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Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

Anonymous_

Premium Member

Car insurance shopping

Bodily Injury:
$50,000/$100,000
$50,000/$100,000
$151

Property Damage:
$50,000
$50,000
$152

Medical Payments:
$500
$1,000†
$30

Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury:
$50,000/$100,000
$50,000/$100,000
$47

$900 per 12 months assuming it will go down over time.

vs

$728 per 12 months for "minimum state requirement"

Bodily Injury:
$15,000/$30,000
$15,000/$30,000
$117

Property Damage:
$5,000
$5,000
$122

Medical Payments:
$500
$1,000†
$30

Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury:
$15,000/$30,000
$15,000/$30,000
$26

Property Damage seems under insured since most cars are about 20k to 40k now days
tcope
Premium Member
join:2003-05-07
Sandy, UT

tcope

Premium Member

Is there a specific question?

Looks like CA coverage.

Hall
MVM
join:2000-04-28
Germantown, OH

Hall to Anonymous_

MVM

to Anonymous_
The state minimum requirements won't cover much if you hit someone and they have even moderate injuries (requiring a hospital or ER visit).

Your rates ($900) do look high for even the awfully low coverage amounts.

Bamafan2277
Premium Member
join:2008-09-20
Jeffersonville, IN

Bamafan2277 to Anonymous_

Premium Member

to Anonymous_
I have the 50/100 coverage and pay $600 a year in Southern Indiana on a 2012 Kia Optima Full coverage
billydunwood
join:2008-04-23
united state

billydunwood to Anonymous_

Member

to Anonymous_
Have you considered an umbrella policy if you are doing home/apartment + auto? You can get like a $1 million dollar umbrella policy. Ask your agent how much that would be

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

Anonymous_ to Hall

Premium Member

to Hall
said by Hall:

The state minimum requirements won't cover much if you hit someone and they have even moderate injuries (requiring a hospital or ER visit).

Your rates ($900) do look high for even the awfully low coverage amounts.

50/100k?
raythompsontn
join:2001-01-11
Oliver Springs, TN

2 edits

raythompsontn to billydunwood

Member

to billydunwood
An umbrella policy pays in addition to your regular policy. To get an umbrella policy you have to max out the coverage on your vehicles. So if the liability limit on my auto is 300K, then a $1 million umbrella will only pay $700K. You generally cannot get an umbrella without maxing out your other coverages.

Hall
MVM
join:2000-04-28
Germantown, OH

Hall

MVM

Makes sense.... if one was interested in a million dollar umbrella, they wouldn't have auto coverage of just $50/100 or similar.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy to Anonymous_

Premium Member

to Anonymous_
I would carry at least 100,000/300,000 for bodily injury. In Mass, the state minimum is 20/40 but you can get sued for much more than the state minimum. Same with property damage, the state minimum is 5,000 but you total someone's brand new car you'll be on the hook for at least 15,000 for an economy level car. I carry 100,000 for property damage.

Also, Mass is a no-fault state where your own insurance pays for your loss and the the insurer recovers the loss off the at-fault driver's insurance through subrogation.

Hall
MVM
join:2000-04-28
Germantown, OH

Hall

MVM

Insurance companies only offer those basement-level coverage amounts offer lower premiums. Go to Progressive's website and get an online quote - one of the options is "how much do you want to pay?" and they'll tailor your coverage amounts to fit !!

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

said by Hall:

Insurance companies only offer those basement-level coverage amounts offer lower premiums. Go to Progressive's website and get an online quote - one of the options is "how much do you want to pay?" and they'll tailor your coverage amounts to fit !!

It should be more about how much do you want to protect. You might be saving 15 percent or more on car insurance but it will cost you all of your assets when you are found at fault for an accident involving serious bodily injury. And the worst kind of accident you could be at fault for is that involving a bus, because you are talking at least 30-40 (or more) bodily injury claims, depending on how many passengers are on the bus. And city transit buses are even more dangerous because they are more likely to have standees, which increases the likeliness of serious bodily injury.

