» bodily injury

How I saved hundreds of dollars on car insurance.

Administrator — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:48:53 +0000

“Get Rich Slowly“, a great personal finance web site, offers regular readers a chance to share their money saving successes and tips. I could help smiling when a reader relayed how he saved hundred per year on his auto and rental dwelling insurance.

In the end, I switched to an insurance provider that quoted me $1,345, saving me $2,305 on my rental property each year! While I was at it, I asked this same insurance provider to give me an auto quote. With my previous insurer, I had been paying $1,811 for two cars in northern California. With the new insurer, it came to $1,277. That’s another savings of $534 on annual auto insurance premiums. If you’re keeping track, that’s $2,839 in annual savings on my insurance needs

Can’t promise you $2,839 in savings but it is worth a few minutes to find out.

Lake County auto insurance quotes

Porter County auto insurance quotes

Homeowners insurance quote

Part B- Medical Payments

Administrator — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:08:22 +0000

Medical payments are the second part of an auto insurance policy after liability. Medical pays for reasonable medical expenses incurred by a covered person for bodily injury caused by an accident involving any motor vehicle designed for highway use.

Covered persons are the named insured, spouse, or any family member when occupying a motor vehicle, or as a pedestrian when struck by a vehicle. Also covered is any individual, other than the named insured and family, while occupying a covered auto. Covered people are protected while entering or leaving an auto.

Typical coverages: $1000, $3000, $5000, $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000.

What does all this mean? Auto liability coverage protects you when you cause bodily injury to someone outside your family or vehicle. Medical payments covers your bodily injury in an accident. For example, if you slide through a stop sign into another car, liability will cover their medical cost up to the limit of coverage. If you slide through the stop sign into a tree and your wife suffers an injury, medical payments will cover her up to the limit of coverage. Medical will also cover passengers in your car (important if you’re the car pool mom) and cover your family in other accidents. Also, if your son is riding with a buddy and gets injured in an accident, your medical will cover your son if the friend’s coverage isn’t enough, up to the limits of your coverage.

It’s surprising how many consumers are unaware of how medical payment coverage can affect them or their family. They are willing to have $300,000 in coverage for someone they don’t know but only have $1000 in coverage for family. Upping coverage from $1000 to $25000 should be a few dollars a month. Next time your getting an auto quote ask what the difference between the coverages is.

Auto Insurance part A: Liability coverage

Administrator — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:20:18 +0000

When an agent quoting an auto policy starts explaining the coverage how often does the customer understand the numbers? What does 100/300/100 mean? Part A of standard auto policy is liability coverage often expressed by 3 numbers. In 100/300/100 the first number represents the bodily injury coverage, in the case $100,000 per person. 300 represents the coverage per occurrence, $300,000 per incident. The last number is the coverage for property damage again in this case $100,000. This section also provides for the cost of defending the insured in any suit in addition to the stated coverages. Part A does not provide coverage for the insureds auto.

How much coverage you need is a factor of your financial situation. State minimum is 25/50/10. If that’s your coverage the insurance provider protects you up to $50,000 in bodily injury and $10,000 for personal property. After that a victim would have to come after you personally for any other damages. It’s not hard to see one accident exceeding $10,000 in repairs on most cars. After coverage of 250/500/250 most companies offer a personal liability umbrella of one or two million that follows the individual. Understanding your exposure allows you to choose the right amount of protection. If you are still unsure you might consult with your attorney or financial planner.