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DEL.ICIO.USInsurers’ use of credit data hardly risky
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There is no better example of the gap between the liberal and the conservative view of government than the debate about whether insurance companies should be allowed to use credit scoring to set auto insurance rates.
In the liberal view, the happenstance that minorities or “women” — the latter a category often used politically to represent a particular segment of women — may be disproportionately clustered in higher-cost auto-insurance categories by virtue of their credit histories is evidence of a need for government intervention. Well, yes, in two circumstances:
One would be evidence that individuals, whatever their race, creed, gender or nationality, are being scored on the basis of inaccurate credit information. If it’s happening randomly and infrequently, it’s a personal problem. If there’s a pattern, or if it’s commonplace, it’s a regulatory problem.
The other situation that could require government intervention is evidence that auto insurance companies are colluding on price.
Otherwise, we all should rejoice — and conservatives do — that the insurance marketplace has led companies to become more sophisticated in rate-setting. Allstate, the third largest automobile insurer in Georgia, has developed 384 categories of pricing based on a potential customer’s credit history, home ownership, driving and claims history, age, ZIP code and type of car.
That tells me that insurers have developed, using whatever elements they are legally entitled to consider, a software program that more accurately prices coverage based on their assessment of risk.
So what if they’re wrong? Unless they’re colluding, some other company will price its risk more accurately, and the disadvantaged group — either the good drivers or the bad — will flock to the cheaper policy.
Ah, but you say, consumers lack the sophistication to make price comparisons. Two points here: One is that companies with a price advantage have incentive to make consumers aware. The other is that, if government must be involved at all it’s state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine’s duty to make information available permitting price comparisons.
The notion that government should designate some of its citizens as too incompetent to make rational choices, making it the business of politicians to save them from themselves, is the foundation for big, intrusive government.
Commissioner Oxendine, who should be defending a marketplace pricing system that keeps good drivers from subsidizing the bad, told reporters he can’t explain why using credit information works for insurers. But the inability to explain the computer model to Oxendine hardly makes it illegitimate. The issue for him, as an insurance regulator, is whether components of the pricing model are illegal — race, for example. If not, his role should be to make sure the companies aren’t colluding and that pricing information is readily available and in plain English.
In this instance, the marketplace has done something conservatives should try to replicate in government. It has stopped — or so it appears — requiring people who behave responsibly, who drive carefully, who don’t abuse credit, from subsidizing the irresponsible behavior of others. That is what conservatives designing new government programs should be doing.
State Rep. Rich Golick (R-Smyrna), who introduced the legislation in 2003 allowing credit scoring, defends it still, to his credit. “Insurance companies are in the business of accurately predicting future loss, and if insurance scores weren’t predictive, companies wouldn’t use the criteria,” he writes. The data is “indisputable” that a “clear correlation” exists between credit scores and future loss, he says.
Furthermore, he said, “I have seen no empirical data to suggest” a link between credit scoring and discrimination by race or income. “At no time in the insurance application process is an individual asked about his or her race or income,” says Golick. “The process is blind.”
Golick, as the story noted, represents Allstate, though he denies that it was an Allstate bill. Allstate bill or not, the concept serves consumers. Before its passage into law, most insurers offered only a “handful” of prices and customers qualified or they didn’t. Now the Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, which piloted the scoring system, has overtaken Allstate as the second-largest auto insurer in Georgia. It has 130 categories.
Customers pay, without subsidies from others, for the risk they represent. The marketplace works.
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Comments
By Mid-South Philosopher
December 12, 2006 08:04 AM | Link to this
Good morning, Jim,
The “Conservative” and the Samuel Adams “Federalist” agree on this one this morning. The use of credit information by insurance companies to help determine insurance rates makes about as much sense as anything else that can be used in corporate ventures.
If any governmental intervention is needed, it is that the “big three” purveyors of information about all of us (the credit bureaus) ought to be held accountable when their information is incorrect and if they nonchalantly shrug off consumers when there is a problem correcting inaccurate data. Not only should large corporate fines be in place, but individual liability should be assigned to the misfits who inhabit what Clark Howard would call the “customer no service” departments of those three companies.
One other thing…anyone…who runs for public office (from dog-catcher to President of the United States) should submit tax returns for the past seven years, a current credit report from all three of the credit spy agencies, and a current drug test.
It will never happen. Some of them, at least here in Georgia, don’t believe in paying taxes, do they!
By Rod
December 12, 2006 08:05 AM | Link to this
Of course, Jim Wooten, a white male, would be in favor of this.
As Jim says: “To hell with everyone else.”
By Van
December 12, 2006 08:14 AM | Link to this
Hmmm, let me get this straight, the insurance companies have developed a system that, if used properly, is fair and offers the customer competetive pricing. In other words, it works.
Don’t tell the lefties, they will undo anything private industry tries to do that might benefit everyone. To them, only the government, a left leaning government, has the best interest of the people at heart.
By Political Foreskin
December 12, 2006 08:20 AM | Link to this
My wife was 45 days late with her Macy’s payment once, and then she backed into my camry with her suv in the driveway (on her way to Dillards). Both cars were tore up something fierce, man. The insurance company refused to pay, saying they spotted her face on a mall-rat gone wild video. I hated that day.
I dont think it’s fair I gotta pay extra cause my wife is a fiend.
Insurance ratings should be evidence for marriage annulments. That’s for sure, that’s for dang sure.
By jbmlaw
December 12, 2006 08:20 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. I agree with 95% of this morning’s free-market arguments by Jim, and with the Philosopher’s contribution urging a “duty of accuracy” on the credit report cartel. Those who protect their credit reputation are reasonably more likely to protect their vehicles and lives by driving more carefully also.
I wish to magnify one additional caveat, buried within the broader argument on credit reports. “Rate differential by zip code” gives me a little concern. I am fortunate in that I live in a shanty within a zip code mostly populated by the opulently-wealthy of our SMSA. I suspect, without basis, that zip code is used to increase insurance premiums for our brothers in the ghetto. While that may be reasonable for the own-car casualty insurance – “you live in a high crime area, the incidence of claim is higher” - that would not be reasonable for the more-expensive third-party liability insurance – “you live in a high crime area, thus you are more likely to cause a wreck?” Sounds like illegal racial discrimination. So long as the zip code is not used for the liability insurance, I have no dispute.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 08:21 AM | Link to this
Insuring someone based on their credit is just plain crazy and unfair. Just because someone has a credit problem does not mean they are going to wreck their car or burn their house down. I’m so thankful for the internet where you can do comparative shopping. I was insured at ALLSTATE since 1975 and I had 4 cars insured with them. My annual premium was just shy of $7,000. I shopped around and found Liberty Mutual who insures me for $2,300 annually. I’m so glad I got out from under the GOOD HANDS PEOPLE.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 08:27 AM | Link to this
Allstate is a rip off. I think they use the PFA (Plucked From Air) rating system on me. When I dumped them for Liberty Mutual, I also had my son and daughter dump them too. They were both paying almost $3,000 annually for 1 vehicle and now at Liberty they pay less than $600 annually.
By Brian Curtis
December 12, 2006 08:30 AM | Link to this
So insurance companies haven’t got ENOUGH dodges and loopholes to assist them in avoiding risk and screwing their customers? Now we need to give them even more excuses?
Sorry, not interested. The insurance industry needs massive intervention, in the form of torches and pitchforks.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 08:31 AM | Link to this
Imagine that!! I was paying Allstate almost $7,000 a year in premiums and I didn’t even have a car worth $7,000. I had old cars with no outstanding loans. The GOOD HANDS PEOPLE were CHOKING DA LIFE OUTTA ME.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 08:38 AM | Link to this
Auto Insurers for the most part are LOOSE CANNONS. There is no controlling what they do. If you miss a premium, you are considered cancelled. But when you go into their office to be reinstated, they charge you for the month you missed as if you were insured. Now my problem with that is, WHAT IF I HAD AN ACCIDENT THAT MONTH I MISSED THE PREMIUM, would they pay it? You and I both know the answer is HELL NO.
By harold
December 12, 2006 08:39 AM | Link to this
the car insurance companies use credit scores because most people, and of course all good Republicans do not realize this because they have so much cash, but most people pay their car insurance premiums as a monthly.
the real question is why dental insurance comapnies are allowed to claim that they pay 100%, but then will tell you that your dentist charges more than average for your zipcode and they will only pay average.
if the max they will pay is the zipcode average, then they are paying average or less for the zipcode, which means they are paying out a good bit BELOW average for the zipcode, which means their 100% coverage is a sham and a lie and they are all crooks and so is oxendine for allowing it
By JK
December 12, 2006 08:40 AM | Link to this
The insurance companies have a voice in government, close personal friends in every legislative hall in this country, and spend billions on lobbyists every year to ensure that they have the “legal right” to implement whatever set of “policies” they want. (Do you?) Ditto for the three big credit spies. Mr. Wooten thinks there’s NO collusion? Hahahaha! “Regulatory” issues are simply CYA on paper. They decide how they’ll be regulated, the people of this country do not. Face it: as an individual, you have no voice, no choice, and no chance to object. They haven’t screwed you this year? Wait ‘till next year. It’s just a matter of time, and you have no recourse. None. That’s life in the Corporate States of America. Now let’s all stand for the Pledge.
By harold
December 12, 2006 08:43 AM | Link to this
georgia’s insurance is a huge rip-off.
there are people putting $80,000 cars on the road in traffic with people who make $8,000 a year driving $500 cars
why should the $500 car person have to maintain absurd liability coverage for somebody who puts an $80,000 car on the road? harold will tell you why. it’s welfare for the rich! the poor pay extra car insurance in georgia to pay for the wrecks involving rich folk
well the way it oughta be is that if your car is damaged, YOUR insurance pays for it no matter whose fault it was. if you dont want your own car paid for, you dont need car insurance. that way the guy with the $500 car doesnt have to pay $1000 a year for insuring other peoples’ mercedes and lexi, but the guy with the $80,000 mercedes can buy all the insurance he wants that will make him comfortable with putting his $80,000 car in traffic.
anything less than no-fault insurance is just welfare for the rich. it is robbing to poor to pay for the E class.
georgia’s car insruance is a total scam!
By KP
December 12, 2006 08:47 AM | Link to this
For those of us that are fortunate enough to qualify and have it, USAA is the best insurance, bank…no discrimination by credit score, or race for this 35 year old, black, male. I have the lowest mortgage rate, car insurance, home insurance of all my employees and co-partners. And I own a high end sports car, live in the Cascade area. Yay!
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 08:50 AM | Link to this
Back in the day, many years ago the CAR WAS INSURED, not the driver. As long as the car was insured, anyone could drive it with permission. Now days, they insure everyone that drives it which is not fair. If I wreck it, or if my daughter wrecks it, it’s going to cost the same amount to be repaired, yet we pay different premiums based on their unfair rating system. When I graduated college I wrecked my car and while it was being repaired I was riding the bus to work. The VP of our company saw me at the bus stop and asked me what happened since he knew I had a car. When I explained to him that I wrecked my car and that my mother would not let me drive her car because I was not insured on her policy he explained to me that as long as the car is insured, anyone can drive it. It was then I realized that there were two different set of rules from the insurance companies for whites and blacks. And I’m not a Liberal, nor a Conservative. I’m A REALIST. I DEAL IN REALITY.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
December 12, 2006 08:51 AM | Link to this
Jim,
Cherry Picking at it’s finest….how can you generalize liberals into one mindset here, but not even reference one in the column?
What liberals are you referring to? Who are these people that think the way that you say they do? Which interest group takes the stand you’re opposing?
The only people you mention in this column are both Republicans who see things your way.
Just not well written at all.
Oh, and the other thing I like is how when Republicans are defending free markets, the citizens are smart and capapable of making their own decisions. But when those same citizens are voters and they throw your guys out, the citizens have suddently been hoodwinked by liberal media.
For a high profile columnist at a large paper, you don’t do a very good job of connecting the dots.
By Christina
December 12, 2006 08:54 AM | Link to this
It is obvious by the blog entries posted so far how much knowledge people lack about insurance.
GoodDriver your posts intrigue me so far this morning. You complain that you are canceled for not making a payment but then are expected to make that payment up. Would it not be the same with your car payment or mortgage? Many times, they require the additional payment because they reinstate your policy with NO lapse! Yes, it’s as if your policy never canceled!
Those of you who are complaining about how high your rates were with Allstate, are you telling the whole story? How many of you had multiple accidents that caused your rates to go up?
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
December 12, 2006 08:54 AM | Link to this
Oh, and just one more thing…
I’m a consumer, and I want to buy beer at the grocery store on Sunday.
Why is it that you limited-government, get-intrusive-policies-off-my-back, free-marketeers want to prevent me from doing that.
What is one good reason that I can’t buy beer on Sunday, Mr. Free Market?
Hypocrite.
