You’ve spent years paying your off your car and the day has finally come when you can officially say you own the car! This is a great milestone that you can take a lot of pride in!
Now is the perfect opportunity to re-evaluate your auto insurance. You may be asking yourself a few questions related to your auto insurance.
- Are there any optional coverages I currently have that I could potentially remove from my policy now that I own the car?
- What insurance coverages should remain on my policy?
- Is there anything I can do to reduce my auto insurance premium?
While paying off your car is a remarkable achievement, quickly moving to remove coverages from your auto insurance is not something that we necessarily recommend. After all, if you do not have enough insurance coverage, you may be stuck with the remaining balance of the bill in the event of an auto accident. Your policy will only cover the limits that are listed on your declarations page (the first page of your policy).
Before removing any insurance from your current policy, we recommend you review your policy with one of our experienced agents who can answer any and all questions you may have related to your auto insurance coverage. One question you may want to ask is, “What are my state’s legal limits for auto insurance?” The last thing you want to have happen is be deemed responsible for an auto accident that is serious enough where it exhausts all of your limits and requires even more money to cover things like medical expenses for injured parties. That money would need to come out of your own pocket. To avoid this, make sure you have the proper insurance coverages listed on your policy so that you will be covered in the event of a catastrophic accident.
Whenever you have an auto accident, before your insurance kicks in, you will first be required to pay your insurance deductible.
There are two types of coverage when it comes to auto insurance: comprehensive and collision. While both of these coverages are not required by law, if you are financing or leasing your vehicle, your lender may require you to carry these coverages on your auto insurance policy. When determining the right course of action for you, consider these questions:
- How much money do you have on hand?
- How much is your car worth?
- How much does full coverage for your vehicle cost?
Comprehensive coverage refers to any damage caused to your vehicle by anything other than a collision. This includes the following:
- Fire and explosions
- Vandalism
- Damage related to theft i.e. if someone breaks into your car
- Wind, hail, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, & hurricanes
- Falling objects i.e. tree limbs
- Cracks in your windshield
- Damage caused by hitting a deer
It’s important to remember to call us once your car is fully paid off. We’ll need to remove the lienholder from your auto policy. If this step is not completed, in the event of an accident, your insurance carrier is obligated to issue a check to the name listed on the policy. When this information is inaccurate, expect a delay because we’ll need to stop the check and it will take some time to issue another one.