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Give them a call at (919) 231-8777 to schedule an appointment or visit their website at www.usaautomotive.net

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auto insurance Did anyone ever explain to you what those numbers mean?

If the answer is no, you need a new agent right now. What is the point of buying something if you don’t understand it? Well, it does help that your state law requires it. In fact, many states require the Insurance Companies to notify DMV if you cancel your insurance coverage or GET CANCELLED for not paying. Not only will you have to pay a fee to re-instate the policy, but you’ll have to pay the fee or fine the state sends you in the mail…it’ll be coming quick too, governments love a fine!

OK, so we’ve established you HAVE to have auto insurance. Now why should you have it?

The numbers like 15/30/10 or 25/50/25 represent your coverage. The first number means 15 or 20,000 coverage per person for a total of 30,000 or $50,000/accident with $10,000 or $25,000 coverage for property damage. Think of it like this per person/per accident/property damage (15/30/10). Why do I use 15/30/10? It’s NOT because that’s good coverage. What car do you know that cost less than $10,000 to replace? A Kia doesn’t count. J What good is your auto insurance if the only thing you can hit is a Kia? You coverage should be 25/50/25 at a MINIMUM. Try more like 50/100/50 or 100/300/100!

You’ll find out that once you have your rate, getting more coverage really doesn’t cost much more money. A lot of times you can double your coverage for as little as $5/month! Why would you want to have half the coverage just to save $5? Go out to eat one less time and you’re PAID FOR! You can also get a CSL (Combined Single Limit). You can get $100,000; $200,000; $300,000; $400,000; or $500,000 CSL. This means that you can have a flexible limit to use where you do the damage, instead of limiting yourself to per person/per accident/property damage limits in a “split limit” policy. Technically it’s less coverage than $250,000/500,000/250,000 but you’d have to do a LOT of damage to trigger those limits to the max. You can get an umbrella to cover you for anything over the $500,000 if you want to be better protected.

Now, what are the second set of numbers? A lot of policies I’ve seen have uninsured/underinsured motorist protection at 30/60. Now, if your limits are at 100/300/100, why would you have 30/60 uninsured limits? A lot of people think that these limits cover people without insurance. NO, that is NOT WHAT IT’S FOR. It protects YOU from people with little or no insurance! The other coverage we just talked about is for OTHER PEOPLE. The first coverage, the one you HAVE to have by law covers OTHERS in the event that you hurt them or their property. The Uninsured/Underinsured covers YOU if you’re hit by someone with low limits (15/30/10) or NO INSURANCE so that you don’t suffer because other people are cheap or irresponsible.

So, the first set of numbers is what you cover OTHERS for and the second set is what YOU are covered for. This applies when you’re riding in a car and the person driving has low limits too! That’s why it doesn’t make sense to have more insurance on others and less on yourself! Don’t go cheap on this coverage…it’s protecting YOU.

Why isn’t there a 3rd number on uninsured/underinsured? That’s because YOUR car is covered by the comprehensive and collision coverages. Sometimes comprehensive is referred to as OTHER THAN COLLISION. This means what if you don’t strike an object while you’re moving, then it is OTHER THAN COLLISION. Your collision coverage then is used when you are moving and strike an object or one strikes you. You have a deductible for this coverage. Again, just as I mentioned in the homeowners insurance, make sure your deductible is something you can afford. If your life changes, make sure to review your deductible to make sure you can still afford it.

You don’t want to change insurance company too many times just because of price. Remember, your agent is really important, then your coverage. Don’t give up either for a lower price because you’ll need both of them when something happens to you. Something will happen to you, that’s why we have insurance in the first place. Most companies give a persistency discount; BUT, often it gets much better after 5 or 10 years. See if you can beat the rates on someone that’s been with State Farm for 20 years or USAA, not usually. Unless an agent doesn’t update your coverages, miles driven, cars, etc as your life changes then the longer you’re with the company, the better.

I once had a client in which I beat his package on a home, auto, boat, and motorcycle by over $1,000/year. That’s a LOT of money to save each year. Well, he called his agent up that he had been with for 10 years and she was able to get within $100 of what I had. It turns out that she hadn’t reviewed his policy in years and things needed to be changed and updated. Needless to say, I didn’t get the client to switch…but I did save him a ton of money and he knows he can trust me to give him a good honest opinion. When his agent retires, he’ll call me to get that level of service. Your relationship with your agent is just as important as the price…probably more so.

Other important things to consider are medical payments, waiver of collision deductible, towing, rental car coverage, and rental reimbursement. Do NOT skip the rental car coverage or reimbursement! It is only about $30/YEAR to have them and you need to have AT LEAST $30/day for 30 days coverage. When my car was hit by someone it took them 4 weeks to fix my car! Can you imagine if I didn’t have that coverage what I would have paid for a rental car for a MONTH? Don’t get $15/day or $20/day when you KNOW that you can’t rent a car for that little. Again, it’s not worth the couple of dollars a month you’ll save. Now, if you have 3 or 4 cars, you can probably do without it. Just make sure you understand what your risk is if it happens to you.

One last thing to keep in mind; unless you give your agent your driver’s license number, VIN Number for the vehicle, and in many states, social security number…DON’T TRUST the rate! You HAVE to give up this information in order to get an accurate quote or you’ll feel like it’s a bait and switch. And tell the person quoting what you pay now. Insurance rates are filed with each state Department of Insurance. There is no such thing as them manipulating the rate artificially just because they know what you pay now. If anything, if the rate is close and they offer you more coverage then are you really that bad off if you get a better policy for only slightly less?

On auto insurance, I don’t know if there is such a thing as too much coverage. It is your biggest risk because you likely drive every day and auto accidents happen every minute somewhere in this country.