Types of California Car Insurance – Which is Best?

There are several types of car insurance that you will need in California, an at-fault, tort car insurance law state. While not all are necessary, in order to abide by California car insurance law, you must have at least the three basic types of liability coverage, which can be bought either at the state minimum or at a number above this. California car insurance law requires you to have a minimum of five thousand dollars of property damage liability for when you get into an at fault accident. It isn’t much, and most California car insurance companies suggest that you get at least fifty thousand to prevent problems with being underinsured.

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.

Do You Have Enough California Car Insurance Coverage?

There are a lot of people on the road who either don’t have insurance at all (over five million in California) or who don’t have enough insurance to cover the injuries of the other driver should their negligence lead to a car accident. The limits for required California car insurance are fairly low, so it is important, taking these two things in mind, to consider adding on a couple of extra types of car insurance coverage, although it may raise your California car insurance quote.

• Underinsured motorist coverage.

This is for if the other driver’s insurance does not cover damage in the case of an accident. For example, if the damages caused to you and your vehicle are in a total of $40,000, but the insured only has $35,000 of car insurance coverage, then your underinsured motorist coverage will kick in to take care of the rest.

There are two different ways that this will work out. In some cases, the underinsured driver’s coverage amount will be added together with your own underinsured motorist coverage, and in other cases it will be subtracted.

• Uninsured motorist coverage.

Whenever you go to get your car insurance policy, the company must inquire whether or not you want to get uninsured motorist coverage. If you choose not to get this type of coverage, then you have to sign a waiver stating that you have declined, and then they can give you your California car insurance quote.

Uninsured motorist coverage takes care of your damages when get into an accident in which the other person does not have any car insurance.

California Injury Liablity Insurance

Reader question:

What is injury liability insurance?

Miranda

Thank you for asking, Miranda.

There are two types of California auto insurance injury liability. One is for the death or injury of a single person, and the other extends the first coverage to take care of the deaths or injuries of multiple people. It isn’t necessary to distinguish them when you go to buy your California auto insurance, though, as both are required. No California auto insurance company will sale you less than the required amount, which is:

• $15,000 for one person
• $30,000 for more than one

However, most California auto insurance companies will suggest a higher level of coverage, and it would be advisable to take their suggestion to mind, considering how much medical bills tend to be. They suggest you get at least $100,000 of liability for one person, and another $300,000 for multiple people.

This type of California auto insurance coverage is the key kind of liability. If you should cause a car accident through your negligence, then the person who is injured in that accident can sue, which is why you need high levels of this type of insurance. If the other driver sues for pain and suffering, or for wages they’ve lost, then you could be out of a lot of money if you don’t have liability California auto insurance coverage.

When you get into an accident, the bodily injury California auto insurance liability applies in a strange way. The first limit, for a single person, is what will apply to each person, but the second is for the entire accident. So, if you get into a car accident and one of the injured’s medical bills come out to $20,000, but you only have the required $15,000 per person California auto insurance coverage, then you will have to pay the difference.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.