Killeen Insurance For Seniors to Lower Their Auto Insurance Costs

There are many ways for older drivers to save significant dollars on their auto insurance. But, if you buy your policy online or over the phone there is a good chance that you won’t be told about them. Buying insurance through an independent insurance agent is no more expensive than buying a policy online or over the phone, but an independent agent will take the time to talk with you and uncover the discounts you qualify for as well as the discounts you can easily obtain. The following are a few tips you should keep in mind when thinking of acquiring a new Killeen Insurance policy.

1. If you are 50 or older check with your agent to see if you qualify for a mature driver’s discount. Most insurance companies give them, but not all do so automatically. In addition, different carriers may have an age other than 50 when the discount kicks in. The average mature driver discount is 5 to 10 percent, so that can be quite helpful.

2. Defensive Driving Course: These courses are given in a classroom setting or online. They are usually eight hours long and successful completion can earn you a discount of up to 10 percent for as long as three years. The cost is generally $10 to $30.

3. Folks who have retired and no longer commute to and from work often are eligible for a discount due to decreased mileage driven. The fewer miles driven, the lower the risk of having to file an insurance claim. The amount of the discount is determined by your state so check with your agent if you have retired.

4.  Multi-policy discount: When you place your homeowners or renters insurance with the same company that provides your automobile insurance you will usually get a discount, known as a multiple policy discount, on both policies. The discounts vary by insurance carrier, but it is certainly worthwhile to discuss with your insurance agent.

5. Military discounts are frequently available to consumers who are on active duty, have retired from the armed forces or are a member of the National Guard or Reserves. If this applies to you, ask your agent if you are entitled to a discount on your automobile policy.

6. Safe drivers who are accident free for a set period of time may qualify for a safe driver discount. Make sure to ask your agent about this potential money-saving discount.

7. PIP Discount: Some insurance companies offer a discount on Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage if a specified amount of miles driven each year is completed by a driver over a certain age.

While you can expect to see your rates fall when you are in your fifties they will start to rise when you hit your sixties. Getting every discount you can as soon as you can will help keep your rates manageable. Contact an agent at Shawn Camp Insurance today for more information.

Insuring Luxury Items and Collectibles

There is no question that renter’s insurance is a smart investment for anyone who doesn’t own his own place, be it an apartment, townhouse, or single-family home. However, renter’s insurance is geared toward typical household contents, such as clothing, furniture, personal goods, and appliances.

Three categories of property may or may not be covered, depending on the policy: antiques, collectibles, and fine art. After a loss is not the time to find out the scope of your Texas Renters insurance.

Antiques and Vintage Furniture and Decor:
Typically, antiques are furniture or decorative objects over a century old. Vintage is more subjective, but typically includes items between 40 and 100 years old. If you have vintage or antique furniture in your rental, you should look into expanded coverage. Your agent will likely require photos and an appraisal. Again, after a fire or flood is not the time to find out the bedroom set you got from your grandmother’s garage was Depression-era Heywood-Wakefield and worth several thousand dollars.

Collectibles:
Collectibles can range from first-edition books and stamps, to comic books and plastic action figures. Before you talk to your insurance agent, take a thorough inventory, with photos, and have estimated replacement costs. Your vintage red-handled egg beater collection may be priceless to you, but you need to have an idea of fair market value.

Professional grade price guides are a good place to start. Otherwise, the 30-year-old $2.99 price sticker on the package may be the extent of your potential recovery. Depending on the size of the collection and the claimed value, a professional appraisal may be required to ensure full coverage.

Fine Art:
In general, fine art encompasses paintings, prints, sculpture, and other decorative objects that are either one-of-a-kind or produced in limited editions. A thorough inventory accompanied by good photographs is essential. Gallery receipts, appraisal letters, and comparable sales by professionals are some good ways to determine the replacement value of your fine art pieces.

Once you have determined the scope and replacement value of your luxury items, it is time to sit down with your insurance agent and decide what is the best coverage for you. Typically, there are two choices: specialized policies and riders to existing policies.

The Internet is rife with companies claiming they will insure your collection for low rates. Depending on what you collect, a separate specialty policy may be a good choice. However,  luxury items can usually be handled with specialized clauses called riders to regular renter’s policies.  A licensed insurance agent can help you make the best choice.

Contact an agent at Shawn Camp Insurance Agency for more information about renter’s insurance and how to protect your antiques and collectibles.