In Massachusetts, they can suspend your driver's license for unsatisfied motor vehicle bodily injury/property damage claims. And the cost of many bodily injury claims can put you through bankruptcy if you don't have enough insurance. And the 2005 changes to the US Bankruptcy Code prohibit debt related to bodily injury arising from drunk driving from being discharged in bankruptcy.

royphil345
Premium Member
join:2004-12-10
Lakewood, OH

1 edit

royphil345 to Anonymous_

Premium Member

to Anonymous_
I've got a package that looks like the $50,000 / $100,000 package you listed, except I have $5000 for medical payments instead of $500. Are you sure that isn't an error? Anyway... I have that plus $500 deductible full coverage and car rental coverage for $520 per year from State Farm. I'm sure part of the reason for the low price is that my car is getting older and isn't worth much. I should probably switch to just liability.

The prices you listed are about what I paid when I started driving, so they may not be so bad if that's where you're at and you will be able to do much better if you keep your record clean over time. Later on, you'll probably have to switch companies a few times to get the price down.

Progressive seems to have the best deals for higher-risk drivers. American Family and State Farm seem to have the lowest prices for drivers with good driving records. If you haven't gotten quotes from these 3 companies, I'd give it a shot.

Hope you find a nice deal!

EDIT: I just looked at my last bill. I'm down to $473.74 per year now. State Farm is the only company that has ever lowered my premium, probably as my car ages. I've had to switch companies to get a lower price every other time.

Is there something missing from the quotes you listed? The itemized charges aren't adding up to the totals you gave.
dbamber
join:2003-02-07
Bandon, OR

dbamber to IowaCowboy

Member

to IowaCowboy
Having moved from Mass. to Arizona 8 plus years ago our auto insurance rates have dropped as our credit score has risen. My former insurance agent in Mass. was the first person to tell me this, that your credit score was an integral part of how you were viewed as a risk. It seems as long as you have a good driving record (no claims obviously) and a good credit score you will get a better rate. About 4 years ago when I was looking at quotes online from both Progressive and Esurance said that my wife had an claim in 2006 in Mass. This was quite interesting since we no longer lived there. It turns out that the claim was my cousins wife who had the accident. Both my cousins wife, and my mine had the same first name. Diane was my wife's name, and his wife's name was Dianne. We all shared the same last name. Progessive's web site allowed us to dispute their info, and we went with Flo in the white painters coveralls. Fast forward a few years later and we went with Esurance as they were less, and I guess that my my cousins wives prior claim no longer showed up in the database of either Progressive, and Esurance. All of our insurance policies have $1000 deductibles (except glass coverage), and we view insurance as something to have when you have a major claim, not for a minor incident. BTW we have had 3 glass claims since moving but they don't count as an accident claim, so there is no effect on our rates. Buying homeowners insurance is even more interesting as the Insurance companies even know how close you are to a fire hydrant, and are there any thickets of brush close to your property. I am afraid that our homeowners rates will be rising as this has been a bad year for wildfires in the Western states.(Sadly we lost a crew of 19 hotshots fighting a wildfire about 120 miles from us.) My sister has two homes back in Mass. and the premium for the one on Cape Cod is almost 50% higher than her suburban Boston home even though it's over a mile from the seashore. While her house in a suburb of Boston is on the shore of a small pond, but not on a floodplain. Last year her suburban home had a break in, and about a $2500 claim after deductible. Guess whose rates went up $300?
tcope
Premium Member
join:2003-05-07
Sandy, UT

tcope to raythompsontn

Premium Member

to raythompsontn
said by raythompsontn:

An umbrella policy pays in addition to your regular policy. To get an umbrella policy you have to max out the coverage on your vehicles. So if the liability limit on my auto is 300K, then a $1 million umbrella will only pay $700K. You generally cannot get an umbrella without maxing out your other coverages.