By S
December 12, 2006 08:54 AM | Link to this
Seems the consensus in this blog reflect my sentiments. Credit history and accident risk just don’t mix. Many of us here have taken a research course or two and have learned that you can make numbers reflect any outcome you want which is why we are taught to scrutinize data carefully. The powers that be know this and they know that we know this and that’s why they’re so secretive about the formulas they use. They fear we, the “uneducated” public, will figure this out and revolt. They’re right except that we’ve already figured it out-the question is will we revolt???
By JK
December 12, 2006 08:56 AM | Link to this
KP, Ditto that! USAA has the best service! (….for those of us they accept. The rest of y’all are S.O.L.)
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 08:56 AM | Link to this
The insurance companies have a voice in government, close personal friends in every legislative hall in this country, and spend billions on lobbyists every year to ensure that they have the “legal right” to implement whatever set of “policies” they want. (Do you?)
No I don’t!!! There are too many businesses in bed with the government as it is!! I say we put Twisted Sister Truth in their beds as a warning to all of them. Screw us and look what happens to you.
By harold
December 12, 2006 08:58 AM | Link to this
“you have no voice, no choice, and no chance to object. They haven’t screwed you this year? Wait ‘till next year. It’s just a matter of time, and you have no recourse. None”
WRONG.
Transit. Bicycles. Walking.
All you have to do is choose to live without a car.
If you located yourself somewhere a car is required (like 3 miles into a clearcut housing project in the exburbs nowhere near work or transit) then you would need to move somewhere reasonable
if you choose a mcmansion, then you chose your barrel, and the isnurance companie will shoot your fish arse in it as often as possilbe. its your own fault
By jbmlaw
December 12, 2006 09:08 AM | Link to this
I’ll offer one additional free market argument, simply because I think it is one our leftist friends may appreciate. Georgia has a coercive law that requires drivers to hold liability insurance. How would you all feel if we abolished that law, and simultaneously abolished the “automobile accident” tort cause of action in Georgia (or at least restricted it to cases where the plaintiff dies in the accident.) Each person insure only his own interest. Eliminate the judicial wheel of fortune. If you want insurance, you buy only to cover yourself. Nobody can sue anyone other than his own insurance company.
By Van
December 12, 2006 09:09 AM | Link to this
Jim’s a Cherry Picker,
“What is one good reason that I can’t buy beer on Sunday, Mr. Free Market?”
Because not enough of you have let your representative know you want to buy beer on Sunday. Simple, isn’t it. let your representatives know - that assumes you know who represents you under the Gold Dome. That assumes you want to make the effort. That assumes you can tear yourself away from the latest games system and write, call or fax your state reps. That assumes you can get the mp3 player earbuds out and do something useful.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 09:15 AM | Link to this
Christina, I have a good knowledge of how insurance works. At least I know when I’m getting SCREWED. Like I said Christina, I was insured with Allstate since 1975 and it was in 2005 that I missed that one payment and had to be reinstated. Now you missed my point about the reinstatement. If I had an accident during that period when I missed the premium, would they have fixed the cars and reinstated me? HELL NO.
And that LAPSE bullshid is just that. It’s another ploy used by the insurers to gouge you out of money. It’s insane that the next insurer would look at the fact that you had a lapse and then raise the rates based on it. Just cancel the policy and go from there
Everytime my ALLSTATE agent raised my rates she always blamed it on THE UNDERWRITER. LOL, what a joke.
Now that I’m no longer with them, every other month or so I get a letter from them begging me to come back. Talking about how they will forgive my first accident and each year they will deduct $100 from my deductible if I don’t have an accident. THEY CAN KISS MY AZZ.
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 09:16 AM | Link to this
I think it’s ridiculous!! my rate should be based on my DRIVING!! so, theoretically if we have two people with Good Ole Boy Insurers; indivudal number one has bad credit but a good driving record and individual number two a person who has been in six accidents in six years, has a bad driving rate but has good credit, they both can pay the same rate?
By harold
December 12, 2006 09:18 AM | Link to this
georgia law states that no person shall knowingly and intentionally SELL alcohol in georgai on sunday. it is not illegal to BUY it, it is only illegal for a PERSON to SELL it.
thus, you can legally buy alcohol at the self checkout machine at the grocery store. buying is legal, and selling is only illegal for people. the self-check-out machine is not a person. any ballsy store with a good lawyer and a self checkout machine could start selling alcohol on sunday TODAY if today were sunday, but otherwise they would need to wait for sunday
By Rod
December 12, 2006 09:19 AM | Link to this
Hey DebbieDoRight - aren’t you being a bit harsh this morning? Wanting to put Twisted Sister Truth in bed with anybody - no matter how evil - is just plain cruel!
By Renee
December 12, 2006 09:20 AM | Link to this
Harold at 8:43 is right on about the rich welfare system!
By Aquagirl
December 12, 2006 09:20 AM | Link to this
Oh, so that’s why I’m getting a good deal from Allstate. They ditch people like GoodDriver.
As a card-waving Libertarian, I agree with the idea that insurance companies can calculate risk however they like. However, Cherry Picker has the ultimate point—where is Mr. Free Market Republican Rich Golick when the Sunday liquor laws are being discussed?
Republicans are only for keeping the government out of the way when corporations want to make a buck. When it’s a question of personal liberty, they’re as nannylike as the most bedwetting Ted Kennedy groupie. Except for guns. But I’m not really encouraged by a group that will defend my right to own an AR-15, but think they can diagnose Terri Schiavo from the Senate floor, or control the contents of my womb.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 09:25 AM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight, why not charge both drivers the same amount? Does it cost more to fix the car based on who’s driving it?
By The One
December 12, 2006 09:30 AM | Link to this
Jim, Are you really crazy? Why are you and Cynthia Tucker so infatuated with the word conservative and liberal? Politics has nothing to do with PERSONAL FINANCE.
I am a Finance Manager with a large company in Alpharetta. I am also a small business (DAYCARES) owner. I have perfect credit and plenty of money (IRA,MMA,401k, CD, Real estate etc) in the bank.
I know people from various (religion, race, sex, income) backgrounds who don’t how to manage money. Our schools don’t teach personal finance to our children.
If you don’t believe me, just ask your coworkers about their financial situation or watch the Big Spender on AE/Suze Orman show. You can also find the number of foreclosures (Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Bankhead, South Fulton, North Fulton)in the local newspaper. How many of your coworkers (Jim) have an emergency fund?
Do you really think all of the people shopping in the malls have money?
Can JOHNS CREEK please leave the Love Shack owner alone? Laissez faire - The consumer will eventually decide if their is a need for this type of business.
By Rita
December 12, 2006 09:30 AM | Link to this
Why not? There are so many instances where your credit report is used to determine if you are a “risk”. The banking & finance industry pulls credit reports on individuals they consider hiring. I know of someone that recently purchased a new car, with cash, and the dealer still pulled their credit history. Those that claim that credit reports are full of inaccurate information probably do a poor job keeping up with their persoanl finances. I for one have rarely had issues with “the big 3” - and when I did find bad information it was not hard at all to correct. I think your credit report says alot about you and the way you conduct your life. Anyway, this is just a portion of the information that is used to determine your premium. I agree with a previous poster - those who oppose must have really bad credit or have something to hide.
By harold
December 12, 2006 09:30 AM | Link to this
harold still cant figure out why the liberals are against guns. the liberals are the ones who will need to guns for the uprising when the fascist right oppressors take over!
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 09:31 AM | Link to this
Insurers have a GOLD MIND in the Home Insurance market. No matter who you are, how long you’ve been with them, if you file a homeowners claim they will cancel you. Now just how fair is that? You’ve pumped thousands in their pocket over the years and you file one claim and you’re toast.
By 0701
December 12, 2006 09:31 AM | Link to this
Here Jim goes again, supporting anything that will make an extra buck for big business.
For insurance companies to use zip codes and credit histories as probable evidence of who will be in a car accident is no more reliable than to say that a woman who is dressed provocatively is likely to be raped regardless of the environment she’s in.
If that isn’t good enough then let’s substitute and say that someone who is financially well off is less likely to get cancer or less likely to be homosexual than someone who is not. In each situation, car, cancer or sexual orientation, affluence has nothing to do with it.
This new “tool” of the insurance companies is nothing more than just another way to stick it to those who already struggle to meet their daily needs.
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 09:36 AM | Link to this
The system is totally unfair. The zip codes where blacks and latinos are the majority pay the highest premiums. Yet 9 times out of 10 when I read about a teenager wrapping a car around a tree, it’s some white kid. The whole insurance system is designed to OPPRESS THE POOR. Keep the hammer on their head and choke the living life out of them.
I’ve never liked Reverend Ike, but one thing he said really makes a lot of sense. Once he gave a sermon on the poor. He said “The only advice I can give you about the poor is not to be one of them”.
By Middle America
December 12, 2006 09:36 AM | Link to this
What exactly does a person’s credit history have to do with their risk of having a car accident? These two things are not indicative of the other. Plenty of wealthy men’s wives are terrible drivers. Their credit is most certainly top of the line, but last time I checked they don’t give you a driving test when they set your credit score. Once again, here we have another example of how conservatives like to paint everything with a black and white brush. You have bad credit, so you must also be a bad driver, cause good people are good at everything. What a joke.
The other issue is that car insurance is required by law. You’re basically forcing people (who have demonstrated a lack of financial acumen) to pay a higher rate for something that is legally mandated. If they had the money to afford a higher insurance rate, then they wouldn’t have bad credit. If you have proven to be a bad driver, then you should pay a penalty, thru a higher rate, for the priveledge of driving a car. This type of system would further burden less affluent people and could result in even worse credit than before. For example, the extra cost of a higher car insurance premium based on bad credit could eventually lead to a lost ability to afford to own a car, straining the person’s ability to keep gainful employment, then falling further behing paying credit bills.
Do conservatives really want to punish poor people so badly that they’d support such a measure?
By zekem
December 12, 2006 09:37 AM | Link to this
Anyone who is stupid enough to buy insurance from Progressive will also be stupid enough to buy gas and oil products from Citgo! Citgo funds Chavez and his communist leftist pro Catro anti USA agenda! So, what has that to do with Progressive insurance? The name should give a hint! The owner/founder and the company contribute $billions to liberal leftist “progressive” agenda causes! The use of the word progressive is an attempt by leftist liberals in this country to hide their agenda of populism, socialism and communism! There is nothing progressive about that agenda, but, in fact it is a very regressive agenda!
By Chazman
December 12, 2006 09:40 AM | Link to this
Hmmm, let me get this straight, the insurance companies have developed a system that, if used properly, is fair and offers the customer competetive pricing. In other words, it works.
Van - who says it is fair and that it works? The insurance companies? You? Wooten? Sorry, but I’m not taking the word of the insurance companies. You know they are a necessary evil and you also know they rip people off royally. It amazes me how you guys on the right take up for big business. They can do no wrong!
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 09:40 AM | Link to this
Rita, here’s the REAL DEAL. Credit Bureaus do a lousy job of reporting and it takes your time and effort to get them to fix their mistakes. The credit bureaus must hire the DUMMIES to do the programming of their computers because it seems like they do their matching based on the person’s name opposed to the unique social security number. Here’s some advice from my own personal experience. DON’T EVER NAME YOUR MALE SON AFTER YOU (JR.) BECAUSE YOUR STUFF WILL END UP ON HIS CREDIT FILE.
By Jim Etheridge
December 12, 2006 09:42 AM | Link to this
I am a retired person. Never had a wreck, been driving 55 years. Until last year, I had been paying over $2,000 per year on two vehicles. My wife drives, and has never had a wreck or claim in her life. Last year I was told by a relative that he bought his insurance online from a Progressive Co.,at a lower rate. I applied for it, and am now paying $970 per year. I saved money - by higher deductibles mostly. Now I discover that Progressive has several categories of insurance and I should be paying $600 or less!
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 09:43 AM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight, why not charge both drivers the same amount? Does it cost more to fix the car based on who’s driving it?
no. but if one has had accidents while the other has no accidents,then the person with the accidents should pay more, (good credit or not), because they are a bigger risk on the road then the person with bad credit but a good driving record.
By Jenn
December 12, 2006 09:44 AM | Link to this
Good Driver— I was never canceled for filing a claim on my homeowners insurance. Must be because I have Lib Mu too! :-)
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 09:45 AM | Link to this
THIS IS FREAKING HILARIOUS … a black moron whining about non-existent alleged insurance racism … and a simpering Cobb homosexual pillock yet again peddling its pathetic deeply envious obsessive hatred of cars - engendered by a succession of court imposed DUI bans and lack of welfare funds.
ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS for high car insurance premiums is the growing infestation of Mexican type illegals who dont have car insurance and who simply cannot drive properly. Four years ago a particularly greasy Mexican type rearranged the front of our full size pick up truck my wife was driving. The local filth arrived and after establishing the illegals’s illegality, in good part by it’s production of a Mexican driving licence and NO GA licence or insurance did bugger all about this blatant crime. We had to pay the insurance ‘co-payment’ and ended up losing our insurance with this vile cheap rate Georgia only based company for just a $2000 no fault based accident. Happily we ended up with Safe Co - a large proper insurance company and the annual rates barely changed. Our E Cobb based broker had his shiny new SUV totalled by an illegal Mexican type and several other folks we know have had their cars smashed into by illegal Mexcian types who have no insurance/driving licence.
Mexican types dont have a proper driving test - neither do Americans. In the UK you have a real test in real daytime traffic for about 45 mins. This includes a hill start where if the car rolls back one inch you fail and a three point turn using the gears and brakes and hand brake which if the car touches the kerb you fail. Followed by a quite demanding genuinely random ‘theory’ section. Thus most folks fail the first time - naturally I passed first time - in a pretty demanding touristy area of England in the height of summer. Only 17 yo + kiddies can apply for a provisioanl licence - none of this S Georgia bollocks of allowing 14 yo brats to drive unlicensed and unfettered by the local filth because the local sherrif wants to be reelected. Driving around a bloody car park with a few cones is NOT a driving test.
Virtually ALL UK cars use proper gears and a manual gear box - none of this old dears/handicapped automatic option bollocks. Which incidentally uses more petrol and gives less control over a vehicle.
THE snivelling WANKER WHO INVENTED the imbecilic STOP SIGN NEEDS TO BE LYNCHED AND THEN publicly HUNG, DRAWN AND QUARTERED. They have this same moronic abomination in Sud AfriKa, where amusingly enough they actually call traffic lights a robot. In the real world the ‘main road’ is designated as the right of way and the ‘minor road’ traffic simply gives way. None of this pathetic 3 way, 4 way bollocks.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 09:45 AM | Link to this
Zekem, I think Progressive was put here to make their money off the unfortunate or people the big insurers won’t touch. I’ve noticed they have a big presence in the black community. I could be wrong, but that’s my perspective.
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 09:49 AM | Link to this
Can JOHNS CREEK please leave the Love Shack owner alone? Laissez faire - The consumer will eventually decide if their is a need for this type of business
here, here!!! why didn’t jim wanna talk about THAT subject? scared Love Shack keeps a listing of all their mail-order customers?
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 09:50 AM | Link to this
Jenn, you are sooooo lucky. I think Liberty Mutual is the best thing going. I had my cars and homeowners with Allstate. Allstate cancelled my homeowners back around 1992 or so. I had it since 1975. I filed one claim back around 1978 when my home was broken into and burglarized, and the last claim around 1992 after a storm came thru and leveled some trees. That’s when they cancelled me.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 09:52 AM | Link to this
harold still cant figure out why the liberals are against guns. the liberals are the ones who will need to guns for the uprising when the fascist right oppressors take over!
AND WE KNOW WHERE YOU and rednekkks NAMBLA and deranged foreskin live harold!! In your case it will have to be dumb dumb bullets … smirk
By getalife
December 12, 2006 09:53 AM | Link to this
Its tough for Jim to write something postive these days.
Yawn/boring.
The incredible shrinking President (check out his numbers).
w should reduce the troops to training only but he is still spewing victory. There is no victory in Iraq but we have a new slogan.
“New Way Forward.” Yeah. Go w.
Geez.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 09:56 AM | Link to this
“time for the truth”, if you’re referring to me as the black moron complaining about non existant insurance racism, you need to open your eyes. Now just look at this picture. If you’re providing policies based on zip codes that’s no difference than redlining in the housing market. Also if zip codes had anything to do with the amount of traffic and the insurance rates, seems the me that the folks in Gwinnett County should be paying the higher rates because every time I travel down I-285 after work, those two lanes trying to get to the I-85 ramp is like a parking lot.
By harold
December 12, 2006 09:58 AM | Link to this
full size pick up truck?
too bad time for the truth chose to put something with such a long stopping distance on the road for his wife to drive around
if she had been driving a mini she could have stopped and avoided hitting the illegals
this is why troof should have to pay for insurance for his own behemoth he puts on the road. if he or his wife crashes it, too bad!
if troof’s insurance provider had been driving a more resaonable car than s big shiny SUVs , maybe they could have stopped too. but no, they wanted a vehcile with 50% longer stopping distance and then want to blame somebody else when they cant stop!!!!
By Jim Etheridge
December 12, 2006 09:59 AM | Link to this
Zekem…Who do YOU buy your insurance from? I notice that you did not mention that, but took off on Citgo when everyone knows where it comes from, but no one ever mentions the other gas dealers that are just as rotten as Citgo, and probably have millions tied up in insurance companies as well.
By Middle America
December 12, 2006 10:00 AM | Link to this
Funny how conservatives are all about letting market forces work to sort things out, unless it has something to do with an adult novelty shop. If there is no market for the products that the Love Shack provides, then they will go out of business in John’s Creek. They talk about morality, blah, blah, blah. Where’s the morality in forcing people with bad credit to pay a higher rate for car insurance? But I guess in a society where talking about universal health care is a sin, why should we be surprised? God forbid we help other people from dying because their wallet was too thin. There’s a special place in HELL for people who worry about getting that second home in the Hamptons but curse people who just want to afford a doctor for their children as being a “welfare state”.
By Jenn
December 12, 2006 10:01 AM | Link to this
Good Driver— I’m sure if we filed a claim every couple months or so, they would cancel us. We had just moved into our home when the hail storm hit 2/05, and they wouldn’t cover it because we “technically” didn’t have possesion of the home at the time of the storm. This year, however, we had a couple storms with hail, and they were more than willing to cover the roof damage.
By Van
December 12, 2006 10:03 AM | Link to this
Chazman,
It works because you can go on line and shop prices. Progressive has made a big deal about that, so has Geico.
If you have a good record, kept your nose clean, fiscally speaking, you can shop until you find a reasonable rate.
The current system seems to be avantageous to both the consumer and the business. They must compete and you pay according to how responsibile you are.
By Aquagirl
December 12, 2006 10:03 AM | Link to this
Now there’s an idea…if Equifax gives false information to my insurance company, can I legally go after Equifax for the financial damages? They’re responsible.
Yeah, show me a Republican who will support that idea. They’re all about “individual responsibility” as long as it suits their twisted ideas, but “corporate responsibility” is a foreign concept.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 10:03 AM | Link to this
here, here!!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA
still LMFAO … crackpipe ho dennis/debbie is such a freaking moron it doesn’t know that the phrase ‘hear hear’ is actually 18th century auditory rhetoric - from the Palace of Westminster.
DUMBARSE debbie is such an IGNORANT dumbarse!! …huge better informed smirk
By Rita
December 12, 2006 10:06 AM | Link to this
GoodDriver - Again, you must really do a lousy job with your personal finances - which is your own fault - own up to it. I have never heard of anyone getting dropped after filing one claim - something fishy must have happened or that person must file alot of unnecessary claims. Insurance companies are not in the game to lose money - especially in today’s “lawsuit happy” society. Again, credit score is just a small portion of the calculation. I’d worry more about my driving habits if I were you!
By harold
December 12, 2006 10:07 AM | Link to this
no-fault is the way to go, because in all crashes, legal fault may be determined, but we all know that in virtually all crashes, BOTH participants were not paying proper attention. pretty much the only exception is when one car is fully stopped in stopped traffic and somebody else hits it. typically one person breaks a rule while the other is not paying proper attention. that is how crashes happen. that is why no-fault should be mandatory, not this absurd liabilty insruance scam
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 10:09 AM | Link to this
The owner/founder and the company contribute $billions to liberal leftist “progressive” agenda causes! The use of the word progressive is an attempt by leftist liberals in this country to hide their agenda of populism, socialism and communism! There is nothing progressive about that agenda, but, in fact it is a very regressive agenda
Wow!! here’s another one for u:
men should NEVER drink homogenized milk. note the first few letters in the word homogenized,h-o-m-o,that let’s u know that it’s a direct attack by the gay and liberal media to make more converts from straight american men to gay america men in an attempt to promote their leftist, liberal, homosexual causes!!!
All men in America should Drink BEER instead of MILK — don’t let the dairy queens win!!!
As told to me by a street person in downtown Atlanta when I asked him what would he do with the buck I just gave him.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 10:10 AM | Link to this
the greasy mexican made a sudden utterly unexpected illegal turn harold on a local backroad without using its indicators - thus my wife wasn’t penalised by the local filth who failed to punish the mexcian for his lack of licence and insurance … funny how you UTTERLY ignore the huge problem with the illegal mexican infestation which has had a calamitous effect on road safety and driving costs.
I’ve noticed over here that many black women and orientals and Indian subcontinent asians of both sexes are p1ss poor (hesitant) drivers too.
By Curious Observer
December 12, 2006 10:10 AM | Link to this
Suppose a life insurance company wanted to charge higher premiums to blacks than to whites because there is a correlation between life insurance claims and race—as a group, blacks die sooner. It wouldn’t be permitted.
Neither should property and casualty companies be permitted to charge more for coverage on the basis of a mere correlation between credit history and auto accident claims. Who knows what other factors cause a correlation? Suppose it was discovered that fat people submit more accident claims than thin people. Should the insurance companies, then, be permitted to base auto insurance rates on a driver’s dietary history?
The truth is that John Oxendine is the mere play-puppy of the insurance industry. His crocodile tears do not move me. He collects his campaign contributions from the insurance industry through its employees and contractors, and he is beholden to it. In fact, the entire state legislature has been bought by the insurance industry—thus the Good Ol’ Boy Insurance Profitability Assurance Act, otherwise known as state-mandated auto insurance coverage.
We need an insurance commissioner who looks out for the interests of the citizens, not the insurance industry. And we need a legislature that is not in bed with big business. The notion that the free market will eliminate over-pricing is sheer baloney. In a situation in which Georgia citizens absolutely must buy auto insurance or else face denial of their privilege to drive, no insurance company is going to be the first to lower prices to reflect the real accident risk.
Whatever happened to driving history and maturity as the primary determinants of auto insurance rates?
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 10:11 AM | Link to this
Good Driver — ignore Twisted Sister Truth — everyone else does. it’s easier to talk to, and get intelligent conversation from, a sheep then it is to try and talk to Twisted Sister Truth.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 10:16 AM | Link to this
Jenn, I’m just waiting for my current homeowners policy to come up for renewal then I’m gonna dump them for Liberty Mutual. After Allstate Canceled me, most of the other big insurers wouldn’t touch me unless I paid a ridiculous rate. So I went with Sentry Insurance. Now here’s my beef with Sentry. We had a squirrel fall down the chimney while we were at work and he completely tore up the house trying to get out. He ate up all the casings around the windows, the doors, ripped the curtains, and SHIDDED everywhere he felt like doing it. When I called Sentry, they told me they don’t settle claims based on rodents. RODENTS I asked him? I mean they made it sound like I was harboring rats. Now get this, I DID NOT FILE A CLAIM, I just called the office and ASKED WOULD THEY COVER IT. Anyway it had been years between the time I left Allstate and my agent had been begging me to bring my homeowners policy back to them, so I figured since Sentry thought I was rat farming, it was a good time. Now when I applied back to Allstate, they would not insure me because of the phone call I made to Sentry inquiring about if they would pay if I filed a claim. They say the inquiry is just as if I filed a claim.
By Catheran Miller
December 12, 2006 10:16 AM | Link to this
What does credit scoring have to do with losses, or how a person drives, ust because a person has good credit doesn’t mean he cant have two DUI’S five speeding tickets, etc., what about the poor who live on minimum wages struggle to live, is it fair to rate their insurance higher because that do not have the ability to get a higher education to make more money, how about the elderly, they live on social security, which is minimum, why does their credit score have anything to do with how they drive, Prove that credit scoring is accurate, we hear it said that it is accurate, I have not seen anyone that can explain how it works let alone if it is accurate. Concerned in Georgia
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 10:17 AM | Link to this
huge twisted sister truth knows a lot of useless-mundane-information-need-to be-on-jepardy-with-his-ugly-cross-dressing-self-but-doesnt-know-how-to-read-a-goverment-graph-from-off-of-a-justice-webpage smirk
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 10:19 AM | Link to this
Rita, I do a good job with my finances. You need to be better informed. Try listening to Consumer Advocate Clark Howard, he’ll educate you on how the homeowner insurers are cancelling people after one claim. It’s what they are adopting as the industry standard. Also, I learned from him that whenever you call your insurer inquiry, don’t use your personal phone and don’t give them your real name because it will count as a claim filed.
By Pope rednecks - Amerikkka's Al Qaeda I
December 12, 2006 10:21 AM | Link to this
It is important for Georgia insurers and Mr. Wooten that a person’s negritude be a factor in their car insurance purchase price, as long as the car insurers can come up with an indirect way to get there?
