Auto Insurance 10112/05/2015
If you own a car and you live in the United States chances are you have car insurance. Only two states in the US do not have car insurance as mandatory. But there is a twist to it in those two states. The twist is if you don’t want to have insurance you have to prove you have the funds to cover a car accident. So pretty much it is required by law to have car insurance. Now if this is something you must have then you should probably know something about it.
-The most basic part of auto insurance is called PIP (personal injury protection). Of course each state has its own definition of what it is. In Florida for example it is covering your personal medical expenses and covering the other persons car. PIP is the most basic coverage you can get and is mandatory in 13 states. -The next step in coverage is to get Bodily Injury Liability. Basically this is if the accident is your fault and the other person has sustained physical bodily injury this part of your insurance will cover it. Usually there are different levels of coverage you can purchase. 10/20, 25/50, 50/100, 100/300 and 250/500 which means 10 thousand per person and 20 thousand per accident. This is the limit that your insurance will pay for the other persons bodily injuries and medical expenses. In most cases if you get a lease vehicle you are required to get 100/300 coverage of bodily injury. Of course its not every car manufacturer. -The last of the basic coverage’s of auto insurance is comprehensive and collision coverage. This is the part of your insurance which covers the damages to your vehicle. Comp insurance basically means damage to your vehicle not through an accident with another car. And of course collision is the coverage for damages in an accident. When getting comp and collision coverage for your car you have a choice to make. How much of a deductible if any will you get. The options are $0, $250, $500, $1000 and even $2000. The deductible means how much you will pay before the insurance kicks in. So if you get into an accident and you have a $1000 deductible but the damages down are only $800 then you will be paying for all the damage yourself. -An extra part insurance you can get is called Uninsured Motorist coverage. This coverage is basically what it says in the name. If the other person doesn’t have insurance or insufficient insurance, it will cover your bodily injury expenses past your PIP coverage. There are also different options in how much coverage you can get. -And finally the other extra coverage you can get is Medical Payments. Basically this gives you and option of $2500 or $5000 extra coverage of your PIP insurance coverage. Now there is also another simple extra coverage of towing and rental that you can get. And also accidental death and dismemberment but not all companies have this coverage. Of course for all of the different coverage’s laid out here there may be different names and explanations in different states. But they are still all basically the same. Whatever type of coverage you decide to get or how much of it will depend on your budget and how much risk you want to take. And insurance is all about managing your risk. |
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