Liability Car Insurance Coverage for California
Reader’s Question:
I have California liability auto insurance. What sort of coverage does liability insurance has?
Isaac
San Francisco CA
If you have the California liability auto insurance you have coverages that cover others that you may cause damage or harm to in case of an accident that is your fault. Liability insurance though coverage does not provide you any coverage if your vehicle is damaged. Optional coverage of comprehensive and collision covers your car less the deductible you choose, in case of an accident regardless of whos at fault.
California liability auto insurance covers damage your vehicle does to others, damage for which you are legally responsible. If you do not have liability insurance you will need to pay the damages out of your own pocket.
Liability coverage is the foundation of a car insurance policy that is being required in most states. States differ when it comes to required minimum amount liability insurance. Typically states require
- Liability coverage of Bodily Injury (BI) and
- Property Damage (PD).
California liability auto insurance pays for any bodily injury and property damage expenses as well as your legal bills, medical bills and lost wages of the person you injured.
Types of California Vehicle Insurance
Reader’s Question:
I have a new car and within days I will be shopping for an insurance policy for it. What are the various types of California vehicle insurance that I can choose from?
Sam
Los Angeles, CA
You have a lot of car insurance choices to pick from. Your choice of California vehicle insurance depends on the needs of your vehicle or your budget. If you have enough money to spend, you might want to get a comprehensive vehicle insurance. This is the most expensive but the most complete type of vehicle insurance in California. Simply put, it protects your vehicle against all types of damages- from collisions, theft, or property damage. You will have no worries about the expenses your car will incur when it gets involved in an accident if you avail of comprehensive vehicle insurance.
Another type of California vehicle insurance you can avail is bodily injury liability. This will pay for damages and medical expenses of a person who gets injured as a result of an accident which was your fault. You can also get a property damage insurance which pays for the expenses of a property that was damaged due to an accident you are at fault.
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.
Why Does Car Insurance Have To Cost So Much?
Nobody wants to think about car accidents, aside from trying to drive well and avoid them. However, sometimes things happen and you can’t avoid them, so having a car that will stand up well in a car accident will both protect you and get you a good car insurance rate for your collision premium. With more information coming to light about what makes a car safe, even the car insurance companies are trying to get changes in the law so that car manufacturers have to construct their cars in a safe way.
Changes in laws have played a big part over the years in making damages less serious and the incident of car accidents fewer. The passage of laws that require seat belt and air bags, lower the speed limits and outlaw drunk driving, have been pushed by the insurance companies, among others, and they are not doing the same with other measures.
And accidents are certainly good motivators to these insurance companies. According to the government’s information, the costs that car accidents had were about three hundred dollars for every single person in the United States, or almost two hundred and thirty one billion dollars. That’s billions of dollars in California alone, the most populous state in the entire country, right before Texas. It is also one of the states with the highest amount of uninsured drivers, so although the study didn’t specify, it probably has the highest amount of costs as well.
The National Highway Traffic Association already performs crash tests on cars, but they are trying to get more tests to be done and more available to consumers so that we can make the right decision when trying to buy a safe car. This government associations wants us to know how the cars we want actually drive and react in a crash. They also want the companies that make the cars to wise up and start making better ones and safer ones.
At the moment, having a safer car will save you money on your insurance, and will probably continue to do so, just like you are still able to get discounts for having air bags, which are mandatory. However, requiring more safety means that car prices will go up because cars will be more expensive to make.
Which Cars Are Cheaper To Insure?
The cars that sell the best will most often be the cars that cost the most to insure and, in turn, garner you the highest car insurance quote. One of the reasons for this would be that the collision coverage price goes up because the parts for these top selling cars is usually very expensive. As for the comprehensive end, the most popular cars in ay given year are going to be the ones that are stolen the most often, no matter the actual price. If you want to get a good car insurance quote, then you best pay attention to what kind of car you are buying.
