There are many things you can do to avoid high auto insurance premiums. Here is a short list of those things:

1. A safe driving record. It certainly pays to have an accident free driving record. This is the first thing the insurance underwriters look for when approving a hefty discount on premiums.
2. If all your cars are with one insurance company. The all famous “car discount” is when all vehicles within one household is covered with the same insurance agent under the same insurance policy.
3. Additionally, if you home insurance is also included with the property casualty insurance company, will also add to an overall insurance discount. This is called a “multi-line” discount.
4. If your household does not smoke, this qualifies for another great discount.
5. Usually if the youngest driver age in the household is is at least 25 years old, this also qualifies for a discount.
6. Lastly, raising all your deductibles is a great way to decrease premiums. This enables the insured to take up more of the financial responsibility, thus giving a discount from the insurance company to the insured.

What is most important is to compare premiums with one company to another. There can be great differences between companies just because of the unique underwriter requirements or state rulings over each insurance company.

Whatever the case, it is buyer beware.

Feel free to make a comment on how you saved money on your insurance coverage.

For a quick, no obligation quote on your auto and homeowners insurance needs, call Doug Seide at 480-443-1952.

We found a very interesting video that completely explains auto insurance coverages and how a claim is made. Please feel free to give us comments below after viewing it.

Here is a video of a TV news show featuring Kirk Tweedy, executive director for Farmers Insurance. In this video, he answers questions on filing claims for storm damage. Pay attention to the details of this video as he explains many important points of properly making a storm damage claim.

Scottsdale Insurance Agent, Doug Seide also provides Institutional Insurance Coverage. Arizona is certainly abundant with many cultural and social service organizations, schools, and churches. All of these entities are in a special class of insurance that only insurance agents with specialty coverage plans can supply.

There are specific requirements that these types of entities have to have regarding insurance protection.

All real and personal property must be insured at 100% replacement cost. Because of the uniqueness of some specialty properties such as rare stain glass windows in churches, or pipe organs, or one of a kind ornate construction of an old school, valuation has to be done very thoroughly. Quite often, in the appraisal process, several specialists that can appraise different items will be called in.

If a particular building such as a church or old school that is over 50 years old, an insurance carrier may require the entity to upgrade the structure to modern day safety and fire codes. So these entities may have to spend much more than just the insurance premium on the property.

The good news is that an insurance company can often make recommendations that can make the building and personal property rise in value because of the strict standards imposed on them.

In either case, institutional insurance coverage in Arizona is a very valuable item that is needed for any non profit organization.

For all your insurance needs, call Doug Seide Insurance at 480-443-1952.

There is a right way and wrong way of buying homeowners insurance. Too many people are just not prepared in knowing what questions to ask or what companies to approach for a quote. As mentioned in a previous post, you have to be very careful in the selection of the insurance company in the first place.

We found a great video that explains how to purchase homeowners insurance in “plain english.” Enjoy!

For all your insurance needs, call Doug Seide Insurance at 480-443-1952.

When purchasing insurance, for the most part, it is a safe bet to secure your policy from a reputable insurance agent. But there are some people out there that want very cheap rates, and will seek this cheap insurance in other than obvious places.

Here are some tips on how to avoid getting scammed from an unscrupulous agent.

1. Be aware of companies or individual agents that say they can insure you no matter what your past driving record or past claims history has been. Under normal circumstances, even if you were to be insured with that profile, you would be given a fairly long waiting period and an extremely high premium quote.
2. Make sure that the company name is correctly spelled. Quite often scammers will make up a company name that sounds very similar to a well known and reputable company.
3. Be very suspicious if the agent (scammer) will take money by wire or direct deposit into an account right away.  You should take your time to investigate the legitimacy of the company by checking in with the department of insurance in your state and do some simple research on the internnet. Being “rushed” is certainly a “red flag.”
4. Be suspicious of getting mailers soliciting “great insurance” deals. This also applies to insurance sales pitches that you receive via fax. A lot of scammers don’t advertise in the Yellow Pages or “legitimate” publications because they know it is against the law to publish in them.
5. Also, check with references, friends, family and business acquaintences about a particular insurance company you are interested in. Talking to someone who already has a policy with the company being reviewed is the best way to go. That way, you can find out how the company performance is, claims service, and most importantly, how legitimate the company is.

Of course, there are many more ways to “filter” out a scammer from a legitimate company. Just make sure you investigate as thorough as you can.

If you would like a quote on your auto, homeowners or specialty equipment, call Doug Seide at 480-443-1952.