Georgia - back to the future…
By Curt
December 12, 2006 10:23 AM | Link to this
Rita @9:30 “Those that claim that credit reports are full of inaccurate information probably do a poor job keeping up with their persoanl finances.”
Through no fault of their own, tens of thousand, if not hundreds of thousands, of individuals lose their good or excellent credit ratings in the blink of an eye through either identity theft or misreporting by a creditor — sometimes, the creditor of somebody else with a similar name or social security number. If I check my credit in January and unknowingly get hit in February…I submit, that ain’t my fault. Imagine now, that I look for a job in March or shop for auto insurance? Rarely is a person told that they didn’t get a job because of their credit score. A person is never told that their insurance premiums so high because of their credit score.
Mid-South is right. The credit agencies should be held to a higher standard.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 10:23 AM | Link to this
good driver
zip codes is the ONLY way to fairly assess insurance rates… its done in the UK and S AfriKa and Israel and everywhere else I have lived and around the civilised world.
Car insurance is also based on the likelihood of your car being stolen or broken into while parked up for the night at your declared home. Clearly crime rates can affect this a good deal. Lack of a locked garage has some bearing - as does being always street parked etc. It’s clearly not just one’s personal driving record and the national/state stats for one’s age group/gender etc that sets the rates. So a young male because of their collective appalling driving record NATURALLY pays more than anyone else - regardless of race.
Heavy traffic is NOT a major factor as I understand it - unless its an extremely accident prone route one takes - which is why even after declaring driving to work use every day our rates are virtually unchanged for this use, even after telling them we use a very busy metro motorway every day.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 10:26 AM | Link to this
Rita, one more thing, Allstate was quoting my $7,000 a year policy based on what they called MY GOOD DRIVING RECORD, My kids having taken a Driver’s Ed Course, and the fact that I was getting a MULTI-CAR discount. GO FIGURE.
Curious Observer, I do remember when blacks were sold no good life insurance policies, and the agent would come to the policy owner’s house at least every month if not every other week or so to collect the premiums. INSURERS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN BIGOTS.
By Charlotte
December 12, 2006 10:26 AM | Link to this
Let’s see… I am being penalized for not checking my credit often enough to notice that some crackpot has stolen my identity and made some hefty purchases. Not to mention the 18 months it has taken me to convince the Nazi credit bureaus to remove all the erroneously information.
And do I get any of those higher premiums back from insurance companies? Of course not; it’s the Jim Wooten way of doing business—ripping off hard-working Americans.
By JohnD
December 12, 2006 10:30 AM | Link to this
Personal responsibility, some have and some do not.
A driver hit by someone ignoring a red light should have to pay to have his own car repaired? And forcing people to have liability insurance is racist or class warfare? Operating a car is not one of the inalienable rights.
The zip code is used to determine the population density and traffic density based upon where you will do the most driving. So live in the farthest suburbs and pay less, live in the city and pay more.
All the insurance companies, Progressive included, are here because there is a need.
The illegals in this country certainly contribute to the problems addressed here and their removal would help solve this problem and the fossil fuels problem (if there is one), not to mention heath care costs that are a portion of the insurance calculation.
Accept the responsibility for your driving record and your credit score, acquire adequate insurance and drive sensibly, otherwise take the bus or a taxi.
By harold
December 12, 2006 10:31 AM | Link to this
troof, everybody knows your wife was driving on the wrong side of the road as britons do and that is why she did not see the mexicans signal and did not expect their turn!
By Rita
December 12, 2006 10:31 AM | Link to this
Good Driver - Again, I believe you are not giving us the entire story, you must be leaving something out! I do listen to Clark Howard and, in general, agree that he gives good advice. However, many of his callers, again, are probably not telling the whole story. I mainly listen for entertainment value.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 10:32 AM | Link to this
crackpipe dennis/debbie had its dumbarse severely verbally kicked the other week by buy danish about disproportionately high violent black crime.
DAVID HOROWITZ as you discovered SPEAKS THE (statistically informed) TRUTH
proper use of hear hear is something most PIG ignorant morons get WRONG … cheers for yet again proving you’re a snivelling MoRoN crackpipe dennis!!
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 10:35 AM | Link to this
Well time for the truth, again you must admit that the zip code thing is not being used fairly. Every morning when I wake up at 5:00am headed to work, when I listen to Captain Herb, he’s always hollering ‘OH MY ACHING TOE” about an accident up I-85 for the Gwinnettians, or I-575 around Bells Ferry for the Cherokees, or up I-75 around Town Center for the great folks of Cobb, yet you got us paying the higher premiums. And I have a garage.
By Kelly
December 12, 2006 10:42 AM | Link to this
Rich Golick “Insurance companies are in the business of accurately predicting future loss, and if insurance scores weren’t predictive, companies wouldn’t use the criteria…”
Rich Golick is mistaken. Insurance companies aren’t in the business of predicting future loss (they commonly deliberately lose money on claims when returns on their investments are strong); they’re in the business of making a profit. Contrary to his assertion, credit scores are not predictive. The fact that our Insurance Commissioner can’t explain why using credit information works, speaks volumes.
Generally speaking — gasoline costs more in poor communities; food costs more in poor communities; interest rates are higher in poor communities (even for those who have excellent credit); and now, auto insurance premiums are higher among the poor (even for those who have excellent driving records).
Credit scores are no more predictive than whether or not a person likes mushrooms on their pizza. Using credit scores is just another example of those with political influence taking advantage of those without.
By Diogenes
December 12, 2006 10:42 AM | Link to this
Jim,
On paper free market conditions as a means of pricing insurance sounds good. You possess, however, both the intellectual and verbal skills to make anything sound good on paper with only an occasional moderating voice from Cynthia Tucker or Jay Bookman. Diogenes, on the other hand, is in the ambiguous position of trusting neither big government, especially the type of bloated and unresponsive entity the Republicans have created over the past few years, nor big business, especially the type of bloated entity the Republicans have legislated and deregulated into existence over the past few years.
The dynamics of the “free market,” have become unreliable because of government interference, and ultimately it is unfair to a segment of the populace unable to afford the goods and services necessary for life. The “profit” motive has driven big business to make certain goods either scarcer or more costly than free market dynamics dictate.
When government will not approve a minimum wage hike to pursue the more costly goods and services, and when CEO remuneration has reached obscene levels, where does the “average” wage earner turn for relief from the dynamics of the “free market” as you style it? In this, government is not his friend.
You contend that “sufficient” information must be made available to the consumer concerning the options and choices available to him. That’s an important part of how the free market works, but consider an area in which the “free market” for information, itself, is interfered with, even though the consumer is even more dependent on good information than the purchaser of auto insurance.
That “free market” commodity is accurate sex education. The Bush administration refuses to allow the consumer access to all necessary information. This overly regulated segment of the economy is tightly controlled by big government, and, as I understand it, what is being substituted for information is a dictum — “thy shalt abstain.” Information on birth control is withheld. Carry this consumer need to the next logical level, and again the goods and services needed by the consumer are made scarce by government regulation. If the free market worked properly, then abortions and the information concerning the risks would be readily available to all consumers who wish them. In this arena, big government is failing the American consumer.
Big business, like big government, creates artificial scarcities, driving up cost and availability. Profit maximization almost dictates that goods be scarce so that “free market dynamics” can drive up the price and the margin. Remember what I said above about big government refusing to increase minimum wages despite the increase in the cost of vital goods and services since the wage was last adjusted?
Food and housing immediately come to mind as being far more costly now than when the last adjustment was made. So called “affordable” housing is an artificially scarce commodity, made scarce by the low profit margin on such housing. Enter big government, in this case local governments, regulating against the number of occupants of a dwelling, making “affordable” housing even more scarce.
Does Diogenes need to even mention the cost and artificial scarcity of medical treatment and medications? Big business, through collusion with government, have made certain medications prohibitively expensive by extending the time scan that certain drugs can be on the market before the monopoly expires. Diogenes is aware that the costs of research and development are great; in the interim, segments of our society are being deprived of needed goods and services because the free market dynamic has been interfered with.
By Rita
December 12, 2006 10:42 AM | Link to this
I really feel sorry for some of you. Your personal stories are just so heart breaking… It’s your money - do everything you can to protect it! Take a little responsibility and look at your credit report! Those that have had their identities stolen probably played a big part in it. You guys are just a bunch of wreckless whiners. You have NO CLUE how to protect yourself or your money. Blame yourself for your failures. You should have to pay for your mistakes and it sounds like most of your do and are not happy about it. How sad.
By Diogenes
December 12, 2006 10:43 AM | Link to this
Jim, Diogenes has no confidence in either big government or big business to allow the market to allocate goods and services appropriately. There are too many artificial scarcities through the collusion of business and government. That has been the nightmare of this administration: segments of our society are being deprived, as we just discussed above, although Diogenes has not the space to examine these inequities as fully as they need be.
We know that the “risk” the insurance companies are discussing is the risk of missing and late payments, although you have not made that distinction. When we discuss credit histories and payment for costly goods and services (and auto insurance is very costly), we know that large segments of our population will end up paying even higher prices (and certainly much larger percentages of income) just as they do with housing and medical service.
It should be the role of the free press to expose inequalities and to agitate for change to assure maximum equality to all segments of our community. I suggest that you often do not fulfill your role as a member of the free press, choosing instead to shill for both big government and big business to the detriment of we the people.
By Mario
December 12, 2006 10:46 AM | Link to this
JohnD @10:30 “The illegals in this country certainly contribute to the problems addressed here and their removal would help solve this problem…”
You’re an idiot.
By Chazman
December 12, 2006 10:46 AM | Link to this
Van, when you said the system is fair and works, I thought you were refering to the fact insurance companies base their rates on credit histories. If you were talking about going online and shopping for prices, then yes, you are right.
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 10:46 AM | Link to this
Twisted Sister Truth: Baaaa. Baaaa.
Sheep
PS: Did you ever actually READ a book, (Jimmy Carter’s), and not just the cliff notes?
By Use Logic
December 12, 2006 10:47 AM | Link to this
Oh, come on, guys, this is common sense AND plain ole logic.
Fact #1: Correlation does not prove causation. Fact #2: Capability to manage money has nothing to do with driving competence.
I can prove that there’s a correlation with poor driving for a number of totally unrelated issues — in fact, I could probably show a big correlation between # of accidents and people who live in the distant wilds of Alphawretched, Gwinnett, and Acworthless. So those people should pay more for their insurance because they live in the wrong counties, right?
Of course not; it’s a garbage correlation — it would be far more likely to be true that the people having the most wrecks in those counties were the ones who worked far away, and who had to travel the 75/85/285 hellhole every day, and thus increased their risk of accidents happening.
But you see my point. You can’t just swing around random correlations and pretend that they have some basis in fact — they need to be related in some manner. The insurance companies in Georgia need to be reminded of this.
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 10:48 AM | Link to this
Harold: Twisted Sister Truth does not have a wife. no sane, legally sighted, non paraplegic, mentally stable, woman would marry it. the “wife” bushsh#t he/she tells is just a figment of its imagination.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 10:49 AM | Link to this
Rita, Try reading some of this.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/26/pf/insurance/useitlose_it/index.htm?postversion=2005060310
http://www.ncoil.org/hearings/March2005/ClaimsDatabaseSecondSubstituteBill.doc
By @@
December 12, 2006 10:50 AM | Link to this
Jim: There are so many “ifs” within an auto insurance policy that my husband and I are inclined to maintain financial control through our own decisions.
We shop online every six months. We make the auto insurers compete for our business. We drive older cars and carry liability only.
If, perchance, there is a fender bender, we know a good body guy who operates with a low overhead at his residence. He gives us a list of references in the event that we’re paying for damage to the other driver. His work is good, if not better, than the big guys who stiff the insurance companies
It’s a win/win for everybody. The small business owner (body guy), the other guy gets to pocket the difference on the estimate, and us. Our premiums don’t go up.
Bodily injury or death to the other driver is a nightmare we’ve never had to endure. In many instances, bodily injury is an open-ended policy for abuse by other drivers. I’m a very cautious driver avoiding the risk to others and myself. The husband? OMG!!!
There’s a permanent foot imprint in the floorboard and a hole in the seat where I ride shotgun.
Have you ever noticed how many drivers don’t comprehend the right-of-way rule at a four-way stop sign? Everyone waits and waits for the woman (it’s almost always a woman) to take what’s rightfully hers. After what seems like a lifetime of honking and motioning to her, the rest of us do the unthinkable. We take what was hers.
I’ve always left, wondering just how long she stays frozen there. I’m guessing it’s when she’s the only one sitting at the intersection.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 10:52 AM | Link to this
simpering pooftah harold we Brits ALWAYS drive on the proper/right side of the road - but you colonials and the belgian and french cheese eating surrender monkeys ALWAYS drive on the WRONG side of the road. See you Americans and the garlic stinking snail munchers do have one thing in common.
