So you’ve got a new car. Maybe it is brand new, drive it off the lot with only a hundred miles on it. Or maybe it is your uncle’s old pickup truck, and you can now hang your fuzzy dice from the rear view mirror. Whatever the case, if you’ve got a car, you need car insurance. In most places, it’s the law to protect all of us.
Car insurance is confusing for almost everyone. The car insurance industry has their own jargon, the set of words that us lay people don’t understand without experience or in depth training. But we can’t go without car insurance. Best is a quote that we can understand, so that we know what it is we are buying. It is almost impossible to compare car insurance quotes without understanding the types of coverage available.
When you go to get a quote for the best car insurance you can afford, you need to understand the various types of coverage you can get. Liability? Comprehensive? Collision? What do they mean?
Liability – The Least
Liability is the lowest amount of coverage you can get for your car. It is the bare basics, the coverage that is only available to cover damage to someone else’s vehicle if you cause an accident. It won’t fix your car at all, and it won’t cover problems caused by theft or an act of God. It only exists to protect the other guy the one you hit from having a wrecked car with you not having enough money to fix it.
Liability is required in most states, as the bare minimum amount of coverage you can carry on your car. You must have liability insurance. But is it enough to only have liability? Maybe if your car is of very little value so that it would easily be considered totaled in an accident. Usually, liability insurance alone isn’t enough at all. With just liability insurance, you’ll get a low quote, but not the best car insurance, in most cases.
Collision The Middle Ground
Having collision insurance on your car covers the damage done to your own car in the event of an accident you caused. If you get a quote for the best car insurance, it will most likely include collision.
Since collision is the part of your insurance that fixes your car if you cause an accident, if your car isn’t worth a lot, it is probably not worth it to pay for collision insurance on your car. Your payments would quickly add up to more than the car is worth. You’d come out ahead if you just bank the amount of money that you would otherwise by paying for the collision portion of your car insurance.
Comprehensive – The Most
You want insurance that will cover just about everything, including when a deer jumps out in front of your car on that vacation and wrecks the front quarter-panel? You need comprehensive insurance. Comprehensive insurance, the best car insurance, will quote at a higher price than just liability and collision, but you will be getting much more for your money.
Before you choose your insurance for your vehicle, be sure you understand the types of coverage and the amount of coverage you want.