Some advise about auto insurance...

[warcrow]

A buddy of mine just sent this to me. I didnt write it, but I thought it was something some of the younger ATOTers should read...or even all of us:

case: 23 year old college student, driver of a 1999 Ford Ranger, only wanted "minimum coverage" which in the state of Pennsylvania is 15,000/30,000/5,000
15,000 - bodily injury per person
30,000 - bodily injury total for per accident
5,000 - property damage

that's $5,000 for all property damage! how many cars on the road are worth more than $5,000?

the gentleman in question had a typical rear-end collision at a red light, but the vehicle in question happend to be a 2004 Cadillac Catera, with a value of about $32,000. The impact was enough to bend the frame of the Cadillac that therefor, total the vehicle.

the $5,000 coverage for property damage to others left the insured about $27,000 short in covering the cost of the damage.
What does this mean? PERMANENT JUDGEMENT awarded to the claimant.

The insured did not have assets totalling this much, nor the money to pay for it (no house, no other owned property) so a judge has imposed a judgement that is permanent, for life. His driving privileges have been suspended and any time in the future the person tries to by property (i.e. a house or a car) a creditor will notice this and he will be unable to do so until the judgement is satisfied.

So - what does this mean - CARRY HIGHER LIMITS! - even an increase to 50,000/100,000/50,000 would have been more than enough to cover the claim, and would have cost the man $75 more a year in insurance premiums.
But that $75 a year is worth it to me to make up for a $27,000 judgement stapled to his credit.

As an agent I felt it was my duty to share this story ... I know there's a lot of young people, college students, people just starting out that may not have had a good education on insurance.

Thanks for listening.

 

[iamwiz82]

Yikes, that is insane. Lola has informed me that we have 100,000/300,000/100,000.

 

[SMOKE20]

Yeah, you HAVE to be covered these days or it could ruin you...........the flip side of that coin though is as follows and is the case for my father and a whole lot of others...........

My father is now 74 years old. He began driver at the age of 12 (he grew up on a farm in a ver rural area) and didn't actually obtain a drivers licsense until he was 19. Insuring vehicles was a new thing in that area at that time and he drove another 4 years until he bought his first insurance policies for his vehicles which by his recollection cost him a whopping $12 every six months at that time. He has driven insured ever since.

In all his 62 years of driving my father has accumulated a grand total of 2 accidents and 3 speeding tickets. The first of those accidents came before he was an insured driver when he overturned a truck hauling grain on the way to the grainery. In the second accident, he and my mother were rear ended while waiting on a highway to make a turn into their driveway. This occured in 1965.

People like my father, and mother for that matter as she has never had a ticket and has beeninvolved in 3 accidents her whole life (she's 72) make it easy to see why the insurance business is a huge money maker........but, we have to have it so.........

 

[alent1234]

if he ws sued, then yes there will be a judgement against him. Depending on the state they can garnish wages, tax returns, seize property, and bank accounts. Also depending on state law the judgement may only last 10 years or whatever the law says. In other states it can get renewed every few years. The bad thing is that it is a public record and can be accessed by creditors even decades after the fact since it can be in a different database than the credit report.

 

[alent1234]

Originally posted by: SMOKE20
Yeah, you HAVE to be covered these days or it could ruin you...........the flip side of that coin though is as follows and is the case for my father and a whole lot of others...........

My father is now 74 years old. He began driver at the age of 12 (he grew up on a farm in a ver rural area) and didn't actually obtain a drivers licsense until he was 19. Insuring vehicles was a new thing in that area at that time and he drove another 4 years until he bought his first insurance policies for his vehicles which by his recollection cost him a whopping $12 every six months at that time. He has driven insured ever since.

In all his 62 years of driving my father has accumulated a grand total of 2 accidents and 3 speeding tickets. The first of those accidents came before he was an insured driver when he overturned a truck hauling grain on the way to the grainery. In the second accident, he and my mother were rear ended while waiting on a highway to make a turn into their driveway. This occured in 1965.

People like my father, and mother for that matter as she has never had a ticket and has beeninvolved in 3 accidents her whole life (she's 72) make it easy to see why the insurance business is a huge money maker........but, we have to have it so.........

contrast this to NYC

scam claims running up medical bills and people driving hoopties with no bumpers. they know the drive a POS so they drive like maniacs and don't care who they hit

 

[pulse8]

He can't file for bankruptcy?

Anyway, I carry full coverage because it wasn't very expensive and to lower it wouldn't have saved me that much money.

 

[layoutd05]

yeah insurance scams are crazy be alert.... i serisouly barely taped someone, it did not even put a dent in my car which i know from experience that doesnt take impact. the explorer i tapped had previous damage on it and they tried to blame me....
of course the people i tapped spoke nigerian and not english well and tried to scam my insurance.... luckily state farm which was the same provider they had told em to STFU.....

 

[Kroze]

insurance are the biggest scams ever. it should be called "just in case" insurance as chris rock said...

"in case" nothing happen, shouldn't i get my money back at the end of the year? lol.

 

[MisterChief]

GIECO! 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance!

(Isn't spam great?)

 

[freebee]

edited.

 

[alent1234]

why is the guy getting sued since the catera owner has insurance that should pay off his car? is the insurance company suing the ford ranger owner?

 

[spacejamz]

why does it seem that other friends of mine who have been hit by uninsured drivers are pretty much screwed and their insurance companies can't/don't go after the driver who caused the accident...should their insurance companies seeked judgements against the other driver?

isn't the penalty for driving without insurance pretty much just a slap on the hand anyway?

 

[ElFenix]

i'm calling shens. there was no catera in 2004. hasn't been one since 2001.

 

[archcommus]

I think a lot of teens and college students drive with just liability insurance, but what does this mean exactly? What will cheap liability insurance pay for if you are not at fault? And I'm guessing it pays for nothing if you ARE at fault.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: archcommus87
I think a lot of teens and college students drive with just liability insurance, but what does this mean exactly? What will cheap liability insurance pay for if you are not at fault? And I'm guessing it pays for nothing if you ARE at fault.

liability pays for the damage caused to other things besides your car.

really, how do you get through life not knowing these things?

 

[alent1234]

liability will pay if you hit someone to fix or replace the other person's car. It is basically a bond you put up on the off chance you damage someone else's property. If your car gets totaled then liability won't pay a dime.

 

[geckojohn]

i have 250/500/100 on my car. there's so many people out there with just the bare minimum coverage - it's scary almost.