Enter Your Zip Code:

Parents should begin to consider the cost of auto insurance even before helping a child pick out and purchase his or her first vehicle. The range of prices can be vastly different, depending on the model of car chosen, its safety features and the year it was made. Graduating seniors should also be made aware of the high cost of auto insurance and the influence they can have upon the final price tag. Just knowing the following information could result in a substantial reduction in their automobile insurance rates when they go away to college:

Planning Ahead

The past does matter, particularly in regards to car insurance rates. During their high school years, students should work on maintaining the following:

• An excellent grade average

• A clean driving record

• A good credit score

• A record with driver’s education or a good defensive driving course

Students should make sure that if they are to remain on a parent’s automobile insurance policy that they call their agent before leaving for school, especially if they will be in another state, to discuss the effects of these changes on the policy and prices.

Comparing Plans

The internet has several good insurance comparison sites which make it easy to see which companies might offer the best overall pricing. However, students should be sure that they read the fine print and know exactly what coverage they are getting for their money. They should also be sure to contact their present agent to see if he can juggle the prices somewhat because of customer loyalty.

Saving Even More

Even the little things matter when it comes to saving a few dollars on car insurance. Some companies will offer discounts for the following actions:

• Having payments drafted straight out of a checking or savings account

• Paying the entire yearly amount at one time

• Installing a device to monitor safe driving habits

• Insuring more than one vehicle or bundling other types of insurance with the same company

Another simple way to lower the cost of annual car insurance payments is to accept a higher deductible. Students need to be sure that they can afford this measure and have the money safely tucked away so that they are never left without transport for a long period of time.

Finally, parents should remind their college students to keep proof of their insurance coverage with them at all times and should be sure that if the insurance identification cards are mailed to their home, rather than their child’s dorm or apartment, that they are diligent in getting them to them quickly. This will keep students from ever having to waste time or money in order to defend themselves after being given a citation.

Guest author Jennifer Lewis writes for a website that has information on college scholarships for women as well as federal college grants for women. She believes it’s essential that students arrange adequate car insurance cover before leaving for college.

Enter Your Zip Code:

Here are another 10 new local auto insurance guides that have been published over the last 2 days. We are going to continue to publish 10 guides a week for the next 6 months or so. Thus, stay tuned to see what’s in store.

Corpus Christi, TX

Newark, NJ

Riverside, CA

Anchorage, AK

Lexington-Fayette, KY

Stockton, CA

Bakersfield, CA

Louisville, KY

St. Petersburg, FL

Jersey City, NJ

Just to let you know we continue to grow the site. Just this past week we added 10 new local auto insurance guides to the site. They are for the following cities.

St. Louis, MO

Anaheim, CA

Pittsburgh, PA

Cincinnati, OH

Tampa, FL

Toledo, OH

Raleigh, NC

Buffalo, NY

Aurora, CO

St. Paul, MN

We’re continually adding more cities to our site, so if yous isn’t here yet just be patient as we will most likely be adding it soon.

Michigan auto insurance rates are rising to cover catastrophic accident claims. Michigan is one the minority of states to use the no-fault system of auto insurance. According to Mlive.com the increase will be an average of $30 per year for each Michiganite. While perhaps not a huge increase in dollar terms, it is still just one more expense many people face. Moreover, it is a 21% increase in that portion of the premium.

The reason for the increase is due to rising health care costs associated with catastrophic accidents. As the law stands now victims of these accidents receive unlimited lifetime medical care. Very generous, but the care does come at a cost. The fee is set to come in on July 1, 2012, according to the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCAA).

However, many in the state are not happy with the fee increase and calls to change or even scrap Michigan’s no-fault insurance system have been growing. News reports are saying that The Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault (CPAN) is fighting any proposed changes to the law.

They claim that the preferred option put forward by the insurance industry would reduce coverage with no guarantee of reducing prices. They also say that:

Drivers will have to purchase MORE insurance to protect themselves from underinsured drivers.

and that

Seriously injured drivers will be FORCED onto welfare programs to pay for their care once their auto insurance hits the proposed limits, which our state cannot afford.

This has placed Michigan’s politicians in a bit of a bind. People clearly don’t want to pay more for car insurance, yet don’t want to give up their current insurance system. With medical and other associated costs rising this position is becoming untenable. As a result, it seems likely that there will have to be some changes to the system. Just how far they’ll go is anybodies guess. In the mean time yo can still save money with an instant car insurance quote.

Enter Your Zip Code:

We started the tournament with 8 car insurance companies almost 1 week ago. Now we are down to the final two. The question will now be answered: Which insurer has the bigger and perhaps better following on twitter? Interestingly, the two finalists are first and second largest auto insurance companies. State Farm, the biggest auto insurer in the US by far, up against Allstate, the number two in terms of premiums collected, but perhaps not in terms twitter engagement.

Here is how the two giants compare:

Source: InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com

Use this code to place the graphic above on your site/blog:
<a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/auto-insurance-twitter-showdown-final/"><img src="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/infographics/StateFarm-v-Allstate.png" height="2392" width="600" alt="State Farm vs Allstate" align="center" border="0"></a><b>Source:</b> <a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com">InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com</a>

Winner: Allstate

Allstate beats State Farm, the largest US insurer, when it comes to their twitter accounts. They have over 5K more followers and also just barely beat them out in terms of mentions the last 4 weeks. Moreover, their ratio of followers to following is about twice as good as well. Therefore we are happy to announce that Allstate is the overall winner and has the largest and arguably best engaged twitter account of any of the 8 largest US insurers.

