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Delete underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage
completely.
They may make you go down to the office to sign a form to do this.
They will also try to convince you that you are a moron and need
the coverage. Don't listen to them. You don't need it. If you read
your coverage booklet, you will see that your liability coverage
covers any damage you do to other people, other people's
property, or other people's emotions....anything you do in a car
that causes you to be sued is covered up to twice your net worth.
(as mentioned below)
If someone hits you and doesn't have insurance,
or not enough insurance, or runs away and they don't catch him,
this is what happens:
Without Under/Uninsured:
Your health insurance covers your hospital bills. Your comp and
collision covers your own car. No questions asked. Everything is
covered except your own "pain and suffering."
With Under/Uninsured: You're already covered
for everything with your liability and comp/collision. Your insurer
will pay for your car and say, "See? We are paying for your
car. Good thing you had underinsured/uninsured motorist!!! Hahahah."
They will pat you on the back in your hospital bed. Then you say
"wait a damn minute, my other coverages, comp and collision, they
are supposed to cover my car. What do I get out of this? I want
to sue that bastard who put me in the hospital for pain and suffering!
Your insurer says, "well, he's gone, or he didn't have insurance
and lives in a basement with no money, but since you had underinsured/uninsured,
we are going to give you 500 bucks, just to be nice."
The truth is that you could get many thousands
more if you sued the dirty bastard, but now who do you have to sue
if you want more than $500? You have to sue your own insurance
company. And who will have better lawyers? Who can afford to
push the court dates forward until you run out of money for lawyers?
They do. Not you, them. There is no point to sueing your own insurance
company and you would be forced to accept the $500 for pain and
suffering. Even worse, they almost never pay on this coverage. Not
even $500. This is why they push this part of insurance so hard.
It's pure profit for them, and the insurance agent gets a big comission
for selling it. Don't fall for it. I know it's cheap but that's
why -- they never have to pay on it and they want everyone to fall
for the scam. Put that $30/year into an IRA stock account and you
will have over $1,000,000 by the time you need diapers.
Make your deductible $1000 for everything.
You should only have a deductible lower than $1000 if you cannot
possibly afford to pay $1000 if you crash the car. For example,
if you don't have a credit card with $1000 on it, or savings of
at least $1000, then get a lower deductible but save that
money ASAP. The lower the deductible, the higher your payments will
be. Sometimes dramatically higher. The point with insurance is to
insure yourself whenever you can. You become the insurance
company for that $1000 and deny them the chance to make money on
that $500 worth of extra insurance. Insurance is a very profitable
business. The most profitable business in the world. If you
can insure yourself, you are part of that business.
Towing insurance is silly.
They usually only cover only up to $50 per tow...and often it will
cost hundreds to tow a car, especially if you are not in a city.
It's not even worth it at $6/year. Get Triple A or insure yourself
.*
Even Triple A is insurance. Don't you think they
are making money? They take in more money in annual fees than they
pay out in towing expenses. For every dollar you spend on your AAA
membership, you'll get less than a dollar back in re-imbursed towing
charges -- it's a sure bet, you are going to lose -- so don't play
with your money this way. Go to the race
track instead. You'll have better odds.
Liability
Liability includes bodily injury and property
damage. Bodily injury pays for damage you cause to anyone's
body while driving your car, or while driving anyone else's car.
Property damage pays for damage you cause to property, like cars,
street signs, or your neighbor's collection of bicycle riding carnival
monkeys.
The numbers often look like this on your policy:
50/100/25
This means you have $50,000 coverage per person,
$100,000 per accident for all dead or damaged bodies (even if you
run down 14 people), and $25,000 total coverage for property damage.
If you happen to destroy your neighbor's brand new Taurus, valued
at $25k -- he'll have to sue you for the monkeys.
Insurers generally recommend you purchase
at least 100/300 limits of bodily injury liability because that
will protect you from the majority of accidents, says Michael Plesko,
former head of claims at Prudential Property & Casualty and current
consultant based in Liberty, Mo. Plesko says that even if you've
caused a serious injury, a plaintiff attorney is likely to settle
a case against you for your 100/300 limits rather than sue you.
"If you have only the minimum coverage, the attorney is going to
be compelled to go after your assets," says Plesko. What if you
have no assets? This advice is only good for people who have
assets totalling more than they are insured for. If you live paycheck
to paycheck, you shouldn't be buying 100/300 coverage.
Here's a direct quote from the insurance.com
website:
| "If you don't have significant assets
that could be seized if you were sued following a car accident,
then the minimum auto insurance coverage required by
your state's laws (or by your lender) is probably sufficient.
Statistics show that the vast majority of accident claims fall
within those coverage amounts, and that is why they are chosen." |
The only purpose for insurance is to protect
your assets.
If you don't have any, you don't need insurance! However, you will
be forced to carry auto insurance in most states. If you have no
net worth or very little net worth, buy the minimum coverage required
by your state and save the difference. Juries never award
more than a person's net worth in damages with two exceptions --
drunk drivers, and reckless drivers. If you don't plan to drink
and drive or break 100 MPH in a school zone on Monday morning, you're
fine with the minimum coverage. Until your net worth increases.
Liabilities should be set to double your net worth
per person. For example, the 50/100 liability coverage above
would be valid if you have $40,000 in the bank and you own your
$10,000 car outright, and have no other assets to protect. Raise
the limits as your net worth increases. Remember, the only
reason to buy insurance is to protect your assets from the courts.
Buying insurance limits of 100/300/100 if you are living paycheck
to paycheck on McDonald's happy meals is silly. The courts will
only take what you have. If you don't have anything, they won't
take anything from you unless you are drunk or wreckless. If you
are worried about the people in the other car, don't be. Their own
insurance will pay for their car and hospital bills. If they don't
have insurance, you guys can go to McDonal's together to celebrate,
and then go hug a tree afterward.
Property damage should be at a maximum of $50,000.
It's very rare to cause more than $50,000 damage to anything. Even
if you crash into a BMW or house. If you're broke and worthless,
buy the minimum amount in this catagory.
*Remember that magical credit card, with $1000 credit
on it? Of course you do.
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