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Show 1• mi 1 Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007 Page 12 g Auto: Everything students should know fJ continuedfrom page 9 |i THE STATESMAN HAS BEEN DOWNLOADING TO LAPTOPS SINCE 1902. . GEICO. Ai5-miniitecall could save you 15% on car insurance. JENNIFER REEVES, OFFICE M A N A G E R at Farmer's Insurance, said doing the research on Auto Insurance is a good first step. TYLER LARSON photo 1513 N. Hillfield Rd., Suite 3 (8O1) 752-O485 ATTENTION VETERANS Symposium for Veterans, Families, and Communities Sept 27th, Bullen Center 43 South Main ST Loaan Learn about issues facing Veterans, making the transition from combat to civilian life, resources available for Veterans families and communities and how you can help. • 1:30pm-4:30 Session for Community members, clergy, first responders, educators, health professionals and community leaders. • 6:30pm-8:30- Session for Veterans and Families Agenda for the Symposiums includes the following topics; Resources for Veterans, Veterans Benefits. Working with Veterans. Battlemind: Continuing the transition home Sponsored by: The Utah Department of Veteran Affairs, VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, Vet Center, National Guard Bureau and the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health 1-800-894-9497 veterans.utah.gov *Apparel *Apparel Printing New and exciting come and see *Screen Printing JHREAD IMAGES "Embroidery *AII brands discounted prices none stop shop for all your apparel and advertising needs!" best In quality & service ! (435) 563-3000 25 East Center St. Smithfieid outstanding tickets or accidents on their record. A speeding ticket, for example, can stay on a drivers record for up to three years. And having a ticket or accident on record may end up increasing the premium on an auto quote. "It increases your risk as a driver because you are more likely to cause accidents or file a claim," she said. Reeves said to always make sure auto insurance is on time and up to date. A consequence of not paying insurance is the cancellation of the insurance. If a driver is pulled over and their record shows canceled insurance, it can be a "pretty hefty fine," Reeves said. "You haw to pay thefine,you often can get your drivers license suspended," she said. "When you get your drivers license reinstated, if you've had a ticket for no insurance, the state places something called an SR-22 on your record. This allows them to monitor your insurance and make sure you always have coverage." The minimum time frame for an SR-22 to remain on a driver's record is three years. At any time during those three years, random checks can be done to make sure a driver has insurance associated with their drivers license number. "If you don't, you get your license suspended," she said. Another factor that influences the price of auto insurance is something called a consumer report. This personal consumer report is to help the insurance agent decide how much risk is involved to insure a particular driver. Some of the driver's information is put into a system and then, depending on the outcome, the driver is lumped into risk categories. Visit us online @ www.Threadlmages.com Clark, who works for Allstate agent Eric Sorensen, said ftlstate uses a system, of numbers, one through 16 scores, with one being the best and 16 being the worst risk possible. Clark said this is called an insurance score. "What they've done is compiled a lot of consumer reports, and what they've found is that people who tend to have a higher score are ones who usually will file more claims or they don't pay their bills on time," Clark said. Reeves said Farmers Insurance calls the report a FARA and uses an alphabet scoring system with A being the best and Z being the worst. "Your score can be affected by (many things), including not paying your insurance, if that's one of the criteria your company looks at," she said. AUTO LIMITS There are two different types of auto insurance available: full or liability. Clark said the term full coverage can be misleading to people. It includes both comprehensive and collision coverage, where liability only covers the other person's vehicle. "Full coverage is basically where you have comp and collision on your policy, so it's gonna cover damages to your car if you're at fault on the collision and on comp," she said."It covers for fire, theft, wind, vandalism and (Allstate) also puts your windshield under that. But it's a misleading term for some people that don't know anything about insurance." Reeves said a driver receives a declaration page in the mail after they have chosen an insurance company. This paper states coverages and limits for each vehicle insured and shows a figure such as 25/50/25 or 50/100/50. Reeves said understanding thisfigureis extremely important. The first number means the bodily injury maximum amount paid out in the event of an accident. This amount, Reeves said, is paid out to other people involved in the accident, not including the insured driver, and helps cover any bodily injury caused to others. The second number means the maximum amount paid to all injuries in one accident, she said. "Liability limits are generally listed in the thousand dollar increments, so if you have a limit that says 25/50, it means $25,000. The reason there are two different limits for liability is because there is a per person and per occurrence limit," she said. "So if you are in a vehicle by yourself and you hit another car that has one person in it, they would have $25,000 for themselves or 50,000 for the entire accident if they needed it. If you hit a car that has six people in it, you have those same limits of coverage for all those people. So you would have 25,000 per person or 50,000 for the whole accident." The third number means the amount put toward property damage. "This pays for what you hit - the car, the building, anything other than a person," she said. Other parts of liability insurance are uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist. Uninsured motorists pays for personal injury caused by someone else who has no insurance to pay for a driver's medical damage. Underinsured motorist coverage means the difference between what the at-fault party's insurance has and what the actual damage is. "So let's say youget injured in an accident and you have $100,000 worth of medical damage to yourself and the person who hit you only had $50,000 of insurance coverage," Reeves said. "After their insurance takes over, your underinsured motorist coverage then takes over." Collisions and comprehensive insurance are also limit options. Collision insurance, Reeves said, is hitting anything other than an animal. "If you hit a building, a car, a phone pole, a mountain, that is all collision insurance," she said. "If you slide on ice and hit a telephone pole, that would be collision, but negligence is determined based in a claims adjuster deciding how at fault you were at the accident.So they may have some leeway given based on how they want to charge you for the accident. In Fanners, it is looked into." Reeves said she describes comprehensive insurance as "random acts of God' and are things that are unavoidable. "God doesn't like you," she said. "Your windshield getting cracked, lightning striking your car, your car being keyed, theft, because those are things you can't control You can control your driving on the road though." -brittny.jo@aggiemail.usu.edu Ellen Eccles Theatre A ^ Logan, Utah October 18th, 7:30pm October 19th, 7:30pm October 20th, 1:30pm & 7:30pm Tickets: 435-752-0026 ex. 14 or buy online at www.centerforthearts.us >ee the Events > Community Events link) ODYSSEY DANCE THEATRE Dtityl Yntarr, Foundrr and Aiiniit Student Discounts available! Buy your tickets early! All shows were sold out lost year! |