1.Lend your Car to some one-- Lend your Insurance record! Giving your car to someone who gets involved in an accident can cost you really BIG$$$.
Don’t lend your car unless you are willing to accept the consequences for 6 years if they are at fault in an accident.
2 Not knowing what your insurance policy covers.
Make sure you have proper coverage.
What is your deductible?
Does your auto policy have coverage for Collision?
Comprehensive? Are you covered for loss of Use?
How much would you be paid if you were injured in an auto accident and were unable to work?
Does your home policy cover you for sewer back up or sump pump failure,what are the limits of your coverage on your out buildings,boats,jewelry,etc?
What is your deductible? are you getting all the discounts you deserve?
Commercial and Farm insurance policies are even more tricky - They are not packages like auto and home policies above,so you have to add the coverage’s you need.
The cheapest route is definitely not the best in this case.
Buy the proper coverage for your business exposure - it’s tax deductible anyway!!!
**3. Fight Your Traffic Tickets! **
Fight’em all!!! One ticket may seem to be more of a pain to fight than it is worth,but if you get another minor ticket within 3 years, and someone else in your family gets one, you could get bumped into a higher risk market for auto insurance - which can be really expensive.
A single Careless charge or a major ticket will have you bumped immediately,and many times police will charge you automatically if you are involved in an accident and they do not have any thing else obvious to charge you with.
It is far better to pay the lawyer or traffic specialist than be found guilty and pay the court and then the insurance company for the next three years!
4. Don’t lapse your coverage.
Put all your policies on MPP.your coverage won’t help you if you have missed a paying the renewal last month.
Make sure that you don’t pay late!
You won’t be covered in most cases if you are past renewal and you haven’t paid the premium.
The companies are not obligated to tell you that you missed your renewal,only if they initiate cancellation mid-term.
5. Insure your home for its proper value!
Your home insurance is a replacement cost policy.
That is not market price,or a depreciated price, or the amount shown on your tax bill.
It is the amount that it would cost the insurance company to hire a preferred contractor ( or high quality builder) to rebuild you house within a short period of time.
In this area ,this is almost always more then the price you bought the house for.
Your insurance contract requires the insurance company to replace your house with similar square footage.
No better No worse! this is expensive and new construction often costs more than $150;00 per square foot.
ASK your insurance agent to verify that you have the right amount of insurance. If you insure for too ,there is a penalty clause in every contract that is called CO-insurance.
CO-insurance means that if you insure your house for much less than its true replacement cost,then the company will only pay part of the any claim…If you insured for too much ,you are just wasting your money…
They will only replace what you lost nothing more.
6 Don’t lie to your insurance company-even a little bit.
It seems like common sense,but you’d be amazed how people think that is acceptable to lie on an application or a claim.
It’s FRAUD!
And insurance companies deal with it harshly.
The insurance Bureau of Canada estimated that there was over 2 billion in fraudulent claims in just one year.
Those claims affected your premiums!
If they can prove that you are fraudulent,insurance companies will cancel your coverage( and good luck getting coverage elsewhere) at the least, they can deny your claim, and they will more then likely prosecute you if they have good proof?
Any scent of this showing up on future insurance applications will mean you pay much, much, more than standard rates.
Don’t go there.
Failure to disclose drivers operating your vehicles, failure to disclose tickets or claims will just cause more cost and headaches down the road.
Don’t hide anything.
Don’t pad claims with better quality items or tell them that you lost things you did not have.
You may get away with it…
But you probably won’t.And it will cost you more if you get caught!
7. Make your payments!
Missing your payments on an insurance policy or having your cheque refused by the bank(NSF) is a quick way to pay more for your insurance.
Not only do you have to pay the insurance company and the bank NSF fees, which combined can add to more than the original insurance payment, but the insurance companies won’t insure you if you can’t make the payments.
It creates a lot of work when a payment bounces,and that work costs the company money- more than the policy earns the office in commission.
If you are not a profitable business, they will find a way to get rid of you. Most companies will cancel your coverage or refuse to renew if you have more than two Nsf’s in a policy term.
And again that can make it very difficult to get coverage elsewhere, and you will likely have to pay the premium up front.
8. Life insure your debt through a life insurance company- not a lending institution.
Don’t buy creditor group insurance life insurance from a bank or any other lender. Get coverage that is guarantee,from someone who is licensed to sell Life insurance. There are lots of reason why.
An insurance company investigates your health up front, and gives you a personal contract guaranteeing payout in the event of your death.
We don’t wait for you to die before we figure out if we will cover you.
The amount of the coverage is fixed and only you can decrease,change or cancel coverage.
Because you own the policy,and you can renew it,even if you move to another house you can keep the coverage,or if you take your mortgage to another lender,or if your health deteriorates.
You can designate your beneficiary - the money does not have to go to the lender,and you amount of coverage does not decrease as you pay off the dept- unless you want it to…
9. Make sure you have proper coverage for your other activities…
Get proper coverage on your kid’s ATVs or mini-bikes and snowmobiles, your boat,your collector Car in the garage,your trailer or RV. Your home policy will not cover these things for either liability or any thing more that minimal physical damage coverage ( if any at all) .
Most home policies exclude these things. Liability is a big exposure with these type of toys.
Having your kid’s friend ride an ATV you own and end up in a wheelchair will ruin you financially if you do not have proper insurance.
the same thing applies to volunteer groups. Make sure the organization carries liability coverage to protect you if you get sued for some thing you do on behalf of the group.
If they don’t-reconsider working with that group. Volunteering bis a good thing to do - if it should be considered a civic duty in my opinion, but you don’t want your good deed to ruin you financially.
10 .Make your kids behave behind the wheel !!!
Have them sit down with you and your agent and show them the effect a few tickets or an accident will have on their insurance premiums.
Kid’s especially young males just don’t seem to get it. G1 and G2 violations are very expensive!! help your kids understand that they need to keep their nose clean.
Or better yet ,set them up on their own policy so their actions don’t effect your insurance policy.
That way any indiscretion on their part will be felt immediately in their pocket - not yours for the next 3 or 6 years. You don’t want them to go off to university and leave you with a $6,000;00 insurance bill! because they drove like an idiot and wrecked your insurance record!
Watch their driving so you can protect your policy and their ability to get affordable insurance later.
With out a clean driving abstract and previous record of insurance , they will have a tough time affording auto insurance when they buy a car of their own.
Check out CBC’s W5 has to say about it! they did a full show on this subject .Here is the link to the web site and the written script of the show ( www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2008/02/06/in_denial/)