Car insurance is a necessity in being able to drive a car legally. Many states have passed a law that you cannot get licenses or car license renewals without showing proper car insurance. This means that whether you like it are not your monthly expenses will have to include car insurance. Luckily there are over twenty different companies that offer car insurance and most usually you can find great coverage at a decent monthly rate. It will depend on a lot of things such as age, gender, marital status, and your credit scores. When you are deciding between the choices in coverage you can have there are many things to consider.
First I will tell a little tale as an example. A woman had a 1984 jeep renegade that had an oil leak. She didn’t know much about mechanics and felt the vehicle was safe enough to drive for a week until her father could help find her a mechanic in the college town she was living in. What she didn’t know is that oil leaking on to a carburetor could catch fire in less than ten minutes. While the jeep had been taken to a mechanic three times prior the mechanic had not fixed the problem, didn’t warn her of the danger, and wasted time until the car had to be shipped to her new address. After a week of having the vehicle it caught fire because of the oil leak. She was only covered for liability since that was all she could afford while going to college. The car insurance didn’t cover fire.
The reason I have described this story is that had she had fire coverage she would have been able to file a claim and get a little money for the damage towards a new car or towards having that one fixed. When you are trying to ascertain how much you can afford to pay and the coverage available you have to consider what could happen and how expensive it could be to you if you don’t have proper coverage.
When you consider the choices in coverage you have liability, comp and collision, and choices in the actual monetary coverage for the motorist, uninsured motorist, and other aspects of car insurance. You need to select a coverage that you can afford, but that will not leave you in a situation where the car is not covered enough. In other words it is best to look at the cost of the car, the year it was made, and the potential hazards of where you live. In Alaska they offer moose and bear coverage under the comp and collision policies just in case. If you live in a large city you are going to want to have a lower deductible for damage in the event the car is broken into and your radio is stolen to meet the deductible with ease. Also consider the roadside assistance and car rental replacement if you don’t have AAA or another roadside service.
Tag Archives: Coverage - Page 2
Choices in Coverage for Car Insurance
Car Insurance Tips: Understand your Coverage
While driving can be a great deal of fun, shopping for car insurance is most assuredly not. Nobody rushes out the door in the morning anxiously awaiting the moment when they can start shopping for the best car insurance policy. Even though shopping for car insurance is not fun, however, it is important, and it is vital for everyone who drives a vehicle to have adequate protection in place.
When it comes to car insurance, many of us simply look for the lowest premium we can fund, but it is important to consider not only price but coverage as well. After all, the whole purpose of car insurance is to ensure that your assets are protected in case of an accident, and the accident scene is not the place to find out that the coverage you purchased is not adequate.
It is important to look carefully at the minimum coverage mandated by law and determine if that minimum coverage is really adequate in the real world. It is important to look around at the value of the vehicles around you and make sure that the liability coverage on the policy will cover the cost of the majority of those vehicles. If your neighborhood is crawling with Rolls Royces and Jaguars, you may want to consider upping that liability coverage to a more realistic level.
It is also important to determine exactly what is and is not covered by that insurance policy. Many drivers do not look at the exclusions and limitations of their policy until after an accident has taken place, but the time to do so is at the beginning. It is important to carefully read the fine print in order to determine exactly what is and is not covered.
For instance, travelers will want to determine whether or not the policy covers damage done to rental cars. Many policies automatically extend coverage to any car the insured person drives, whether that car is owned by another individual or a rental car fleet. This knowledge can help the traveler save a bundle by declining the coverage offered by the rental car company.
Drivers will also want to make sure that their policy covers other licensed drivers who may drive their car from time to time. If there is any question on this subject it is important to clear it up before anyone else is allowed to drive the car. And of course no policy will cover damage done by an unlicensed or uninsured driver.
Those drivers who plan to use their car for business will also want to make sure that the car insurance company is aware of that use. Some insurers will charge extra if the vehicle is used for delivery or other business purposes, while others may provide no coverage for business use at all. It is important to read the fine print and ask the agent if necessary.
When it comes to insurance the exclusions can make all the difference. It is vital for every insurance shopper to focus not just on what is covered but what may not be covered as well. Knowing which actions are not covered by insurance will help drivers and car owners tailor their activities to provide the most protection at the least possible cost.
