Posts Tagged ‘Bodily Injury Liability’
It can seem pretty overwhelming; there are a lot of things to think about when it comes to getting the right coverage for you and your automobile. Drivers are now required to have automobile insurance to be on the road, but knowing what kind of insurance to get, so that your car will be covered sufficiently, but that you can still afford to drive it can be a bit tricky if you aren’t at least a little bit educated on the topic.
Aside from our houses, our cars are often the most valuable and necessary material belongings in our possession, it’s important for all drivers to begin learning the basics of auto insurance if they don’t know them already, so they can hit the road with confidence and piece of mind.
Liability
Having at least some liability coverage is a requirement for driving in all states, the minimum amount necessary does vary a bit from state to state, but it’s good to have more than the minimum amount of coverage in the event that you are involved in a serious accident.
The two sections of liability coverage cover bodily injury and property damage.
Bodily injury liability will cover the medical expenses and potentially the lost wages of people injured during an automobile accident. If your liability coverage is too low to cover the medical expenses of a person you injure in an accident, you may be held responsible for the remainder of the money due – this is precisely the reason that higher liability coverage is better than lower liability coverage.
Property damage covers the cost of repair the damage you do to other peoples property in the event of an accident, this could include their automobile, their motorcycle, bicycle, house or whatever else happens to be on the receiving end of the accident.
Comprehensive and Collision
If you own your car outright, then neither comprehensive or collision coverage is a requirement to operate your vehicle, but depending on your driving record or the neighborhood you live or work in, it may be advisable to at least carry some comp and collision coverage.
Collision will cover the damage sustained to your car in the event of an accident that you are deemed the cause of. The amount of your chosen deductible and the level of your collision coverage could have a pretty large affect on your premium – the higher your deductible, the lower your premium and vice versa, so to keep your monthly payment down while still carrying a decent level of collision insurance you’ll opt for a higher deductible.
Comprehensive insurance will cover any damage sustained to your car that wasn’t directly the result of an accident. Acts of vandalism, attempted theft, damage from fire, acts of God and natural disasters are the types of things that comprehensive insurance will take care of for you.
Uninsured Motorist Coverage
Even though a minimum amount of automobile insurance is a requirement to have your vehicle on the road, that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone operating a vehicle will have it.
Uninsured motorist coverage is a requirement in most states and will cover the damages to your vehicle as well as bodily injury in the event that you are struck by a motorist driving without insurance.
Personal Injury Protection
Personal injury protection coverage covers the cost of treatments for injuries and funeral costs for you or other passengers in a car, or as pedestrians, involved in an accident. At this time personal injury protection coverage isn’t required in every state, so depending upon your residence it may not be something that you’ll have to worry about.
Those are the basic minimum requirements to drive your automobile legally in any state, and though it may seem like a lot to digest, taking a quick overview of your particular vehicle, the environment you operate it in, the amount of driving you do and your personal driving record should allow you to pick out the best possible plan of coverage for your automobile that will have you on the highway without putting too much of a dent in your wallet.
A. Nutt
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/learning-the-basics-of-auto-insurance-673625.html
Liability insurance is very important and most state auto insurance laws require that an individual maintain at least liability insurance on their automobile. What it does is protect you against costs that are associated with the damage and injury of another in an automobile accident in which you may be deemed at fault.
There are two parts to the policy. There is property damage liability and bodily injury liability. It is pretty easy to guess that property damage liability is going to protect you against any cost and damage that is associated with damaging another person’s physical property and that bodily injury liability is going to protect you against the personal injury inflicted on someone else as a result of the accident.
Usually, there are some numbers that a person may see on their policy. These numbers usually look like this: 50/100/25. Now what this means is that the policy is split up into three different amounts each policy can be different depending on what the individual chose when they opened the policy. In this case, 50/100/25 means that the insurance will pay for the bodily injury of an individual in an amount up to $50,000, will pay for the bodily injury costs on everyone in a vehicle in an amount up to $100,000, and will pay property damage costs up to $25,000.
Every vehicle requires its own level of liability insurance depending on what state you are located in. It is important to know what your state’s auto insurance requirements are so that you have an idea of what you would have to pay in your insurance premium.