My wife, being an American is used to driving on the WRONG side of the road -I unfortunately (but for obvious pragmatic reasons) have gotten used to doing this now. Although when I see a defeated wanker with a kerry/edwards sticker I am tempted to drive as we Brits do - so I can gloat that much more easily.
again simpering poof harold gutlesly IGNORES the illegal mexican infestation in GA and elsewhere. maybe if the mexican types WALKED from the border to Atlanta there would be far fewer of themn that actually made it up here - so you’re exhortation to walk does make wonderful sense in these limited circumstances. crackpipe dennis/debbie needs to walk round I-285 in the middle lane everyday in the rush hour though!
BUSH HAS TWO MORE GLORIOUS YEARS!!
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 10:52 AM | Link to this
When government will not approve a minimum wage hike to pursue the more costly goods and services, and when CEO remuneration has reached obscene levels, where does the “average” wage earner turn for relief from the dynamics of the “free market” as you style it?
it’s amazing isn’t it how our representatives in Washington can vote for a raise every year for themselves but can’t see their way clear to vote for a hike in the minimum wage? things that make u go hmmmm………..
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 10:55 AM | Link to this
Rita what is it about this that you don’t understand? Is it so hard for you to accept that insurance companies are not fair? I think it is because your low rates are being subsidized by some person that is struggling and you could give a RATS AZZ about it. Now how in the world could I have told the story about my son who by the way is a Jr. (named after me), if I did not check my credit report? They can’t seem to keep our stuff separate. When he got ready to buy his house, they told him he didn’t qualify because he already owned one house. Well that house was mine. The credit bureaus do a name match instead of a social security match when updating their files. They are real DUMB MASSES.
By Joe
December 12, 2006 10:57 AM | Link to this
Rita @10:42 “Those that have had their identities stolen probably played a big part in it.”
I’d say that this comment is absurd, but that would be a gross understatement.
By maxwell
December 12, 2006 10:58 AM | Link to this
So if someone loses their job or has a medical issue that forces them to be late on their credit card bills, they should be further penalized by having their car insurance go up? Nice business model; preying on people who are down on their luck due to extraordinary circumstances and raising their insurance regardless of their driving history. The next step will be for the insurance companies to take a page from the credit card company playbook and require mandatory arbitration rather than allowing civil lawsuits. That way , they can control the prosecution, judge, and jury. They obviously have a Georgia politician in their back pocket.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 11:00 AM | Link to this
I see crackpipe ho dennis/debbie is peddling its rabidly jealous morbidly obese transgendered donkey butchdike bitterness again. crackpipe - not even that cracked, badly chipped testube you were shamefully concocted in accepts your mothers day cards anymore.
I heard that your deaf dumb and blind, lice ridden, scabies infested, leper colony reject castrated afriKan pygmy male order husband rejected you - purely on your filthy stinky noxious odious smell. something about you reeking of rancid decaying anchovies was his heartfelt response.
By harold
December 12, 2006 11:01 AM | Link to this
troof, the mostest mexicans are in mexico. take your immigration/taxation issues up with the mexican congress personally! troof should fly to oaxaca and march on the capitol today! delta is ready when troof is!!
By Chazman
December 12, 2006 11:04 AM | Link to this
Mexican types dont have a proper driving test - neither do Americans. In the UK you have a real test in real daytime traffic for about 45 mins.
Here’s Time For The Trash - your typical conservative - complaining about the lack of resources to get the job done while probably screaming to cut services so his taxes want be so high.
He wants the US to have the same type of driving test as that of UK. a real test of 45 minutes, driving in traffic. So if we were to do that in the US, what would it take? Think how much more manpower it would take. Services have been cut so much in the past 10 years, it takes a 3 hour wait to get any service, let alone a driving test.
Typical. Cut my taxes, but fix those damn potholes in the middle of the road. Cut my taxes and get rid of those deadbeats in the driving license centers. By the way, why do I have to wait in line so long to get my license. Cut my taxes, but how come I can’t talk to a receptionist, or a live person when I call a government agency? Because you b*** and griped that services should be cut to lower your taxes. Typical.
So Trashman, Should we have a more intense driving test? If so, are you for hiring the people to get it done? Or are you for just whining about it?
By Curious Observer
December 12, 2006 11:05 AM | Link to this
Good Driver,
The “no good” insurance policies sold largely to blacks are part of a still-existing life insurance scheme called debit insurance, which provides small amounts of coverage. The premiums are sky-high because an agent or a broker must be paid to collect premiums directly from the policyholder every month, instead of receiving the premiums by mail. The premiums are not largely attributable to the race of the buyer.
On the other hand, credit scores in general are directly correlated to race. Therefore, an insurance premium that is tied to a credit score has a discriminatory effect. The good ol’ boys have merely found another way to sock it to blacks and others of lower incomes. The fat cat who can afford a new Hummer or a Rolls Royce gets a tremendous break; the poor slob who of necessity drives a 1987 Pinto pays through the nose, without regard to the true cost of repairing or writing off the vehicle.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 11:08 AM | Link to this
good driver
you seemingly deliberately miss the obvious point - no matter how good/safe a driver you/your family are … its where you live and any of the wider, bigger picture statistical problems associated with that zip code (or post code in the UK) that affect insurance rates. You are personalising this way too much … even heavy daily traffic congestion doesn’t lead to higher insurance rates inofitself.
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 11:08 AM | Link to this
whining about it.
By Aquagirl
December 12, 2006 11:10 AM | Link to this
If you’re egotistical enough to give your child the exact same name that you have, then don’t whine when the system gets screwed up and confuses the two of you. You have the same name! Duh.
By Rita
December 12, 2006 11:14 AM | Link to this
It is very sad that so many of you just seem to keep having failure after failure. I believe it is time for a reality check and admit that YOU played some part in YOUR problem. I have to go - and I am sure I have not won the popularity contest today! By the way, please “steer clear” of a white 2006 Honda Pilot. Sounds as though some of your need to take a Driver’s Ed refresher course. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 11:18 AM | Link to this
fullofcrapman
YES … there should be a proper driving test here … then these mindless spoiled brat yoofs would kill far fewer folks. This would save a great deal of money and grief. If the UK with around a 60 million population and Germany with around 90 million can do it so can GA with 10 million - and the other states.
The brats and their parents should pay for the tests as they take it. A driving licence is an EARNED privilege NOT an automatic right!
DEPORT all MEXICAN ILLEGAL SCUM NOW!! and harold too to Cuba - along with maggot brain … harold needs to use one of Delta’s outside toilets - in midflight only of course
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 11:25 AM | Link to this
Rita, sweetheart, I don’t have a problem. I’m just speaking of what I know and of past experiences. I’m with Liberty Mutual and just as happy as a sissy in jail. Thank God for the internet where you can do comparative shopping with the click of a mouse.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 11:27 AM | Link to this
Aquagirl, I’ve been programming computers since 1972 and any idiot knows that when you are updating a database you pick a unique field such as a social security number.
By Jim Wooten
December 12, 2006 11:31 AM | Link to this
Jumping in late to help Cherry Picker @ 8:51 connect the dots on the liberal mind: A system that had one or a handful of rating categories, as noted earlier, requires the good drivers to subsidize the bad. To the liberal mind, some affected individuals fall into groups that deserve to be protected from marketplace forces — minorities, “women,” the “poor” or others they condescendingly regard as being incapable of managing their personal finances. The solution, therefore, is to impose a private sector “tax” others who carry auto insurance, or to create a government-subsidized pool. Conservatives think everybody should pay based on the behaviors they practice.
As to Good Driver’s argument that two different insurers quoted him vastly different rates: One obviously has him in the wrong category — meaning that he’ll find a cheaper carrier and leave, as he did, or the low-premium company will pay for its mistake in losses.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 11:32 AM | Link to this
time for the truth, well I don’t live in the COUNTRY CLUB OF THE SOUTH, but then again I don’t live in “KILL MORE DISTRICT” either. I’m in a nice area of where traffic is not a problem. Unlike some area I see where the homeowner has to have a wrap around driveway because traffic is so bad that he can’t back out of it.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 11:40 AM | Link to this
Jim Wooten, I’d be interested in knowing if the Allstate Agents get some type of incentive for gouging as much as they can from a policy holder. I really think that between the three policy’s that my family had with them (mine, my son’s and my daughter’s) that we were paying the rent on the office space being leased.
By JohnD
December 12, 2006 11:51 AM | Link to this
Mario,
The illegals are an approximate $100 million drain on our economy above any taxes they pay. This is just in wlefare and medical costs.
You must either be illegal or profit from the illegals to take such a position. There are legal means to enter the country and if you or anyone did not use the legal means they should be removed.
Check the LA Times for the dreadful statistics just in California. You have nothing but emotion to support such a stand.
So you are the idiot.
By seenitb4
December 12, 2006 11:53 AM | Link to this
Time for Truth You are an idiot!
By getalife
December 12, 2006 11:55 AM | Link to this
Conservatives think everybody should pay based on the behaviors they practice
Except in war.
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 11:56 AM | Link to this
Jim Wooten: Conservatives think everybody should pay based on the behaviors they practice.*
if that were true, dubya would be impeached, Abramoff would have never have gained so much power in washington, Delay would be in jail, and you wouldn’t have a job. so i guess i blew that theory out of the water.
By Diogenes
December 12, 2006 12:07 PM | Link to this
Jim
Your comment, ” To the liberal mind, some affected individuals fall into groups that deserve to be protected from marketplace forces — minorities, “women,” the “poor” or others they condescendingly regard as being incapable of managing their personal finances”
I think that the reality is that the market ceased to operate as a “free market” a long time again. Many examples come readily to mind of how the market is manipulated by both government and business to the detriment of the consumer. Do I think that a government which fails to raise minimum wage to give low income workers better opportunity to purchase vital goods and services is manipulating the market? Of course, I do. Do I think that the price of drugs in Canada compared to those of the US indicate a government manipulating the market in collusion with pharmaceutical companies? Of course, I do. Jim, come out of your gated community occasionally and take a good close look at reality. If you really saw what was going on out here, you’d quit being a shill for big government and big business.
By Chazman
December 12, 2006 12:07 PM | Link to this
Trashman - you didn’t answer my question. Are you for hiring the employees to get the job done? If it took hiring 500 more government employees to get these tests done, are you for that? Or are you for whining about it?
Another question: Can you answer my question without hurling personal insults and calling names? We all know that answer to that question.
By JohnD
December 12, 2006 12:10 PM | Link to this
GoodDriver,
Do you really need to ask if the agent makes more money on a more expensive policy? Good grief, grab some reality.
You also want the insurance companies to be “fair”. What an asinine liberal point of view. LIFE is not fair and fairness was never promised. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY is in your hands and you have to take advantage of the opportunity and find the best rates.
You just want to whine and complain because you were not smart enough to find the best deal on insurance. The consumer has the opportunity but no one can exercise the choice for him or her.
The individual who asserted the zip code is used to penalize black and poor people is just wrong. Traffic density and accident rates in the zip code are what push the cost of insurance higher in those areas.
I happen to live in a zip code spanning 3 counties and the rates are lower in the less densely populated county. Simple as that.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 12:11 PM | Link to this
I certainly understand the sentiments of folks like “Rita” and “time for the truth”. I was sorta like that myself back when Ronald Reagan was in office and I was making so much money I needed a wheel barrow to go to the bank. But I remember preachers always saying “TROUBLE DON’T LAST ALWAYS’, well take some free advice from me “Having lots of money, a Job, Good Health & Good times don’t last always either”. Life seems to go in circles, and one day something will happen to take you out of the ranks of the elite and suddenly you’ll see the plight of the unfortunate. I remember listening to Boortz one time and he was making the statement of something like “Got Dayum the poor, I’m so sick of hearing about the poor” and during the good time my stupid azz was agreeing with him.
By harold
December 12, 2006 12:12 PM | Link to this
the poor ARE incapable of managing their personal finances. duh. if they were capable, they would not be poor!
By JohnD
December 12, 2006 12:17 PM | Link to this
So Diogenes is a socialist. What a surprise.
The Canadian government forces down the price of drugs and in itself that provides an indictment of Capitalism. Then what does a six month or more wait for surgical procedures say about the Socialist Canadian Medical System?
Oh yes, in one of your posts free abortion seemed to be the solution to the insurance problems. Abort more babies and then you have fewer of these people like GoodDriver to complain about insurance. Is that your position?
Thankfully for you and me, I am out of here.
By Diogenes
December 12, 2006 12:19 PM | Link to this
Jim,
I think there’s a lesson here. Yesterday, when you discussed the murder of a child, you received fewer comments all day than you have received already today, when you discuss a mundane topic like auto insurance rating/pricing.
By The One
December 12, 2006 12:22 PM | Link to this
Can JOHNS CREEK please leave the Love Shack owner alone? Laissez faire - The consumer will decide if their is a need for this type of business.
