Content Overview 
- Summary
- Collision Insurance
- Liability Insurance
- Comprehensive Coverage
- Medical Payments
- Pet Covrage
- Personal Injury Protection
- Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists Coverage (UM/UIM)
- Underinsured Motorists Property Damage
- Glass Coverage
- Emergency Roadside Assistance
- Rental Insurance
- Insured Drivers
- Mexico
Automobile Insurance: The Different Coverages
Collision Insurance
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Collision insurance covers damage to your car by an inanimate object such as another car or telephone pole -- regardless of who is at fault.
Collision coverage usually has a deductible, generally in an amount of $250, $500, or $1,000. A deductible is the amount of your loss per accident that you must pay before the insurance kicks in. Everything else being equal, the lower your deductible, the higher your premiums will be.
At least one company offers new car replacement if your car is totaled within one year of purchase and before it has 15,000 miles on it.
If your car is older and has lost most of it's value, you might be better off not carrying collision coverage.
- Compare the cost of insurance to the value of your car.
- The general rule of thumb is to cancel collision insurance when your annual premium equals or exceeds 10 percent of the value of the vehicle. You may also consider dropping collision if you have the cash to pay for repairs or to buy another car if necessary.
- You can get an estimate of your car's value through Kelly Blue Book (www.kbb.com
), Edmunds.com (www.edmunds.com ) or National Automobile Dealers Association (www.nada.com ). Be sure to look at the retail, instead of trade-in or wholesale value, because the retail value is a better estimate of what it would cost to replace the car.
If your car is of some value: If you decide to carry collision coverage, you'll need to choose a deductible (the amount you pay per accident before insurance pays anything.) In determining the amount of the deductible, keep in mind:
- Premiums decrease as the amount of the deductible increases. Balance the amount of out-of-pocket costs you'd be willing to accept if an accident occurs with the amount of premiums you can afford every month.
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The purpose of insurance is to cover the losses you can't afford to cover yourself. If you put in a batch of small claims it is likely that your insurance policy will not be renewed.
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