You Crashed Your Car - You Don't Have Car Insurance So you feel like making those monthly car insurance payments is a waste since you don't get into accidents. Perhaps you felt you didn't use it because you pay your monthly premiums but have never been in accident. Then, the unthinkable happens, you get in a car accident and find yourself without car insurance. Who pays for the damages to your vehicle and any other damage you might have caused? Yes, you do. The unfortunate reality is that, if this happens to you, you will be personally responsible for not only the damages to your car but to any car or property that you may have caused damage to. And if you happen to cause an injury, you will be responsible for that as well. That is likely to mean that you are going to have an attorney, representing the other party, calling you to find out if you have insurance. If you don't have car insurance, the other party & attorney will be looking to you for restitution: damages to their clients car and their injuries. This is not an enviable position to be in and can cause an unbelievable amount of stress. There is a very simple way to ensure you are not in this position: ensure you at least carry the state required minimum coverage for the state you live in. Believe me, I have had the same thought many times: I pay all of this money for insurance premiums but I never use it. What a waste of money! The truth is, when we buy auto insurance, what we are paying for is to transfer the risk or potential of being in an accident to a third party, which is your insurance company. Again, you ask yourself "is it worth it to pay a car insurance premium every month or every 6 months when I have never have used it?" Perhaps you are considering that you could just pay for damages to your car in the event of an accident out of pocket. That might work for damages to your own car, however, what if you caused damages to another persons car? Could you afford to write a check to pay for those damages? As an example: you made a right turn without looking left and were struck on the left front of your car. The car that hit you happened to be a brand new BMW 750i and the cost of repairs is over $20,000. Would you be able to write a check for those repairs? I know I couldn't. If you had a valid insurance policy with liability coverage of 25/50/50, which would provide $50,000 in coverage for damage to the BMW, your insurance would step in and take care of the damages you caused. And yes, in case you are wondering, you were at fault. In this example, you were stopped at a red light to make a right turn and pulled out in front of the BMW. Here is a great example that will help you understand the value of car insurance and why it does make sense to have adequate coverage: You have had car insurance for 10 years and have paid $100 per month for your car for 10 years, which means you would have paid $12,000 in premium over those 10 years. The one accident used as an example above would have cost you almost twice the premium paid in damages had you not been paying for insurance and did not have an in-force policy at the time of the accident. So, as you can see, even though it may feel like we pay those insurance premiums every month for nothing, you can clearly see that just one accident would make those premiums well worth it. In addition, if you look at this from the insurance company's perspective, in the example above, they would have lost over $8,000 on your policy as they collected $12,000 in premium from you but the cost to repair the vehicle you damaged is much more than that. Don't let this happen to you. Sometimes we just need a reminder of how valuable insurance really is, beyond just being required to drive a vehicle legally in your state. Since you have to have car insurance legally to drive in all states except New Hampshire, why not get a free car insurance quote to see if you can save some money. If you get competitive car insurance quotes once a year, you will ensure you are always getting the best deal for the coverage you need.
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