If you are thinking about short term car insurance, there’s a very good chance that you may not even need it. If you are renting your car, the rental company will offer you the following services, each of which you probably already have:
-Liability coverage: If you already own a car you have liability insurance, which transfers over to your car.
-Loss Damage Waiver: If you already have both collision and comprehensive coverage on your own car, you do not need this type of coverage.
-Personal effects coverage: If you have homeowners insurance, it will cover loss to property not just in your house, but in other cars as well. However, if the personal belonging you want to insure is very expensive, you have to fill out a separate floater to cover its value.
-Personal accident insurance: If you have your own health insurance, Personal Injury Protection, or Medical Payments Coverage, you do not need this rental company’s extra charge.
To be 100% sure that you are covered it’s a good idea to check your car insurance policy and to call them if you are not sure about anything. Your credit card company may also pay for your insured car, assuming you use this credit card to pay for the rental. Although this may all sound complicated you’ll end up saving boat loads of money off of rental place who just want to make some money off of you.
What happens if you borrow a car? If you own one yourself your car’s policy will carry over to the borrowed car. If you borrow a car and have no car insurance by yourself you’re going to want to purchase a non-owners auto insurance policy.
By: Nickolay Lamm
Posts Tagged ‘Liability Coverage’
Short Term Car Insurance Tips
December 26th, 2009Short Term Car Insurance Policy
December 25th, 2009
If you are interested in a short term car insurance policy or cover you are either going to be renting a car or borrowing one from someone. I explain the different scenarios and why you may not need car insurance for each one…
Renting a car: You are likely to be offered liability coverage, a loss damage waiver, personal effects coverage, and/or personal accident insurance. If you have already have car and health insurance you probably don’t need any of the rental car company’s insurance policies. Furthermore, if you use a credit card to pay for the rental car, the credit card company may pay for the cost to insure the rental car. To be on the safe side it is in your best interest to call your car insurance and/or your credit card company to make sure that you are covered. Because a rental car company’s insurance fees are expensive, it is worth your time making sure that you don’t need any of their inflated coverage.
Borrowing a car: If you own a car and have the respective car insurance you needn’t worry as the coverage on your car transfers over to the owner’s vehicle. If, however, you don’t own a car you’re going to need a nonowners policy to protect yourself against liability claims if you are found guilty an accident. If you damage that person’s car and only have a nonowners policy you better hope that that person has collision and/or comprehensive coverage to help pay for the costs to repair his or her car.
By: Nickolay Lamm
Understanding The Terms When You Compare Car Insurance Prices
December 14th, 2009
If you don’t understand the terms that are used by car insurance companies when you make an auto insurance comparison, you may wind up spending more than you need to or even worse, not getting the coverage that you really need. It’s easy to get confused when shopping for cheap car insurance rates because the language used by auto insurers is very unique and it’s easy to forget what each term means. So here is a general explanation of car insurance terms that you can use the next time you compare car insurance prices.
* Comprehensive Coverage – This covers you for any damage to your vehicle that occurs as a result of anything other than an accident with another vehicle. For instance, it could include fire, flood, theft, and so on.
* Bodily Injury And Liability – This coverage is very important as it provides for injury damage to others in the case of claims that are files against you if you are involved in a car wreck. It also provides for legal fees in defense as well. There are usually two figures that are used in this type of coverage, one for the maximum that will be paid per person per accident, and the other for the total amount for all persons injured in the same accident.
* Collision Coverage – This is what is paid to either repair or replace your vehicle if it is involved in an accident with another vehicle or a fixed object.
* Personal Injury Protection (NO Fault) – In states that support this type of coverage, it pays for most expenses incurred, medical and otherwise, for those that are in your vehicle and also any pedestrians that may be hurt by an accident that you are involved in whether or not it was your fault.
* Liability Coverage – This pays for any damage done by your vehicle to someone else’s property including their car, house, lawn, etc. It’s most often invoked when someone files a claim against you to repair their vehicle if the accident was your fault.
* Uninsured Motorist – This is coverage that pays for your injuries and property damage even if the other person involved in the accident did not have sufficient insurance coverage. This can be very important as many people are driving around without adequate insurance, or no insurance at all, so there is a need to take steps to protect yourself in that event.
There are other options that can be considered when getting an auto insurance policy including car rental, that pays a certain amount for you to have a rental car to use while your car is being repaired as a result of an accident. Also towing coverage can be put on a car insurance policy to cover having your car towed if it breaks down. Just check to be sure that you don’t already have this kind of coverage through AAA or a similar type of auto association.
If you understand the insurance terms better you can usually make a btter informed decision about the coverage you need when you compare car insurance prices.
By: Jim Johnson