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Cheap car insurance is definitely something that all drivers strive to get these days. With insurance costs rising every year and the incomes of many households getting smaller the question if cheap car insurance becomes crucial for a lot of families in the US. There are many ways you can actually get an affordable policy and you don’t have to break the law or become an insurance expert to do that. However, for a certain group of drivers cheap car insurance is the standard option no matter which company they choose to buy from. These lucky customers are called good drivers and they always get the best rates possible.

The definition of a good driver is rather vague depending on the point of view you study it from. Most people would think that being a good driver means handling your car like a pro and being able to drive at incredible speeds like a Formula 1 racer. However, the insurance providers have quite a different understanding on this term. From their perspective “good” means “low risk”, a driver who is very unlikely to file a claim and make the company pay out for damage or injuries he or she has caused. Insurance providers use different factors to determine the risk grade of a particular customer and knowing them will definitely help you get cheap car insurance if you will take the necessary measures to improve your statistics.

First of all, insurance companies check your driving record and look for any negative entries it may contain. The more traffic violations and accidents you have, especially if your record isn’t that long in time, the more it is unlikely for you to get cheap car insurance in general. Try to keep your record as clean as possible for a longer period of time and you will be considered as a low risk driver. If there are already certain entries you can take measures by eliminating them. Ask your local road police station whether you can take additional course in order to eliminate your penalty points and negative entries in the record – in most states it is possible.

Additional driving courses can be a very good idea in general since they often allow you to get better quotes after you show the certificate. There are many courses available in all states and you will just have ask around in your city or town. Make sure that you will get a valid certificate after finishing such courses because it will be a proof to the insurance company that you are actually a better driver. Besides the obvious benefits of getting cheap car insurance you will also gain additional knowledge and driving skills which is definitely a good perspective.

And don’t forget to keep your credit record in a good condition. Most insurance companies use customers’ credit reports in order to determine how risky they are because it was statistically proven that drivers with a good rating file claims less often than those with scores below the average. If your credit record isn’t very favorable hire a financial consultant in order to improve your rating and eliminate any unused and outstanding credits and debts. This will raise your chance of getting cheap car insurance right from the start.

The story every life insurance company tells is the family tragedy. Both husband and wife go out to work, leaving their two teens to cope on their own. Knowing life would be a struggle if one spouse died, they were both insured. So, when the worst happens and one is unlucky to be caught in a traffic accident, the rest of the family is able to pay off the mortgage and other major debts, with enough left over to see the children through college. This general story is reassuring. It addresses the natural worries of parents and gives them a good night’s sleep every night. Except life does not always run as the marketers would have us believe.

Let’s change the story so that disaster strikes the whole family. They are all in the car together as it is forced off the road in a collision with a driver under the influence of alcohol and crashes into a tree. They all die in the resulting fire. So there’s no convenient family member who opens the drawer of the desk in the living room and takes out the policy to make the claim. Indeed, the insurance company may be completely unaware of the deaths. The only sign will be that the premiums are unpaid. The company may write a warning letter or two to the family’s address. There’s no reply so the policies are cancelled.

The question, therefore, is what should happen to any money that’s unclaimed. Obviously, we should distinguish the cases where the insurer knows or does not know of the deaths. Sadly, there’s no consistency in the laws dealing with this. All the states have slightly different laws. There’s some current discussion with a new model law proposed to clarify the confusing legal requirements but, so far, there’s no agreement on what the final version of the model law should look like and there will be no obligation on states to implement it.

There should be a standard system in all states for deaths to be notified to insurance companies or every insurance company should be under a legal duty to monitor the register of deaths. That way, insurers would know if policyholders have died. If no claim is received within a set period of time, the insurer should begin a search for beneficiaries. If a will is submitted for probate, it would not be difficult to identify the legitimate claimants and to notify them that money is being held for them to claim. But if there’s no will, the insurer should be required to spend a reasonable about of time and effort in tracking down the next of kin. Many insurers quietly absorb the unclaimed money. In some states, however, the government claims the money. Again, there are no consistent auditing rules about how the amount is calculated. All we can say is that, every year, several hundred million dollars of all life insurance moneys goes unclaimed and so often ends up held by the states. Details of the unclaimed money are then advertised, but only about 20% of that money is ever claimed. This benefits the state treasuries and taxpayers when no one claims. So when you get life insurance quotes, tell all your relatives and beneficiaries which insurer will be paying out. That gives them the chance to claim.