Do I Need Car Liability Insurance?
If you own a car, then legally you are required to have insurance and hopefully its car liability insurance. There are so many who opt to take the chance of driving without insurance because of the high cost of premiums. Well, I am here to tell you that it is not worth taking the chance. If you were to get in an accident without car liability insurance, you could lose everything you have in court.
You don’t need to go with the higher priced comprehensive coverages if your car is paid for. The only coverage you are legally required to have is car liability insurance. This protects you for anything that you are “liable” for. If you cause an accident, you are liable to pay the repairs and medical bills of the other vehicle and passengers. Your insurance will not be responsible for the repairs on your own vehicle as you are not paying for full comprehensive or “collision” coverage. Because you are not paying for collision, your premium is much less. You will still have the bodily injury coverage for the victims and for yourself. There is a mandatory $3 thousand dollars PIP (Personal Injury Protection) coverage. You have the option to increase that if you don’t carry any health insurance, the next level being $10K.
Now, there is another way to have a bit more coverage, such as theft, or protection from natural disasters and this can be with car “liability insurance with comprehensive” coverage. This will also cover windshield repairs if needed. There is typically no deductible when it comes to comprehensive claims, only on “collision” claims.
Car liability insurance is not recommended for vehicles that are worth $5k or more. By not carrying collision, you are taking a big risk of having to come up with that much money to repair or replace your car. This could be a pretty risky thing to do if you don’t have that much money in savings.
If you are carrying a lien on your vehicle, then you are required to carry full coverage with comprehensive and collision. Every insurance policy, whether full or liability only, will carry Bodily Injury coverages. An example of this coverage is 25/50, which means 25 thousand per person, 50 thousand per incident. If you were to hit a car worth $80k, you may have to come up with the difference in a court of law. This is why we encourage our insureds to carry at least 50/100. The cost in premium is not that different, not compared to the risk.
If you are looking to have the bare minimum cost for insurance, then car liability insurance is the best way to go, providing you legal protection and the ability to take care of anything that you are “liable” for in an auto accident.
Tags: bodily injury, collision claims, collision coverage, could lose everything, driving without insurance, full coverage, health insurance, injury coverage, liability insurance, medical bills, natural disasters, personal injury protection, personal injury protection coverage, premiums, windshield repairs
