Take a penny and place it in multiple grooves around your tires. If the top of Lincoln’s head is always covered, you have more than 2/32? of tread remaining. If you can see all of Lincoln’s head, it is time to replace your tires.

While you’re checking your tires you might go ahead and make sure your tire pressure is set correct. Not only does this help make sure your tires are able to work appropriately, but proper tire inflation improves gas mileage!

Basic checks like these take just a few minutes and can help save lives. Share these tips with your friends and family to help keep everyone safer on the road.

GET A FLORIDA AUTO INSURANCE QUOTE!

The post The best road trip tips to check your tires appeared first on Most Insurance.

We are so excited to announce our new partnership with Auto-Owners Insurance! This partnership allows us the opportunity to offer a whole new level of service to our clients!

Auto-Owners Insurance Group is headquartered in Lansing, Michigan. Recognized for exceptional financial strength and stability, it is among the nation’s largest insurers, with premium writings of over $5.5 billion. The company is rated A++ (Superior) by the A.M. Best Company, a nationally recognized independent insurance rating authority. Auto-Owners is also a Fortune 500 company.

Auto-Owners backs up its products by providing its famous “No Problem” claims service. In recent surveys conducted by leading marketing research firms, Auto-Owners was rated highly for customer satisfaction in both auto and home claims.

As you know, we, at Most Insurance, are a locally owned and operated insurance agency that, like Auto-Owners, is greatly concerned with protecting its clients. As a result, this partnership will only increase the excellence of service we are able to provide, as a truly one-of-a-kind claims advocate.

As we continue to work hard to serve YOU, our clients, we are always excited to announce new opportunities for you to receive the best service possible! If you have any questions or need any additional information on this new partnership, feel free to contact us directly at (813) 347-5555 or follow these links for Florida Auto Insurance, Personal Inquiries or Commercial Inquiries to find out more about the policies we write.

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The second thing is distractions. Limit distractions while you are driving. So often with today’s technology we are on our phones, we are changing the station, or using iTunes in our car. Stop being distracted, focus on what you’re doing.

Be safe out there!

Get a Tampa Auto Insurance quote here.

The post How to Avoid Parking Lot Accidents? appeared first on Most Insurance.

We live in an era of litigation and lawsuits where people are prone to quickly file lawsuits in an effort to get rich quick. If you live in Tampa, FL, you have probably noticed the plethora of billboards for personal injury attorneys which litter our interstates.

On the auto insurance side, insurance companies actually rate an individual driver based on several components.

One is your credit. How good your credit is matters greatly with the likelihood of having a claim. The second, is the amount of coverage that you carry. Statistically speaking, insurance companies find that people that carry higher limits of coverage have a less likely chance that they are going to have an accident.

Now if you want minimum insurance limits, insurance companies look at that as a big negative and they literally surcharge you for those limits. And so you will most likely pay significantly more for your insurance. We find that often within our agency that we might have a client leave us for one of the 800 companies out there. And they will go, they are talking with the 800 guy number on the other line, and the agent says “well you don’t need coverage that high.” Then they will literally lower the limits for the person so maybe they can save 15%. But what they are really doing is a huge disservice. Long term, the cost of their insurance is going to go up.

On the auto side, why you want to carry as much insurance as you can, is because you want to get what’s called the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. You can only get as much uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage as you have personal liability or bodily injury. That’s important because uninsured motorist covers you if you’re in an accident, you’re not at fault, but you’re hurt. Uninsured motorist insurance is going to pay for work lost, pay for someone to come into your home, and help take care of you, your spouse, or other people in the vehicle. It has a very wide range of use and is the most important coverage anyone can carry.

Here in Florida and many other parts of the country, there is a ramped amount of drivers who do not have any insurance at all. In fact, a couple of years ago, 38% of all drivers were driving without any insurance. So you want to have that protection as high as possible and in the long run, it’s going to save you a lot of money. So whatever you do, make sure you get those high limits of liability.

So truly get as much insurance as you can and in the long run it’s actually going to pay off, save you money, and you will be properly protected. You purchase insurance to make sure you are taken care of in case of an accident. So go out there, take a look at your policies, call an independent agent, and call Most Insurance.

We can help you, we’ll explain those coverage’s, and we are always happy to help you in any way we can.

The post What Limits of Insurance Should I Carry? appeared first on Most Insurance.

I wanted to update you, and answer a couple of questions that some folks have asked.

