Not having car insurance is illegal in all 50 states. If you’re driving a car, you must have insurance. With this being a requirement, we all have to go through the process of purchasing car insurance. One increasingly popular method of purchasing insurance is through online quoting. While this seems easy, is the convenience too good to be true? By that I mean, what’s the hidden truth behind online quoting?
If you purchased your car insurance this way, can you tell me about your coverages and what they mean? If yes, great! If not, you don’t know what you’re spending your money on. Ignorance is bliss when it means cheaper insurance, but this could come back to bite you in the butt later on.
Looking for the cheapest insurance often means MINIMAL coverage. If you’re in an accident, this means no rental car while your car is in the shop being repaired, no MedPay to cover your medical payments if you are injured, and most likely low liability or uninsured motorist limits.
Say you’re in an accident, you hurt someone else, and you’re injured yourself. Plus, your car is totaled. When you purchased your insurance online, you may not have selected the proper coverages for this accident. If your insurance limits are too low and don’t cover the damages and/or injuries for the other driver, they can hire a lawyer and sue you. If there is a judgement against you in the court of law, whatever you may have can be taken to pay for their medical bills. If you don’t have any assets, you may be given the option to either file for bankruptcy or have your wages garnished. The value of your car and the equity on your home may be used to pay the damages you caused to the other party. What could have costed you a couple hundred dollars extra while buying insurance online can end up costing you thousands of dollars later.
All of this could have been prevented by talking to a local independent agent about your insurance needs. They would have asked you about what you owned, advised what coverages you may need, and then helped you to avoid a situation such as this.
