The one thing most people really must have but hate to buy is car insurance. Affordable car insurance is only appreciated when it is needed after an accident or damage from a natural disaster. The dilemma is that affordable car insurance is hard to find unless you have that perfect mix of a clean driving record, good credit and insurance scores, live in the correct area, be in the right age range, and drive a low risk car. For the rest of us, we may claim to have affordable car insurance, but we have to work awfully hard to make the premiums.
Drawing from personal experience and some tricky work on the internet, a list of companies that offer competitively priced if not affordable car insurance. When shopping for insurance of any type, make sure that you shop. Try as noteworthy as possible to compare apples to apples.
Insurance agents like to build in things to drive the price up to earn bigger commissions. Online agents do the reverse and may leave some key items out to design certain that they offer you the most affordable car insurance, but it may not always be the best for you. Here is a list of five companies that for the most part are well known and respected. For comparison purposes, I have traditional an aging mini-van and not-quite-new Dodge Intrepid for test purposes.
The only discounts considered are for safe driver and multiple vehicle coverage. Several of these companies give discounts for membership in some professional, governmental, and civic organizations. Because there are hundreds of these, I recommend that you check with your company or agent for such discounts.
Safeco Insurance Company is one that I have new personal experience as an insurance carrier. For the two vehicles mentioned, the six month premium paid for monthly by bank draft costs $84 per month. For this amount, both vehicles carry both liability that is required by law in most states and collision. The collision deductible is $250 per incident and comprehensive is at zero deductible. The liability limits are above the minimum at $100,000/$300,000. The policy does not include towing or rental car at this price. It does include underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage. Medical coverage is limited to $5,000.
The Hartford Insurance Company is another excellent insurer that was considered. For the same two vehicles, the cost was quoted at $68 per month via bank draft. While the price was lower than Safeco, there were some differences in the policy. The two major changes were that the collision deductible was raised to $500 per incident. The comprehensive was not available at a zero cost deductible. The quoted price included a $250 deductible on comprehensive. At this level, a no-deductible on windshield glass that can be repaired is offered. Liability and medical coverage was the same level as Safeco. Uninsured and underinsured motorist, no towing, and no rental car are also the same.
American Family was the next company viewed for affordable car insurance. The quote on the two vehicles came in at about $65 per month on bank draft. No changes were noted in the liability coverage. Medical, underinsured, and uninsured motorist were included in the premium amount. Both vehicles were covered for collision at a $500 deductible. The comprehensive was set at a $250 deductible with repairable windshield damage excluded from the deductible. The quote was obtained without towing or rental vehicle coverage.
Because of their lizard and heavy TV advertising, Geico is the next company considered for affordable car insurance. They quoted these vehicles at about $105 per month with several differences in coverage. The liabilities, underinsured, uninsured motorist coverage was the same level. The mini-van was quoted in this offer without collision or comprehensive coverage. Also, the comprehensive and collision on the Intrepid were both set at $500 per incident. Both vehicles were again quoted without towing or rental vehicle.
The final company in this list is Allstate. Having ragged this company a few times in the past, I have found them to be competitive when looking for affordable car insurance. However, for the quote on these vehicles, the monthly premium on a bank draft was $91. The coverage was the same as most of the other companies. Both vehicles were quoted with liability, comprehensive, and collision. The comprehensive and collision both carry a $500 deductible with the exception for windshield repair. Uninsured and underinsured motorist and medical coverage was included. Again, a rental replacement vehicle was not offered nor road hazard with towing.
Four out of the five of these quotes were obtained directly from agents. The fifth, Geico, was handled online only. There was no real difference in the clarity of the quotes with the exception that it is handy to have a live person to answer questions immediately. Geico’s website is fast and easy to use. I was able to get a quote within three minutes from the time that I started the obtain until the quote was offered. The agents that I dealt with in searching for possible new coverage for vehicles, were efficient, pleasant, and responded within a reasonable time frame.