My snapshot widget from Progressive Insurance has been installed in my car for a couple of weeks now, and so far so good!  I think I’m well on my way to saving 30% on my Auto Insurance.  Thanks to my rep Sylvia Sarkissian at Most Insurance, yes she is the one that got me all set up on this, hopefully I’ll end up saving $389/ year on my auto insurance.  I took a look at my latest report, so far I have 0, that ZERO hard stops, my longest mileage for any one day was 23miles, but my average daily mileage is only 11 miles, and I haven’t driven past midnight, or before 4am yet.

I have had a couple of people ask me where it gets installed the Snapshot widget gets plugged into your OBD port, on On Board Diagnostics port, most of the time it is under the steering wheel.  It was really easy to install, anyone can do it.

Some people where concerned about Big Brother Following them.  Two things about that.  One the Snapshot from progressive doesn’t have a GPS built into it, so they are not tracking you.  But the other thing is your cell phone does have a built in GPS, and I’m sure there are some people tracking all of us.  I’m not sure why anyone would like to track me but I’m sure someone is.

Here is a hint to help you remember you have the Shapshot installed.  I made a sign to help remind me to drive conservatively.  This should help remind me and Jacqie when we get in the car to take it easy and no hard stops, I have the signs on my radio, and rear view mirror! 

So far that label has been a great reminder.

If you have any questions about the Snapshot, or anything else give me a call at the office. (813) 739-8111 I would love to help you out anyway I can.

Grace and Peace

Eric

Looking for a Tampa Auto Insurance quote? Click on the link for all the information. Browse through our Auto Insurance Blogs for more useful tips.

The post On my way to saving 30% on my Progressive Auto Insurance, You can do it too! appeared first on Most Insurance.

I must say Progressive Insurance is slick with their packaging.

Progressive Insurance provided me with detailed yet easy to follow instructions on how to install the Snapshot widget in my 2007 Nissan Xterra. Plugging in the Snapshot widget was easy, and when I started my car, I heard the three beeps telling me it is installed and working properly.  So now I’m off, driving probably a little more carefully than I did before I plugged in my snapshot.

How am I doing you may ask, well here is my report, which is super easy to pull.  So far three days of tracking and Zero Hard breaks.  I’m very excited about that, I am driving during the preferred hours, and I’m keeping my Mileage down. I should be a perfect candidate for the full 30% discount!

So what about you? Are you willing to plug in one of these devices to see how good of a driver you are and see if you will qualify for the full 30% discount?  Often when clients call us here at Most Insurance they tell us how good of a driver they are, and even though insurance companies base their rates in a lot of statistical data, that data doesn’t reflect how good of a driver they are.

This is a way to prove it, lets see how good of a driver you are, and Progressive Insurance will provide you up to a 30% discount on your Auto insurance if you are as good of a driver as you think.

I’m sure this Snapshot device could cause some issues in some marriages.  Husbands thinking they are better drivers and wives thinking they are the better drivers.  Lets check it out, who is the better driver.  Call us Most Insurance at (813) 739-8111 and we will see if you are a good fit for the Snapshot widget from Progressive Insurance.

The post Snapshot from progressive Installed!! appeared first on Most Insurance.

Earlier this year my Home insurance was non-renewed by my carrier. The reason they gave me is they no longer want to insure homes that are a part of a Home Owners Association.  This caused my home insurance to nearly double when I had to find a new carrier, but this is just the start.  Let’s talk about my personal Auto Insurance.

So I have been insured with a great company for a couple of years now, one that we represent here in the office and when I received my renewal paperwork I was shocked to see a 61% rate increase.  I haven’t had any tickets or accidents affect my record. The rate increase was partly due to the fact that my annual auto insurance policy renewed last year right before a pretty large rate increase in my zip code. Then towards the end of last year the company took a second rate increase.  On top of all of these rate changes, they decided to take a different approach to how they use credit scoring and that increased my rate further.

So I did what anyone would do, I went and shopped my auto insurance.  The great thing about Most Insurance is we represent several top of the line Auto Insurance companies and this opened my options for me.

Progressive came back with the second best rate, but I decided to sign up for the Snapshot discount program.  Depending on how well, the time of day, and how far I drive, I can except to get up to a 30% discount on my auto insurance.

Now I’m not expecting to get the full 30% while that would be great, I factored in a 15% discount, and if I’m able to get that Progressive Insurance will give me the best rate.

Last night I got an email from Progressive telling me they have shipped out my snapshot device I’ll update you on how the install goes and how I’m doing.

Wish me luck, I hope to get the full 30% discount.

