by Ed Sneneh, Illinois Auto Insurance Agent
Chicago Illinois, 09/28/2011
Unemployment rate in the US has been fluctuation from over 9% to little under 11% in the pas couple of years, with many experts believing that the actual unemployment rate is much higher. Unemployment means more people are having less money, and people with less money are normally looking to save more on their expenses.
Recession is also driving the
auto insurance business in the right direction. Recession creates more importance to security issues in the minds of consumers. People feel less secure during recession, hence they become more active in searching for security services. Insurance, generally speaking, is a security service. Your auto is something you need to protect, and losing your property may cause hardship if not replaced.
The third factor that is affecting the
auto insurance business is the credit crisis. On one hand many standard, if not all, insurance carriers are using credit to determine the
automobile insurance rates. For clients with bad credits their
auto insurance rates are much higher than those with good or acceptable credit with the vast majority of insurance companies that are credit driven. Even people with great driving records but with bad credit may not have good auto insurance rates with standard carriers. Increasing
car insurance rates for new business and renewal is pushing people do do shopping. In essence this proved to be very profitable to the majority of non standard agents who represent companies that do not use credit in the
motor vehicle insurance rating system.
To summarize, while credit crisis, recession and employment are affecting the shopping behavior of auto insurance shoppers, the change is in the direction of favoring auto insurance companies that (1) Do not use credit in their rating their auto insurance quotes, (2) Compete based on price (3) Are slashing coverages/ services in the competition process. On the other hand, standard companies are stumbling to stay competitive and maintain the same high quality services that they had. Whether that will last for too long is uncertain.
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Insurance Navy, 4717 N Pulaski, Chicago, IL 60630