It is possible to find the most affordable car insurance with a moderate amount of effort. You just need to be diligent to ask for the right or desired coverage so that the quotes are able to be compared. If you change your mind about deductible amounts or liability limits during the process, be definite to go back and be fair to earlier agents by allowing them to quote their premium amounts with the same terms.
Filed under Farmers Insurance by on Feb 24th, 2011. Comment. 
America was called the ‘land of milk and honey’ by the old world, yet neither cows nor honeybees are native to the Americas. Surprisingly, it is not the honey from the bees that is so vital to our economy. Pollination by bees adds over 15 billion dollars to our economy (Flores). Around 130 crops need honeybees in order to thrive (Kaplan). In the United States, honeybees produce about 200 million pounds of honey, worth 125 million dollars, and about 3.9 million pounds of beeswax, worth 7 million dollars (Doebler). Beekeeping is a serious business, not only for our economy, but for our food. Around one third of our food depends on pollination, including coffee, green chile, soybeans, apples, berries, squash, almonds, and many others (NRDC). In California alone, the almond crop requires the service of about half the United States bee colonies, around 1.2 million (Flores).
Unfortunately, the bee business isn’t going so well. A fresh phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been taking a great toll on our honey bees. During fall 2006, beekeepers in many countries around the world noticed a sudden disappearance of managed honey bee colonies, and for no apparent reason. These hives were formerly healthy, but for some reason bees simply abandoned their hives, often leaving objective the queen and a few caretakers. In February 2007, the syndrome had been named (Kaplan). Congress recognized Colony Collapse Disorder as a threat in 2007 and granted emergency funds to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to examine honey bee disappearances. The 2008 Farm Bill granted the Department of Agriculture $20 million each year to support bee research and related work (NRDC). Research is underway to try to determine the causes of CCD, and how to prevent it from occurring. Possibilities involve combinations of pesticide exposure, invasive parasitic mites, inadequate food supply, transportation, and many different viruses. As the cause is believed to be from multiple sources, pinpointing them will be difficult. Many viruses are believed to be passed on by the mites, which in of themselves are devastating enough.
At an apiculture conference, a commercial beekeeper cries in front of the audience. In 6 months, he was broke, loosing his house, and his entire beekeeping operation had been wiped out. The cause of his disaster was two little parasites. One, the varroa mite, is described by James Tew, a specialist in beekeeping at Ohio State University, as the “biggest catastrophe to befall apiculture since its establishment in this country in the 1600s… In only a few years, the varroa mite redesigned nearly 300 years of North American apiculture in ways akin to the dramatic way the boll weevil restructured the cotton-producing industry … in the early 1920s.” Varroa mites are mountainous enough to be seen by the eye. Female varroa mites attach to bees between abdominal segments, feeding on a substance similar to our blood, called hemolmph. When females enter a nursery cell, called a brood cell, the mites lay eggs. The mite nymphs then feed on the developing bees. The mites and bees leave the brood cell together, as adults. The mites cause many birth defects, such as shortened abdomens, deformed wings and legs, or sometimes cause death. Colonies infested with varroa mites that are not treated can survive for about 8-18 months. Scott Camazine, an entomologist at Penn State University, believes that the mites aren’t the main problem. He says that the mites are simply making viral transmission faster (Doebler).
The other mite feeding on honeybees are tracheal mites. These mites are much smaller than varroa mites and believed to be less perilous. These parasites live and feed in the bee’s trachea, clogging the airway and limiting respiration. The major effect of this is that bees cannot raise their metabolic rate to keep warm while they fly. Beekeepers frequently place grease patties or menthol chips inside the hives when honey is not being produced to humdrum the spread of tracheal mites.
Many studies trying to determine the cause of CCD are built on a project started for the California almond crops. The study started as a way to artificially supplement the honeybee’s diets in order to create larger colonies (Flores). As California is a major consumer of honeybee use for pollination, it is not surprising that the first inconvenience to fight CCD have started there.
