Comparison shopping for auto insurance
March 1st, 2006 | by
mbhunter |
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A nice overview article on shopping around for auto insurance on Money Central today:
It has a good combination of topics:
- Some tips to use
- Some pitfalls to avoid
- A list of risk factors that contribute to your premium
- Brief explanations of the types of coverage you might get
One caveat that the article doesn’t mention:
Will you still be protected if you have an accident, switch companies after the accident, and the people you collided with sue you after you switch?
Since I’ve gone through this (!) I know that the statute of limitations (in VA, anyway) for filing a lawsuit in this situation is two years. Twenty-three months after I hit a couple, I get notice that I’m being sued. I hadn’t changed my auto insurance carrier, so there was never a lapse in my coverage, and hence they defended me in this matter.
But what if I had switched? Would my old carrier defend me? Would the new one? I don’t have the answer to this question — it may depend on the insurance carriers involved, or the state of residence. (Any experts out there?)
That’s water under the bridge for me now, but it might be useful to know the answer to this question for your particular situation if you get in an accident or have gotten into one recently. You’d want to be sure that you’re covered until the day that the other parties can no longer sue you. Being hit with a $75,000 lawsuit and having to cover your legal expenses out of pocket would quickly eat up any $200/year sayings you would get when you switched prematurely.
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2 Responses to “Comparison shopping for auto insurance”
By jim on Mar 1, 2006 | Reply
I am pretty sure that the company that insured you when the accident occurred, even if you switch, is still the one that will get involved because they’re on the hook.