Sunday, May 10, 2009

Holding The Wrong Type Of Car Insurance Might Get You Into Serious Trouble

By William Hazelhurst

Car insurance is designed to protect the policy holder (usually the owner or driver of the car) from financial loss as a result of a car accident. To get this protection the policy holder pays a regular premium which varies according to a number of factors like the driver's age, the type of vehicle, the driver's history and location to mention just a few.

There are several different forms of car insurance to protect the plan holder from costs associated with damage to the vehicle, damage to property and bodily harm of all persons involved in a car accident. The different forms of cover include:

Liability cover which pays for damages to other people or their property as a result of a car accident and that additionally covers any court costs involved. In a lot of states this is the absolute minimum required before you are allowed to take a car onto public roads.

Collision cover which is designed to pay for damage caused to your own car in a collision with another vehicle or other object.

Comprehensive cover which provides payment for various types of damage including theft, fire, malicious mischief and damage resulting from severe weather.

Medical cover which pays for any medical expenses for injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

PIP (Personal Injury Protection) cover which pays for any medical expenses when injury is sustained in an automobile accident, regardless of who caused the accident.

Uninsured and under-insured cover which provides payment for any damages sustained to you in the event that the other driver involved in a car accident is uninsured.

Every state draws up its own rules governing car insurance and some types of insurance will be mandatory in a particular state while others are purely optional. Some states, for instance, only require you to have liability cover while other states require you to have personal injury protection insurance cover.

There are also various states that are referred to as 'no-fault' states where insurance policy holders are able to recover financial losses from their own insurance company, regardless of who is deemed to be at fault in a car accident.

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