Jim Wooten, Please start a blog on this topic tomorrow.
BTW, What is liberal mind and conservative mind? I think people in this country is always trying to find ways to divide themselves into specific categories (race, color, income, age, politics, gender, sexuality)
I have discovered (26 years old) that we all want the same things out of life.
By jbmlaw
December 12, 2006 12:30 PM | Link to this
Our leftist friends object to insurance companies using “invalid” criteria for rating potential customers. Why not allow the free market to work? If the insurance companies use invalid criteria, their losses will soar, and the idiots who chose the criteria will lose their customers first and then their jobs. Surely our leftist friends have more in their lives than micromanaging big business. Let’s micromanage government spending instead.
By jbmlaw
December 12, 2006 12:36 PM | Link to this
Dear Diogenes @ 12:19, in all fairness I think you ignore the minimum criteria for a horse-race. Except for some leftist agitation in favor of execution of innocent children while still in the womb, there is little disagreement over the merits of the murder of a child. I shocked Jim received as much discussion as he did yesterday.
By Sick&Tired
December 12, 2006 12:36 PM | Link to this
Jim Wooten,
You and the rest of your conservative buddies are complete off your rockers. Why should insurance be base upon Credit history? This is something that is enforced by the state. In this state, you can’t drive a vehicle if you don’t have insurance.
Just so you know, I have EXCELLENT credit and driving history and I think you are crazy. Having “Insurance” is not a Credit Card, where I shop just for the “Blank” of it. It’s a state requirement.
Everything you Convervatives stand for, is anything where you are the PRIMARY BENEFICIARY”.
Just so that you know - just because someone is POOR does not make them a higher driving RISK, than a Rich man who PAYS his bills on time - but likes to drink and drive after a party.
By nocredit
December 12, 2006 12:47 PM | Link to this
What about people who don’t use credit? They aren’t in debt because they pay as they go, yet won’t have a credit score so they are considered a bigger risk by the insurance companies? Shouldn’t that make them MORE worthy of lower rates?
Where’s the logic in that?
Oh, yeah, logic has no place in regulations or business!
By catlady
December 12, 2006 12:47 PM | Link to this
I think some of the comments of the “legislator” are ill-founded and elitest, to say the least. Here is an interesting question some have overlooked: do the well-credited ACTUALLY have fewer accidents, or do they make fewer claims because they “pay off” the relatively smaller accidents out of pocket. I suspect if you could look at the accident rate, rather than the claim rate, a more equal picture would emerge. I know I have been hit by wealthy drivers, or their children, several times and they paid all the bills out of pocket rather than turn in the claim. In effect, the less financially well-credited subsidize the lower rates by paying more, if this is true on a wide scale.
By Fall Line
December 12, 2006 12:59 PM | Link to this
It sounds so simple to me. Live within your means; Save your money; Pay your bills; Read the fine print; And, of course, remember to buy your booze on Saturday!
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 01:10 PM | Link to this
fullofcrapman
YES I am for hiring said driving instructors - this is one tax payer expense that is worth extra expenditure - however the postal clerk like morons who currently administer driving tests should have a compulsory IQ test administered - most of them - particularly the fatter wimmin are little better than functioning illiterates.
Actually festering PINKO bollockchops I NEVER HURL INSULTS AT YA -I JUST DESCRIBE YA!!
By Redneck Convert
December 12, 2006 01:14 PM | Link to this
As long as Those People are charged more, I don’t care how the insurance companies price car insurance. Charging Those People more will keep them off the roads and away from my place up in Forsyth County. It used to be they wouldn’t dare show up there, back when we had a little lynching party for Hosea Williams and his bunch and the law come and spoiled things. Now I see Those People all over Ga. 400 and the back roads.
I’m awful glad we got Oxendine and the legislature looking out for us rednecks. And Those People need to be bunched in the two districts the federal guvmint made us give them. That way, they can take the bus and stay off the roads us godly people use.
If the Lord wanted Those People to drive cars, they would have been born in places where you have to use a car. Or maybe a car would have showed up just as they was being born. Or maybe even in a car.
I’m awful glad I live in Georgia. We know how to deal with Those People. In a sneaky way, so they can’t arrest or sue us over it.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 01:14 PM | Link to this
suckKerryEdwardsb4
inadequate little lefty wankers like you are just SO EASY TO GOAD!!
By getalife
December 12, 2006 01:18 PM | Link to this
Louisiana is very liberal when it comes to liqour sales. They sell it in grocery stores seven days a week.
“Sure looks like a bloodless coup in Washington Have Americans just witnessed the first bloodless coup in our history?”
Let us pray for Sunday sales and the coup in Washington.
Amen.
By Marie
December 12, 2006 01:20 PM | Link to this
I think that ANY company who requires a credit check should also be required to report credit history. I also think that ANY company who has the ability to negatively impact credit scores should be required to report credit history. It doesn’t seem right that someone can ruin credit when they aren’t obligated to report positive activity as well.
By Randy
December 12, 2006 01:23 PM | Link to this
Lots of folks here seem to have missed the bus when it came to brains.
Please, the next bus will arrive soon. Wait for it.
I’m just glad you aren’t out driving braindead in traffic.
By FalconsFan
December 12, 2006 01:29 PM | Link to this
**Speaking of credit cards.
What kind of comapanies are allowed to get away with the things that credit card companys do.
You are late even 1 day, boom, 28 dollars or .10% of your balance.
Other credit card companys see that your late on one card, boom, they up your percentage rate to 33% and hope you do not realize it so they can scam you for years.
Credit card companys that up your percentage rate without telling you. Is criminal.
Credit card companys that send your bill out using 20 day pay period instead of 30 days to pay. Its criminal.
Credit card companys that offer reduced rates on transfers but don’t tell you they will charge you 30 dollars to do it.
Credit card companies that allow you to pay by phone but charge you 14 dollars for something that costs them nothing. They are criminals and should be jailed.
Credit card companys that reduce your total limit in error, and then when called on it , refuse to put it back because you have too high balances on your other cards.
Credit card companys should be in jail for the way they treat american citizens.**
By Julie Painter
December 12, 2006 01:29 PM | Link to this
I think what Golick did should be investigated by the Federal Government as an ethic violation. He is not serving us, the ones who voted for him. He is only concerned about his Allstate Ins. company paycheck.
I plan to do my best to see to it that he is never re-elected.
The harm caused by the insurance companies using credit reports is that more lower income, laid off, down sized or Enron’ed people will not be able to afford the insurance. This in turn means that there will be more under or un-insured people on the streets.
His selfishness has put many people in danger of further maring someones credit when other bills go unpaid because drivers must have insurance.
Thanks alot Golick! You better keep that Allstate job.
Julie
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 01:32 PM | Link to this
the illegal immigrant infestation isn’t just a GA/USA thang
this pathetic dreadlocked thug attempted to murder a brave female woodentop
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?inarticleid=422106&inpageid=1770
By ICEMAN
December 12, 2006 01:33 PM | Link to this
Redneck Convert,
Since you obviously want attention I’ll give it to you: Why are you whining about where people drive, when you know that you are only allowed on horseback.
By Julie Painter
December 12, 2006 01:37 PM | Link to this
Thanks AJC for exposing the selfish Ba——d who pushed the insurance/credit report angle. WE SHOULD NEVER VOTE FOR GOLICK AGAIN, NEVER.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 01:44 PM | Link to this
Redneck Convert, I just know you’re really trying to get a rise out of the bloggers because you just can’t be that stupid. But it wasn’t the law the Changed Forsyth, the law had been in effect for quite some time. It was the metropolitan growth and sprawl that changed Forsyth. But just in case there is someone out there as ignorant as you are to believe what you’re saying, they should count their blessings that they had Hosea to deal with and not the people of today, because there is no way you could hurl a rock at us today without one coming back at you. The only law I’ve really seen in Forsyth that has seemed to bother the likes of you is that BANGING YOUR KIDS NOW WILL GET YOU IN JAIL. Just look at the sexual crimes you and your cousins are doing in Forsyth. And you don’t see many of “Those People” on there either, do you?
http://www.forsythsheriff.org/sexoffender/search.php?PHPSESSID=1d022cc8b98cd002e39350944f436c6c
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 01:47 PM | Link to this
actually Iceman
the ONLY way that Inbred Redneck should be allowed to travel is being dragged along by a rope behind his fictional stolen beer truck … preferrably by a couple of visionary politically very sound black conservatives who have rejected the odious snouts in the trough racial spoils agenda.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 01:48 PM | Link to this
time for the truth, I guess you were on vacation when the White Boy who was a classmate of the woman in Cherokee I think it was, raped her and mentioned the things he was gonna do to her daughter. When he mentioned that she was a scorned woman and took his sorry azz out.
By Sick&Tired
December 12, 2006 01:50 PM | Link to this
Julie Painter,
Not many people on this blog realize that this will only lead to a higher number of Uninsured drivers.
They are too dumb to realize that people with bad credit will not pay their insurance, with it’s Extremely higher premiums for a Dodge Neon - that is on it’s way to the Junk Yard, because they can’t afford to keep it in running conditions.
The question for most will be, should I pay my Rent this month or should I pay my car insurance?
I guess the Insurance companies will be sending a persons inability to pay each month to the credit bureau.
Having Insurance is a continuous debt, it’s not something you can pay off monthly, yearly or in 30 years (like mortages or credit cards).
Are there any LIFETIME fixed debts, that have Credit Scores associated with them? Insurance premiumns don’t go away, they continue until you are no longer driving. Which can be until death in most cases.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 01:52 PM | Link to this
Louisiana is very liberal when it comes to liqour sales.
LA is also very liberal when it comes to tolerating blatantly corrupt black demoNcrat congressman with $90,000 stuffed in their freezers. Damn shame that trhe aftermath of Katrina didn’t just wash the whole damn inbred state away!! Would have significantly lowered the national crime stats and saved taxpayers a bloody fortune!
By FalconsFan
December 12, 2006 01:54 PM | Link to this
Remember when Hosea marched into Forsyth County and got hit in the head with a brick.
I think he was marching for the civil rights of credit card companies.
By ICEMAN
December 12, 2006 01:54 PM | Link to this
time for the truth,
I concur. The over hype of isolated incidents, such as the one GoodDriver just pointed out, should be redirected to teachings that develop every facet of the brain, just the left wing side.
By JK
December 12, 2006 01:55 PM | Link to this
Falcons Fan, you’re so right about the credit card companies. They also own Congress, and asked them to pass a law making it harder for you to declare bankruptcy if a medical crisis or natural disaster wipes you out. The leaders of this consistently PROFITABLE industry said there was a problem with people not paying their bills, and asked your legislators to help them out. Yet Congress made no law regulating the Credit industry, or requiring that they take responsibility for their own careless lending habits, such as sending cards to 18-year-old college freshmen with no jobs, or known bad credit risks while charging 25% interest. Congress, with the help of their friends in the Credit industry, decided that YOU have to be more responsible, but the Credit industry does not. Ask not for whom your Congressman works; just know he doesn’t work for you.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 01:58 PM | Link to this
good driver
your actual point on the lady who defended herself in Cherokee County is??
By Political Foreskin
December 12, 2006 02:01 PM | Link to this
retardo-rama
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 02:10 PM | Link to this
time for the truth, just what do you think my point is when he’s gonna make the statement of “this pathetic dreadlocked thug attempted to murder a brave female woodentop”. How many white boys do you know with dreadlocks?
By Uncle Elmo
December 12, 2006 02:11 PM | Link to this
That Bookman chick looks slightly man-ish. But only very slightly.
By CJ
December 12, 2006 02:15 PM | Link to this
Wooten @11:31 “*To the liberal mind, some affected individuals fall into groups that deserve to be protected from marketplace forces — minorities, “women,” the “poor” or others they condescendingly regard as being incapable of managing their personal finances…Conservatives think everybody should pay based on the behaviors they practice. *”
I’m a liberal, and I believe that auto policies should be rated based upon a person’s driving record (i.e. “behaviors they practice”). Several on this blog have provided excellent examples of how an individual can have a low credit score for reasons that have nothing to do with negative personal behavior:
Also, the reason that John Oxendine doesn’t understand the connection between credit scores and accident rates is because there is none. So, your point regarding liberals’ views regarding behavior and people being unable to manage their own finances, in this instance, is weak. To the contrary, applying your logic, supporting a credit score/auto insurance rating scheme strikes me as anti-conservative since such an approach discounts behavior (i.e. driving records).
Regarding your point that liberals believe that certain groups deserve to be protected from marketplace forces — don’t get me started talking about the subsidies and giveaways from so-called conservatives to big business at the taxpayers expense. Very thick books are available on the subject. I’m sorry, but for every example that you can find of liberals attempting to protect citizens from the marketplace, I can find an example of conservatives doing the same for big business. As JK said, we live in the Corporate States of American now. And the reason has nothing to do with “free” markets.