That is incorrect. A $1 million umbrella policy would always pay out a max of $1 million. I'm guessing you are thinking if the settlement/judgment was $1 million. In that case the umbrella policy would address the difference of $700k.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy to dbamber

Premium Member

to dbamber
Some interesting facts about Mass auto insurance:
1. Insurance companies that write insurance on Mass drivers are not allowed to use credit reports for rating or underwriting.
2. They are also not allowed to use discriminatory factors like gender or marital status in the underwriting or rating process.
3. They are very limited in their ability to refuse underwriting (such as multiple OWIs or a history of fraudulent claims) and then they can ask the state division of insurance to assign the driver to an insurer.
4. Many of the national carriers (such as State Farm and American Family) refuse to sell insurance here because of the high risk and regulation. The state rolled back some of the regulations in 2008 and Geico, Progressive, and Allstate entered the Mass market.
5. You must have insurance to obtain a registration. It's like every driver having to file an SR-22, even if they are a good driver.
dbamber
join:2003-02-07
Bandon, OR

dbamber

Member

Having lived in the peoples republic of Massachusetts for almost 57 years, 40 of which I was a licensed operator. I also was a self employed contractor for over 25 years. I carried multiple policies for liability, workers comp. and commercial auto insurance. I can EMPHATICALLY state that my credit score affected what I paid for insurance. A few years after I left the Commonwealth for Arizona the state was just going to allow the insurance companies to set the rates, and not the state as the auto insurance costs were almost as high as the state of NJ. At that time almost all of the companies left in the state writing auto policy's had created their own insurance companies to write policy's for only Massachusetts. When we moved there were only about a dozen Insurers in the state writing auto policy's. If you had multiple claims, tickets, at fault accidents you would end up in the assigned risk pool. In 1995 I had an accident that I was at fault. The next year my premium went up over $600. It took six years before I was back at to the same step rating before my accident. My daughter who bought a new car in 2007 (Scion TC) was paying over $2300 a year for insurance. A year later when she moved out to Arizona the cost for her auto insurance was approx $700. BTW I hear that the tolls on the Mass Pike are being reinstated next month between the NY state line and exit 6. Must be nice with the gas tax going up 3 cents a gallon, and being tied to the rate of inflation to pay for the MBTA deficit for all of you people that don't even ride the T!

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

I know in Mass they can use credit scores for homeowners and other forms of insurance, just not auto insurance. And the state used to set the rates for auto insurance.

When I first got my license at 19, it cost me $1800 per year for auto insurance for the state minimum on a 1991 GMC Sonoma pickup. When I put a golfball sized dent in someone's car after backing into it (my only at fault accident in my 10 years of driving), my rates went from 1800 to 2600 a year.

I pay about $1500 a year right now on a 2001 Dodge Stratus for full coverage with $500 deductible and higher liability limits. And I get a good driver discount. The reason my rates are high is it is ten years later (inflation) and I live in an urban area. Insurance rates are set by the driving records of the drivers of the vehicle and where the vehicle is garaged. So if the vehicle is garaged in Centerville (located on the cape) the rates will be lower. If the vehicle is garaged in Lynn, they'll be higher.

nightdesigns
Gone missing, back soon
Premium Member
join:2002-05-31
AZ

nightdesigns to Anonymous_

Premium Member

to Anonymous_
I'm paying $1600/year for 2 vehicles at 100/300k and a few other higher coverage items. This is with an at-fault accident in the past year which totalled my 2 year old vehicle. Prior was only about $1250/year same coverage. This is with MetLife which I get some discounts since I have other policies with them.
fartness (banned)
Donald Trump 2016
join:2003-03-25
Look Outside

fartness (banned) to Anonymous_

Member

to Anonymous_
I have 100k/300k. I pay $900 a year for a 2012 Subaru Legacy and 2001 Ford Ranger. I also just took a defensive driving course, which reduces my premium another 10% for the next 3 years. Geico! I don't know why everyone hates them. They're WAY cheaper than everyone else, and I've never had an issue with them. Well I guess the only issue is the physical Geico location in town said a busted rim and flat tire due to road debris wasn't covered since those are wear and tear items. Sounded like BS but I would have only gotten $400 after my $500 deductible kicked in. $400 wasn't worth risking if I were to get in an at fault accident and seeing my rates go up.
mob (banned)
On the next level..
join:2000-10-07
San Jose, CA

mob (banned) to Anonymous_

Member

to Anonymous_
Those rates are very high. Do you have lots of accidents, claims, DUI/DWI? I pay about 1/2 of your rate for full coverage on two vehicles, renters insurance and hospitalization coverage as well.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

