at fault and caused an injury or property damage in an accident. Number two: Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. This pays you if you get hit by someone, and it's their fault, and they either don't have insurance or they don't have enough insurance to cover all the damages. Number three: Medical payments. This pays for you and your passengers who get injured in an accident in your vehicle regardless of who was at fault in the accident. And numbers four and five go together: Comprehensive and collision coverage. Added together, they make up the physical damage coverage on your vehicle. Now I want to show you an actual declaration page so you can get an understanding and an idea what to look for and explain the levels of coverage. Slide 5: So here we see the outline of coverage part of a declaration page. And we'll start with liability (what you see highlighted there). And it shows when you're at fault in an accident, it will pay up to $100,000 each person maximum. Or if you injured more than one person, it can pay up to three hundred thousand. And it will also pay up to $100,000 for property damage. Slide 6: Next we have uninsured and underinsured motorist bodily injury coverage. And you see here, the limits are the same. $100,000 for each person maximum up to $300,000 total. One thing I want to point out here, you can only select those limits as high as you chose for body injury on the liability coverage. So if you skimp on your liability coverage and only go with, like state minimum, you're also going to be stuck with having low levels of uninsured motorist coverage as well. So keep that in mind when you're choosing levels of coverage. Slide 7: Next is medical payments coverage. In some states that might have a different name, such as medical benefits coverage or PIP (which is personal injury protection). Regardless of its name, they all mean about the same thing. And as you can see here, this driver chose to carry up to ten thousand dollars maximum per person. Slide 8: And for the last parts, comprehensive and collision coverage: In some states, you may see comprehensive listed as “Other than Collision”. But either way, they mean the same thing. And as you see here, they come with deductibles. This driver has chosen two hundred and fifty dollar deductibles for both comp. and collision. So that will be their out-of-pocket expense if they ever have to file a claim on their vehicle. Slide 9: So now I hope you have a better understanding of how to read the coverage levels on a declaration page. For those of you living in the six states I have listed at the top there. If you'd like to get an auto insurance quote, I'll be happy to run a quote for you personally myself. I've left a link to my website there which I’ll also post that under the video. Or, if you just want to get a quote by Phone, I've also posted my phone number. Thank you for watching and have a great day! Related Blog Articles: Video: Why State Minimum Liability Auto Insurance Coverage Sucks! Video: Car Insurance with a Speeding Ticket: Shopping around is a must! Video: Uninsured Motorist Coverage Explained Video: Why you shouldn't buy Auto Insurance directly from a company. Why is there a cancellation notice on my auto insurance bill? Should I choose a six or twelve month auto insurance policy?
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Transcription Slide 1: Hello! I'm Dan Lyles with Lyles Insurance. In this video, we're going to cover how your driving record affects your auto insurance rates. Slide 2: With most auto insurance companies, your motor vehicle report plays a big factor in how they calculate your auto insurance rate. And many drivers have errors on their record, and they don't realize it. We're going to show you what to do if you have any of these. And also, just knowing how companies handle accidents and violations gives you a better idea, and will prepare you in case you have any bumps down the road. Slide 3: It's very important to understand that auto insurance companies weigh violations very differently from one company to a next. And the point system that your state license bureau uses has nothing to do with how an auto insurance company looks at violations. They're free to weigh each violation in terms of severity however they please. And sometimes, you'll see some things that are little head scratching. For example, some companies won't insure a driver with a DUI. While other companies, they love DUI customers and weigh speeding tickets even worse than a DUI. And then other violations for example, seat belts. Some companies count seat belt tickets, some don't. And that's why it's important for drivers who don't have a clean record to shop around with multiple companies to get their best rate. Slide 4: How far back are violations counted? And again, companies handle it different ways. Some companies only go back three years for violations and accidents. Some go back five years. And then there's some that are in between. They'll go back five years for accidents and only three years for violations. And there are other companies that will go back five years, but lessen the severity of the violation after three years pass. So again, that's another reason why you need to shop around with multiple companies if you have any violations approaching a three year anniversary. Slide 5: Now want to go over a couple of the common errors I was speaking of. First one is At-fault versus Not-at-fault accidents. First, to give you a little background info: Some companies do not count Not-at-fault accidents on your driving record (meaning it won't cost you extra premium). But many companies do. And where I'm seeing a lot of errors, where some drivers have Not-at-fault accidents. But when I go and pull their motor vehicle report up, it’s incorrectly reported as an At-fault accident. Many people aren't even aware of it. So if this happens to you what you need to do is just get all the documentation you can, and hang on to it. Save it for at least five years (anything like a traffic crash report, police report, or payment from the other driver’s insurance company…. anything that shows you're not at fault in the accident). Make sure you save it. Slide 6: Here's another scenario that can cause errors on your driving record: Violations that happen around midnight. Just so you know: If you ever get charged for multiple violations from the same incident or occurrence, the auto insurance companies… most, not all, but most companies will only charge you for the most severe violation. So, like if you cause an accident and get a failure to control ticket, you're only going to get dinged for an At-fault accident. They won't count the failure to control. But where problems happen are when these violations happen around midnight. One might get processed before midnight and the other might get processed after. Well, that makes it look like it happened on two consecutive days, because of the date. So again, if that happened to you save your documentation…. You might need it. Slide 7: How should you dispute an inaccurate violation? Well, if it's something very obvious, you can always go to your state BMV or DMV. But I know they can be difficult to work with. What I've always suggested, is just handle it with your auto insurance company. And there's two ways that you can dispute a violation, depending on which way the company does it. Some will allow you to dispute a violation before you buy the policy. And then you have a few days to provide documentation showing that there was an error on your driving record. And other times, they might require you to go ahead and pay for the error up front, and then credit you back once you send in supporting documents. Slide 8: I hope this video has given you a better understanding of how companies handle violations. If you'd like to get a quote, and you live in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia or West Virginia, I'll be happy to run a quote for you personally. I've provided a link to my website where you can get a quote online. And I've also listed my phone number if you'd rather quote by phone. I have companies that go easy on drivers with dings on their driving record. And they also go easy on SR22’s, SR50’s and FR44’s, if you need a state filing. Thank you for watching, and have a great day! |
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Dan Lyles is an Independent Insurance Agent serving Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.. Archives
March 2021
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