There are certain aspects of a car that affect the car insurance quote other than just the make and model. For example, SUVs and big trucks tend to be priced at a higher premium because they cause more damage, partly due to their size and partly due to their higher bumpers. Smaller cars can also be priced high, because in their case they take more damage, and so you would have to pay more for your collision coverage. The best way to go is to get a nice, not very new, mid sized car. Or you could go with one of these, the cheapest ten cars to insure this year:
- Chrysler Town & Country
- Chevrolet Cobalt
- Dodge Caravan
- Chevrolet Impala
- Ford Taurus
- Ford Econoline
- Jeep Grand Cherokee
- Chevrolet Malibu
- GMC Sierra Pickup
- Toyota Corolla
These aren’t direct guarantees to a cheaper car insurance quote, because of course there will be other factors deciding the price of your premium. However, getting the right car can make your quote as much as fifty percent smaller. If you don’t want one of these, then before you go shopping make sure you get a car insurance quote or two for every car that you’re considering, so that not only will you be able to find the best car insurance company to insure it with, but you’ll know that you aren’t getting yourself into an expensive mess.
Who Gets Paid From The Insurance Company During a Claim?
Reader question:
When I get into an accident, who does the car insurance company send my claim check to?
Gabby
Great question, Gabby.
There are two types of payments that you might get, depending on your situation when you file for a claim with your car insurance company. The first type is the first party claim, and the second would be the third party claim. Let’s look at what the two entail.
- First party claim.
After you get into accident that is your fault and have to file a collision coverage claim with your car insurance company, the company will pay for the damages after you have paid your deductible first. In a claim like this, the insurance company you have your policy with gets to decide who to write the check to. In some cases, they will write it directly to you and you will then pick a repair shop to which you will pay the money for having fixed your car. Another insurance company might make the check out to the repair shop as well as you, so you don’t have much choice of what to do with it.
Don’t get annoyed if they make it out to the repair shop, too. They do that to get rid of car insurance fraud.
Sometimes, you won’t get a check at all. About a week ago we had to file a claim with another driver’s company, and we had our car fixed with the insurance company ‘s own repair shop. Never saw a thing.
- Third party claim.
Normally, if you were in our situation (someone crashed into you), then the claim you make with the other person’s insurance company will be much more simple. Since you never signed on to a policy with that insurance company, they can’t tell you where to go. Unless you choose to go to the car repair shop of their choice, then they will send you the claim check.
If you get your car completely wrecked, though, you will have to talk with the place your paying your loan off with if you’re still buying your vehicle.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Low Cost California Collision Auto Insurance Coverage
Reader question:
What is low cost California auto insurance collision coverage?
Mandy
Thanks for your question, Mandy.
Many people only buy the minimal low cost California auto insurance coverage for their vehicle, because they think that they are fairly good drivers and would never get into a car insurance accident, at least not one that is their fault. Any accident, they assume, that they would get into would be covered by the other driver’s liability coverage. However, there are many cases where, despite how you feel about your own driving skills, you are required to add collision coverage to your low cost California auto insurance policy.
The main reason for which you would do this is when you are buying a brand new car. Most loan providers would require that you have collision coverage on your car until you have finished paying them for it, so you will have to add it to your low cost California auto insurance policy.
In some cases, they may not require it, but it is still a good idea to get it. If you are buying a new car, usually while you are paying it off you will at some point owe more for your car than it is actually worth. In these cases, should you total your car and you only have collision coverage, you will only get paid for the worth of your car, leaving you with several thousand dollars of loans to pay off. In order to avoid this, you must get gap insurance. But in order to get gap insurance, you have to have collision on your low cost California auto insurance policy.
Collision covers damage in an accident in which you are at fault, be it with another driver or just you backing into your second car in your driveway. Unlike liability coverage, collision comes with a deductible from your low cost California auto insurance policy. If you get into a car accident, then before you can get the check from your insurance company, you have to pay the deductible. I suggest that you make that deductible at least five hundred dollars in order to get low cost California auto insurance rates.
But how do you know if you need collision coverage, if it isn’t required? I would say that if your vehicle is worth less than one grand, don’t even think about it. It would just be a waste of money, even if you totaled your car. However, if you have a relatively new vehicle and you don’t have a stellar driving history, then I would seriously think about adding collision to my low cost California auto insurance coverage.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
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