The world of car customization has gone mainstream with TV shows like West Coast Customs, OverHaulin and Pimp My Ride.

I thought I’d write a bit about an experience I had with Progressive car insurance. Keep in mind that I’m an independent insurance agent and I can insure my family’s vehicles with any of about 15 different insurance companies. I chose to insure my cars with Progressive, primarily because their rates were very competitive.

Women may get the brunt of jokes from their husbands about how bad their driving is, but do insurance companies actually give lower rates to women because they are better drivers?

If you compare male and female drivers in the same age groups, female drivers tend to have fewer accidents and traffic violations as compared to their male counterparts.

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.

There seems to be an unsubstantiated fear among consumers that switching between car insurance companies is a difficult ordeal. You can switch to a new auto insurance company at any time, even during the middle of your policy term, but there are a few snags you want to avoid.

With any insurance policy, it’s easiest and cleanest to switch carriers at the renewal date of the policy.

For the third consectutive quarter, RateWatch from Insurance.com has shown an upward trend in car insurance rates, reversing the downward trend of 2007. On average, the lowest car insurance rates for the third quarter of 2008 rose $56 over the previous quarter.

The stock market has sank 40% in the past year, your 401K has probably fell a similar amount. You hear about how bad things are every day in the news, but one positive thing you can do to help your personal financial situation is to review your home and auto insurance coverages.