The debate of rating auto insurance in Ferndale, and around Michigan, is a very hot topic. Most major insurance companies use a client’s credit score as an aspect in determining risk and, in turn, premiums. Many consumer advocate groups and Michigan’s head Automobile and Home Insurance Consumer Advocate feel that using credit reports is an unfair factor in determining the likelihood of an insurance claim.

Today the AP reported that this case is going to the Michigan Supreme Court. Check back to Ferndaleinsurance.com as this develops.

Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

Ferndale, Michigan

Associated Press

Lansing — The Michigan Supreme Court is considering whether insurance companies can use customers’ credit scores to set home and auto premiums.

The high court will hear oral arguments Wednesday morning.

The state insurance commissioner banned credit-based insurance rates in 2005 after calling the practice unfair, discriminatory and unreliable. A county judge blocked the ban. But the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed the ruling last year.

Most large insurers in Michigan use some form of credit scoring to give premium discounts. Generally, the better one’s credit score, the lower a customer’s insurance premium will be.

Insurers are still using credit scores pending the outcome of the appeal to the Supreme Court.

My Ferndale Insurance Agency is right on Woodward in Ferndale. Therefore, I get to see a lot of cars and drivers. I have seen my share of knee drives, drive-and-read people and we are all hearing about the legislation to ban texting in the car (why that should even need to be a law is crazy…it seems obvious doesn’t it?).

As an Insurance Agent I am all for safety. However, this article in the October 7, 2009 Detroit Free Press even caught me off guard. I didn’t even know this was a law.

So fans of fuzzy dice, graduation tassels and pine tree air fresheners rejoice. It looks like you can have your rear view mirror back.

Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

State may lift ban on hanging objects from rearview mirrors

BY MATT HELMS
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Michigan drivers may soon be able to hang air fresheners and other unobtrusive items from their rearview mirrors without fear of getting a ticket.

The Senate Transportation Committee passed a bill Tuesday that would end the state’s ban on dangling anything from rearview mirrors. The proposal would leave wiggle room in the law, allowing police to cite drivers with obvious obstructions, but permitting items such as rosaries if they don’t block a driver’s view.

The bill’s sponsor said the state’s blanket ban leads to selective enforcement.

“If you go down the road, about every fourth car has something hanging from its mirror,” Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, said Tuesday. “Why would you pick one car to stop and let 100 go by?”

The State Police opposes ditching the ban outright.

“If you remove the ban completely, essentially anything goes,” said trooper Chris Hawkins, legislative liaison for the State Police. “You could hang an 8×10 photo from your rearview mirror, and we would have no mechanism for enforcing that.”

The proposal doesn’t spell out the specific size or type of items that wouldn’t be permitted. So it’s not clear whether things such as handicap-parking placards — which advise users to remove before driving — would be considered an obstruction.

That decision would be up to police, said Gabe Basso, legislative aide for Sen. Jud Gilbert, R-Algonac, the transportation committee chairman.

Basso said the bill’s prospects in the Legislature are good. Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s office said she supports the measure.

Jason Dobrovalski, 34, of Melvindale who has a peach air freshener hanging from his mirror, said the state shouldn’t ban innocuous items.

“You see people with big GPS deals on their windshields,” said Dobrovalski, a warehouse worker for U.S. District Court in Detroit. “That’s more of a difference than a little air freshener.”

I will be interviewed on a radio show, The Business Reality Network, this Sunday (July 13th) at 10:15 am. The show is on WDFN, 1130 AM and can also be heard via the web at www.businessrealitynetwork.com.

I will be discussing insurance along with opening and running a small business. You are invited to listen in.

Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

I like to make sure you are getting the latest information on auto safety and that includes auto thefts. Hazel Park is seeing a rash of thefts, mostly on running cars. Below you will find a Daily Tribune article from March 12, 2008–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

By John Michalak
Daily Tribune Staff Writer
HAZEL PARK — Three vehicles were stolen in Hazel Park Monday and all the owners could be charged in connection with the thefts.

The owners left their vehicles running and unoccupied with keys in them. That’s a misdemeanor violation of a local ordinance, said Hazel Park Police Chief David Niedermeier, who again on Tuesday reminded residents about the law.

Niedermeier last year forewarned residents that police would charge persons when they saw cars running without anybody attending to them. The warning came when the city had a rash of vehicles stolen after residents warmed the vehicles.

“You can’t leave cars running and unattended,” Niedermeier said. “Obviously that’s what happened in these cases. It is a common ploy by car thieves to look for exhaust smoke.”

Instead of residents helping thieves, Niedermeier said they should take measures to reduce crime opportunity.

“The majority of property crime — and some violent crime — can be stopped simply by hardening the target,” Niedermeier said. “Don’t make yourself and your property easy targets. You don’t leave your valuables in plain view, your cars running or your bikes on the front lawn. And that’s the case regardless of what community you live in. Citizens can go a long ways in reducing crime rates by using common sense.”

In the most recent car thefts, one of the victims got her vehicle back after she saw it unoccupied at a gas pump at a Sunoco station on Eight Mile Road in Detroit.

The victim, Nicole L. Meier, 25, had reported her 2000 Pontiac Grand Am stolen shortly before 8 a.m. on West Milton.

Nearly two hours later she and her boyfriend spotted the vehicle at the gas station and called Hazel Park police. An officer stood by the vehicle as Meier went home to get another set of car keys. A clerk at the gas station told police he didn’t see the driver of the stolen vehicle.

“I don’t think I’ll ever do that again,” said Meier, adding she didn’t know warming her vehicle unattended is against the law. “I learned my lesson. It won’t happen again.”

Meier said she had a hunch her Pontiac Grand Am wouldn’t go far because the gas light came on the night before the theft.

“It didn’t have any gas so my boyfriend and I went around looking for it,” Meier said. “It ended up being at a gas pump at the Sunoco station five blocks away from my house. The car was in drive, but there was no damage to it.”

Since the thief kept her keys, Meier said she purchased a Club wheel lock for her car and changed the locks to her house.

Other vehicles stolen Monday were a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am on the 1000 block of East Pearl and a 1999 Pontiac Montana from the 300 block of East Milton.

Reprint from Detroit Free Press, March 7, 2008–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

Gov. Jennifer Granholm said in a statement that Hollowell will tackle high insurance costs and predatory or illegal practices.

Hollowell, a former cochairman of the state’s Democratic Party, will start the job April 6. It pays about $120,000 a year.

Lawmakers and advocates say Detroiters are treated unfairly by insurers who charge high rates, especially for auto insurance.

Hollowell, 48, is general counsel for the Detroit Branch NAACP. He worked as a lawyer for Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004. That was cut short when Hollowell was arrested for picking up a prostitute near his home in Detroit.

The solicitation charge was dismissed.

This was in today’s Detroit Free Press–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent.

STATEWIDE: Auto insurance fee to drop in July
Michigan motorists will pay a little less for auto insurance in the coming year. On July 1, the assessment for the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA) will drop by $18.57 to $104.58 per vehicle. The MCCA covers the costs of treating severely injured accident victims that exceed $420,000.

It’s the second straight year the assessment has decreased. The fee is charged to insurance companies, which pass on the cost to policyholders. It is charged to each vehicle.