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.

I live in California and I just want to know what I should do if I cant find an insurance company that will insure me?

Thyme

Good Question, Thyme.

Some of the insurance companies specialize for the high risk drivers. This what we call the non standard market. If you plan to purchase in the non standard markets, make sure you shop around first because the requirements and eligibility are different from these insurance companies.

If you still cant find an insurance company that will insure you, you can get liability coverage from the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan. (CAARP). This plan is for those who are unable to find an insurance company from the non standard markets and for those who do not qualify as a good driver.

Heres how the plan works. Your application will be assigned to an insurance company. All insurance companies are required to accept all applicants of CAARP. The rates for the plan are all the same regardless of which insurance company that issues the policy. This plan is also available in installment. If you maintain a clean driving record for three years, you may be able to move to a standard line insurance company.

You may check with the certified insurance agent of CAARP to find out more information on how to apply for the insurance with this plan.

Goodluck!

MariCAR

What other car insurance coverage can I purchase that is available in the state of California that will be a benefit to me?

Mark

Thank you for asking Mark.

Other coverage that you can purchase aside for the state minimum liability coverage are:

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist

This provides an insurance if the other driver that is at fault does not have the required minimum liability coverage or insufficient policy to cover injuries in the event of an accident. This also covers any damages on your car.

Other optional coverage that is being offered by most insurance companies are:

Medical Payments

This covers any medical bills and any similar expenses

Physical Damage

Collision coverage covers damages to your vehicle caused by collision to another vehicle or with any object regardless who is at fault. Comprehensive coverage covers any damage to your vehicle other than collision like fire, theft, vandalism, acts of nature, etc.

Endorsement/Riders

This covers special equipments, towing service fees, and rental reimbursement.

These coverage are optional. You can add this to your insurance premium to get you fully protected and saves money in the future.

Goodluck!

MariCAR

Threes a lot of options available when choosing for the right coverage so you should shop carefully and compare the prices that these insurance companies offer.

The first thing that you should ask yourself is if you need a higher limits. You have the option to consider a policy with a higher limits from the required minimum liability coverage from the state since you are personally responsible for the damages you may cause in the event of an accident. It would be worth considering an extra coverage due to increase of hospital bills and other expenses like car repairs.

The next best thing to do is to shop around. Each insurance company is allowed to calculate its own rate based on the past laws experience and expenses. Therefore the rates will differ since company’s experience are different even if they are located in the same geographical area. You may be able to contact any independent agents, company agents that represent a certain insurance company, websites and other writers for insurance company. They will be able to help you decide which company to choose and the best rate that you can get.

You should be wise on choosing the right insurance company for you. This can greatly affect the premiums that you pay for your vehicle, It is best to compare before deciding what policy to choose.

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.

There are so many things to think about already when buying a new car, such as how to negotiate the monthly payments, how to avoid high interest rates, wondering whether your credit is okay or not, and pretty much anything but car insurance. The only thought I put into my Compton CA auto insurance quote was grabbing my extra copy of my insurance card as I went out the door and hoping I had a short loan term so I wouldn’t have to pay for full coverage for very long.

I would never think of doing something like that now, and this is because I have learned so much since then in my studies of the car insurance business and the information that I have gathered from them concerning how a Compton CA auto insurance quote is arrived at. A big percentage of the insurance score that determines whether you will have a good Compton CA auto insurance quote or a bad one depends on what kind of car you have.

There is a new study out that shows the top ten expensive cars to insure for this year, and I want to share it so that, on top of considering other factors that will affect your Compton CA auto insurance quote, you will also know which vehicles to avoid if you want a good price. Here they are.

• Ford F-Series
• Dodge Ram Pick up
• Ford Explorer
• Honda Civic
• Chevrolet Silverado C/K
• Toyota Camry
• Honda Accord
• Chevrolet Trailblazer
• Nissan Altima
• Ford Focus

The quotes that were sampled for this study were for a man at the age of 45 with low mileage, who has liability coverage of 300/100/50, as well as comprehensive and collision. For those two final pieces of coverage, the deductible was $250. It should also be considered that some areas in the country have higher insurance prices than others, so one Compton CA auto insurance quote might not reflect on everything else. However, these vehicles are good to keep in mind when you go car buying.

On the bright side, many car insurance companies have found ways to lower prices for their high car insurance premiums since last year. New discounts are cropping up all the time, and Esurance stands as one company that has seen rates drop 2-3%. Most states are seeing rates drop, except for the few who are having problems with fradulent car insurance claims, such as New York. In any case, if you avoid these cars, you have a much better chance of getting a great auto insurance quote.

What is California car insurance property damage liability?

When you get to into a car accident that is caused by your own negligence or intent, most of the time this accident will involve someone else. Unless you get into the accident on your own driveway, your California car insurance company will probably have to pay out a property damage liability claim. What this type of coverage takes care of is the damage done to whatever you hit–be it a house, a mailbox, or even, most commonly, another car entirely. There is a separate type of coverage for injuries to another person.

