I’ve grown up pretty much my entire life having dogs as pets.  Christine and I adopted a mutt named “Barney” from Lollypop Farm about 5 years ago.  I enjoy hauling my dog around with me when I can in the SUV (weather permitting, of course).  I’ll take him to the dog park or we’ll bring him on a hike with us, I never really gave much thought about what would happen if we were in a car accident, until I started to sell insurance and my perspective on everything changed. 

I have a grate that keeps him in the back of the vehicle, so he’s not jumping over the seat or licking my ear/face when I’m driving.  I figured this would help keep him in the back of the vehicle in case we were ever in an accident and help protect him and us.  Even though the grate will keep him from propelling into the back of us or even worse out of the vehicle, undoubtedly he would still sustain some injuries depending on the severity of an accident. 

Now I know that if I’m hurt in an accident or any of my passengers, my auto insurance policy with pay for my medical bills.  But what about Barney’s medical bills?  Two of the insurance companies that I represent will cover the medical bills for your dog/cat, Erie Insurance and Progressive Insurance.

Erie Insurance will pay up to $500 per animal for reasonable veterinary costs incurred due to an injury in a covered auto accident.  If the injury results in death, Erie will pay up to $500 to replace the dog/cat, which includes the first wellness visit and the cost to spay or neuter the dog/cat.  There is no deductible applied to this pet coverage.  Anyone that has an Erie Insurance Auto Policy automatically has this coverage built into their policy at no additional cost. 

Progressive provides up to $1,000 for veterinary bills for your animal that is injured in a covered auto accident.  Progressive will pay you up to $1,000 to replace your animal, even if you opt not to replace your animal.  Now in order for Progressive’s pet coverage to apply to your policy, at-least one of the cars on your policy has to have collision coverage.  If you have collision coverage on at-least one vehicle, the pet coverage is automatically included on your policy and applies to all vehicles on the policy even if they don’t have collision coverage. 

For all of the dog/cat lovers out there, these are great coverages to protect your pet. 

I received a call recently from a prospect looking for auto insurance that was a male, 20 years old, had 4 tickets in the last 2 years and 1 accident, and he lived in the city of Rochester and wondered why he was paying so much for his auto insurance.  He obviously didn’t understand that insurance premium rates are based upon your driving record.  Insurance companies reward you for having good driving habits and penalize you if you don’t. 

If you look at this prospect he is getting whacked for a number of reasons, first being his age.  At 20 years old he is still a new driver.  Once he turns around 24 he will start to see his rates decrease.  Second he is single, insurance companies give better rates to married couples because actuarial data has proven that married drivers are more responsible. 

Also being such a young age and having his driving record isn’t boding well for him.  Even if you take a defensive driving course to have points removed from your DMV report, your insurance company will still surcharge you for them.  Insurance companies assign their own points to your violations.  Having 4 tickets within 2 years not only results in him paying more, but it also excludes him from even applying to some preferred companies.

He is also getting charged a higher rate because he lives within the city of Rochester, not that the city of Rochester is a bad place to live, but insurance costs may be higher in the city compared to some of the surrounding towns and counties.  Insurance companies rate based on where you live, they have statistical data the proves that some areas where people live have more frequent or higher dollar claims. 

Now all of these factors make sense on why he would be paying a higher rate, but what most people don’t realize is that he may also be paying a higher rate because of his credit score.  Most insurance companies will run a insurance score which is based off of your credit score.  With this new rating factor companies are able to have many more tiers of rates than they did previously. 

Some companies will have over 100 different tiers to rate someone based on their insurance score, then once you take into consideration the rest of the factors like where you live, driving record, age, marital status and the car you drive, there are an infinite number of rating combinations.  I always think it is funny when people will ask me how much it will cost to insure their vehicle and think that I can tell them off of the top of my head.  There are so many factors that go into the rates that you can’t estimate accurately the premium without putting all of the information into the insurance companies rating software.  Everybody has their own individual rate for their car insurance.  Also, the prices can vary greatly from one company to the next as well.