This semester of composition in my opinion has been all about verbalizing your belief, and expressing what you believe in an array of different writing styles.

Writing is an interesting concept. A variety of different things can be said in a variety of different ways to portray numerous messages. Anyway, this is an opinionated essay, meaning I had to have standpoints on both points of my topic of choice. I began wanting to write about the illuminati, I topic that interests me greatly, however upon speaking with my professor she said “Why not do it on car insurance,” and something clicked. I have been through hell and back with my insurance companies losing and reinstating my license, as well as monthly payments and classes. There is no topic I could more accurately argue because I have been on both ends of the spectrum and can offer a mare plausible solution

I am 18 years old and have totaled 4 cars. I got my driving permit 4/22/2011. And have been driving about three years my monthly payment rate at the moment is 580$ a month and it it’s peak was 640. In time my insurance costs outweighed the amount my cars were valued at. I think this is ridiculous. But first let me continue my story. My first car was a Mitsubishi spyder, I was sixteen and that was my infamous total by driving into the mystic lake in Medford. I was actually clipped by another car while racing, however this was never said and probably would have made matters worse. Next was a jeep grand Cherokee. I drive into a tree during a severe thunderstorm. I was reaching to pick up my phone on the floor of the passenger seat. Next was a jeep wrangler. I got rear ended by a pickup in Wakefield center however was found at fault. Under driving law all rear end collisions are the drivers fault however I guess my driving record over road that one and we decided to simply total it because the car was hit bad. And my last accident was right before my 18th birthday I was in a fight with the passenger not paying attention, slipped through a stop sign and got hit. My fault. So that’s four totals under the age of 18.

The insurance really gets personal after the third, the price jumped from425 to 500. It went up to 580 because of the value of my car now. But after 4 at fault collisions you become a habitual offender and experience a 6 month loss of license. In it I had to take 5 classes. 2 SCAR classes, 2 alive at 21 classes, and one driving retraining course, lump sum of 2 thousand dollars. I then had to get a permit and license all over again, totaling 300 dollars and pay the license reinstatement fee of 500 dollars. A Rough grand total of 3000 dollars. And as a habitual offender these payments repeat themselves for 7 years, double each moving violation. It was a very depressing time I might say.

Now that you understand my whole story, I can incorporate my opinions. I am 100% for strict driving policies by MASSDOT as well as car insurance companies. Their line of work is a gamble, and the amount accident by clients has to fall short to the amount of clients without accidents or they can’t make money. Insurance is a great thing. Without it totaling 4 cars could have been a lot messier. Rocky Mount Insurance a national car insurance company (www.rmiia.org) quotes the national average at 791 dollars a year, which is 66 dollars a month. Massachusetts car insurance payment average is 1118 dollars a year which is 94 dollars a month (http://averagecarinsurance.com/average-car-insurance-by-state) 30 dollars more then the national average but still reasonable. Then I looked at the monthly payments of cars valued at 15,000 dollars and up nationally, 1540 a year, 128 dollars a month and still not bad. (www.thesimpledollar.com › carinsurance) Lastly I looked at the national average of adolescents, 1800$ dollars a year, with very strict penalties for accidents, and hear lies the problem. (www.massdot.gov)

If you look at my accident timeline, they all happened under the age of 18, and I got screwed. Car insurance policies are far too strict on clients under the age of 26. They view all adolescent drivers as a threat to society and most likely potential accidents. Now I cant say that I wasn’t at fault. I drove irresponsibly and caused many accidents. But I don’t feel my punishment was fair. As new drivers we are inexperienced and prone to accidents. That’s simply just the way it is. Like anything insurance is a moneymaker, however I feel they make far too much money on adolescents. Not only due they charge absurd prices monthly, they brand as a habitual offender upon four early accidents, \that sticks with you for 7 years. And any moving violations in these seven years are much more serious then normal.

Hopefully now you are much more informed on the issue and have enough information to have an opinion of your own. I feel car insurance companies should be frightening to some extent but sometimes that fear factor works not in their favor, the extreme pressure to drive well causes many accidents as well. Last year in MA about 6000 people lost their license for moving violations (www.dol.wa.gov › driverslicense) 3800 under the age of 19. My last and final opinion is I feel car insurance companies to prey of the young. We are their money makers, and they squeeze every cent out they can. Until something is done it will only get worse.