3 edits

Anonymous_

Premium Member

said by mob:

Those rates are very high. Do you have lots of accidents, claims, DUI/DWI? I pay about 1/2 of your rate for full coverage on two vehicles, renters insurance and hospitalization coverage as well.

No accidents No tickets no DUI or DWI or No alcohol offensives (except for two tickets at 14 and 16 for "non moving violations" . I did get suspended license 1 year each time for them though)

but I think the tickets were purged because of a error on the courts side i.e filed in "adult court" when should have been filed in juvenile court.
I did not have to pay the 2k in fines to get my DL so I assumed they were purged .

also they go by zipcode here Just down the street the rates would be 200$ cheaper (This should be illegal for insurance co's to do)

Kramer
Mod
join:2000-08-03
Richmond, VA

Kramer to Anonymous_

Mod

to Anonymous_
Keep in mind the insurance you buy protects you as well as the other driver. The minimum coverage is dangerously low. The higher coverage you list seems low to me as well. I have 1 million/1 million coverage here and insure three cars, four drivers and an RV for around $2000/year. If you are in an accident and severely injured and permanently disabled by a driver with no coverage or the minimum coverage, then it is going to be your policy limits which kick in to help you. In my state the insurance companies in recent years have excluded under/uninsured coverage under umbrella policies, so they do not help you here for the most part. I suspect they are doing the same throughout the nation where they are allowed. At least in my state an umbrella policy is principally a liability policy to protect you from losing all your assets should you be responsible for injuring someone. That's why I buy the maximum coverage they will allow on the primary policy. I want to protect myself and family as well as other drivers on the road.

Let me give you an example of someone I know and what happened to them. This woman was leaving her car in a parking lot when a disabled person ran over her when they had the car in the wrong gear and pulled out of a parking space. They had minimum coverage. The woman spent months if not close to a year in a rehab hospital and for years was only able to walk with a walker. Now she no longer can walk at all and lives in a nursing home only because of her physical disabilities related to the accident. In this case her own policy limited to a few hundred thousand dollars plus the at fault driver's policy of a few thousand dollars paid out to the max. Everything else probably amounting to millions of dollars came out of her pocket, Medicare and everyone else except for the person to blame and the insurance company they used. It is worth having a lot of insurance especially given the low cost of doing so.
tcope
Premium Member
join:2003-05-07
Sandy, UT

tcope

Premium Member

said by Kramer:

Keep in mind the insurance you buy protects you as well as the other driver.

Insurance you buy never really protects the other person... it always protects the person who buys it. People should be of that frame of mind when they choose limits.

If a person rents an apartment, makes very little money and has no real assets, then they perhaps can get away with minimum limits. But they should also consider the cost of higher limits. For example, the cost of changing $5,000 in property damage coverage to $10,000 might only be $10/year.

Your insurance company will always attempt to settle a claim within your policy limits. They will also always obtain a release before settling any claim that is close to or exceeds your limits. I've _never_ seen an attorney not accept the policy limits instead of filing suit. It's a waste of their time/money as they then spend a lot of their own time to obtain a judgement they have no interest in attempting to collect. They would rather spend 2 hours and take the limits rather then spend 20 hours to get a piece of paper that says they can now continue to try to collect more.

I would also _highly_ recommend that people have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. There are simply way too many people driving around without insurance and states don't do enough to stop this from happening. Again, UM coverage protects you, the policy holder.

