The last article I wrote was about understanding auto liability insurance. Liability is the most basic coverage on your auto insurance policy, and it must be the same on all cars covered by that policy. As in the last article, this is written from a Texas insurance perspective. Even though we are located in Dallas, we do write insurance in several other states, each of which has its own insurance laws. Feel free to call with specific questions, and we will be happy to answer them.
Uninsured motorist insurance covers you and your passengers against those people who refuse to carry insurance. At it’s core it’s that simple, but how much uninsured motorist insurance should you carry? Read on and see.
In the last article, we talked about carrying high auto liability limits; one of the reasons you should is to be able to max out your uninsured motorist coverage. If you have auto liability limits of 100/300/100 you can generally match your uninsured motorist coverage limits to that amount. Just like with liability insurance, uninsured motorist has three limits (in Texas anyway, if you have a split limits policy). The first number is bodily injury per person, the second is bodily injury per accident, and the third is property damage. All of these limits are for you and your passengers (and your property) .
In general we try to match uninsured motorist insurance limits to your liability limits for bodily injury. Remember, this is also underinsured motorist coverage – if the person who hits you only has state minimum liability, the $100,000 can be paid on top of their liability limit, if the financial consequences of the accident are higher than their limits. One place where we might not match your underlying liability limits is on the “property damage” portion of uninsured motorist. IF you have liability limits of 100/300/100 and you drive a car that’s worth less than $25,000, there is no need for you to pay for $100,000 of uninsured motorist property damage, because you won’t collect on it.
Uninsured motorist does have a property damage deductible of $250. In general, the insurance company will try to recover that for you, so even though you have to pay something, there is a good chance it will ultimately cost you nothing to make a claim. The final question I want to answer is the one that everyone asks; will a claim count against me? It will not. This is an uninsured motorist claim, and this coverage protects you against those who don’t bother with insurance.
Give us a call at 214-253-0570 to discuss your auto insurance options. We are Dallas’ top rated insurance agency for a reason.