How to Increase Your Vehicle’s Fuel Efficiency Without Breaking the Bank

With fuel prices hovering around the $3.50 a gallon mark, getting an extra 3 miles per gallon can really add up. There are plenty of websites that exhibit the fuel-saving  actions of a type of driver called the “hyper-miler.” These drivers have perfected the practice of getting every last mile out of their gas tanks. Unfortunately, some of these practices put the driver, and their car, at much more risk than the reward is worth. While we applaud the hyper-milers for their dedication, we must remind them that they might end up paying the savings that they make at the pump might in their next deductible.

Not all hyper-miling techniques are bad. In fact, there are five of them that make absolute sense. Doing these five things will keep your car in top shape so it delivers peak performance every day and will make you a safer and more fuel efficient driver.

●      Inflate tires properly

●      Get routine maintenance

●      Remove excess weight

●      Anticipate red lights

●      Accelerate slowly and evenly

By having properly inflated tires, you reduce the amount of friction that is generated by the rubber against the asphalt. According to Fueleconomy.gov you can increase your mileage by up to 3.3% simply by inflating your tires to the recommended PSI.

Keeping your car in good shape is the next best  way to save on fuel consumption. If you have a bad oxygen sensor, it could be zapping as much as 40% of your fuel efficiency. Of course, this isn’t the case with most cars, but by doing frequent oil changes and having a yearly tune-up you can save about 4% of your fuel costs over the duration of a year.

Removing the excess weight from your vehicle is also a good way to get better gas mileage. It takes more effort for a car to pull more weight. Reducing your car’s weight by 100 lbs can give you about 2% more fuel economy.

When your car is idling, it is wasting gas. Eliminating idle time at red lights can significantly improve your gas mileage for a couple of reasons. First, by anticipating the changing of the light you can begin to slow down much further away and coast to the light. This will consume less gas. Second, if you time it right, you can avoid making a full stop and conserve the momentum of the car. Accelerating from a dead stop is far less efficient than from a slow roll. 

Lastly, accelerating at a slow and even pace and maintaining a lower average speed can increase fuel efficiency by up to 20%. This eliminates excess fuel from being pumped into the pistons and being wasted.

Using these techniques will make you a more conscious driver. When you are focused on driving more steadily you become more aware of your surroundings and are less apt to end up in an accident that could have been avoided. Safe drivers get the lowest auto insurance rates across the board. So, by becoming more aware of your surroundings and taking better care of your car, you’ll be able to save money, not only at the pump, but on your monthly insurance bills as well! For more information on your Texas Auto Insurance policy, give us a call at Shawn Camp Insurance Agency today.

Will Home Insurance Cover Your Broken Property?

Not every item damaged during any insurable incident is in pristine condition before the incident occurs. If you have property in your home that was broken before a hurricane, fire or other insurable incident, you may be wondering if you can include that property in the claim that you make for the other damages you've experienced.

There really is no yes or no answer to this question. Property that is broken could still have a value that an insurer may reimburse after a claim is made. For example, if your insurance policy covers the actual value of your property then it already subtracts some of the item’s original value for depreciation, which means a broken but repairable item that was totaled during an insurable incident may be considered to have depreciated more than a functional item its age would have. In order to get the appropriate value for your property, describe the pre-existing condition of all the items that have been damaged. When you explain the extent of the disrepair of an item that was broken before the insurable incident, the insurance company will be better able to determine what its actual value was.

If your Progressive homeowners insurance policy covers replacement value of your assets then you may be out of luck because the broken property needed to be replaced before the insurable incident occurred, therefore the need for replacement is not caused by the insurable incident and may not be reimbursable by your home insurance policy.

Knowingly making a claim against your insurance for an item that was broken before an insurable incident without disclosing its true pre-existing condition could be considered fraud. Rather than risk the renewal of your insurance policy, it's generally best to give too much information rather than too little when you make an insurance claim. If you aren't sure how your insurance policy will cover a certain piece of property you own or how to fill out your claim forms, stop by or give us a call 866-251-5220.

5 Ways to Make Insurance Shopping Easier

While insurance is one of the most important protections you can provide your family with, it's not exactly fun to shop for. When shopping for cars, gadgets, clothes, shoes and other retail items, you cast a hopeful eye to the future and look forward to a time when you get to use the item that you're shopping for; but when shopping for insurance you must consider the worst possible events that could occur and purchase protection against the financial damages they will cause, all the while hoping that they never come to pass.
If you want to make the process of shopping for insurance a little easier and faster, here are a few tips:

• Have all your information. Depending on the type of insurance policy you’re shopping for, you may need varying types of information. For example, when shopping for home insurance you'll need to know the value of your contents, the rebuilding costs for your home and what kind of anti-theft and disaster response systems you have in place. When shopping for health insurance, you'll need to know your medications weight height and so on. Call your agent and ask what specific information you should have ready when you met with her. 
• Know what you want to protect. When you apply for insurance the goal is to create financial protection against certain types of losses. If you don't know, however, what you want to protect then it will be difficult to get the appropriate coverage.
• Have a budget. When designing an insurance policy, not only must you consider all the property you want to protect and the events you want to protect the property from, but also what you can afford to pay for the insurance. These two pieces of information go hand in hand.
• Have an agent. Not only is it potentially dangerous to shop for insurance without an agent helping you understand the various coverage options, limits, and exclusions involved but it's also inefficient. Agents can quickly compare costs for equivalent policies and can design insurance coverage with as few gaps as you can afford.

