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 ‘Medical Payments Coverage’
Short Term Car Insurance Tips
December 26th, 2009Getting Temporary Or Short-Term Car Insurance Coverage
November 10th, 2009
If you are looking for short term car insurance you should know that you may not even need it. If you are thinking about getting car insurance for a short time period you are probably about to rent a car or borrow a vehicle…
Renting a car:
The rental car service will offer you some form of accident protection, liability insurance, loss damage waiver, and/or personal effects coverage. You do not need any of these offered insurances as long as you have your own car insurance because the insurance coverage you have on your car transfers over to the rental vehicle. It, however, does not transfer over if you are using the auto for some sort of business trip (something that is not recreational). In the following list you will find each of the 4 rental auto insurance possibilities and why you should probably skip each one…
Liability Insurance: All car insurance comes with liability coverage, which will transfer over to any car you drive. Keep in mind that liability coverage does not protect you, your passengers or you car, but those around the car (pedestrians, property, and other cars on the road).
Loss Damage Waiver: This protects the rental car from damage or loss. Some LDW’s only cover damage to the car if you are found to be innocent in an accident. Regardless, getting an LDW is pretty pointless if you have collision coverage (which would pay for repairs to the car regardless of who is at fault) and comprehensive coverage (which pays for damage or done to the car from things such as theft and collisions with wild life).
Personal Accident Coverage: It is very likely that you do not need this type of coverage because you either have health insurance, Medical Payments Coverage, or Personal Injury Protection.
Personal Effects Insurance: Your renters or homeowners policy will pay for the loss of items not only in your residence, but outside of it as well. If you want to insure something expensive, however, be sure to fill out a floater for that specific item.
If you are not absolutely sure if you are covered by your own car insurer, read your policy and, if you don’t understand something, give your auto insurer a call. You should also know that if you pay for the rental car using a credit card, the credit card company may provide short term coverage for that automobile.
Borrowing a car:
A lot of folks wonder if they need short term or temporary auto insurance if they borrow someone else’s car. Generally, no you don’t. The borrowed person’s car insurance coverage will transfer over to you as long as he or she gave you consent to use that car, making getting any type of short term car insurance useless. However, there are some things to keep in mind…
The liability insurance of the person from whom you borrow the car may not be enough to pay for liability damage that you cause while driving their car. If you have your own car insurance, this probably isn’t an issue. If, however, you don’t have your own car insurance and are held responsible for property damage of bodily injury liability fees after an accident, the liability insurance that is transferred over to you may not be enough. Say you cause $25,000 in damage and the lender’s liability coverage only goes up to $20,000. You are responsible for the additional $5,000, unless you have liability coverage yourself, which is at least $25,000.
You can easily correct the aforementioned problem by getting a non-owners auto insurance policy.
By: Nickolay Lamm
Auto Owners Insurance – Coverage Explanations You Need to Know
November 2nd, 2009
Auto owners insurance has a lot of complicated terms involved. You need to know these various terms and definitions so that you’re educated and prepared to shop for auto insurance. It would be easy to just buy whatever the company sells you, but then you have no idea what you’re paying for. Wouldn’t you rather take a little time to learn about insurance and know what you’re getting for your money?
Auto owners insurance is required in all 50 states, but some laws allow for payment of fees in lieu of insurance. Although this is a nice opportunity, you should never drive without auto insurance. The financial security that it provides is really priceless. If you have ever been involved in an accident, you know how expensive it can be. Imagine paying those expenses out of pocket, or worse paying legal fees or facing jail time for not having insurance or being able to pay the expenses.
The most common type of auto owners insurance coverage is bodily injury liability. This coverage pays for injuries and deaths related to an accident that you cause. The limits are split; there is a limit for each person and for each accident. On your policy, it will look like: 100/300. Those numbers mean that you would have $100,000 per person for injury coverage and $300,000 per accident. Property damage liability coverage is also included in most state laws. This is available in amounts from $5,000 all the way up to $1 million in coverage. This coverage will pay for any property or other vehicles that you damage in an accident.
Other coverage types include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which generally has the same limits as your injury liability coverage, but pays for damages when you’re in an accident with someone who has little or no insurance. There is also medical payments coverage and personal injury protection, which is required in “no-fault” states, and will pay for your injuries and medical bills. One more form of available coverage is Comprehensive and Collision coverage. These two types of insurance coverage are usually only included on full coverage policies, unless requested otherwise. Comprehensive pays for damages to your car that AREN’T accident related. This includes theft, fire, water damage, and natural disaster. Collision coverage pays for repairs related to an accident for your vehicle, including one-car accidents, or if you happen to hit a pole in a parking lot.
By: Costas Peppas