I was contacted by an insurance carrier in Owensboro and they told me that they compared their car insurance rates to our insurance carrier and they said they offer better car insurance rates. They said they were looking at our insurance policy and said we could get a better deal with them. How is it possible that they have access to our auto insurance information?

Desiree

Owensboro, KY

Normally a competing insurance company is not permitted to have access to your current insurance policy. For marketing, typically an insurer will look at your current registered cars and try to rate it with that. Competing insurance carriers/agents can access general information about you like your age, where you live, tax status, etc., however they should not have access to your actual car insurance policy without your permission. They are in violation of insurance privacy regulations if they do.

Most likely the insurance carrier that called you was using a marketing strategy to get your business. As for comparing their car insurance rates with your insurance carriers rates overall, that is possible since some insurers do publish sample insurance rate quotes. For instance, you live in Owensboro Kentucky, here the Kentucky Department of Insurance (DOI) provides a consumer guide that lists insurance carriers authorized to sell auto/homeowners/renters insurance in KY and those insurers have provided rate comparisons for certain situations.

If you believe that the insurance company that contacted you truly did have a copy of your car insurance policy then you can have the KY DOI, the insurance regulator for the state, investigate the issue and you can file a formal complaint with this state agency.

A: Since you waste a lot of time paying bills, there is one thing you can do which will make it easier for you to get all of your bills taken care of in a smaller amount of time, and which will also aid you in receiving cheap car insurance. Actually, there are two ways. Way one would be for you to try and pay all of your car insurance at once each time you renew. If you pay monthly, an installment fee is added on to your premiums. By bypassing the installments, you can save around fifty dollars.

Way two would be for you to get your insurance from a company which provides multiple kinds of insurance. If you get your health, life, home owners or renters, and auto insurance all with one company, you can not only combine the premium to make it more manageable, but you can also get a discount for compressing multiple insurance lines into one policy.

1.  Raising your deductible amount is the fastest and easiest way to lower your rates!

2. Ask for discounts – teachers – good grades for students – AARP -Credit union membership and even some banks offer clubs/memberships

3. Improve your credit score – most insurance carriers look at your credit history and adjust rates accordingly.  Pay your bills on time!

A: You may just be with a car insurance company which doesn’t have a lot of discounts. I would say that is the first sign that you need to get out. Start looking up quotes online and think about changing to a company with a lower car insurance quote and a better range of discounts. Depending on the size and number of discounts you’d qualify for, sometimes it’s better to trade a lower initial quote for a lot of discounts.

Many of the discounts aren’t applicable to a non owner SR22 insurance policies because they involve aspects of he car, such as anti theft device discount, low mileage discounts, safety feature discounts, and the like. But many are careless discounts.

For example, you can get a discount for combining your insurance policies, by getting your life, health, home owners/renters, and car insurance all from the same company. You can choose from a variety of student and senior discounts, or take classes to watch your non owner SR22 car insurance rate plummet.