Uninsured-Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Car insurance provides drivers protection in the event of an accident. The importance of having insurance is not realized until the unfortunate event of an accident. Laws in most states require drivers to have insurance policies that include liability coverage. While some drivers do not have the required coverage there are those who do have liability yet they have insufficient limits to cover damages when they are at fault. For this reason, it is very important to have coverage that will protect you in case of an accident involving you and such drivers to be a provision in the insurance policy. In the industry this type of coverage is known as uninsured-underinsured motorist coverage.

Uninsured and underinsured coverage is not a separate policy. It can be included in your regular car insurance for additional fees.  You might look at these additional monies and decide it’s not worth the price, but you have to think about the cost of NOT holding this sort of policy. Are you prepared to pay for damages to your car when an accident is not your fault? Even the most careful drivers are at risk.  You wouldn’t want to regret your decision later.

Ideally, every motorist should have uninsured motorist coverage, even though it is not required. This coverage not only protects you the driver, but your passengers and anyone listed on the insurance policy are covered if involved in an accident and the other driver is uninsured or is underinsured against damages. Your insurance under the uninsured motorist coverage will cover expenses such as: hospital, treatment, funeral services, car repairs or replacement costs, content damage, disability indemnity, etc. The limit for these expenses will be determined by the amount of your uninsured or under-insured limit in your automobile insurance policy.

This is especially important for drivers who only have liability insurance: although you’re insurance will cover any costs for property damage or personal injury that you may cause to yourself or another person if you are the at-fault driver, liability alone will not cover any damages caused by someone else.

In a perfect world, the other driver would always foot the bill for their mistakes.  But this world isn’t perfect. Consider the current state of the economy. Then ask yourself what kind of person would drive without insurance in the first place. You don’t want to end up with that responsibility yourself.  This is why you need to include coverage for uninsured or underinsured drivers.

The uninsured-underinsured coverage includes provisions to protect you from the financial devastation that would result from having to bear the costs relative to an accident involving an inadequately insured driver and is a valuable stress reliever.

Your dollar-amount limits for this kind of policy is usually the same as your regular boundaries. Like with regular policies, some companies might have minimum and maximum amounts they require.

Tagged with: Auto Insurance • automobile insurance • car insurance • Vehicle Insurance

Filed under: Auto Insurance Comparisons

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