Kramer
Mod
join:2000-08-03
Richmond, VA

Kramer

Mod

Not sure I understand you here. If I have a million in liability coverage and if I severely injure someone in an accident that is my fault, am I not protecting the driver I injured when my policy pays to have them made whole? I buy insurance to protect not only myself and family but other drivers on the road . Yes my few assets are protected, but I sleep better at night knowing that if I hurt someone badly who didn't have the foresight to buy enough insurance, my insurance will help them.

Totally with you on UM coverage. The only accident in my life that I have had that injured me was with a uninsured driver. They took the tags off her car and hauled it away and left my insurance company holding the bag. Actually in my state there may be a central pool of money that pays out those claims... not sure. That's when my naivety was sobered a bit regarding your insurance company being on your side. Not that I blame them. With a UM claim, your insurance company may be forced to defend the uninsured driver that in many cases was illegally driving a car.

Hall
MVM
join:2000-04-28
Germantown, OH

Hall

MVM

The insurance is protecting YOU first by paying to cover injuries, damages, etc suffered by others. Without insurance, YOU wouldn't be protected and secondarily, others, as the case may be.
tcope
Premium Member
join:2003-05-07
Sandy, UT

tcope to Kramer

Premium Member

to Kramer
said by Kramer:

Not sure I understand you here. If I have a million in liability coverage and if I severely injure someone in an accident that is my fault, am I not protecting the driver I injured when my policy pays to have them made whole? I buy insurance to protect not only myself and family but other drivers on the road . Yes my few assets are protected, but I sleep better at night knowing that if I hurt someone badly who didn't have the foresight to buy enough insurance, my insurance will help them.

That is the affect but should not be how one determines the amount of insurance they should obtain. That is, you should not be asking yourself, "how much of a loss could I cause to someone else". You should be asking, "what limits do I need to protect _myself_. You are not really obtain insurance to address someone elses loss... you are obtain insurance to protect _yourself_. A person who has a million dollar boat, owns a company, earns $10 million/year should obtain different limits then someone who rents and lives paycheck to paycheck. That is not because the person with more money can cause more of a loss to someone else.

With that said, for those people who have assest they should understand what kind of loss they can cause to someone else.

I've been adjusting claims for about 25 years now. I've never seen an attorney go after someone directly because their limits were not high enough to address their client's loss. If you think that attorney is taking any case to make suer their client is well compensated, you are fooling yourself. That attorney is looking to get paid 33% of the settlement with the least amount of work and the highest gain for the work.

I'm single, own two vehicles (around $25k and $10k) and pay a mortgage on a $220k home. I make enough money so I don't have a problem paying my bills but not a lot more then that. What is anyone going to get from me directly? But I still carry $100/$300 Bodily Injury limits. My auto insurance runs $100/month. If I lowered my limits to $50/$25 how much would I save a month... $10? Probably. $10 is worth my peice of mind to know I have enough to make my limits attractive enough that an attorney won't even think to look at me for anything else. Keep in mind, my carrier would not pay a dime _and_ would defend me in court before offering one dime of that money without a release being signed. An attorney could spend an additional $10k and 100 hours of more work to go to trial. To get what extra from me? Or he could spend 10 hours and take the $100k.

Just some food for thought.

Kramer
Mod
join:2000-08-03
Richmond, VA

Kramer

Mod

I am curious as to why you feel 100K (I am assuming your UM coverage is around that) is enough insurance to protect you in the case where another driver severely injures you and has little to no coverage. Trust me... you know what happens. You can end up permanently unemployed, needing millions of dollars of medical care throughout your remaining life. Your health insurance may not be enough. A million in coverage would not be enough... but a lot can happen that is pretty devastating in between. That's why I carry a million in coverage. I've seen the consequences of not having enough coverage.
tcope
Premium Member
join:2003-05-07
Sandy, UT

tcope

Premium Member

said by Kramer:

I am curious as to why you feel 100K (I am assuming your UM coverage is around that) is enough insurance to protect you in the case where another driver severely injures you and has little to no coverage. Trust me... you know what happens. You can end up permanently unemployed, needing millions of dollars of medical care throughout your remaining life. Your health insurance may not be enough. A million in coverage would not be enough... but a lot can happen that is pretty devastating in between. That's why I carry a million in coverage. I've seen the consequences of not having enough coverage.

