As a nation in love with our cars you would think auto insurance would be a no brainer. As careful as you may be with your pride and joy, the unthinkable does still happen. You need to be covered.
Auto insurance is expensive, but so is repairing damage, or defending against litigation. Or in the worst case replacing the car altogether! To stop an incident from turning into a disaster you need to make sure you have proper and comprehensive auto insurance.
It can seem like hard work when you first start looking. Gone are the days when you went to see your broker and accepted whatever they gave you. There is competition out there and lots of it. With all the different types of cover and different ways of doing business, some policies are much cheaper than others. What is good for some situations may not be good for others.
For example, your insurance will vary greatly with any of these criteria;
- Is the car alarmed?
- Does it have anti lock brakes?
- Your age
- Your excess, would you pay the first $50 or $250? The more you are prepared to pay the lower your premium will be.
- How old is the car?
- What type of car is it?
- Is it modified?
- Kept in a garage overnight?
These are just some of the things that will affect your insurance premium.
Although the insurance market is a lot more complicated now, most of the legwork has been taken out of it for you. No longer do you have to sit through the presentations of a visiting salesman or your broker. The internet has revolutionized this market as well as many others. You can now compare quotes from many different insurers on a single website.
Auto insurance comes in many different forms, the most popular are listed below;
- Physical damage covers damage to your car, Collision, which covers losses to your car when you are involved in a crash or Comprehensive, which covers most non-collision damage to your car (if your windshield breaks, for example).
- Bodily injury liability, which provides coverage for physical injury claims from the people you might be involved with in an accident.
- Property damage liability, which covers any property damages to third parties , such as another person’s car you damage which you are liable for.
- Medical payments to the policy owner and other passengers in the policy owner’s car
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which protects you when the negligent driver has no insurance or insufficient insurance (in most states, this covers only bodily injury losses — though some states also include property damage losses)
This isn’t a complete list if the coverage available, but it gives you somewhere to start. You can no only buy these types of policy outright but add bits to other policies. You will never be able to cover yourself for absolutely every situation, but as long as you are adequately covered you should be fine.
Whatever method of insurance you use the rule is the same as it has always been. Read the small print!
