The main purpose of insurance is to protect you in the event of an accident — whether or not you are responsible — in exchange for a premium charged by the insurance company. Your insurance company determines how much you'll pay for insurance by assessing the answers you disclose on your auto or home application.

Drivers in Ontario are about to get hit with car insurance rate hikes. Are you going to be affected? Find out what you can do about it.

Why Use InsuranceHotline.com?The rates charged by different car insurance companies to insure the same car and driver, for the exact same policy, can vary by hundreds and even thousands of dollars, so it pays to shop around. But shopping around by making dozens of phone calls can be...

At InsuranceHotline.com, we receive many great questions from our readers. This month, we'd like to share our top 10 Q & As with you.

You're driving along the highway and a stone flies up and hits your windshield. It starts out as a little line and before you know it, you have a cracked windshield. The location of the crack could compromise the structural integrity of the glass, not to mention impair your vision while driving.

You're reversing your car into a parking spot when you all of a sudden hear a bang. You just backed into the car parked behind you! You really dented the parked car, where your car just has a scratch on it. The driver of the parked car isn't there and no one is around. You think to yourself, "I'll just leave and no one will be any the wiser."

There has been a lot of coverage in the media recently over distracted drivers. With Bill 118 (which outlines the ban on handheld cell phone use while driving in the Province of Ontario) likely to come into effect in October 2009, do you know what penalties you may have to pay if you're found guilty of talking or texting while driving?

When it comes to insurance, it's hard to miss the following phrase in the media today — "car insurance rate approval." No doubt you've heard about this, but what does it mean, exactly, and what is car insurance rate approval all about? And, more importantly, how does it impact your auto insurance?

In the upcoming months, our monthly newsletter will cover various common insurance situations that you, as a driver, may face and how to handle them in the most effective way. To get started, let's look at a very common scenario: another driver has hit your car in a parking lot, denting your car.

No one wants higher insurance rates, which is why making a deal with another driver to not report an accident to your insurance company seems so appealing — but that doesn't mean it's a good move.