There’s nothing more irritating that coming out to your parked vehicle and noticing a new door ding. You work hard for your money to buy a nice vehicle and other people slam their doors into your shiny new car. Maybe it’s just jealousy.

Regardless of the motive, door dings are just part of owning a car. Unless you park at the far back of every parking lot in an attempt to stave off the inevitable, chances are your baby has a few minor blemishes.

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We’ve all been driving down the road when a passing vehicle kicks up a rock and puts a chip in our windshield. It’s frustrating indeed, but there’s a good change that your car insurance company will pay to have the rock chip repaired at no cost to you!

This is a coverage that you definitely want to double check if your company offers. The largest car insurance company in America does NOT offer this coverage, so if you are insured by them, switching insurance companies could be a good move if you receive a lot of rock chips and gravel pits.

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There was an interesting article posted on Insurance Journal today about a Wisconsin family who had a UIM claim denied. You can read the article here. I’m not going to go into the details of the case, other than to say they had multiple personal auto policies, one of which had lapsed, the other had no UIM coverage. The father’s semi tractor was insured on a commercial auto policy and did have UIM coverage, so a claim was submitted on the commercial auto policy when the son was injured by an underinsured driver while he was riding in the family’s car (remember, that policy lapsed). Read the rest of this entry

As winter weather grips the majority of the U.S., hopefully you’ve already taken the time to make sure your car is winterized and ready for the harsh conditions. We frequently check our tire pressure, our battery and make sure we have an emergency roadside kit in our trunk, but how many of us take the time to do a winter-time car insurance checkup? Read the rest of this entry

Think again.  That three, five or even seven hundred dollar GPS navigation unit that does everything but steer the wheel is essentially uninsured while in full view of anyone looking in your windshield.

Why do I say essentially? Ok, there is coverage actually, but it probably doesn’t come from your car insurance policy. Coverage may be provided by your homeowner’s or renter’s policy under your personal property coverage. BUT, and this is a big but (no pun intended), you need to exceed your homeowner’s policy deductible before you even have a claim. Read the rest of this entry

If you’ve had a bad experience with an insurance company, how do you go about making sure other consumers don’t have the same problem? Your state insurance regulators are responsible for making sure admitted companies handle your claims fairly and to the letter of the law. If you feel you haven’t been treated fairly, you don’t have to take the insurance companies decision as final. By taking your complaint to your state insurance department, you can hold your insurance company accountable and help other insurance consumers in the process.

Most states have specific proceedures for filing complaints against insurance companies. The first step in the resolution process is to contact the company or your agent to try to achieve a satisfactory conclusion to your problem. If you get nowhere, which is probably why you’re here reading this, then it’s time to file a formal complaint with your state’s insurance regulating department. Read the rest of this entry