Entomologist Jeff Pettis, research leader of the ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, is working on several collaborations to try to determine the cause of CCD. One behold is looking at the combination of pesticide use and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), found in a previous study with university researcher Jay D. Evans, to be strongly associated with CCD. The second experiment will look at the effects of varroa mites and pesticides combined. If these two studies fail, other combinations will be explored. One of the issues with these and other CCD studies is that samples have only been taken after CCD has been reported. Therefore, Pettis has begun his study with three different beekeepers one both healthy and affected hives. Hopefully, the samples will give information to previous signs and causes of CCD (Kaplan). John Adamczyk, the acting research leader for ARS’s Honey Bee Research Unit in Weslaco, Texas, explains the hope for the study: “At the end of the 5-year cycle we’ll have specific recommendations that the beekeeper could use on how to manage bees more efficiently during long-range transport for pollination. We want to be able to transfer that technology to be useful by the end user” (Flores).
A major issue is the huge outburst of IAPV. Some thought that importation of bees from Australia and China had brought the disease with them, but entomologists Yanping (Judy) Chen and Evans, both also with the ARS Bee Research Laboratory, found otherwise. Chen said that “Our study shows that, without question, IAPV has been in this country since at least 2002. This work makes it clear that IAPV is not a recent introduction from Australia” (Kaplan). This however, does not rule out IAPV as a cause of CCD.
American foulbrood a bacterial disease of the honey bee, which is very devastating to bee colonies. The most obvious symptom is a creamy or shadowy brown glue-like larval remain that can be pulled out in a rope. This test is known as the ‘matchstick test.’ It affects the brood cells, killing bees before they are productive, usually while pupae, and occasionally with larvae. Brood cells may be spotted, showing early signs (de Graaf). Introduction of American foulbrood, or any other foulbrood, can kill off all future generations of honey bees is not spotted and treated immediately. A new drug, tylosin tartrate (TYLAN Soluble), has been approved for use to treat foulbrood (Honey Bees). If treated, colonies can continue to thrive.
A very large study involving pesticides has been conducted. 158 pesticides were tested among the honey bee, the leaf cutting bee, and the alkali bee. The leaf cutting bee is a solitary nesting bee that mainly foraging on alfalfa plants. Nests are built in narrow tube-like cavities, and separate cells are made for each egg and lined with alfalfa. The cell is then plugged with alfalfa leaves, and a modern nest is made in the area. The alkali bee is also a solitary, bee that builds nests in soil. This western bee likes alkaline soils near water. The nest is between five and twenty centimeters deep, with many oval cells branching off the main shaft. This bee pollinates mainly alfalfa, onion, clover, celery, and mints. A smaller pesticide study has also been conducted on the bumble bee. Bumble bees are social insects, like honey bees. They make smaller nests, consisting of only 100-500 individuals. They prefer to nest underground, like the alkali bee, and need undisturbed meadows, conventional barns or woodlots. Bumble bees work harder than honeybees at cooler temperatures. They pollinate a larger variety of plants, but do particularly well on tomatoes and berries. The results were very similar for all species, although certain bees do better than others with different pesticides (Devillers).
Many researchers have found a completely different solution to the problem of CCD, that is, to simply not have honey bee hives. Wild bees, also known as non-honey bees, have been shown to be better pollinators than the honeybee, although it is still unclear as to whether non-native honey bees are negatively effecting wild native bee populations. Studies are conflicting, and great pollination results have occurred when used together, yet the large numbers of honeybees could have a large impact on native species if food supplies are limited (Paini). Entomologist James Cane has found that a new native bee, called the Osmia bee, or the Mason bee, is a wonderful pollinator of berries. Cane learned of the bee from bee enthusiast Ron yon der Hellen, who told Cane of the quarter-inch long metallic green bee that had housed itself in his wooden nesting boards that he keeps as housing for leaf cutting bees. Cane borrowed several hundred of these bees and found that they visited as many red raspberry flowers as did honey bees in the same amount of time,, and nearly as many blackberry flowers. While red raspberries and blackberries are self-pollinating, bee visits made berries better. Cane found that red raspberry flowers visited by honey bees or the Osmia bees bore berries that were 30% heavier. The Osmia bee however, always gathered pollen, while honeybees did not. Even better, these bees are resistant to the devastating mites. After 5 years of inspect, Cane plans to give these emerald-green bees to growers and beekeepers (Wood).