We’re here to help you get the policy design that you and your family need most. When you're ready to start shopping for Killeen home, auto, or business insurance or to conduct a review of your current policies, give us a call at Shawn Camp Insurance today.

Fixing an Anemic Insurance Portfolio

Insurance is a product that is meant to provide protection to policyholders and their families over the years. A properly developed insurance portfolio provides adequate protection for the policyholder’s property and risks while also sheltering them from too much in self-insurance liabilities.

If one isn’t careful about how they design their insurance portfolio, they could end up with a placeholder plan that provides a significantly false sense of security and very little real protection. 

There are four things you can do to fix your insurance portfolio if you think it doesn’t provide sufficient protection:

1. Increase your limits: If your limits are too low then you will not be reimbursed enough to make yourself whole after an insurable incident. Increase the limits on your insurance policies so that you have sufficient benefits.
2. Decrease deductibles: If your deductibles are too high, then you will be self-insuring a large portion of your potential losses. Decreasing your deductibles can raise your premiums, but in exchange for a more protective insurance portfolio.
3. Look for highly rated carriers: An insurance policy is only as good as the company that issues it. Your portfolio may be anemic for reasons you don’t expect—including that your insurance company can’t actually back their promise to pay you in the event of a claim. A.M. Best is an insurance rating agency that examines the financials of insurance companies and issues letter grade ratings to indicate how financially healthy a company is. Check out the ratings of your insurers and if you find them falling, consider changing to a more secure carrier.
4. Add additional coverage: Insurance policies can have different options for coverage that supplement the main purpose. For example, a life insurance policy can be designed to also provide living benefits in the event that the insured is diagnosed with a terminal illness. A Texas auto insurance policy can be restricted to just the state-required coverage or it can be structured to include loss of use and comprehensive benefits to reimburse in the event of theft or vandalism. Understanding these options and including them in your policies will help beef up your protection exponentially.

If you are ready to explore the gaps in your insurance coverage and limits and give your anemic insurance portfolio a boost, give us a call at 866-851-5220.

Dos and Don’ts of Auto Insurance Planning

As with every financial planning endeavor, there is a right way and a wrong way to approach auto insurance planning. Understanding both the dos and don'ts of auto insurance planning will help you get the best policy for your money and avoid creating a plan that crashes and burns.

• Do get multiple auto quotes in order to find the best rates. Every insurance company has its own formula for developing auto insurance rates. While some may look upon certain risks generously, others may overcompensate for them. By getting a wide range of quotes you can ensure that you've explored every possibility and gotten the best value for your money.
• Don't buy insurance based on price alone. Insurance policies are not always created equal. The cheapest quote you get may not offer the kind of protection you need. Evaluate your auto insurance options by comparing the protections that each policy offers and weighing the cost against those benefits.
• Do ask for discounts. Discuss with your insurance agent all the different factors that could go into qualifying you for auto insurance discounts. Talk about any driver’s training courses you've taken, any policies you can bundle, any payment options that offer discounts, any safety gadgets built into your car, and so on.
• Don't misrepresent the facts. Telling little white lies, misrepresenting the truth on your insurance application and leaving out important facts could score you a cheaper insurance quote, but at the end of the day when the insurance company finds that you were not completely honest, your policy could be rescinded and you may be left uninsured.
• Do comply with the auto insurance regulations of your state. Make sure that you get all the required coverages so that you are in complete compliance and face no penalties.
• Don't allow the state to dictate how much coverage you have. While you must, at minimum, comply with the regulations of your state, don't assume that those minimums are actually enough protection for you and your family. Instead, discuss with your agent the financial risks you face after an auto accident and buy sufficient insurance coverage to protect against them.
• Do consider a deductible. An auto insurance deductible is the amount that you are required to pay out-of-pocket after an incident occurs. Auto insurance deductibles offer a great opportunity to help create a manageable premium balanced with insurance benefits that are legitimately helpful.
• Don't take on too much deductible. Auto insurance deductibles are per incident, which means that you must pay them each time you have damages rather than on a cumulative annual schedule. If you agree to very high deductibles and have multiple incidents each year, you could easily find your savings depleted.