By ICEMAN
December 12, 2006 02:22 PM | Link to this
GoodDriver,
Why don’t you reach into that vast area of space/time continuum called your head and answer time for the truth’s question straight out. Are you insinuating something? Are you considering something? What are your thoughts? Speak up man!!! or girl?
By Mario
December 12, 2006 02:25 PM | Link to this
JohnD @10:30 “The illegals in this country certainly contribute to the problems addressed here and their removal would help solve this problem”
JohnD @11:51,
You’re still an idiot.
By Mr. Allstate - Metro ATL
December 12, 2006 02:26 PM | Link to this
Get a free quote today and be in Good Hands..Not all insurance companies are bad. Get a free quote at: http://agent.allstate.com/JerryPope/Welcome
By ICEMAN
December 12, 2006 02:26 PM | Link to this
CJ,
Big business is the marketplace. Guess who is employed by big business? Taxpayers! The people you want to protect are part of the beneficiaries of what you are attacking.
By CJ
December 12, 2006 02:28 PM | Link to this
Jim,
Your people almost always seem to mess up the spacing in my carefully crafted posts — still frustrating. Just because I’m a liberal…
By abc
December 12, 2006 02:30 PM | Link to this
I’d feel more comfortable with it if they’d disclose the formulas by which credit is used, and the rationale behind it. With the rules stating that they’re allowed to keep such rationale a secret, how are we supposed to figure out if they’re ripping people off? Shall we start to trust insurance companies? Ha!
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 02:30 PM | Link to this
driver
my description of the dreadlocked thug is perfectly accurate, with NO racial dimension to it - as I fully expected, given your earlier extremely empty factless posts about supposed racism and insurance - I thought you’d be on a racial hair trigger, I was right, this is always very amusing to behold.
there are actually a lot of dreadlocked whites, usually younger male and female in the UK and indeed in western Europe - most, but not all of them are the nasty obsessive far leftist (often violent) hippy like lemmings active in the rabidly angry anti-globalist cult.
your repeated (in your pleasingly grammatically quite poor posts) use of ‘boy’ obviously has NO racial dimension at all… NOT
By jbmlaw
December 12, 2006 02:34 PM | Link to this
I am gravely disappointed with our nanny-staters. Good Harold introduced the idea early, and I gave you the perfect argument, @ 9:08, to really stick it to the insurance companies and to the plaintiffs’ bar, all at the same time. None of you embrace the one way to really erode the size and power of the insurance companies; just what kind of revolutionaries are you, anyway?
By getalife
December 12, 2006 02:34 PM | Link to this
Obama announces
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 02:34 PM | Link to this
Mario
I’ll have two chicken tacos and a chicken chalupa to go … and no sour cream - OK!
cheers!!
By CJ
December 12, 2006 02:39 PM | Link to this
ICEMAN,
I didn’t attack big business. I attacked the idea of protecting big business from marketplace forces. As usual, if you’re a real conservative, look to the liberals.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 02:41 PM | Link to this
Amen to that CJ. But like I stated earlier I’m not a Liberal or a Conservative. I’m a Realist. I know you didn’t say I was, but I say that to say this. I don’t want anyone protecting me from the marketplace, nor do I want that for anyone else. What I want is for the marketplace to give me the same options as they do everyone else. But I do realize that the whole conservative agenda for neutralizing and controling minorities is based on economics. To them it’s their form of slavery. They use it to strain and oppress people in every marketplace there is, and a lot of times it’s not based on one’s credit rating, but the color of their skin. Something is drastically wrong with the way we do things in America. We will give millions to a charitable organization to help someone who has lost everything. But for the person that is out there trying to keep on doing it for himself without turning to some type of aid, we give him the worst loans, the worst rates, the hoopty car, and stick him with the worst natural gas provider. Everything is designed to suck the living life out of him. Don’t give me SHID but a decent job and i’ll make my own way. But decent jobs are hard to find for the average american because they think we are supposed to be able to make it on wages that they pay our immigrant counterparts who live 5 families to a house.
By Mario
December 12, 2006 02:44 PM | Link to this
time for the truth @2:34 “Mario, I’ll have two chicken tacos and a chicken chalupa to go … and no sour cream - OK! cheers!!”
Apparently, ignorance IS bliss.
By Ken
December 12, 2006 02:45 PM | Link to this
Insurance is simply a contract between the insured and the company to cover a certain risk under negotiated terms. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. Nobody’s forcing you.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 02:51 PM | Link to this
Obama osama as DUI killer Kennedy calls him is a blatantly vapid light-weight nonentity with little to say of any depth or originality. His mixed race and a spot of regrettable serendipity is SOLELY what has gotten him elected and thus inflicted on the rest of us all the repugnant uncritical fawning leftist media attention - NOT his undeveloped neophyte political nous which seems at best to be pretty thin. He’s not quite as dim as most of the far left congressional black caucus - but that doesn’t say much with the likes of Conyers, Waters, Rangel, Jackson Lee, McKinney et al hanging on. Hopefully this nauseating fawning will peter out after it’s done just enough to fatally damage HiTllary’s demonic attempt to slither back into the White House.
By getalife
December 12, 2006 02:52 PM | Link to this
Lets get real.
Jim and his cons do not have a very good track record on being right.
Admitting mistakes takes courage and that seems to lack with the cons.
To learn from your mistakes, you have to admit them first.
Until then, they have no credibility.
None.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 02:54 PM | Link to this
Apparently, ignorance IS bliss.
especially in your case bubbaturd Mario.
By Jenn
December 12, 2006 02:55 PM | Link to this
Mario, why can’t you argue or try to prove a point instead of calling people idiots?
By Jenn
December 12, 2006 02:59 PM | Link to this
getalife— I heard that earlier!! I tend to lean more to the right, but this guy does have charisma. If anything he’ll give Hillary a run for her money.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 03:00 PM | Link to this
Here’s an example of making the marketplace fair and open to everyone with the same rates. Before Natural Gas was deregulated in Georgia, the metropolitan Atlanta area was serviced by Atlanta Gas Light Company. They provided gas to everyone and it didn’t matter what your credit rating was because if you didn’t pay the bill, they cut your service off. Now with deregulation, the gas providers based their service on credit ratings, and if you were unfortunate and couldn’t get gas anywhere else, they sent you to SCANA Energy’s Regulated Division where they just rape you. The good thing that came out of it is, I don’t think they can pull another deregulation on us.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 03:01 PM | Link to this
Here’s an example of making the marketplace fair and open to everyone with the same rates. Before Natural Gas was deregulated in Georgia, the metropolitan Atlanta area was serviced by Atlanta Gas Light Company. They provided gas to everyone and it didn’t matter what your credit rating was because if you didn’t pay the bill, they cut your service off. Now with deregulation, the gas providers based their service on credit ratings, and if you were unfortunate and couldn’t get gas anywhere else, they sent you to SCANA Energy’s Regulated Division where they just rape you. The good thing that came out of it is, I don’t think they can pull another deregulation on us.
By Jenn
December 12, 2006 03:04 PM | Link to this
Time for the Truth, Better have those tacos without green onions.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 03:08 PM | Link to this
Ken, since when do you have an option of NOT BUYING AUTO INSURANCE, without the risk of landing in jail. Your only options is where you buy it, but you’ve got to have it. It’s forced upon us.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 03:09 PM | Link to this
HA HA HA HA HA HA
now we see the true depth of drivingwhileblack’s bigotry - evinced by more witless paranoid empty racebaiting bollocks.
insurance is based on a hard nosed number crunching of risks by insurance companies - they have to cover the costs of every claim with investments and premiums etc - rarely are they bailed out by any tier of government. the colour of someone’s skin has little if anything to do with most insurance. perhaps (this I don’t know for sure) some medical insurance is higher for older blacks who are more prone to say hypertension or whatever … but equally whites and others have their medical ‘predispositions’ too. Insurance is there to reflect the realities of the world we live in and cater to demand and necessity - both legal and personal choice.
your bigoted dishonesty is freaking hilarious, nobody “gives” anyone anything … we all make choices from widely available products and services. if blacks or whites say buy cheap cars or fail to research or shop around for loans properly then that’s their problem.
THE MARKET PLACE (largely) gives all of us the same options - obviously geography and socio-economic status plays its part - but with the internet and 1-800 freephone numbers the ever increasing choice must be bewildering for bigoted simpletons like yourself!!
By Bart
December 12, 2006 03:09 PM | Link to this
I rarely agree with Jim, but I’m with him 100% on this. I speak from experience on the topic.
Earlier this year, I moved from Smyrna to Midtown. State Farm, with whom I had been a customer for 18 years, tried to raise my rates by 30% (not a type-o) because of my new ZIP code. Regardless of the fact that I was moving to a high-end, very securely gated building. I price shopped the big insurers, and found that Allstate’s rate would be 45% less than State Farm’s quote. They explained that the low rate was based on multiple factors, not the least of which was my nearly perfect 780 credit score. I switched the next day.
This is simply another tool insurers should be allowed to use to analyze risk. That’s what they’re in the business of doing. In my case, Allstate earned a new customer that has, so far, been very profitable to them.
By Ken
December 12, 2006 03:12 PM | Link to this
Insurance is simply a contract between the insured to cover some mutually negotiated risk. Nobody’s forcing you to buy it, despite the rhetoric about auto insurance - that’s part of the cost of operating a car. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it.
By CJ
December 12, 2006 03:13 PM | Link to this
Ken @2:45 “If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. Nobody’s forcing you.”
I want to back-up the last item with an anecdote. I was waiting for a train one afternoon when MARTA was having service problems that resulted in an hour-long wait. The person standing next to me in the station was wearing a restaurant server uniform and sweating profusely (it was freezing out). I asked him if he was okay, and he said that he was worried about getting in trouble for being late for work. I don’t know this person’s history, but I’ve had several problems with MARTA over the years, and I imagine that responsible people who can’t afford cars (plus auto insurance) are sometimes late for work through no fault of their own. I also suspect that many employers are unsympathetic to their plight.
In our society, and especially in Atlanta, auto insurance isn’t purchased because people “want it”, but because it’s fundamentally necessary. Nobody is forcing us to buy automobile insurance? True. But, this statement doesn’t consider the consequences of either not owning a car, or for those that do, not purchasing appropriate levels of auto insurance.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 03:16 PM | Link to this
Jenn
that was but a spot of sardonic humour aimed at the bigot mario … I don’t actually like tacos or chalupas - they remind me of the corrupt selfish hypocritical state of Mexico and all the illegal immigrants.
By Jenn
December 12, 2006 03:23 PM | Link to this
TFTT— Yes, I know. I was making a funny…
By Mario
December 12, 2006 03:24 PM | Link to this
JohnD @10:30 “The illegals in this country certainly contribute to the problems addressed here and their removal would help solve this problem”
Jenn,
The idiocy of the comment stands on its own (except to the person who made it). No argument is necessary.
By Ken
December 12, 2006 03:28 PM | Link to this
You guys are amazing. I once worked at a sub shop as a server & couldn’t afford to keep my car running and covered by insurance. If I had to, I rode MARTA, which was inconvenient, or I walked a couple of miles in the rain to work. Why do you demand a free lunch? Buy it or don’t buy it!
By Political Foreskin
December 12, 2006 03:30 PM | Link to this
Credit scores to predict accident risks? What’s next, police roadblocks with deadbeat-sniffing dogs? Field credit-worthiness tests? “Sir, I’d like you to take your index finger of your right hand and fish your visa out of your wallet with your eyes closed.”
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 03:35 PM | Link to this
ignorance is bliss and playing with itself.
By Diogenes
December 12, 2006 03:36 PM | Link to this
Paul (1236)
Actually, I felt that the important issue was the debate Jim set up between state supported children’s homes and private, church supported children’s homes. Jim, who claims to be a conservative, was advocating state run homes, whereas history shows that church supported ones are more effective, especially in the Atlanta area. I think there is a need there that is being sorely missed.
I also think there is severe doublethink involved (probably resulting in whiplash) when one can condemn an unwed mother (I don’t necessarily mean Banks) and proper sex education simultaneously. I thought that was a hot button issue.
Today’s topic is just a matter of tweedle-dum, tweedle-dee — who gets bigger? Government or business? And does the consumer benefit? Open to debate, as we’re seeing. Jim also used “risk” in two senses without distinquishing between them. What I finally decided was the risk that he meant was the risk of non-payment by non-credit worthy individuals, which would drive prices up, but Jim failed to point that out to us. He wanted us to think that he meant accident and liability risk.
Jim, the conservative, advocates state supported homes, which seems like a serious flaw in his whole platform, as does the fact sex education needs to be significantly improved to help reduce the need, but Jim never mentioned that.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 03:36 PM | Link to this
mario… John’s comment was visionary and clearly much understated - it shows that he has a firm and very wise grasp of the myriad problems of the illegal infestation … your mindless oft parroted obtuse cretinous opposition to those of us who oppose 15 million or so illegals and their crime wave, frequent leeching, arrogant cultural/linguistic insensivity etc is very funny. Please keep inflicting on us your brainless (at least they are very short - presumably because you can’t write/speak English properly)) posts, they are enormously entertaining.
