Car Insurance

Gamingforce, time again to give me boring, real-world advice.

Looking at getting some new car insurance. I'm over 25 now, so that should bring down the cost. For the record I live in Southern California, and have had 1 accident and 1 citation which occurred 4 and 3 years ago.

I'm not looking for specifics here though. I'm just trying to find out what I should be looking for when I get insurance. Besides lower monthly costs, what other elements do I really need to pay attention to. What's the most efficient strategy of determining what is the best car insurance company/plan to use?

I don't know a deductible from my dick, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

How ya doing, buddy?

Do you own your car outright, or are you paying on it presently?

If you owe money on it (and subsequently don't have the title), you will need full coverage.

But then, I always get full coverage anyways. I figure living in SoCal will be a tad more expensive than here in Western Massachusetts, though~

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Depending on where you live, there are generally four parts to car insurance:

Coverage on the Car, Coverage for You, Coverage for Folks You Hit, and Coverage for Passengers.

Generally, the first thing you need to hit is the minimum required by law for your state. One quick comparison check is to see what the minimum costs are for a number of carriers, as they often pre-filter you by state and then pop this up.

Another consideration is the quality and type of car that you have. If your car is not so great, then you may want to skimp on the Vehicle aspect of the plan. On the other hand, if you're driving a nice sports car, you may not. Decent strategy here is to pick a number you feel comfortable with based on what you'd want after a wreck, how careful a driver you are (average it sounds), and how careful the people where you drive are (not very in SoCal). Then go compare rates using that target of coverage.

Note that in most states, after 3-5 years they begin to forgive your accidents and violations, so you may be ok there.

A tied consideration you play here is the level of out of pocket expense you want (deductible) after a wreck. IE: You pony up $500, they cover till the car's repaired, or your max Car Coverage is hit. Basically, its a risk / reward scenario at that point. Crappy car, high deductible = almost nothing to pay, but nothing back. Spend car, low deductible = horrible payments, but very little to lay out after a crash.

I tend to play this game by agreeing with myself that if I'm retarded and crash my own car, then I'm going to have to settle for a crappier one. Therefore, I don't buy full coverage, and put a reasonable, but not super high deductible. I then save my money, and try not to crash. Course, I'm also the type to pay off cars as fast as possible to avoid interest.

If you're feeling really gutsy, in a few states you're allowed to carry nothing and just keep a large reserve of cash. However, even then I'd probably carry liability at the least, as hospital bills are crazy expensive, and they'll take you for everything possible.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

Do you own your car outright, or are you paying on it presently?

If you owe money on it (and subsequently don't have the title), you will need full coverage.

But then, I always get full coverage anyways. I figure living in SoCal will be a tad more expensive than here in Western Massachusetts, though~

I'm still paying on it, but only for one more year. Maybe I could get away with partial coverage?

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Araes

ADVICE

That's incredibly helpful, Araes. Thank you!

I'd like to be able to have some coverage on my car, I said to Sass. At the same time I'm going to have it paid off in a year, so if I wreck my car by then, I won't feel bad having to buy a new one. It's the lowest priority of the four things you mentioned.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Unless the loan has been satisfied in full, I doubt you can get away with partial coverage. In most cases, the Lien Holder requests the type of coverage from the Insurance companies.

I sure do that a lot at my job.

I was speaking idiomatically.

For now I'm just looking at what my current insurance plan is offering (pretty decent) and getting quotes for the same thing from other Insurance Company. I already found one place that will save me a few hundred a year.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?