Author Topic: Car insurance questions  (Read 3105 times)

themagicman

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Car insurance questions
« on: January 18, 2016, 12:08:28 PM »
I am trying to lower my car insurance cost and wanted to ask you all a couple of questions

1. I currently have 100/300/100 liability coverage. Do you all think this is too high or too low or good?
2. I am considering dropping uninsured motorist coverage but had a question.
          I know my med insurance will cover my health cost if I get hit by a uninsured motorist (Or a hit and run) but will my car insurance cover the cost of             replacing my car, if I do not have this? Will I be on the hook for the whole replacement car or just my normal collision deductible?

Thanks!

TheInsuranceMan

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Re: Car insurance questions
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2016, 01:29:13 PM »
I am trying to lower my car insurance cost and wanted to ask you all a couple of questions

1. I currently have 100/300/100 liability coverage. Do you all think this is too high or too low or good?
2. I am considering dropping uninsured motorist coverage but had a question.
          I know my med insurance will cover my health cost if I get hit by a uninsured motorist (Or a hit and run) but will my car insurance cover the cost of             replacing my car, if I do not have this? Will I be on the hook for the whole replacement car or just my normal collision deductible?

Thanks!

1.  Please, don't go lower than this.  I'd bet you won't save $50-$100 a year by lowering those limits, and that increases the risk of you being out of pocket a substantial amount of money if a large loss happens
2.  Your collision coverage could pick up the damages, you'd still be out your deductible (which they'd try to subrogate from the at fault driver).  Double check that with your agent.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend anything less than 100/300/100, and for the price of UM/UIM coverages, I'd keep those too.  But then again, I'm an insurance guy, and I handled subrogation on uninsured and underinsured car accidents. 

TheInsuranceMan

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Re: Car insurance questions
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2016, 01:32:19 PM »
I am trying to lower my car insurance cost and wanted to ask you all a couple of questions

1. I currently have 100/300/100 liability coverage. Do you all think this is too high or too low or good?
2. I am considering dropping uninsured motorist coverage but had a question.
          I know my med insurance will cover my health cost if I get hit by a uninsured motorist (Or a hit and run) but will my car insurance cover the cost of             replacing my car, if I do not have this? Will I be on the hook for the whole replacement car or just my normal collision deductible?

Thanks!

I looked mine up...
2008 F150
insured at 500k/500k - my liability coverage is as follows:
Bodily Injury: $94.44
PD: $81.98
Uninsured: $12.24
Underinsured: $23.96

So, $212.62 a year for 500k worth of coverage.  Well worth it, in my opinion.  I'm assuming yours is less than that because you carry a lower limit....but that's also dependent on driving record, who is on your policy, and where you are located....as well as the type of vehicle, obviously.

1.  Please, don't go lower than this.  I'd bet you won't save $50-$100 a year by lowering those limits, and that increases the risk of you being out of pocket a substantial amount of money if a large loss happens
2.  Your collision coverage could pick up the damages, you'd still be out your deductible (which they'd try to subrogate from the at fault driver).  Double check that with your agent.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend anything less than 100/300/100, and for the price of UM/UIM coverages, I'd keep those too.  But then again, I'm an insurance guy, and I handled subrogation on uninsured and underinsured car accidents.

HeadedWest2029

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Re: Car insurance questions
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2016, 02:59:45 PM »
Obviously any online wizard won't know your full financial situation so take this with a grain of salt, but you can do something like the Geico Coverage Coach https://www.geico.com/save/coverage-calculator/ just to see what it kicks out

I personally do 300 bodily injury, 100 property damage, 300 uninsured motorist (just because Geico requires uninsured motors to match bodily injury), no comprehensive or collision (hooray for cheap cars)

Exflyboy

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Re: Car insurance questions
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2016, 04:54:39 PM »
Yes a lot of this depends on what your current net worth is.

Sadly the more money you have the more likely your going to be on the hook for a large bill if you hurt someone. Imagine your driving home and a bicycle without lights at night wanders into your lane and hit hit them and severely injure them?

Yes technically bicycle rider at fault.. any witnesses?.. No it was dark.. so you could have wandered into the bike lane.. no I didn't.. any witnesses?.. Nope.

So the student you just hit gets a lawyer, they do a search on your finances and if you got substantial funds they will threaten to sue in the hopes you hand over some cash.. You want to risk going to court?

If you have say $1m+ and only $25k of liability you could very easily be screwed, even if it wasn't your fault.

Personally (with a healthy NW) I go with $500k combined single limit and don't carry collision insurance on our 4 year old car even though its worth $10k+

redcedar

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Re: Car insurance questions
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2016, 05:14:48 PM »
I would strongly recommend shopping your needs with 4-5 insurance companies. If you save money without cutting coverage, win win.