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.
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.
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.
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