What is Auto Insurance?
Auto insurance helps provide financial protection for you, your family, other passengers, and your vehicles. Your car insurance consists of multiple coverages that provide protection in different situations and these coverages are not a “one size fits all”. We work with you to ensure that coverages and deductibles match your needs.
Auto Insurance Coverages
Bodily Injury Liability: Pays damages for bodily injury or death resulting from an accident for which you are at fault. Limits should be enough to cover a judgement against you in a lawsuit without jeopardizing your personal assets. You can obtain additional liability coverage through an Umbrella policy if needed.
Property Damage Liability: Pays for damages to someone else’s property resulting from an accident for which you are at fault.
Medical Payments: Medical expense coverages for treatment of injuries to driver and passengers of your car.
Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist: Protection to help compensate you for injuries or property damage caused by a driver without insurance or with insufficient coverage limits.
Comprehensive: Non-collision type accidents or claims causing damage to your vehicle. Examples include, but are not limited to, hail damage, hitting an animal, glass, theft, vandalism, flood, and fire. This coverage includes a deductible. The higher the deductible, the lower your premium will be.
Collision: Collision type accidents with another vehicle or object causing damage to your vehicle. This coverage includes a deductible. The higher the deductible, the lower your premium will be.
Additional Options: Most popular include rental reimbursement, roadside assistance, towing, and loan or lease gap coverage.
Company Specific Options: As an independent agency, we have multiple company options to find you the best value and features. Many companies offer options such as accident and violation forgiveness, diminishing deductibles, full glass deductibles, pay in full discounts, automatic payment discounts, paperless discounts, and more.
Factors That Can Affect Auto Premiums
Auto insurance is a significant expense of owning a car. As an independent insurance agency, we can explore a wide variety of companies to ensure that you get the best value for your money and also ensure that you receive the right “fit” based on your specific situation. Some of the factors that can affect your premiums include:
Gender: Men tend to have higher insurance rates than women.
Age: Young and less experienced drivers tend to have higher insurance rates than more seasoned drivers.
Marital Status: Insurance companies tend to look favorably upon married couples. Statistically, married people have less accidents than their single counterparts, which results in lower insurance rates.
Place of Residence: Insurance companies analyze information like population density and accident history in an area to help determine insurance rates, so where you live can impact your insurance premiums.
Credit Score: Most insurance companies factor your credit score or similar type financial stability score into consideration when calculating your rate. The higher your credit score, the lower your insurance premiums tend to be.
Occupation and Education: Some insurance companies factor your occupation type and highest level of completed education into your rates.
Vehicle Features: Year, make, model, value, safety features (blind spot warning and automatic braking), type of engine (turbo) and size or type of vehicle all have an impact on your rates.
Prior Insurance: Having prior insurance and the length of time you have been with your previous carrier can affect your insurance rates.
Driving History: Accidents, tickets, and previous claims all affect your insurance rates.
This entirely depends on your specific situation, and we are here to help you through the process of finding the best fit for you and your family.
In most cases, yes. The coverages that you have on your policy will transfer to the auto you are renting.
An insurance deductible is the amount of money you pay after an accident before your insurance company pays for the remaining amount.
Gap insurance can help you cover the “gap” between the financed amount owed on your car and your car’s actual cash value (ACV), in the event of a covered incident where your car is declared a total loss. For example, if you are in an accident and your car is totaled and you owe $18,000 on the auto loan, but your car’s ACV is only $15,000, gap insurance would help cover the $3,000 difference (minus your deductible). So if you owe more on your car than it is worth, you may want to consider this optional coverage.
This is when your insurance provider monitors your driving habits and adjusts your auto insurance premiums based on how you drive. Most companies offer a discount to try this monitoring and then determine a more permanent discount based on your driving habits. The safer it is determined that you drive, the greater your insurance discount. This can be monitored through a mobile phone app, a plug-and-drive device, or a black box installed in your car. Common factors that are monitored include: Driving speed, acceleration rate, hard braking rate, time of day or night, trip duration, and mobile distractions (texting and driving).
The short answer is no, but it’s not that simple. There are different “Stages” when it comes to driving for a rideshare company.
Stage 0: You are not logged into your rideshare app and are “off the clock”. You are covered by your personal auto policy.
Stage 1: You are logged into your rideshare app and are waiting for a request. Once you are logged in, you are “on the clock” and using your vehicle for business purposes, meaning if you get into an accident and file a claim with your personal insurance company, you most likely will be denied. Refer to your rideshare company for coverages provided by them, but limits are minimal during this stage.
Stage 2: You have received a request or “match” and you are on your way to pick up a rider. Your personal auto policy does not cover you, but your rideshare company provides coverages for you. Make sure you know exactly how you are covered.
Stage 3: You have picked up your rider and are driving them to their destination. Your personal auto policy does not cover you, but your rideshare company provides coverages for you. Again, make sure you understand your coverages. There are endorsements with some companies to help make sure you don’t have any “gaps” in your coverage and we are here to assist you to ensure that you are properly covered at all times.
If you get into an accident and you do not have insurance, you can face getting sued, losing your life’s savings, and getting a ticket, fine, and possibly jail time.
Yes, auto insurance is mandatory for liability coverage. The minimum requirements vary by state, but the state minimum for Iowa is $20,000 bodily injury per person / $40,000 bodily injury for all persons.
Jeff Johnson Insurance Agency is an independent insurance agency, which allows us to quote a number of different companies to find you the best fit and the best price for your insurance needs. Benefits of working with us as independent agents include:
- Save time – we do the leg work for you to quote numerous options
- Offer choices – we aren’t a captive agency and limited to representing one company
- Offer Expert, Unbiased advice – we can quote numerous companies to find you the best fit and are not biased to steer you to a single company
- Save money – with so many options to quote, we can find you the best value for your money
- Forge a long term relationship – if your company loses its competitiveness over the years, we can requote you with all of our other options and keep you as a customer as your agent
Jeff Johnson Insurance Agency is affiliated with Atlas Insurance Brokers, LLC, which is based out of Rochester, Minnesota. Atlas provides services for over 100 agencies throughout Minnesota and Iowa. The affiliation gives our Agency greater flexibility and a number of options to provide you the most cost-effective and comprehensive insurance packages and provide you with the best fit for your needs.
If you have an accident or claim you can contact Jeff or Dan at Jeff Johnson Insurance Agency and they can assist you through the process or you can contact the company you are insured with using their 800 contact information on our Customer Service page.
Quick Contact
495 SE Alice’s Rd., Suite C
Waukee, Ia. 50263
515-987-6993
495 SE Alice’s Rd., Suite C
Waukee, Ia. 50263
515-987-6993