By Danny
December 12, 2006 03:38 PM | Link to this
Ken @3:28 “If I had to, I rode MARTA, which was inconvenient, or I walked a couple of miles in the rain to work.”
Dad? Is that you?
By ICEMAN
December 12, 2006 03:39 PM | Link to this
I need my grass cut. Are any of you Mexican?
By Diogenes
December 12, 2006 03:40 PM | Link to this
CJ (215)
Well said.
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 03:43 PM | Link to this
insurance = the biggest rip-off known to man.
u can pay into an insurance policy for years and years and never have an accident or a mishap — basically u never have a need for it.
the MINUTE u have an accident, no matter how long you’ve been in that particular policy, your rates go up.
happened to my great aunt in florida. just because she was 88, drove on the wrong side of the road, hit that mini van full of nuns (prayer should’ve saved them anyway), and caused an accident…. BAM! her rates went up!!
By Shelly
December 12, 2006 03:51 PM | Link to this
Danny @3:38 — LMAO!
By DebbieDoRight
December 12, 2006 03:51 PM | Link to this
Credit scores to predict accident risks? What’s next, police roadblocks with deadbeat-sniffing dogs? Field credit-worthiness tests?
“60 minutes of love” test, the “twisted sister truth use your mouth for something worthwhile test”, how about the “can conservatrons keep a thought longer than 30 seconds?” test. “rubik’s cubicle test”, “the sick-o-selling crap on TV test”; the “i only wanna be friends test”; the “maybe we can work something out officer” test.
this can be addictive……
By Buy Danish
December 12, 2006 03:54 PM | Link to this
Do I think that the price of drugs in Canada compared to those of the US indicate a government manipulating the market in collusion with pharmaceutical companies? Of course, I do.
Diogenes,
For you to remark about Jim needing to get out of his “gated community” is not only highly presumptious, it is hilarious.
As far as I can tell, you haven’t left your library for 30 years and you’re still reading dusty Marxist manifestos.
Do you want to know the reason why Canada’s prescripton drugs are cheaper than in the U.S., or do you prefer to advertise the fact that, once again, your are utterly devoid of knowledge on a subject you choose to prattle on about?
By Mario
December 12, 2006 03:56 PM | Link to this
JohnD @10:30 “The illegals in this country certainly contribute to the problems addressed here and their removal would help solve this problem”
time for the truth @3:36 “John’s comment was visionary…”
time for the truth,
Please forgive me for excluding you. You’re an idiot too.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 03:56 PM | Link to this
Iceman
on behalf of the bigot good driver (who amusingly now the debate’s getting more factually awkward for him seems to have disappeared) I’ll volunteer his services to cut your grass. But only if you promise to teach him how to use a leaf blower so he has a second transferrable skill to fall back on in later life. Perhaps mario can join your illegal immigrant empowering leaf blowing masterclass and bring his twenty room mates (if they’ve sobered up) with him from that Marrietta duplex next door to harold’s that they’ve been renting.
By John
December 12, 2006 03:57 PM | Link to this
I had a heart attack a few years ago. I had been self-employed for a short time and had expended most of my savings and had borrowed money to get through the transition phase. I was out of work for an extended period of time and my credit rating suffered as a result of my inability to pay bills. (My creditors did work with me.) As a result, my car insurance rates skyrocketed for several years despite my never having a moving violation and not having a chargeable accident since 1987. Why should my credit rating have had anything to do with my car insurance rates? This practice is wrong and should be outlawed.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 04:01 PM | Link to this
use your mouth for something worthwhile test”
well crackpipe dennis/debbie … I can always energetically gob on you for a few minutes or maybe romantically kiss your younger sister for 20 mins again.
BTW “gob” is English slang for spit on. (just generously broadening your vocab for your yankkkee dumbarse yet again).
By christina
December 12, 2006 04:04 PM | Link to this
GoodDriver
All I have to say about Clark Howard is How long has he had his insurance license? Don’t base all your facts on someone who is not even in the industry.
By time for the truth
December 12, 2006 04:13 PM | Link to this
so the sad pathetic wanker mario can’t actually debate or discuss the illegal immigrant infestation - all he can do is lamely and doltishly parrot the mild epithet “idiot” … further proof all those pointless ESOL classes are a complete waste of tax payers money.
ARE YOU CRACKPIPE DEBBIE IN DISGUISE?
By Danny
December 12, 2006 04:15 PM | Link to this
Christina,
You don’t have to be in the industry to know when somebody is getting screwed.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 04:16 PM | Link to this
Diogenes, I don’t think that someone with a credit problem who does not pay their premium REALLY causes insurances to go up. Afterall the insurance company is not selling a tangible product. But they use that theory on us because they have us handcuffed. Insurance companies are among the richest and most profitable organizations in America. They collect for years without ever having to spend a dime on most folks.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 04:23 PM | Link to this
Christina, I base my facts on first hand experience. I was in the grasp of the GOOD HANDS PEOPLE at one time, but I’m soooo glad I got out. But, Clark is on the money. You don’t have to be a licensed insurance agent to know if they are FUGGING you. Just just with some of the others they insure and compare rates.
By Christina
December 12, 2006 04:27 PM | Link to this
Danny,
You are correct, but how can people speak so certainly about what goes on in the industry (and speak correctly) when they’re not even in it.
By Buy Danish
December 12, 2006 04:39 PM | Link to this
Christina,
Your requirement that one be in a particular industry in order to be qualified to comment on it, disqualifies most people to comment on anything - and the first group that comes to mind is Congress.
There’s an old adage that you don’t have to be a ballerina to be a ballet critic.
Diogones,
Can you point to a sentence where Jim Wooten states that he wants children put in state run orphanages? I find no such statement in any of his recent blog topics on the subject, but its possible I missed something.
I’m shocked that you are willing to allow churches to assume this function. Aren’t you afraid that they will be read Bible stories at bedtime?
By Jay Maze
December 12, 2006 04:45 PM | Link to this
Enjoyed the column on Insurance and it is tough to be a consumer after being a personal line underwriter before 1980. Allstate said they would write my coverage in Florida but then a call was received stating she thought I was clean. Told her I had bathed that morning and she told me I had a loss. Camera was stolen under my floater and she said it counted as a loss under their underwriting rules. That branch didn’t last too long so had some coverage with a B company for a while until Liberty wrote it without wind I’m retired from Liberty even though I never worked one day for them.
Still rejoicing from the day we left Atlanta, No traffic. no income tax and a decent newspaper except Jay Smith is up to his usual and tryinb to steal it which is his usual tactic instead of trying to be a good newpaper. He must have more money for the sisters in Hawaii and the South of France but newer for good causes as Buffett and Gates. It would be too long to tell you all the owner of the Daytona-Beach News Journal does for the community and Mr. Smith wants to take it away from us. Never see the Cox girls on much.
Jay
By Danny
December 12, 2006 04:51 PM | Link to this
Christina,
I re-read GoodDriver’s 10:19, and I see your point. How does Clark Howard know that homeowner insurers cancel their insureds’ policies after one claim or give them a demerit if they inquire about their insurance? I don’t know. Maybe he has contacts in the industry, maybe he reads trade journals???
In my opion, skepticism is usually justified, but Clark Howard has been an Atlanta institution for a long, long time. His credibility is extremely high, and in the extremely rare event that he does make a mistake, he admits it.
I don’t always agree with his suggestions or opinions, but from one anonymous blogger to another, when Clark Howard expresses a fact – you can take it to the bank.
By Political Foreskin
December 12, 2006 04:56 PM | Link to this
Congressional Pork: You cant make a silk parse out of a sow’s earkmark.
Condolisa Rice and the bridge to nowhere with pork barrel money: how did we get trapped in Iraq? A bridge too few. Credibility Gap? That too!
Dammit, I just cant bring the material together today. I haven’t been the same since I quit smoking. How long ago, you ask? Seventeen years.
Anyone see the news about afghanistan? The Taliban just established their own state, recognized by Pakistan. We aint got enough army there to stop the terrorists in Afghanistan from incorporating? And that’s not a surrender monkey move by Bush/Cheney?
Bush Cheney are the surrender monkeys. They’ve cut and run in Afghanistan, and in Saudi Arabia.
Why did Bush cut and run from Saudi Arabia? Cause osama bin laden demanded that he do so.
Figure it out, neo-newts, you’ve been had.
Reckoning is nigh.
By Diogenes
December 12, 2006 05:14 PM | Link to this
Gooddriver (416)
Your comment: “Diogenes, I don’t think that someone with a credit problem who does not pay their premium REALLY causes insurances to go up”
Not ours, theirs, which I thought was the topic when we discuss credit rating as a factor in insurance.
By GoodDriver
December 12, 2006 05:27 PM | Link to this
Danny, in additon to Clark just running his 4 hour radio broadcast he has what he calls a Consumer Action Team. They just sit there, answer the phone, field complaints and problems and try to help people find a resolution. Now he knows what’s going on in the insurance industry because once someone has been cancelled they call in because of the unfairness of it.
By Buy Danish
December 12, 2006 05:45 PM | Link to this
Diogenes,
Still looking for that State orphanage claim I presume?
By upset
December 12, 2006 05:54 PM | Link to this
After 20 years w/no accidents and 10 w/no tickets I missed work with heart failure then layed off, my credit suffered. Now I’m a risk when I shop around. A industry scam no doubt!
By excellent driver
December 12, 2006 06:08 PM | Link to this
B******..I am 47 years old, my credit sucks but I bet I have a better driving record than 99 % of all drivers, maybe 5 traffic tickets in 31 years and no accidents, have NEVER NEVER NEVER put in a claim with State Farm so how does my credit score make me a bigger risk if in 31 years of driving I never put in a claim.
You said they use every legal criteira possible to predict future risks, no what they are doing is using every scoreable piece od data they can to run up the rates!!!
By Clint
December 13, 2006 08:15 AM | Link to this
I saw how the big insurance companies screwed the residents of the Gulf Coast… and you want me to trust them Wooten? Yeah, right. They are out to make a buck and will do whatever sleazy way it takes to do so.
By Libertarian
December 13, 2006 08:32 AM | Link to this
No system of rating is perfect. Insurance companies are in the business to make money, not social service. If they were not utilizing all the information at their disposal to accurately predict their risk then they are doing a disservice to their shareholders. It is no different than a heating oil trader looking at various forecasts: weather, political, war in middle east. Is considering middle east war for an oil trader trading strategy a form of discrimination?
Our problem is we’ve all grown up for too long with government subsidies (aka regulation.) Our founding fathers would be shocked.
By DebbieDoRight
December 13, 2006 08:49 AM | Link to this
If they were not utilizing all the information at their disposal to accurately predict their risk then they are doing a disservice to their shareholders
but how do we KNOW that they are “utilizing all the information at their disposal to accurately predict their risk” when they don’t wanna give us a modus operandi? give us all the facts, we can read and decipher the information for ourselves, THEN let the consumer make the decision on whether this is a legitimate reason NOT the self-serving-a$$-kissing politicians.
By Spaceman109
December 13, 2006 08:50 AM | Link to this
i notice that no one on this blog….not even jim wooten himself, has mentioned that no less a conservative than state insurance ocmmissioner john oxendine has said that if a bill gets dropped in the legislative hopper to repeal the law allowing insurance companies to consider credit history when setting rates, he (oxendine) would be inclined to support it.
one wonders how anyone can support a rate system based on credit scores from credit reporting agencies which are more secretive than north korea. these companies take the attitude that identity theft is obviously the fault of the victim.
also, given their mania for secrecy, i firmly believe that the three major credit-reporting agencies are under the control of organized crime….i obviously cannot prove it since i do not have insider information, but i do believe it.
By GoodDriver BadCredit
December 13, 2006 10:50 AM | Link to this
In response to Rita at December 12, 2006 09:30 AM
Never mind whether it’s fair or unfair for the insurance companies to use credit to determine rates, I would simply hate to be one of your friends. The fact that you make a statement of how your credit report says a lot about you and how you run your life is enough to make me never want to be around an arrogant, self-righteous person such as yourself… and I can more than assure you that some of your “friends” have bad credit as well. You just don’t know about it because they won’t open up to you because they know how judgmental you are.
One other final comment, you and no one else know what has happened to cause an individual’s credit to become bad. Furthermore, it’s really none of your business. I just pray that it’s not you one day that has to deal with the same situation… job loss, illness or death of a loved one (and having to foot the medical bills), being hospitalized yourself, and the list goes on!
By the way, my credit is bad but my driving record is spotless. I have no plans on going out and causing an accident as a result of my bad credit.
Have a blessed day!