Another eye shows that native bees are up to five times more efficient at pollinating sunflowers than honeybees alone. Researchers at the Berkeley and Davis campuses of the University of California found that wild bees play a crucial role in the pollinating process. Sarah Greenleaf, the study’s leader, says that, “Up until now, we have thought that honey bees alone were doing most of the pollination, but now we know that a lot of honey bee pollination happens because of their interaction with wild native bees. This means that wild bees are mighty, much more vital that we previously concept.” She and Claire Kremen observed the behavior of honey bees and wild native bees in sunflower fields during two different growing seasons. They found that in fields where wild bees were rare, one honeybee visit produced, on average, three seeds. As the number of wild bees increased, so did the number of seeds produced, up to 15 seeds per visit. To keep their data clean, each flower was bagged before it bloomed, allowed one visit, and then re-bagged until the seeds were produced (Two Bees). The drastic dissimilarity shows that native bees are a vital portion of the pollination process.
Native bees are shown to be the most necessary slice pollinators in a recent study of watermelon crops. This study showed that native bees alone are sufficient to pollinate the watermelon. The peer involved 46 species of wild bees, and showed that native bees, given proper habitat, could replace the honey bee if needed. Natural habitat must be provided, open soil for soil-dwelling species, and year round food supply must be available within 0.3 kilometers, although further distances may suffice (Winfree).
Native bees are a possible, and currently the best, solution to the spot of CCD. To encourage native bees to live around your home, farm, or orchard, plant native plants. Native plants will thrive without worthy care and native bees are already well great to them. Exercise diversity in color, shape, and flowering times to attract many species to make permanent homes. Not all bees like the same colors or the same shape flowers, so be determined to get a variety. Avoid pesticides, or read the Devillers study to resolve what would be safest to exercise, and when. Determined pesticides can only be mature safely on different parts of plants; however there are a few pesticides which have been shown to be completely safe for the studied bees. Nesting sites are a must, so leave so open ground undisturbed, and consider making nesting boxes (NRDC). All these things combined can help a farm or orchard attach money by not renting out honeybees, and as CCD becomes more of an issue, these prices may rise.
Although native bees seem to be a solution to the CCD problem, other issues arise. Most wild bees are solitary, making transportation to large crops like the California almonds nearly impossible. If you of honeybees stopped in the United States, the millions of dollars received from honey and beeswax would no longer exist. These products would need to be imported, and prices would rise drastically. As CCD affects the world, these products may someday be completely eliminated if we do not get a handle on CCD. Also, the different native bees have other diseases they are susceptible to, and share many of the same diseases with honeybees.
Colony Collapse Disorder is a serious problem effecting beekeepers, farmers, and consumers. If we cannot get a handle on what is causing this, the world may fall into a greater depression, and food prices will soar. To combat this, we need to stop abusing our honey bees and encourage native bees to take spot near farms and orchards. Pesticide use needs to be cut down, used in safer ways, or altogether eliminated. Mass transportation of hives over hundreds of miles needs to be stopped, as this likely causes big stress to the honeybees, making them more susceptible to disease.
de Graaf, D. C., “Diagnosis of American Foulbrood in Honey Bees: a Synthesis and Proposed Analytical Protocols.” Letters in Applied Microbiology 43.6 (Dec. 2006): 583-590. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 27 Oct. 2008 .
Devillers, J., “Comparative toxicity and hazards of pesticides to Apis and non- Apis bees. A chemometrical study.” SAR & QSAR in Environmental Research 14.5/6 (Oct. 2003): 389-403. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. [University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 1 Nov. 2008 .
Doebler, Stefanie A. "The Rise and Topple of the Honeybee." Bioscience 50.9 (Sep. 2000): 738. Environment Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 3 Nov. 2008 .
