should I drop my coverage?

[glaucomflecken]

oddly enough, my boss and I both own outright 7 year old cars, about 94000 miles each, paid in full, still pretty good condition and working, his a foreign luxury, mine run of the mill american car. He was telling me how he just dropped his comprehensive and collision coverage on his vehicle because he said its a waste of money to pay for full coverage on a car thats that old, and you should only have liability coverage, and I should think about doing the same. I still have full collision and and comprehensive on mine, with a $250 deductible. (I had a $500 ded. before, but after I was hit 2x in 6 months and had to shell out $1k in repairs, I changed it because it was like a difference of $70 a year more for the $250)

I ran my car through the kelly''s blue book trade in value and it said it was in good condition and worth around $4k (private party value $5200).

So Im pretty clueless when it comes to insurance, and whats best, etc. Would you think it would be a good idea to drop full coverage? It would save a good chunk of money on my insurance premium, and I do want to get a new car within the next year or so so I guess if it got totalled it would not be a total loss...but I dont know. i know insurance is all a gamble anyway and you can never predict, but what do most people in the know do?

thoughts? thanks!

 

[jetmal]

NO WAY IN HEXX !!!

I would not drop your coverage. I speak from personal experience....very recently too, I might add. My car was also 7 yrs old, and fully paid off. I was in 2 , yes 2, accidents within 5 months of each other.

The first accident, I was rear ended by a lady who did not have insurance, AND she did not even have a valid drivers license. I am still going to the doctor for whiplash problems......and that was in July. So, since she did not have insurance, my uninsured motorists portion of the policy is paying for everything.

Then in Dec. I was pulling out of a grocery store parking lot. I looked both ways twice....did not see anyone, so I proceeded out to the median. Well, apparently someone WAS coming, and they T-boned into me, and totaled out my car, and sent me to the hospital. Now, that one technically was my fault, as I was cited with a failure to yeild ticket. I still cant figure out what happened with that one.....I swear no one was coming!

Accidents happen, and very often....just take a look at when you are out driving around...how many accidents you see on the side of the road.

keep your coverage! Sure, you''d save money from month to month, but if an accident does occur, you will end up losing in the end....and losing big if the accident is your fault.

And, just to let you know, you will get every penny your car is worth, should it ever be a total loss due to an accident, whether its your fault or not. My car had a Kelly blue book value of around $5K, but my insurance paid out over $7k to me! They pay you for taxes, and license, etc.... as well.

I''m sure others will share their opinions as well.

 

[Mara]

my car is older and i just have the basic insurance on it so if i get into an accident and it's my fault then my insurance pays for the other party's car and issues, but if my own car gets hurt or totalled is not covered to be fixed, which is fine because we'd just get a new car, my car is so old. if you can afford to replace your car if something were to happen to it aka tomorrow, then take the coverage down to basic so that the other party is covered but not your own car. my car is only worth about $3k and we plan to get a new one later this year anyway. you do save alot of $$ if you drop the coverage down, but make sure that if something were to happen you'd be covered for fault to the other party and that you can afford to either have your car fixed or that you'd be prepared to just get a new one the next day kind of thing.

 

[Waited2Long]

I agree with Mara on the comprehensive. It''s not worth it to me for any car that''s worth less than $5k. In 19 years of driving I''ve never caused an accident, so if my car gets totalled there''s a good chance it won''t be my fault, and most people carry insurance in my area, so I would likely get its value back. My medical insurance would cover me if I''m injured by an uninsured driver. I only drive 7k miles a year. And I think the odds of any of my cars getting stolen is tiny, but if it happens, it won''t disrupt my life much since I have more than one vehicle. It''s a gamble, but it has worked out well. I''ve saved enough over the years to replace any of my cars and then some. If I were to purchase a car that was worth more than $15k I would get comprehensive on it, with a $1k deductible to keep the rates down.

 

[jetmal]

"My medical insurance would cover me if I'm injured by an uninsured driver. "

perhaps that is the case in your state, but it is not in my state. If you are injured in an accident, the auto insurance company MUST pay for it, whether its your car insurance, or the other persons....but your medical or helath insurance will not pay for it. Trust me, I've gotten the bills from my medical insurance for which they have refused to pay....then I have to forward them to my auto insurance carrier.