I’m moving to Progressive Insurance!

The post Many people think we insurance agents get a special deal, but this is not the case! appeared first on Most Insurance.

This question much like do I need to purchase extra rental car coverage are a tough one to answer, and my answer is it depends…

If a teen needs to have insurance to drive in Florida actually depends on the insurance carrier of the parent.  No matter which company the parents are insured with the teen needs to be listed on the policy. Most carriers will have you list the driver but not charge for them until the they have full license.  Some carriers do start charging as soon as they are permitted.  Most of the insurance carriers we, Most Insurance, represents only require your teen to be listed on the policy.

It is very important to make sure you do add your children on the policy, we do want to make sure they are covered, especially when they may just be learning to drive.

The other question I’m frequently asked about teen drivers is how much is it going to cost me, or how much is my insurance going to go up because of my teen driver?  And for the most part new drivers do poise a much higher cost of insurance for a family.  There are several things you can do to help reduce the cost.  If you need or want a quote we would be happy to help.

One that that can be done to help safe money on your teen driver is for them to have good grades.  This shows your teen is responsible, the other thing is for them to take drivers ed. I’ll keep posting other ways you can safe on your teen driver insurance.

As always if you have questions give the office a call at (813) 739-8111. You can check out our FAQs section too.

Looking for a Tampa Auto Insurance quote? Click on the link for all the information. Browse through our Auto Insurance Blogs for more useful tips.

The post Do teens have to have insurance to drive in Florida? appeared first on Most Insurance.

Because of the cost of insurance for teens parents are doing everything they can to save money on the insurance, and one of the first things to go is uninsured motorist coverage, heck the law doesn’t say you have to have it to drive it must not be that important.

I believe that teenagers need uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage too.  Lets think a little about your little Johnny, or little Susie. They have they entire life ahead of them, if they were to be injured how will they live? Do you have the money to pay for all their care for the rest of their lives?

Before the economy went into this recession, there were a lot of uninsured drivers in Florida.  The number back in 2006 was around 17% in a report by the Insurance Research Council  Florida was listed in the top 3 states for uninsured drivers. The report shows 24% of drivers in Florida do not have insurance.  Yes you read that correctly 24% of drivers in Florida are uninsured, that is a staggering 1 in 4 drivers do not have insurance, let alone the number of drivers who are underinsured.

Does your teen driver need uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage on their auto policy Yes! In fact you and them shouldn’t drive unless you have it.  They also need to make sure that they are included on an umbrella insurance policy.  You would want to have the umbrella policy not only to protect your assets, but also to get higher limits of uninsured motorist coverage.

We at Most Insurance is always happy to spend more time explaining what coverage you do need. We are here for you. If you are looking for a Tampa Auto Insurance quote? Click on the link for all the information. Feel free to check out Auto Insurance Blogs for more useful tips.

The post Do teenagers need underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage too? appeared first on Most Insurance.

Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage pays for damage that results from an accident caused by an uninsured motorist, or one that doesn’t have enough insurance. Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage is for medical bills, work loss, and pain and suffering caused by the negligence of an uninsured or underinsured motorist.

Alright so is uninsured motorist coverage important? Absolutely! In my opinion it is the most important coverage you can have on an auto policy,  you should also have it on an umbrella insurance policy.

A good friend of our agency Henry was driving in the Tampa Bay Area, and was in Clearwater on a Sunday morning crossing US 19 and Gulf To Bay Blvd by the Sams Club, when a driver ran the light on US 19 and t-boned Henry and his wife on the passengers side.  Henry and his wife we both had head injuries and were rushed to the emergency room.  Henry was able to be discharged after only a couple of nights, his wife had to be kept in the ICU for more than 3 months.  She was a house wife, and when she finally was able to go home it was in a hospital bed.  She has required now for several years to have around the clock assistance, both for taking care of her, and for taking care of the house, as Henry has had to keep working.  While this is a tragic situation, Henry knew the importance of uninsured motorist coverage, and the importance of an umbrella policy.  they carried 2 million dollars worth of uninsured motorist coverage on their umbrella policy. Because they had this coverage they have been able to pay for the medical bills, the in home care, and the services of someone to cook and clean.  It doesn’t matter how much insurance the other driver had, in a situation like this it isn’t enough.

Stories like this, true stories I hope will convince you as I have been convinced to carry uninsured motorist coverage on your florida auto insurance policy and on an umbrella policy.

The post Do I need uninsured motorist coverage on my auto policy? appeared first on Most Insurance.