Car Insurance | Why you need it

Its more than covering your payments when some maniac comes screaming around the corner and smashes your car sideways in a blistering fusion of perforated metal and shattering safety glass.   Having car insurance gives you a degree of protection from incidents which are more severe than a dented fender, or even an inoperable vehicle.   

Policies

In many states policies are mandated.   This raises the stakes.   If you are rolling along without insurance, and they wrap the red and blues on you, you’re either paying a hefty fine or being given some special treatment while you await your turn in front of the judge.   When you get there, he’s not going to give you back the day or two of your life you just wasted, and chances are he’s going to have a few choice words and pass on some wisdom.   Usually that wisdom consists of you opening your wallet, to both the state and the insurance industry.   

If you’re lucky you will be able to figure out where they impounded your vehicle.   Of course, they won’t let you have it back until you can show some insurance paperwork.  This can royally compound any problems you had to begin with that might have led you to thinking that passing on the insurance option was a good idea.       

Around the time you manage to resolve that situation, you will also make another enlightening discovery, the man is going to run you up on your coverage if you haven’t been paying in.     Its better to realize up front that the money is coming out and just deal with it.

Getting Coverage

Alright, now that you’re in a cold sweat thinking about the situation, it comes time to deal with it.    By getting coverage, the first thing you find is that you are a lot less stressed.   You won’t have to watch your mirrors for the heat, which will take a lot of pressure right off the top.   

Most states have minimum coverage requirements.   


Collision coverage

You probably won’t be required to pay for insurance to replace or repair your vehicle if it is damaged, but due to concepts of social responsibility, you will be expected to have a degree of coverage for any third party vehicle you happen to mix it up with.  

Liability

This is usually the big expense.  It is also the one that can make the difference if you are unfortunate enough to get into a serious collision.   Generally you are required to carry enough liability insurance to pay at least some of the medical expenses of your passengers, and anyone in a vehicle you collide with.   You may be required, or may have the option of providing additional coverage in case you get taken out of commission along with your rig.

Insurance Quotes

An insurance quote is an estimate of what the insurance company is going to have to collect from you, based on what people with similar driving histories and other factors, have shown them are the risk factors.    If you’re young, chances are you don’t have a lot of driving practice under your belt.    Younger people crash more, so if you are a driver under the age of 21, expect to be paying some premium rates.

Other factors include overall responsibility.   While it is controversial, most insurance companies will look at factors such as your credit record, gaps in insurance coverage, as well as demographic factors.    The type and color of your vehicle is generally a factor, as well as any on-board safety equipment it may have.

So after some computer crunches your risk factor, the insurance company is going to add a little sugar for themselves, because that’s how it works.   At the end of the statistical analysis, the box will magically spit out a number telling you what its going to cost you to get on the road.    Its harsh, but its reality.    That leads us to the next topic.   Improving your scores.

Safe Drivers
Driving safely qualifies people as safe drivers.  It works like this, if you’ve been driving a while and haven’t made the insurance company write you a fat check, you start looking like a better risk.    This means generally obeying the rules of the road, not being popped for speeding, drunk driving or other dubious activities.   The longer you can manage to navigate your vehicle successfully, the more attractive your rate options become.    On the other side of the wheel, if you tend to bounce off of telephone poles at high velocities, chances are you are going to be paying big bucks.    It’s a lot like the point spread in football, the team has been playing good its chances of winning look better, if they are getting run over then it’s a bit different story when it comes to managing the bets.

Compare Insurance

There comes a time when it’s a good idea to compare your insurance options.   As your life situation changes, there’s a good chance your rates are going to change with them.    Every six months or year it becomes time to evaluate your policy.   Unless you do some checking around, there is a good chance you are going to be paying more for the same service than you need to.    Every dollar you don’t have to spend on an insurance policy, is a buck you can spend doing something you want to do with your money.   So take an hour or so and explore the options.   

Think about it like this, look at your paycheck, see what you are making an hour.   Now if you can spend an hour and save yourself a couple of hundred dollars, then you are getting paid well for your time.    You probably wouldn’t pass on that chance if you were offered an opportunity to make that much money that fast, so there’s no reason to pass on the chance you are being offered now.  By checking out various insurance rate quotes, you will either find out you are getting the best deal, or that you are being seriously overcharged, which is unsatisfactory, and fixable.   Sure it will be a few minutes of opening sites and filling out forms, but remember you are very likely to get a big payoff for doing that car insurance.  Either in cash or in an awesome sense of satisfaction that you got your head together enough to track your money.