What Basic Car Insurance Covers
Essentially your car insurance is protection. It protects you, your car, your passengers and any other vehicle or people who may be involved in an accident with you.
You must read your car insurance policy carefully and understand what it includes, and what it excludes, in order to get the best protection at the best rate from a reputable company.
What basic car insurance covers:
- Comprehensive insurance
- Collision insurance
- Medical coverage
- Liability insurance
In addition, a good policy will also include uninsured motorist coverage and an under insured motorist coverage. Each category has variables built into it and by selecting different amounts of coverage, or protection, you will be deciding how much your policy will cost.
Let's look at each one of these variables and what they mean:
- Collision is extremely important if you ever have an accident. This is how you will get paid for the damage to your car.
- Liability coverage will pay for the other person?s property and medical damages. If the other person is un-insured or under-insured your liability policy needs to be able to cover the expenses incurred by that person. This is not a good place to cut corners.
- To cover your own vehicle you need to have comprehensive coverage too. This is to protect your car in case of fire, theft, towing, glass breakage or other damage not related to an accident. This is one area where you can cut expenses if you have an old car.
- Medical coverage. Be sure you have a good bit of money in this section. Hospitals and ambulances are expensive. In addition, you want to be sure to cover your passengers well, in case something happens to them in an accident.
Always compare rates and always pay attention. You want to work with a reputable company that will be there when you need them. Talk with the insurance agent about how they handle claims, before you have an accident. Then go online and compare rates. Keep in mind, the cheapest policy may not be the best. Ask family and friends about their insurance company experiences and check out forums for case studies or examples of compliments or complaints about a particular company.
Many people choose a car insurance company that their family has been using for years. This can be good for the budget as many companies offer loyalty discounts.
In addition to loyalty discounts, there are many other discounts offered by many companies such as safe driving discounts, for avoiding any trouble behind the wheel, and safety discounts for all the safety features in your vehicle. Find out about the various discounts offered by companies and you may be able to add up quite a savings. Maybe you never thought it was important to know what a basic car insurance policy covers, but now that you have your own car, you must make sure you have the knowledge to select a policy that will protect it and yourself.