There are many things to consider when designing your Killeen auto insurance policy and at Shawn Camp Insurance, we’re here to help you work through the difficult decisions.

The Actual price of Car Insurance Fraud

Fraudulent activities are an unfortunate reality. In the insurance industry, fraud frequently takes the form of overstated claims, the filing of several claims, filing a claim for an accident you weren’t really involved in, illegally registering cars in regions that make car insurance quotes less costly, and more.
Most people assume that when they commit these types of fraud, the only people they are hurting are the insurance executives. Of course, that fact alone is still not a good thing, but the suggestion that only those at the top get harmed by insurance fraud is wrong, because it is all consumers who must pay.

Increased Premiums

The worst fallout of auto insurance fraud is the increased premiums that it causes all insurance customers to pay. In order to cover the cost of the excessive or improper claims, the cost of investigating claims, and the changes in risk that are assumed by the claims, insurers have no choice but to spread the losses by raising the premiums for all policyholders. This means the typical customer ends up paying for the fraudulent activities of others.

Increased Paperwork

When frauds are attempted and found, or committed and later discovered, insurance companies realize that they must change their processes in order to try to prevent them from happening in the future. This means they will take great pains to have applications and claim forms that attempt to weed out potentially fraudulent activity. This increases your work, however, because all of their insurance policyholders will need to use this paperwork. It also creates an extra expense for the insurance company which is, once again, passed on to policyholders.

Increased Taxpayer Dollars

Some claims involve police and arson investigations. When the claims are fake, these investigations result in taxpayer dollars being wasted on paying the payrolls of those who must investigate them. This also ties up law enforcement officers when they could be out preventing actual crimes.
Insurance fraud is a problem that we all must consider, even if we are not guilty of committing it. We should take whatever steps are rational and safe within our own lives to make certain that those we know and love are not encouraged to commit fraud and that potential frauds are reported to the appropriate entities.

Give us a call at 866-851-5220 to get your free, personalized Texas auto insurance quote today!

Loss of Use—A Benefit Worth Keeping

Loss of Use—A Benefit Worth Keeping

Often, when we think about insurance, we think about how it covers many of the damages that occur during a covered peril such as a fire or flood. But there are more consequences to the damages these incidents cause to your property than just the loss of your tangible goods and shelter, because by making your property useless, insurable incidents force you to find a substitute until your repairs are done.

Loss of use is a valuable part of a home or auto insurance policy that can keep you and your family safe and active, even after a total loss.

Auto Loss of Use

If you are in an accident and your vehicle cannot be driven until repairs are made, the world doesn’t stop spinning. You still need to get to work, bring your kids to school, run errands, and more. When you have loss of use benefits in your auto insurance policy, your insurance company will pay for a car rental to get you around while you wait for repairs to be completed. You will be permitted to rent a car that is in a similar class to your own and the rental can generally last until you are able to pick up your own car again.

Home Loss of Use

There are some insurable incidents that do not require you to evacuate from your home or apartment afterward—such as damages that are limited to just one, small area of your home and carry no health hazards through the rest of your dwelling. But sometimes it’s not safe to be home until repairs are done, such as after a fire. When this happens, a loss of use benefit in your renter’s or home insurance policy will pay for a hotel or temporary rental until it’s safe to go back to your house or apartment. Your policy will have limits, restricting the total benefit to a certain percentage of the total limit of your policy.

It’s hard to imagine just how stressful it is to lose the ability to live in your home or drive your vehicle—even if the loss is temporary. Add in the extra burden of having to foot the bill for a short-term replacement and your life has become even more difficult than it needs to be—unless you have loss of use coverage is available. If you aren’t sure whether your home, renter’s or Texas auto insurance policy has this generous benefit or you want to add it to your policy, give us a call at 866-851-5220.

How to plan for insurance attentively

In a 2009 article in Psychology Today, mindfulness was described as the practice of being in the present moment. This means that instead of being distracted, thinking about the future, dwelling on the past, or allowing lots of noise in your head over everything but “the now,” when you are mindful you are fully invested in the current moment and what's happening during that tiny piece of time.

Mindfulness and Insurance
When you buy insurance, it's important that you allow yourself to be quiet and mindful. It’s understandable to feel anxious when working on final expense and legacy planning, when thinking about all the perils facing your home and vehicle, when imagining your future potential disabilities and contemplating all the liabilities and other negative aspects of life that make insurance necessary, but if you want to be properly insured and prepared for the future, you must allow yourself to be fully invested in the process of insurance planning rather than distracted and intimidated by what-ifs.