What property damage California car insurance coverage does not take care of is any damage inflicted on your vehicle, even if you crash your vehicle into some part of your own property, such as another vehicle of yours. If this happens, you will have to depend on collision car insurance.

Some of the statistics sound frightening, but in the end things seem to be getting better, thanks to new laws on the books in most states that refrain from giving young drivers full licenses until certain benchmarks have been met. While this is, indeed, much of the reason for the decline in fatalities, other factors should not be left out.

Looking at the numbers, even after the decline, can make any parent shake at the thought of sending their teen out on the road, and it’s no wonder with these numbers that the average CA car insurance rate is so high. However, if you take the proper precautions, such as working with your child on their driving skills even after the license has obtained, and buying the best car for your teen, you can ensure to an extent that they have a safe driving experience, and you can save a lot of money on car insurance.

So what should the perfect teen car look like, the one that will garner the very best CA car insurance rate? Here are some rules to go by.

• Size matters.

The impact of a car’s size on its CA car insurance rate is often distorted in the public’s mind. Some notions that might seem to be common sense at first, really aren’t. For example, we all know that the insurance provider will give you a cheap CA car insurance rate if you have a safe car, and vehicles such as SUVs are very safe, right?

Yes and no.

SUVs can be safe for the driver, but car insurance companies have to take more than just you into mind when they are deciding on your CA car insurance rate. SUVs are very safe for the people inside them, but they cause quite a bit of damage. Part of this is because of their size, but some comes from the fact that their bumpers are on a different level than the bumpers of other vehicles, so instead of hitting the other car’s bumper and absorbing some of the impact, the bumper of an SUV will rip through the other vehicle’s body, causing more damage to the vehicle and more fatalities within.

Another common misconception is that a small car will get you a good car insurance rate. Also not true, for just the opposite reason. Small cars don’t cause a lot of damage, so your car insurance rate for your liability coverage will be cheap, but they do take a lot of damage. If you’re going to buy comprehensive or collision on your new car, then the car insurance rate is going to hit you hard there.

So…what kind of car should you get for your teen, to ensure the maximum amount of safety and the best car insurance rate? Well, we can take a little lesson from Goldilocks in this field.

• Just right.

The best car that you can choose for your teenager, in order to stay safe and get a cheap  car insurance rate, is a mid-sized car. It’s also a good idea to choose a car that is a couple of years old, rather than a new one. New cars are expensive to insure, especially if the name attached to them is under 18. Picking a car that’s still around 2000 up will ensure that you get both the modern technology and safety features, while avoiding the high  car insurance rate.

It should also be a given that you need to avoid getting a sports car, a convertible, or any other type of high performance car for your teen. It’s proven through various studies that these sorts of cars encourage reckless behavior, especially among young people.

If a rented vehicle got involved in an accident who are responsible for the damages?

Amber

Good question Amber.

If you are renting a car from the rental company, you will be asked to sign a form that says that you will be held responsible for the damages caused to the vehicle as well as the damages caused to the other vehicle even if they were at fault in the accident.

According to the California Department of Insurance’s guide to car insurance, the renter will be held responsible for the damages to the vehicle in accordance to the rental agreement. They would normally offer a Damage waiver which serves an agreement between the rental company and the renter.

You must review your own car insurance policy to check any applicable extension policy regarding renting cars. You must also verify the liability coverage in the event if the rented vehicle got involved in an accident.

If your car insurance provides coverage for rental cars, you do not need to purchase the insurance from the rental car. Some credit card companies also offers insurance if you use it with rental car companies.

Almost in all states, renters are obligated and will hold responsible for the cars they use or rent. But this does not apply to all states. In Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, car rental companies can be held responsible for the damages on the rented cars.

Goodluck!

MariCAR

What is way to get auto insurance in California other than getting it from a car insurance company?

Megan

Thanks for asking, Megan.

Getting your auto insurance in California with a licensed car insurance company or through some other Californian state auto insurance program are most certainly the easiest ways to get car insurance coverage in California, and most people wouldn’t have the money to do it any other way. However, California car insurance law does allow for more than one way, and one of the other ways is to get a surety bond. You can get this from a company that is licensed by the state, just as if you were getting your auto insurance in California from an actual insurance company.

These surety bonds are usually purchased by people who own a small business, not normally by those that are insuring a private car. Another option for small business owners is group commercial car insurance. Auto insurance in California law allows a surety bond to be purchased for at the least $35,000. This is equivalent to the minimum liability coverage, so if you want to have more coverage then you should purchase a larger bond.

Another way to get auto insurance in California without having to go through a car insurance company is to simply deposit the $35,000 minimum coverage with the department of motor vehicles for the state. Or, as another way, you could go the self insurance route. In order to do this you have to get a certificate from the department of motor vehicles showing that you are self insured. Remember, though, that whatever kind of insurance you get, you still have to be able to show proof of it when you are pulled over by a police officer or you get into a car accident. Proof can be your car insurance card, or your certificate of self insurance, your surety bond, whatever, so long as it is accepted proof by the department of motor vehicles.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.