'Good drivers' pay more for insurance, study often

By Kraut white tree, today registered users
If you believe that you display, good drivers will receive the best insurance rates. But a new study shows auto insurance companies often good drivers require higher premiums than those who caused an accident recently. And it seems from this research that the safe driver, the more numbers often lower income.

How could this happen?

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA), which conducted the study, says that this reflects a common practice in the insurance industry with factors such as education and profession, interest-rate risk.

A CFA survey in 2012 showed that two-thirds of Americans believed taking into account these factors, but driving story was unfair.

Stephen Brobeck, Executive Director of CFA, this is called a "discriminatory practice", which auslost-prices for low- and moderate-income drivers.

The industry rejects any notion that it will be disadvantaged in any way.

"The policies we offer fair in all respects, are," said Michael Barry, Vice President media relations at the insurance information Institute.

How to measure CFA marketplace
The CFA guidelines for two hypothetical customers price: high school receptionist and Manager. Both women were 30 years old, driven for 10 years had lived on the same street in the same zip code with medium income.

But there were important differences.

The reception is single, rents an apartment. She was never an accident or moving violation, but she was without insurance coverage for 45 days.

The Executive Branch is married to homeowners with a master's degree. Your car insurance policy has never expire. But she had an accident on errors with $800 damage within the last three years.

CFA scientists visited sites of the five largest U.S. car insurance - state farm, Allstate, GEICO, farmers and progressive - in search of the minimum liability coverage required by this State. This was for both women in 12 cities.

As a result, two-thirds of the 60 citations were for the Executive Branch (which had an accident) as for the receptionist (had), less often by at least 25 percent.

The insurance information Institute asks whether the test was fair, because the receptionist had a break in insurance and this could be seen as a risk factor. The Consumer Federation of America says the receptionist had no car for 45 days and therefore needed no insurance. Questions that make your car more risky, they?

Why is this happening?
Insurance companies hold a variety of factors determine the risk they represent and the price they should charge if you apply for an auto policy. All agree that your age, gender, type of vehicle and driving history can help to predict the probability that you will have an accident.

However, insurance underwriters should your education, career, or in some cases, your credit score? What have these social and economic factors, to do with your ability, a safe driver?

"These factors was found, that possibilities be insurance statistically solid risk assessment," said Michael Barry, Vice President media relations at the insurance information Institute. "And before they are ever used, these rating criteria are tested, State insurance regulators who have allowed them."

CFA says it's not fair for someone who get a better rate, simply because they have more education and more income.

"Our concern is that these factors are not proved, There is no logical reason to explain why they should work, '' said Robert Hunter, CFAs Director of insurance and former Texas Insurance Commissioner. "The insurance companies say there is a link, and that's all what you need."

Some insurance companies consider your credit scores now, if you set your premiums. Not too good with Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, sit, which calls the practice "blatantly unfair" way to assess the risk.

"I think it's terrible," me Kreidler. "Do you use a credit score in this economy? You have people who have no fault ultimately with less quality credit and yet drivers are still responsible. You should not pay more for auto insurance because of that."

Not in the Sunshine state
The California Insurance Department decides what reviews are factors of car insurers car pricing. Education, not to look at work and credit scores.

"We want criteria that have a relationship to the risk of loss," said Joel Laucher, California Deputy Insurance Commissioner for tariff regulation.

"You want something, that is fair and quite intuitive, so that people understand why there was a difference in price." "It should be something the driver can control and realize, how they change their behavior to improve their rate can be."

Massachusetts restricts the use of socio-economic factors for private car insurance.

"A determination was made that to drive insurance an individual car must listen more closely", said Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Joe Murphy.

The bottom line
There are many insurance companies for your company in the competition. Prices are very different.

A good start is your insurance Department Web site. Find a comparison chart that lists the prices in your area for various hypothetical clients. It is an easy way to see how the different insurance companies to compare, and where you go, would like to receive an offer.

(Find a link to your insurance Department at: National Association of Insurance Commissioners.)

Receive offers from an independent agent who represents several companies or go online and do it yourself sites such as InsWeb, NetQuote, InsuranceHotline, InsuranceQuotes, financial response. Expect no immediate offer from these pages. In most cases you won't find agents be contacted for your company.

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Fixing cars now often means updating software

Dan Carney , NBC News contributor

It used to be that when cars left the factory, automakers had nothing further to do with them unless the manufacturers had made some terrible mistake in assembling them. In such cases, there would be a dramatic recall in which the defective or incorrectly installed part was replaced.

Computing devices, in contrast, get “recalled” almost weekly, as manufacturers issue software updates that correct flaws, address new challenges like a new virus, or tweak functions to satisfy customers.

Now that cars have as much computing power as they have horsepower, it should come as no surprise that they are getting software updates too. Few cars have the persistent Internet connection most computers have, so these updates won’t go out to the cars automatically.

Instead, drivers typically bring their cars to their dealers for updates. Do-it-yourself-oriented Ford owners can perform their own updates from flash drives. Taking the car to the dealer sounds like a hassle, but owners can schedule the software update at the same time as their oil change, thereby taking care of both maintenance issues at the same time.

Or, in the case of tech enthusiasts looking for the latest thing, they can take care of the old petroleum-era maintenance when they rush to the dealer for the latest digital update.

Just as computer and consumer electronics companies have telephone help centers to guide customers in their products’ use, so too do car companies. When those call centers notice a large volume of calls from customers complaining of the same problem, it points to the need for a change as to how a particular device works in the car.

In the case of the navigation systems in General Motors’ cars, the steps to cancel a navigation route were not obvious to most users. So those drivers frequently pressed the On-Star button to connect with the company so they could learn how to stop the continual voice prompts.

As a result, GM will reprogram the navigation system to make canceling a route simpler, according to Mark Harland, manager of GM’s connected customer team. “In the next generation (of the software), there will be a pop-up 'cancel route' or 'delete route' button on the screen,” he promised.

When the company notices that many customers are having the same problems using its products, they quickly perform triage on the problem to determine what can be done immediately to help and what solutions will need to wait for future software updates.

There is normally a “cadence” to the release of software updates that come out once or twice a year, he said, and solutions need to fit into that cadence. That approximately matches the oil change interval, so it shouldn’t pose a new burden on drivers.

At Chrysler, one of the biggest sources of customer headaches has been the challenge of pairing a phone with the car via Bluetooth wireless technology, reported Mike Long, head of Uconnect product development. Chrysler also wanted to see more detail on navigation maps, even when zoomed out. Consequently, in 2013 the software update will ensure that those maps gain that additional detail, Long said.

And all companies with products that use voice control have run into trouble with customers who have difficulty using the system. Chrysler’s solution will be to pop up an on-screen menu showing some of the choices of phrases available to drivers at the time.

The company hopes such a “teleprompter” will prove less distracting to drivers than a furious driver trying to figure out an unclear menu system.

The Ford guys have already done a software update to their MyFord Touch software, a change that saw the ambient temperature display on the central infotainment screen disappear. The cars show the outside temperature on the instrument panel also, so this display was thought to be redundant.

Responding to customers who let the company know they liked having the display there, the companies returned the temperature display to the central screen in the latest update, said Alan Hall, communications manager for technology at Ford. “We just launched that software update in September, so now customers can choose to have the temperature display configured “on” or “off,” based on their preference,” he said.

That sounds like the kind of “recall” drivers won’t mind.

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