Basic California Vehicle Insurance Information
Reader’s Question:
What do I need to know about California vehicle insurance?
Mark
San Jose, CA
California vehicle insurance is pretty straightforward. The state requires its resident drivers to have liability coverage. The limits for this coverage are $15,000 for the treatment of a single person’s bodily injuries, $30,000 for the combined medical expenses of all persons injured in one accident, and $5,000 for any property damage. Although California vehicle insurance is compulsory for all drivers or vehicle owners, it can sometimes happen that a driver has a hard time getting insured. Drivers with motor vehicle records spotted with one too many citations or convictions can be often denied by providers. In such cases, the driver would most likely be put in the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan or CAARP. This assigned risk plan hands over drivers who are unable to obtain insurance for whatever reasons to specific insurance companies who agree to provide liability coverage. The required limits for such drivers are $10,000 for bodily injuries of one person, $20,000 if more than two people were injured, and $3,000 for damaged property.
Other types of California vehicle insurance is collision and comprehensive coverage and uninsured motorist coverage. Unlike liability these coverage benefits the policyholder and covers him for any injury or property damage due to an accident. These types of insurance are not required by the state and so obtaining them would depend upon your needs.
Cheap California Car Insurance – Are Lawsuits To Blame For High Costs?
One of the big obstacles between you and cheap California car insurance are the number of lawsuits being filed against California car insurance companies every year that force these companies to raise their prices. While it is at times necessary to file a lawsuit in order to get the money that you need for your car insurance claim, the number of claims filed is high enough to elicit some concern from car accident lawyers, even though they are the ones who profit the most from it.
According to attorney Nick Johnson, who has offices all over the country, collisions that involve someone getting injured or killed have dropped in the past year, which should mean that the number of lawsuits should drop as well, because more California car insurance companies are sued when someone is injured. However, while the injuries have decreased, they haven’t made a dent in the number of lawsuits being filed against cheap California car insurance companies.
As a matter of fact, he says, the number of lawsuits is actually going up, despite all reason.
One of the reasons for this, according to Johnson, is that over ten percent of drivers currently on the road do not even have a car insurance policy. While the exact numbers cannot be gotten, due to the nature of driving without insurance, the numbers are high enough in theory to convince anyone who was considering not equipping them self with uninsured motorist California car insurance coverage.
Along with that, the amount of car insurance required to meet minimum liability standards has stayed the same for many years, even though the cost of health care and car repair has risen quite significantly. Having underinsured motorist coverage couldn’t hurt, either, apparently.
Best Cheap California Car Insurance Company?
How is it that you go about looking for a used car that will score you a good car insurance quote with your California car insurance company? Ask your body shop mechanic, or some friends? You could do either, but it’s best to take a variety of steps to make sure that you get the best deal on your quote with your California car insurance company.
First, figure out what you want. A good way to do this, if you don’t have any clear idea, is to ask people you now for suggestions. Everybody has their favorite car, the car that they pine for, so you’r bound to get a thousand different answers. With enough information, some will be useful to you and others just won’t be.
Another thing that you ought to do is, once you have an idea of a few cars to consider, go to Kelley’s Blue Book on their website and look at what the manufacturer suggested retail prices (MSRP) are for each car on your list. Remember that the more expensive the car, the higher the quote with your California car insurance company is going to be, although of course this is not the only factor. Whenever you look at the values, get the values for different years, since you’re buying a used car.
The next step is to find the car. You can get listings in several places, such as Craigslist and the newspaper. Whenever you go to see the car you are considering buying, you ought to either bring someone you know who is pretty auto savvy, or you need to take the car to a mechanic so they can look it over and see what kind of condition this is. This may sound like too much trouble to you, but believe me, I’ve bought cars before who worked perfectly until they got off the lot and that is not something you want to get in to.
Normally it won’t cost you a lot of money to get your car inspected, because if you vouch to the mechanic that when it breaks down you will have him or her fix it, then they will usually give you a discount.
But perhaps even that would be too much money for you. But if you want to have a safe car that will get you good quotes with your California car insurance company, then you at least need to have documentation of the cars accident and repairs history, as well as documentation stating that it has had a timing belt change and oil changes and everything else needed for upkeep.
What Is Tort Law?
Reader question:
What is tort law?
Abram
Thank you for asking, Abram.
Tort is related to lawsuits in the legal system, and when it comes to cheap California car insurance there are two different levels of tort that you can subscribe to. If you choose one level, you will get cheap California car insurance rates, and if you choose the higher level, then you will have to pay a little more.
The difference between the two choices is defined by when you are allowed to sue after you have gotten into a car accident which was not your fault.
- Full tort.
Cheap California car insurance will be a little more difficult to get with the full tort option. This option allows you allows you to sue for pain and suffering after you are injured in an accident which is the fault of the other driver. This option is the one that I would suggest, because if you don’t choose it, and you should end up with some very bad injury with no recourse, then the other driver’s car insurance often won’t take care of things such as wage loss or other types of pain and suffering.
- Limited tort.
This is the cheap California car insurance tort, but it might cost you more in the long run. Not in premium payments, but in losses if you get into a car accident. This option reduces your ability to file a lawsuit to very rare circumstances, such as:
- If your injury from the collision is permanent
- If someone dies
- If you are permanently disfigured
- If the other driver was DUI
- If the other driver comes from another state
Whether you choose full or limited tort is obviously your decision, and if you happen to never get into a serious accident, then you’ll probably wish you had gone with limited tort. However, many people get into a bad accident at least once in their lives, so it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Cheap California Auto Insurance Rate?
