Car Insurance

Car insurance is something that every automobile owner must have. And by “must have” we don’t mean that you really, really should have insurance. We mean that you are required by law to have it. That is certainly the case here in Florida, and there are some rather serious penalties for failing to maintain car insurance on your vehicle.

Actually, car insurance is a broad term. It is actually divided into a few types of insurance:

• Personal Injury Protection (PIP) – this insurance pays for expenses that are related to injury in an accident. Your PIP insurance pays your expenses, whether or not you or the other driver was at fault. Some of the benefits that are included are some compensation for medical expenses that are necessary, wages that are lost, and even funeral expenses. The state requires that you carry at least $10,000 in PIP insurance.
  
• Property Damage Liability (PD) coverage – this insurance, as you can probably tell by the name, pays for expenses that are related to damage to someone’s property as a result of a car accident. $10,000 is also the minimum amount of PD coverage required by the state of Florida.
  
• Bodily Injury Liability (BI) – this coverage, while not required by state law except under certain circumstances, is highly recommended. It pays for serious injury, permanent injury, or death to others when a crash is caused by you with your automobile. This type of policy has a somewhat wider range of coverage. Specifically, BI car insurance will pay for injuries to others that were caused by you, or even members of your family that live with you. In fact, the coverage is valid even if they were driving someone else’s car. In some cases, it also covers people who caused an accident while driving your vehicle (if they had your permission). You are also covered for legal expenses if you are sued by the person that was injured.

Those are the most commonly purchased types of car insurance. In addition to those, there are a few others:

• Collision – if your car is involved in an accident, getting the damage repaired can sometimes be very expensive. Collision insurance covers a big percentage of that expense. The coverage begins after a deductible is met.
  
• Comprehensive – this is interesting car insurance because it covers a variety of losses(after the deductible is met).

These are generally events that might cause an expense, other than a collision:

• Your car catches on fire
• Your car is stolen
• Your car is vandalized
• Your car is damaged by hail
• Your car is hit by a falling object – this could mean a tree branch that falls on it during a storm, or a baseball that crashes through the window
• Your car hits an animal and sustains some damage
  
  
• Uninsured Motorist/Underinsured Motorist – this is car insurance that is an option in your policy. If you or your family (or anyone else in the car, for that matter) are injured in an accident, and the driver of the other car is at fault and does not have insurance or is carrying an inadequate amount of insurance, the coverage pays for the injuries sustained by you and/or your passengers.

Some insurance companies also offer towing or roadside assistance coverage  (similar to what you might purchase through AAA, but this would be included as part of your car insurance).   Another consideration for coverage is rental reimbursement – this pays for you to use a rental car while yours is being repaired as a result of an accident (there are certain limitations to this coverage – check the policy closely).

We provide car insurance in Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice, Port Charlotte, Parrish, Punta Gorda and North Port, FL.