The cost
Liability insurance is cheaper than full coverage insurance that also includes damages from theft, natural disaster, and vandalism. Liability only covers costs associated with an accident so that you do not lose your hard earned assets in a lawsuit. There are have been cases in which a person has been sued for more that what they have in coverage, but the liability insurance does lessen the blow. However, a person can pay for different levels of liability insurance to ensure that they will not be “taken for everything they’ve got.” Not having enough insurance can still have a heavy impact on a persons life when an accident occurs.
No one intends on hurting another and they usually do not purposely engage in an auto accident because there is so much trouble involved, including the possible loss of the vehicle. That is why it is important to carefully assess how much insurance you think you will need. Liability is rather affordable. Some states have a minimum requirement of 20/40/10, but you could carry something such as a 50/100/50 if you think you need it. The cost is still not going to be much.
Just remember
Don’t forget that if you set your limits too low you could be setting yourself up for financial disaster even though you have car insurance. This is to be considered carefully. It is easy to make the decision to save money by paying the lowest premium possible, but paying the lowest premium possible could later result in the loss of your assets. It is also important to remember that liability just covers bodily injury and property damage. If a tree falls on your home during a wind storm, it is then time to assess your options.
However, liability insurance will protect you from those nasty lawsuits that may come your way as a result of an accident. That in itself makes it more than worth the money because you have the peace of mind that most or all your assets are protected.
Amy Nutt
http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/what-does-liability-mean-on-your-car-insurance-422429.html
My auto insurance company told me that if I’m in an accident and I don’t have enough auto insurance I can be sued and possibly lose my home. I never heard of anyone losing their home because of an auto accident. If I have a good driving record, how much insurance do I really need and can I really lose my home if I don’t have enough? and how do you collect from someone who doesn’t have any insurance? It seems stupid to carry uninsured insurance if I can sue someone for damages.
Yes, you can sue someone. However, unlike you, they might not have any assets. You may not be able to collect from them if they do not have assets.
You should have the total of all your assets (including the house) or $100,000, whichever is less, in property damage liability coverage.
If the total of all your assets (including the house) is more than $300,000, then you should have $300,000 in bodily injury liability insurance AND have umbrella insurance with limits equal to the total of all your assets (including the house).
If the total of all your assets (including the house) is $300,000 or less, then you should have bodily injury liablity insurance coverage equal to the total of all your assets (including the house).
Auto insurance financially secures the automobile of a person from the case of an accident. It is not mandatory for everyone to purchase auto insurance but for the sake of the safety of their automobiles, everyone purchases an automobile insurance policy along with their vehicle. But there are several states in the U.S which have mandatory rules of insurance and no car can run on the road without having insurance papers with them. These states have made it compulsory for all the car owners to insure their cars in order to keep their vehicles financially safe from any accident and hence there is no loss of money for the owner of the car if there is any damage occurred to the vehicle. Moreover, the owner of the car has to show the government that he has enough money to buy car insurance along with the car and then only he is allowed to buy a new vehicle.
There are several conditions during which a person can claim an auto insurance repayment to the insurance company. These are bodily injury liability, medical repayments, property damage coverage, personal injury protection, comprehensive, collision, and uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. There is a special type of auto insurance that is called liability insurance. In liability insurance, if a person is at fault in causing an accident then the insurance company would pay the entire amount which that person needs to pay to those persons whom he has caused damage both to their vehicle and the people. Moreover, the insurance company also pays all the legal bills that are to be paid to the lawyer during the legal transactions. So it is suggested that everybody should go for a liability insurance as you never know that when you might cause damage to anyone.
Collision coverage insurance is just like liability insurance but the difference is if a person causes an accident then the collision coverage insurance would repay the entire amount that is required to repair the person’s vehicle. But the disadvantage of this type of insurance is that the person cannot collect an amount exceeding the actual cash value of the car at that time. People always keep on finding cheap auto insurance and hence they must find high deductibles. High deductibles help people to lower their monthly installment that they have to pay their insurance premium. So with lowered insurance premiums, they will be able to get the cheapest insurance available in the market.
Alien
http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/basics-about-auto-insurance-627139.html
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