Uninsured Motorists Coverage, how much?

entidtil

Many people are confused as to exactly what "uninsured motorist" insurance is. (In most USA states) It does not, as the name implies, cover damages to your vehicle if the other car in uninsured. It is only for injuries sustained to you or to your passengers in an accident with an uninsured motorist. How much coverage should you buy ? How much protection do you want ? Buy the most you can afford.
FYI; Your own collision coverage would pay for repairs to YOUR CAR in the event of an accident with someone without any insurance at all.

lucy

as the others said, liability covers you if found at fault in an accident to another person;

since have loan, you are required to have collision/comprehensive coverage which covers repairs to your car regardless if at fault or not.

now what you need is uninsured coverage; this is insurance where the other driver has no insurance and your company pays you if not at fault for an accident. or another scenario is a hit/run

underinsurance is for where the other driver has insurance, but it is not enough to cover.

(below is information i remember handling Fl claims over 10 years ago. the laws may have changed since then)

in FL, i believe the minimum coverage is 10K; that barely covers most cars to fix, especially if a new auto.

also; FL does not require bodily injury coverage. they only require liability and PIP coverage.

Bodily injury covers any passenger in your car who is injured and you are found at fault. Or it covers other drivers/passengers in other car if found at fault.

my suggestion.
get the most coverage you can afford for liability. if for instance, you are in a rear end accident (most common) and suppose there are 3 cars involved.
ie; you rear end someone, who is pushed into someone else; now you are on the hook for 2 cars. if the damages for both cars are more than 10K, they will go after you personally for the difference. this is more common than you may realize. the next time you are driving on the highway and you see cars on the side, many times, you will see 3 or 4 cars in the accident. think about how much it would cost to fix all those cars.

also; dont get the minimum of uninsurance and underinsurance.
here is another example.
10K uninsurance; pays for injuries if other party has no insurance.
10K underinsurance; in effect no coverage, since underinsurance picks up over the other. if you or other party has 10K; they pay nothing. or put in another example.
say you have 10k uninsurance and 20k underinsurance;
now your injury is worth 15K;
your uninsurace pays 10K;
your underinsurance pays 5K totaling 15k; if you only have the minimum of 10k underinsurance, it would not pay anything, even though your injury is worth 15K, all you would get is 10k total. it has to be more than the other;

if you can afford say 50K for liability, bodily injury, uninsurance and 100k for underinsurace, do so. these coverages protect you from someone suing you if not enough insurance, or in serious injuries if the other party does not have enough to pay you.

hope this makes sense

kelly_f_1999

10,000 to 15,000 would be fine

David W

Nobody seems to have mentioned UM Property Damage, which should also be available; this covers if you don't have collision coverage, and (at least here in Indiana), offers a lower--or no--deductible option.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: