Auto Insurance: Is my Friend Covered if He Drives my Car?
Reader’s Question:
I share a flat with a friend here in California. He usually borrows my car if his is being repaired. What if he gets involved in a wreck? Will my auto insurance cover it even if he’s not listed in my policy?
Julie
San Francisco, CA
In most accident cases and in most states, (that’s including California) when the person behind the wheel is not the owner of the motor vehicle, it’s the car owner’s insurance provider who usually pays for the losses. These include the cost of hospitalization and medical expenses to treat injuries sustained by the parties involved in the accident, and also include the cost of repair or replacement of the other motorist’s car. To cover repair or replacement costs on your own vehicle, you would need to have collision or comprehensive coverage in your policy. If it so happens that you do not have sufficient liability insurance coverage to cover for the medical and repair costs, your friend’s separate car insurance policy may cover any amount remaining. If on the other hand you do not have any auto insurance coverage, your friend’s insurer may cover all the cost. So, there’s really no need to have your friend listed under your policy. But just to be on the safe side, make sure that your friend does have auto insurance and that you both have collision or comprehensive coverage in your auto insurance policies. In an accident, it’s not just the other guy’s car that gets damaged.
California Auto Insurance – Am I Legal To Drive In Other States?
Reader question:
What rights do I have when I take my California auto insurance over state lines?
Amy
Thank you for asking, Amy.
There are a few standards set in place that help protect travelers while they are going around the country, without making them get insured in every single state. For one, your auto insurance policy will cover you all around the country, all around Canada, and also across the border of Mexico (but not too far across it). Whenever you go into a new state, if your limits on your coverage are lower than the ones required by your state, then they will magically adjust for the duration of your stay there. Then, if you should get into an accident, you will be protected by that states required limits.
Then there are no fault states. Normally, these states make it difficult to the residents of their state to sue for pain and suffering. However, if take your Califorina auto insurance over there, all bets are off. They can sue people from out of state, and you can sue them. Here are the no fault states:
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Dakota
- Pennsylvania
- Utah
It might be a good idea to look up a state’s liability car insurance laws before you go passing through it. You never know what kind of new coverage you will have if you don’t. All you have to do is go to the department of motor vehicles website, and it has the information for vehicle insurance laws for every state in the country. There are three states, such as New Hampshire, that do not require auto insurance coverage at all, so if you go to one of those states you should equip your California auto insurance with uninsured motorist coverage, and perhaps underinsured motorist coverage as well.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Auto Insurance Claims – The Other Party Does Not Accept Blame?
Reader question:
When the owner of an auto insurance policy in California who crashed into your car doesn’t want to take the blame, what do you do?
Mark
Thanks for asking, Mark.
Sometimes a person will be completely apologetic at the scene of the car accident, but when it comes time to file a claim with their auto insurance policy in CA, you find that they’ve told a whole other story to their car insurance company. The company that sells his auto insurance policy is going to go with his story unless forced to believe otherwise, because they want to pay the least money and stick by their policy holder. If it’s your fault, then they don’t have to pay anything.
Normally this happens when an accident hasn’t had a police report filed for it. There’s a good reason for calling the cops every time right there. However, sometimes even when a police officer comes, they don’t file a report. Why is that? It’s because if the police officer believes the damages of the accident to be $500 or less, then it isn’t necessary to file one. However, what might seem like only a little bit of damage at the time could be worth several thousand dollars at the mechanic.
While you might try to convince the police officer to follow a report, it’s not something that you can reasonably do. Instead, do things yourself. Ask witnesses and get their statements about the accident, get the other driver’s statement about the accident, and make sure you take your vehicle to a repair shop as soon as possible so that the damages can be checked out and no one can say that they didn’t come from that accident.
Make sure you get names and numbers of the witnesses, as well as the name, number, and policy number of the other driver. Take pictures of the vehicles, and if there is a police report filed, you can get a copy.
If the auto insurance policy still gets you a no to your claim, you can get more serious. Go to small claims court with the other driver, or even get an attorney. Make sure that they can’t push you around.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
I Need Help Understanding My Auto Insurance Policy
Reader question:
Where can I get some help in reading my California auto insurance policy?
Aaron
You can get it right here, Aaron.
Plenty of people find their auto insurance policy confusing. After all, the car insurance companies don’t exactly make it easy for people to understand, by inserting a lot of terminology that you have to be a car insurance broker to understand. However, what might seem like it was written in a foreign language can be come understandable if you only look for a minute at what everything actually means. It’ll take you less than ten minutes to read, and when you’re done you’ll have no excuse for not understanding the conditions of your auto insurance policy.
- Declarations.
This is the catch all area of your auto insurance policy. It has all of the information that you already know, such as your name and policy number, and it also lists the type of coverage that you are insured for. Another thing that this section has is the limits of your coverage and the required deductibles.
When you receive this paper, look over the information to make sure it is all correct. Make sure that your coverage, your limits, and your deductibles are right, but also check all of your personal information. If this is incorrect, then you might have a claim denied later on for having giving incorrect information on your CA auto insurance policy.
- Insuring agreement.
This area of your auto insurance policy goes into some more detail regarding your coverage purchased and the limits of that coverage. Read this section over so that you can understand what you are being offered and be clear on your coverage for claim time.
- Exclusions.
Here is the area of your auto insurance policy that goes into detail concerning what your coverage does not take care of. For example, if you only have liability, then it will say that you are not covered for damages to yourself or your vehicle. Compare it to the insuring agreement section for best understanding.
- Conditions.
Read this section a couple of times long before you need to file a claim on your insurance policy. Not only does it list the steps for you when filing claim, but it also gives you ways that you are able to solve any disputes with your car insurance company.
- Definitions.
Here’s a helpful section if you find the terms confusing. It defines them for you.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
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