Flores, Alfredo. "Improving Honey Bee Health." Agricultural Research 56.2 (Feb. 2008): 7-7. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 27 Oct. 2008 http://libproxy.unm.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=a9h&AN=28748594&site=ehost-live.
Honey Bees Get a New Antibiotic." Agricultural Research 54.7 (July 2006): 23-23. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 28 Oct. 2008 .
Kaplan, J. Kim. "A Complex Buzz." Agricultural Research 56.5 (May 2008): 8-11. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 28 Oct. 2008 .
NRDC: Honeybees and Colony Collapse Disorder. Sept. 2008. National Resources Defense Council. 2 Nov. 2008
Paini, D. R. "Impact of the introduced honey bee (Apis mellifera) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) on native bees: A review." Austral Ecology 29.4 (Aug. 2004): 399-407. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 14 Nov. 2008 .
"Two Bees Better Than One." Science & Children 44.3 (Nov. 2006): 8-9. Education Research Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM.]. 14 Nov. 2008 http://libproxy.unm.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=ehh&AN=22885757&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Wood, Marcia. “Wonderful Wild Bees. (Cover story).” Agricultural Research 56.2 (Feb. 2008): 4-6. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 14 Nov. 2008 .
Winfree, Rachael, et al. “Native bees provide insurance against ongoing honey bee losses.” Ecology Letters
10.11 (Nov. 2007): 1105-1113. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 14 Nov. 2008 .
Filed under Farmers Insurance by on Jan 20th, 2011. Comment.
Have you ever wondered why some auto insurance corporations will write policies for persons with poor driving records or who have not been carrying insurance previously and why some will not Well here is the answer Auto insurance corporations set their own rules and regulations about who they will and will not write an auto policy for The organizations that will not write a policy for people today with poor driving records et cetera are referred to as standard corporations and those that will are sub-standard firms A standard corporation such as Farm Bureau Insurance or State Farm Insurance rules consist of but are not limited to the following:
- 1 should have a pretty great driving record with no accidents or violations within the past 3 years There need to have been no tickets or other citations issued within 3 years also.
- 1 need to have been carrying insurance with an additional firm for at least 1 year with no lapse in coverage These providers need a proof of that also.
- It is harder to or impossible to insure a family with a new teenage driver in the household with these corporations That is not to say the organization will not insure the young driver if they already have the parent’s auto insurance.
- In no way will these businesses exclude a spouse from a policy They will not even write a new policy for anybody who requirements this completed.
- These organizations will not write an SR-22 for a individual unless they are an existing customer And even then they have the proper to deny writing an SR-22.
- Farm Bureau does have a sub-standard firm of its own, but they still will not write a individual if their driving record is too poor And various regulations apply.
- These firms will not write anybody under the age of 25 unless they have the parent’s auto insurance or the individual is married In this case both spouses have to have an superb driving record Even then the organizations have the correct to deny a policy to those under 25 unless they also have the parents insured.
These are just a few of the rules and regulations of most standard insurance organizations These could possibly sound a small unfair, but this is how these organizations maintain their premiums so low.Then you have a lot of sub-standard providers out there Secure Auto and Direct are two examples of these organizations Their rules and regulations are quiet distinctive than those of the standard corporations.
- These organizations will write a new client an SR-22 and an individual who has not been carrying insurance with an additional business.
- Most of these firms will exclude a spouse if needed.
- Most of the sub-standard firms will write a young driver with out having the parents insurance.
- They will typically write a new family with a new teenage driver in the household.
- And most of the time they will write a individual even if they have had several accidents and violations.
Once more, these are only a few rules and regulations of sub-standard firms Now with these organizations you can expect to pay a small much more than with the standard insurance providers.Thus, hopefully this will assist you out when or if you are looking for the correct auto insurance organization for you.Source:Personally working for a standard insurance business for seven years .
Filed under Farmers Insurance by on Dec 19th, 2010. Comment.