When I bought my new car a few months ago, I had to bring my California auto insurance card, so that the dealership could make a copy and have proof that my vehicle will be insured. From the time that I buy my car, I have thirty days to get a new California auto insurance rate on my car and add it to my policy. I’m given this amount of time because that is the amount of time for which my car insurance policy will cover my new car without my having added to the policy.
However, if you do not have auto insurance, then you often have to go through a lot of hassle to get car insurance from the dealership, and after you’ve already been there for several hours, looking at cars, and filling out paperwork, you will then have to spend more hours on the phone. When my mother bought a car recently, she spent three hours just trying to get insurance, since she had let her insurance on her old car lapse.
In our lovely state, though, there is a new program in many parts of the state that will allow us to get a California auto insurance rate quickly and straight from the car dealership. Called Turbo Coverage, the insurance company from San Jose has created an online program for car dealerships, allowing their customers to become instantly insured at the lot. Fifteen percent of all car buyers will have to buy car insurance from the lot.
Before this came along, the car insurance salesperson had to phone up the car insurance company and deal personally with the auto insurance salesperson to get the California auto insurance rate. This would take a long time. However, now there are kiosks in thousands of car dealerships across California that will allow you to get your California auto insurance rate and policy instantly.
Who Offers Cheap California Auto Insurance Quotes
The best thing that you can do for your California auto insurance premium is to shop around. If you stick with one company, you might get some long time customer perks such as a renewal discount and/or an accident free discount. However, normally these perks are pretty small, and you can do so much better by looking around for good California auto insurance quote.
There are three basic ways to get a California auto insurance quote: through your agent/broker, by yourself on California auto insurance quote comparison websites, or from the California auto insurance company itself. Which is the best way to go? Let’s see.
- Agents.
If you are looking for a California auto insurance quote, then the kind of agent you want will be an independent agent. They’re name is slightly misleading, considering they aren’t entirely independent. However, unlike captive agents, who only give you a California auto insurance quote from one company, they work for several companies and can get you quotes from all of them.
The catch is that agents come with a fee. Normally, you can negotiate this fee, so if you know what you’re doing it might not be too expensive.
- Comparison sites.
This is my favorite way to go. California auto insurance quote comparison websites are everywhere. There are probably a few on this page. Just click on one and fill out the information, and you can get quotes from several different companies with no bias. I find this the best way to start out, because you only have to fill out the information once to get a California auto insurance quote ten different times. Start from here, and write down the companies with the best quotes, and then continue your research.
- Direct company website.
Direct company websites are kind of like captive agents. They are only interested in selling you one California auto insurance quote, so if you’re trying to decide, it’s best to avoid them. You can get the same quotes from the comparison websites. On top of that, there are a few sites that claim to give you the competitor’s rates as well, but normally these aren’t all that they are cracked up to be. I find that the comparison sites are more accurate, and they give you more quotes.
Cheap California Car Insurance – Will The Government Help Pay For It?
Reader question:
I know there is a program for cheap California car insurance, but how do I know if I’m eligible?
Marty
Excellent question, Marty.
In my last blog post, I introduced the program for cheap California car insurance that is helping decimate the population of California that is driving uninsured on Californian roads–a total of three million people currently, but the number is shrinking. The cheap California car insurance program was designed to help good drivers who have a low income be able to afford car insurance in this state where the prices are getting increasingly higher and higher.
There are several requirements that you must meet to be able to get your car insured through the cheap California car insurance program, and the first involves your age and the number of years you have been driving. You have to have had your license for at least three years, and you have to be at least nineteen at the time of application.
Next we have the obvious, which is the low income requirement. In order to get the cheap California car insurance program, you have to meet the low income eligibilities. In terms of whether or not your income is low enough, here are the numbers:
- Just you, you have to make $25,525 or less
- You + one more, combined income of $34,225 or less
- Three people, $42,995 or less
- Four, $51,625
- Five, $60,325
- Six, $69,025
- Seven, $77,725
- Eight, $86,425
These numbers are for incomes that are 250% of the national poverty level or less. In order to count someone as part of the number of people in your household, they have to be related to you. That means adopted kids, biological kids, grandparents, spouses, foster kids even, are okay, but your roomie is not.
The next requirement is that you be a good driver. In order to be considered a good driver, you can only have gotten into one car insurance accident involving property damage that was your fault, no more. Injuries? You’re out. You also can’t have more than one point in California’s moving violation point system for the last three years, nor can you have had any vehicle related felonies or misdemeanors on your record.
There are a couple more requirements, one being that you can’t have a car that values at more than twenty thousand dollars. A new car is okay, so long as it values less than that. Also, if you’re in college, you can’t be claimed as a dependent by your parents still. And if you want to get the cheap California car insurance for a car in your household, you have to use it for all vehicles in your household. You can’t have one on the cheap California car insurance program and another with Allstate.
Hopefully this information will help you get insured and get out on the road. Remember that whenever you find that you can’t afford your car insurance, you should try every path possible for you before admitting defeat. Car insurance accidents involving people without insurance are a big cause in the raising of car insurance rates, and if you got into an accident without insurance the costs of the lawsuit could set you back financially for years to come. Stay safe, and stay insured with the cheap California car insurance program.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Loading ...