Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog

My clients some times ask me how to save money on their policies, especially after they have been in a wreck. Here are the factors that companies use to charge you:

Type of vehicle: Statistics show which vehicles tend to be involved in more accidents, suffer more damage, cost more to repair and are more likely to be stolen. Owners of those vehicles, such as sports cars, pay higher premiums.

Age: Drivers younger than 25 have more accidents and pay higher premiums; drivers older than 65 also pay more.

Gender: Male drivers, particularly those who are younger, have more accidents and pay higher premiums.

Marital status: Single drivers have more accidents than married drivers and typically pay higher premiums.

Driving record: Plays an important role in determining premiums; drivers who have had an at-fault accident in the last three years are more likely to have another accident and typically pay higher premiums; also applies to moving traffic violations.

Credit history: Studies have shown that drivers with a poor credit history tend to have more accidents than drivers with a good credit history, so those with a poor credit rating pay higher premiums.

Other factors: Anything that might influence frequency and size of claims. For example, a policyholder who uses his car for business or drives more miles annually has a greater likelihood of having an accident. Similarly, those who live in a small town are less likely to have an accident than those living in a large city.

Now that our rates are being hiked again, I wanted to share a few ideas on how to save money on your auto insurance bill.

Shop for the best rates. There are many sites to choose from. I find that the Department of Insurance site is excellent. See https://apps.tdi.state.tx.us/helpinspublic/ I searched different companies to find competing rates for the following demographics: car being driven to/from work, single man, age 25-64 living in 76112 zip code in Fort Worth, good driving record, average credit rating. The cheapest liability policy was offered by USAA ($303) and the most expensive was sold by Chartis Property and Casualty (a whopping $1,860). Other companies rates were as follows:

AAA Texas County Mutual $395
Allstate County Mutual 808
Allstate Fire and Casualty 370
GEICO 548
Hartford Fire 362
Progressive 496
State Farm Mutual 526
State Farm County Mutual 637
Texas Farm Bureau 404

As you can see, it pays to shop around.

Other ways you can save money include:

Take a higher deductible.

Reduce coverage on older cars.

Use the same insurer for home and auto coverage.

Take advantage of low-mileage discounts.

Ask about group insurance or discounts through employers, business or alumni groups.

Seek discounts for no accidents or moving violations, good-student discounts

Take a defensive driving course.

Automobile liability premiums have unexpectedly increased by this huge amount this year, according to the Texas Department of Insurance. And a typical comprehensive policy per vehicle in Texas now costs $1,262.00 a year -- one of the highest rates in the U.S.

Why?

According to the multi billion dollar insurance industry, it is because liability rates increased from $25,000 to $30,000 per person on January 1st and medical costs for those injured in collisions have dramatically increased this year.

Really?

Consumer groups state that it is simple corporate greed. "I can't think of any reason to justify that kind of an increase in one year," Alex Winslow, director of Texas Watch, said. "I wouldn't be surprised if some insurers are trying to squeeze whatever they can out of their policyholders."

Consumer representatives also said that insurance companies are also hitting up their customers for bad investments in the tanked stock market.

What do you think?

It is possible that there have been more $30,000 claims already paid out from wrecks , as I have settled a lot of claims for this amount this year as opposed to the old limit of $25,000. But that would only be an extra $5,000 for those maximum policy limit claims -- obviously not enough to jump rates by so many millions of dollars.

And while medical expenses may have increased somewhat since January, again it is hard to believe that that justifies such a huge rate hike.