I was mentioning my Bodilty Injury limits (liability to others) but my UM coverage does match that. But UM is also a different animal.

First, I'd get the policy limits from the other person's liability coverage. This is at least $25,000. I'd get $3000 from my PIP coverage. I'd then get $100,000 from my own auto carrier. That is a total of $128,000 (minimum). I then also have long term disability and health coverage. I don't know if UM stacks in UT (if it did, I'd have $200k un UM coverage). It's _highly_ unlikely that I'd be injured in an auto accident and have a $128,000 loss. It's possible. But it's also possible that a person could have $2 million in medical expenses and care.I don't have much that I could not walk away from if I declared bankruptcy. I think if I was injured so bad that I had $100,000 in bills and could not work that I'd perhaps declare bankruptcy. I don't know that it would affect me a whole lot at that point. If I was injured so bad that I could not work I'd probaly also qualify for Medicare.

I'm not saying a million in UM coverage is not a good thing. Actually, this is my main point... you obtain insurance limit based on what you feel _your_ needs are, not the person you hit.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

said by tcope:

said by Kramer:

I am curious as to why you feel 100K (I am assuming your UM coverage is around that) is enough insurance to protect you in the case where another driver severely injures you and has little to no coverage. Trust me... you know what happens. You can end up permanently unemployed, needing millions of dollars of medical care throughout your remaining life. Your health insurance may not be enough. A million in coverage would not be enough... but a lot can happen that is pretty devastating in between. That's why I carry a million in coverage. I've seen the consequences of not having enough coverage.

I was mentioning my Bodilty Injury limits (liability to others) but my UM coverage does match that. But UM is also a different animal.

First, I'd get the policy limits from the other person's liability coverage. This is at least $25,000. I'd get $3000 from my PIP coverage. I'd then get $100,000 from my own auto carrier. That is a total of $128,000 (minimum). I then also have long term disability and health coverage. I don't know if UM stacks in UT (if it did, I'd have $200k un UM coverage). It's _highly_ unlikely that I'd be injured in an auto accident and have a $128,000 loss. It's possible. But it's also possible that a person could have $2 million in medical expenses and care.I don't have much that I could not walk away from if I declared bankruptcy. I think if I was injured so bad that I had $100,000 in bills and could not work that I'd perhaps declare bankruptcy. I don't know that it would affect me a whole lot at that point. If I was injured so bad that I could not work I'd probaly also qualify for Medicare.

I'm not saying a million in UM coverage is not a good thing. Actually, this is my main point... you obtain insurance limit based on what you feel _your_ needs are, not the person you hit.

If the the accident was your fault and it involves alcohol, a 2005 change to the US Bankruptcy Code prohibits debt related from OWI from being discharged in bankruptcy.

I have also seen many times where car/motorcycle accident victims end up exhausting their auto insurance benefits and end on Social Security Disability and state Medicaid programs.

I know for a fact that if Medicare/Medicaid makes any payments for a auto accident or worker's comp claim, they have a first lien on any recovery or settlement from a lawsuit or settlement. But usually when people end up on SSDI and Medicaid from an accident, those benefits have already been exhausted, and those agencies that administer those benefits prefer that.

My mother's brother's girlfriend was in a motorcycle accident and ended up on Social Security Disability after sustaining a head injury from a motorcycle accident. The operator (not my mother's brother, who passed away on natural causes) of the bike was killed in the accident.

Kramer
Mod
join:2000-08-03
Richmond, VA

Kramer to tcope

Mod

to tcope
I wouldn't assume they would have a minimum of 25K in coverage. »www.autoinsurance.org/ho ··· surance/