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I was thinking about my car insurance coverage and I was wondering if it was "too" much...
Liability 250k, Bodily Injury 500k, Property 100k, Uninsured 25k/50k/25k, towing at 100.. I pay around 830 a year for a 2010 SUV... does that seem like overkill?
My friend found out the hard way when he had a wreck several years back. Had one of them "lowest payment" insurance companies. The other party's vehicle was a 2-year old Saturn SL2.
The value of the Saturn was $13k. His "low price" policy only had the state minimum (10k property).
Guess who was on the hook for the other $3k? And can you imagine how much more it would've been if it was something other than a Saturn?
Not a lot IMO. It all depends on the assets you have/want to protect. If not much, then it is about income too. They could come after your future income. Bear in mind, if you hit a car with 3 passengers and they end up in the hospital then the bill could sky rocket easily. I would say increase your deductible if you want to save money. Beware that then you are on the hook for paying the deductible!
Also I would say if you have decent income and assets, add an umbrella insurance too.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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You didn't mention collision or comprehensive, do you have those too? I think you are too low on the coverage. People are "sue happy" these days, and if someone is killed in an accident that is your fault, they could be awarded
a lot more than your coverage, resulting in the loss of home and/or attachment of salary for many years.
The irony with insurance is that higher coverages generally cost less per unit than the lower basic coverages. You need to figure out how much you need to protect and go from there. I personally carry higher coverage than that and then have an umbrella policy that kicks in if either my car or home policies are exceeded. All the additional coverage doesn't really cost that much. Shop it around and you will see. I'd be surprised if dropping to minimums would save you more than a couple hundred bucks, probably closer to one hundred.
The liability sounds low to me. I was carrying what was then a pretty standard 100/300 liability coverage but I asked my agent to look into it and it was really just a few dollars more to go up to a million.
You must have collision and comprehensive too, right?
You can undoubtedly save if you have your auto and homeowner's insurance with the same carrier.
If you're asking if your levels are too much, that's up to you. Personally, I don't see how you can ever have 'too much' insurance.
If you're asking if your rate is too high, there is no way to compare insurance rates apples-to-apples with someone else unless:
you're the same age
same gender
same city (right down to the zip code in some cases)
same vehicle
same condition
same income
same credit history
same driving history
The liability sounds low to me. I was carrying what was then a pretty standard 100/300 liability coverage but I asked my agent to look into it and it was really just a few dollars more to go up to a million.
You must have collision and comprehensive too, right?
You can undoubtedly save if you have your auto and homeowner's insurance with the same carrier.
I did the same thing. Going up to a million from 100/300 was very cheap. Then I added an umbrella policy that goes from the million up to 5 million and covers the house and car.
People don't realize that it is very easy to have an accident that can quickly run into the million dollar range if someone is seriously injured or killed.
The reason the additional coverage is so cheap on a unit basis is that the chance of you having an accident or claim that reaches that amount is remote. Say there is a 10% chance you could have a claim for $10k, it might only be a .00001% chance that you have a million dollar claim, less exposure risk to the higher dollar amount, makes the additional coverage cheaper per unit.
Think of it this way, all that "extra" insurance I have costs a couple hundred bucks a year. Over 50 years it will cost me $10k to have that extra level of protection. Really not a lot of expense compared to the possibility of causing a catastrophic accident and having your assets seized and wages garnished.
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