It's possible ? especially if you have a good driving record ? to get away with purchasing just $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and $10,000 of Property Damage Liability (PDL) insurance and legally drive in the state of Florida. If you've been in a crash or if you've been convicted of certain other offenses, you may be required to also purchase Bodily Injury Liability (BIL) insurance coverage.
PIP insurance provides medical coverage for you or almost anyone legally driving your vehicle or ridding in your vehicle as a passenger if your vehicle is involved in an accident, regardless of whose fault the accident is deemed to be.
As you can imagine, with medical costs as high as they are today, $10,000 in coverage may not go far in a serious crash. Depending on what assets you have that might conceivably be forfeit if you are unable to pay for the medical expenses of someone who is hurt in your vehicle because of a serious accident, you may wish to purchase considerably more PIP coverage than the minimum the state of Florida requires of you.
Property Damage Liability insurance covers repairs to another person's vehicle or other property if you are involved in an accident, regardless of whose fault the accident is determined to be.
$10,000 in Property Damage Liability insurance will barely cover a fender-bender for many of today's high-priced vehicles. Again, especially if you have a home or other assets which need protecting you may choose to purchase more PDL coverage than the state of Florida demands.
If you wish your vehicle to be repaired or replaced in the event of an accident you will need to buy Collision and Comprehensive insurance.
Collision coverage will repair or replace your vehicle if it is damaged by striking (or being struck by) another vehicle, or if it is damaged by striking an object such as a guard rail, a light pole, or a tree. You should consider purchasing collision insurance up to the Blue Book Value of your car.
Comprehensive insurance covers damage to your vehicle caused by natural acts (such as wind or hail damage) and acts of vandalism. And, just to make things confusing, it's the comprehensive portion of your insurance that pays you if you strike an animal, such as a deer, while driving. Again, you should purchase comprehensive insurance up to the Blue Book value of your vehicle.
You should review the amount of your collision and comprehensive with your agent each year since the Kelly Blue Book value of your car is most likely decreasing every year and there's no point in carrying coverage on your car in excess of Blue Book value since that's the most your insurance company will pay you in any event.
As you can see, the State of Florida actually requires very little from you in the way of insurance, but as you can also see, carrying the state minimum required insurance could very easily leave you open to lawsuits which will force you to pay money that could be considerably in excess of the minimum required insurance. This could put your home, your savings, or any other assets you possess at great risk.
And obviously if you are purchasing a new vehicle and you intend to finance your purchase your lender will undoubtedly require that you purchase full coverage insurance ? Personal Injury Liability (PIP), Property Damage Liability (PDL), Bodily Injury Liability (BIL) coverage, Collision and Comprehensive ? in amounts far greater than the state-mandated minimums.
Keep in mind that even though your lender has every right in the world to demand that you fully cover any vehicle being financed, your lender is not allowed to force you to purchase your insurance from any specific provider.
If you want to find the best possible price for your full coverage car insurance quote in Florida then you'll need to get on the internet and find at least 3 websites that allow you to make quick and easy head-to-head comparisons of prices for insurance at different insurance companies.
Make certain that you take the extra time and effort to make your comparisons on at least 3 different websites so that you can be assured that you're seeing the prices from virtually every insurance company operating in Florida.
Once you've done that then you can grab the absolute cheapest price possible for the full coverage car insurance that you need and rest easy every night knowing that you are not paying even one cent more for your car insurance than you absolutely have to.
In Alabama the minimum insurance that every driver must purchase in order to legally drive on a public roadway is a liability policy with a payout of $20,000 in medical coverage for any one individual, $40,000 in medical coverage for any one accident, plus $10,000 in property damage coverage for any one accident.
If you finance the purchase of a car your lender will require that you buy additional insurance coverage. For example, in addition to liability insurance your lender will require that you purchase collision and comprehensive insurance that will cover the value of the loan that you have accepted, plus you will probably be required to purchase Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage to protect your vehicle if it is damaged by a driver without insurance or who has insufficient insurance to pay for the damage to your vehicle.
The reason that your lender will require collision and comprehensive coverage is because liability insurance - which you are required to purchase - only covers the other vehicle in an accident but does not pay for the repair or replacement of your vehicle.
For this you need collision and comprehensive coverage. Collision coverage, as the name implies, pays for the repair or replacement of your vehicle if it is damaged in an accident (a collision) with another vehicle or with a stationary object, such as a tree or a guardrail - especially if the accident is deemed to be your fault.
Comprehensive insurance pays for the repair or replacement of your vehicle if it is damaged by natural causes, such as a tree branch falling on it, or hail damage (repair or replacement of a windshield may require a separate policy - ask your agent), or if it is damaged by vandalism. Comprehensive insurance also pays for damage to your vehicle if you hit an animal, such as a deer.
In putting together a full coverage automobile insurance policy your collision and comprehensive insurance should never be for more than the Kelly Blue Book value of your vehicle and they should never be for less than what you owe on the car. If you owe more than the Kelly Blue Book value for your vehicle then consult with your lender.
Once you (or your lender) have determined the minimum amount of liability insurance that you need (which could be for an amount greater than the state-mandated minimum) and you have determined the minimum amount of comprehensive, collision and uninsured motorist coverage you need, and once you have determined the maximum deductible that you feel comfortable paying in the event of a claim - and which your lender is also comfortable with - then all that's left is for you to get online and look up at least 3 different websites which let you compare the prices of automobile insurance policies from multiple lenders.
The real trick is to put the exact same information into the form on each of the 3 different websites so that you are comparing the price of the same policy each time. Once you have the prices from all three websites all you need to do is to pick the cheapest price for the policy you are comparing and your job is done! You now know what to look for in a full coverage car insurance quote in Alabama and you know how to compare a policy online and how to find the best possible price.
Both Larry Nez & Alexis Jensen are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.