Mindful Insurance Planning
Instead of being cowed by the unknown, when insurance planning you focus on the known: the risks that any individual in your situation may actually face and the value of the property you want to protect. It’s really as simple as that—and knowing this will allow you to create a much more secure financial future.

Being frightened of a potential future event that has not yet come to pass, or being overwhelmed by the amount of data you must consider as you buy insurance will not help you purchase and amounts you need to protect your family and it won’t make it any easier to select the types of policies that offer you the kind of protections you’re looking for. Instead, it makes you feel powerless during what should be a very empowering process.
When you give yourself the space and permission to be mindful, you allow yourself to approach the task of buying insurance as practically and unemotionally as possible. This makes it easier to be deliberate and reasonable as you assess the practical risks you face each day and assign a dollar value to them, and then make relevant adjustments as you consider your budget and potential premiums.

Your insurance agent can be a big help in keeping your emotions on track and your approach to insurance planning practical. If you are ready to start searching for insurance policies that will protect your family, give us a call at (254) 547-2381 for a Copperas Cove insurance quote.

Does a Home Inspection affect my Insurance?

When shopping for a new home, it's easy to get drawn in by what you may consider the perfect house. Finding the perfect house, in your ideal price range, located in your dream neighborhood can cause you to overlook minor details and run forward to submit an offer and secure this perfect home. But after the shininess has worn off and it's time to get home insurance coverage, you may regret this impulsive decision.

Instead of giving in to the desire to own the home of your dreams, take the time to have a new home inspection completed. Even if your home is of completely new construction, a home inspection can save you time, money, headaches, and risk.

Types of Home Inspections

There are many different inspections that can be done on your new home. In order to get the most comprehensive inspection and the most thorough understanding of the condition of your home, a new home buyer should consider a general home inspection, a termite inspection, a radon test to check levels of this unscented, cancer-causing radioactive gas, a septic system inspection (when a septic system is present), and, when appropriate, an oil tank testing.

Each of these inspections will give you a difference assessments regarding the health of your hew home. You may think that it’s enough to simply get a general inspection, but each of the specialized inspections mentioned above allow for a deeper look at areas that can be the source of major potential problems.


Learn more about the cost and effect of inspections on your home insurance.

To get Killeen home insurance quote on your current home or a quote on the home you are considering buying, give us a call at (254) 547-2381. We can help you discover what your potential home insurance rates might be and assist you in setting reasonable limits based on your risk and budget.

Updating Your Auto Insurance for 2012

Auto insurance policies, when not planned out carefully, can have dangerous gaps in coverage that leave the policyholder at risk for financial problems after an accident, theft, fire or other insurable incident. This year, update your auto insurance policy to consider the following:

Is your limit on pace with car repair costs and value? Auto repair costs don’t always stay the same from year to year; labor, parts and shipping costs can all change drastically leaving you little actual recompense from your policy unless you adjust your limits. Work with your agent to determine what your limits should be based on these expenses and your Kelley Blue Book value.

Do you have enough coverage for the average liability claim? Your automobile coverage will offer you protection from both bodily injury and property damage liabilities, but will it offer you enough? Talk to your agent about a limit that gives you protection based on current-day claims averages and talk about the possibility of adding an umbrella policy for your auto and home liabilities.

Do you need uninsured motorist coverage? You may be insured, but that doesn’t mean every motorist on the road is. Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage supplements your damages when the person who causes your accident doesn’t have the insurance policy to pay them.

Can you reduce your overall risk exposure? If you’ve just gotten state-required coverage then you’re doing little to protect your own interests in an accident. Without collision and comprehensive you could be exposed to financial losses after an accident, theft, vandalism, fire or other natural disaster.

How affordable are those deductibles? Make sure your deductibles are still practical for your lifestyle. After a job loss, big expense or other life change, large deductibles can become a greater burden than they initially were.

Do you need to add roadside assistance? A breakdown, flat tire, or depleted gas tank can happen to anyone. If you don’t currently have roadside assistance on your policy, don’t wait until you wish you did before you add it.

Should you add loss of use? If you can’t use your car after an insurable incident damages it, how are you going to run errands, get to work and bring the kids to school? With loss of use coverage, your auto policy can keep you on the road by paying your emergency rental car expenses.

We have all the tools you need to compare premiums, set limits and deductibles and choose coverage options. Give us a call to complete your annual auto insurance review and you can start 2012 out on the right foot.

Call us today at (254) 526-0535 to make sure your car insurance in Killeen Texas is up to par or visit our office.