"In 19 years of driving I've never caused an accident, so if my car gets totalled there's a good chance it won't be my fault, and most people carry insurance in my area, so I would likely get its value back. "

wow, I hope you knocked on some wood or something

. I would never say never. THats why its called an "accident!" Also, most people carry insurance here too, its actually "the law", but that doesnt mean that people dont break the law, right??

 

[Waited2Long]

Date: 3/12/2006 6:21:36 PM
Author: jetmal
''My medical insurance would cover me if I''m injured by an uninsured driver. ''

perhaps that is the case in your state, but it is not in my state. If you are injured in an accident, the auto insurance company MUST pay for it, whether its your car insurance, or the other persons....but your medical or helath insurance will not pay for it. Trust me, I''ve gotten the bills from my medical insurance for which they have refused to pay....then I have to forward them to my auto insurance carrier.



''In 19 years of driving I''ve never caused an accident, so if my car gets totalled there''s a good chance it won''t be my fault, and most people carry insurance in my area, so I would likely get its value back. ''

wow, I hope you knocked on some wood or something

. I would never say never. THats why its called an ''accident!'' Also, most people carry insurance here too, its actually ''the law'', but that doesnt mean that people dont break the law, right??

I know that my medical insurance would cover me if car insurance doesn''t, but I''m not sure it''s because I live in CA. It is written into the policy itself. Auto insurance is primary, and health insurance is secondary. The same held true for the other 3 policies I''ve had in the past. You''re saying that if you had injuries that exceeded the auto policy limits, that you would have to pay all the difference out of your own pocket and your health insurance would do nothing?

I can use the word "never" with 100% certainty when referring to the past, e.g. "The Roman empire never conquered Ireland". I used the words "good chace" when referring to the future, by extrapolating from past experience. People do break the law, but with respect to loss of property, I''m not risking much. For me personally, the risk of losing a $4k vehicle is simply not worth the extra premiums. PunchNPie75 asked for opinions, and that is mine, based on the factors I''ve mentioned (most of which are used to calculate premiums anyway).

 

[Dancing Fire]

i just drop the collision coverage on our old BMW,it still worth about 10k but,i got tire of paying those high premiun for a 11 yr old car.

it still cost me about $750 per yr to insure that car.

 

[ilovesparkles]

I would never ever drop the coverage. Even if you could pay for a new car tomorrow! You cannot predict the unknowns! And even if you have medical insurance that will cover you if auto doesn''t, there are several things in life that could come up. (Perhaps strm''s thread did paranoy me just a tad bit more than I''m admitting

).

 

[Mara]

punchie you are just talking about dropping where your car is protected or paid for if you get into an accident right?

my car is old, about 14 years and the insurance on my policy is for everything but the car protection is like $400 a year. so it''s not bad and it would be alot more to protect my old car which is not really worth protecting.

 

[glaucomflecken]

Date: 3/13/2006 11:12:00 AM
Author: Mara
punchie you are just talking about dropping where your car is protected or paid for if you get into an accident right?

my car is old, about 14 years and the insurance on my policy is for everything but the car protection is like $400 a year. so it''s not bad and it would be alot more to protect my old car which is not really worth protecting.

Yes, pretty much keeping liability and all that but dropping the collision insurance to repair my car in case of accident and comprehensive coverage, which I think is like for theft, vandalism, etc. (i think)

 

[kbaker]

I think you''re talking about collision insurance. Different from Liabiity insurance that YOU MUST have.
Collision insurance will pay the replacment cost of your car if the accident is your fault. Your liability will cover the other person''s car. I agree that if you can afford to lose the cost of the car and your collision insurance is high,it might be worth it, but unless the car is worth practically nothing, I would keep it. Another thing to consider is no-fault circumstances. Some states have no fault policies and even if you didn''t cause the accident, you could get stuck footing the bill.

We got the same advice and lo and behold, my husband ended up smashing the car (within months of that advice) and in the end, even though we suffered the loss of our older car (8 years) we at least got a 5k check a few days later. It eased the pain...

So, I''d keep it. We have it on both of our cars...