The following chart recaps the tournament:

You can review what this tournament was all about here.

In our second semi-final we have Allstate (which just squeaked by USAA) meeting GEICO (which had a close call with Liberty Mutual). Let’s see how these two compare:

Source: InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com

Put this graphic on you site using this code:
<a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/twitter-showdown-semi-finals-2/"><img src="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/infographics/Allstate-v-Geico.png" height="2392" width="600" alt="Allstate vs Geico" align="center" border="0"></a><b>Source:</b> <a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com">InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com</a>

Winner: Allstate

In another easy victory, Allstate handily beats GEICO. With more than 3X the number of followers and a slightly better follower to following ratio, there can be no doubt that Allstate is the winner here. GEICO does get slightly more mentions than Allstate, but Allstate is far more active than GEICO is on twitter. This means Allstate will face State Farm in the finals.

Here is how the tournament has progressed thus far:

Tomorrow the finals: State Farm vs Allstate

In our first semi-final match-up we have State Farm (which handily beat Nationwide) vs. Progressive (which beat Farmers). Let’s see how these two companies compare to each other when they square off.

Source: InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com

To put this match-up on our site use this code:
<a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/twitter-showdown-semi-finals-1/"><img src="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/infographics/StateFarm-v-Progressive.png" height="2392" width="600" alt="State Farm vs Progressive" align="center" border="0"></a><b>Source:</b> <a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com">InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com</a>

Winner: State Farm

This one wasn’t even close. State Farm has nearly double the followers of Progressive, has a better follower to following ratio, has more mentions and overall is about as active as Progressive on Twitter. The one interesting thing about this showdown is that both State Farm and Progressive are most active on Tuesdays, State Farm at 6am and Progressive at 6pm.

With our first semi-final done here is where the chart stands:

To find out about all series see the tournament main page. The second semi-final sees Allstate vs GEICO.

Today we look at final two companies in our insurance company twitter showdown. In this battle third largest insurer GEICO faces off against sixth largest insurer Liberty Mutual.

Source: InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com

To place this amazing graphic on your website/blog please use this code:
<a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/geico-vs-liberty-mutual/"><img src="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/infographics/Geico-v-Libertymutal.png" height="2392" width="600" alt="Geico vs Liberty Mutal" align="center" border="0"></a><b>Source:</b> <a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com">InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com</a>

Winner: GEICO

This showdown wasn’t quite as interesting as some of the others we’ve seen. Neither GEICO nor Liberty Mutual have over 10K followers. One thing that is impressive is the fact that Liberty Mutual is only following 199 other people, which means it has 34.5 followers for every person they’re following. Still GEICO has over a thousand more followers and is mentioned far more often on twitter than Liberty Mutual. As a result we give GEICO the edge for this one.

Here is how things now look:

That wraps up the preliminary rounds. Visit our main page to learn more about this tournament. Tomorrow it’s Semi-Final #1 – State Farm vs Progressive.

Our third twitter match-up is between fourth largest insurer Progressive and fifth largest insurer Farmers. This is another interesting comparison as both have their strong and weak points:

Source: InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com

To put this showdown on your website just use this code:
<a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/progressive-vs-farmers/"><img src="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/infographics/Progressive-v-Farmers.png" height="2392" width="600" alt="Progressive vs Farmers" align="center" border="0"></a><b>Source:</b> <a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com">InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com</a>

Winner: Progressive

In another hard to judge head-to-head showdown, Progressive wins because it has more followers and tweets far more often than Farmers. Farmers does follow fewer people which means it has a better follower to following ratio and it also receives more mentions than Progressive. The real deciding factor though is the fact that Progressive actually uses their twitter account on a daily basis. They are active almost everyday of the week, whereas Farmers seems to bizarrely be most active on Sundays.

Current standings:

To find out more about this tournament have a look at the main page. The next meeting will be GEICO vs Liberty Mutual.

The next showdown in our series is Allstate vs. USAA. Allstate is the second largest insurer in the United States and USAA is seventh. Here is how they compare in terms of their twitter accounts:

Source: InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com

Put this infographic on your site:
<a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/allstate-vs-usaa/"><img src="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com/infographics/Allstate-v-USAA.png" height="2392" width="600" alt="Allstate vs USAA" align="center" border="0"></a> <b>Source:</b> <a href="http://instantcarinsuranceonline.com">InstantCarInsuranceOnline.com</a>

Winner: Allstate

This one was a real squeaker. Both accounts have nearly exactly the same number of followers, an impressive 26.9K each. Moreover, both are very active on Twitter. However, Allstate has a better follower to following ratio and it received several times more mentions in the preceding weeks. Still both Allstate and USAA should be congratulated on their use of twitter to interact with their customers.

Updated results:

To find out more what this March Madness series is all about have a look at the main tournament page. The next match-up (once it becomes available) is Progressive vs Farmers.