Monday, September 14, 2009

Understanding Liability Law For Your Vehicle

By April Kerr

If you want to own and drive a vehicle in the United States you will probably have to live up to a policy that required you to have an insurance policy covering the vehicle. Depending on whether you own the vehicle or not you will have to purchase either a full coverage or liability insurance policy. A full coverage policy will cover any damages done in an accident regardless of whose vehicle and property are damaged. The liability insurance policy only covers damages to property and vehicle that belong to anyone involved other than the policy holder.

Purchasing a liability policy costs much less than a full coverage policy since the insurance agency will only need to cover anyone else's damage, not the policy holders. If you do not own your vehicle in full you will probably have to carry a full coverage policy until you get your vehicle paid off in full.

The financial institution that holds the title for your vehicle will require that you carry full coverage so that if you get in an accident, their property will be covered. If you cause severe damage to the vehicle and cannot get them fixed they know that you will probably stop making the payments or at least will have a harder time doing it. With the full coverage policy, the insurance company should help to pay for your repairs.

The insurance policy companies know that if you only held liability insurance and the policy would not cover to get your vehicle fixed, you may not make the future payments if you cannot drive it. While it may be inconvenient to pay for the full coverage policy, it will make a difference if you get into an accident.

When you own your vehicle out right and hold the title yourself, you can make the decision to just purchase a liability policy. Knowing the value of your vehicle is an important part of the decision to go with liability coverage only. You will have a deductible that must be met even if you have a full coverage policy.

If your deductible is five hundred dollars and the vehicle is only worth five hundred dollars, you will not get anything from the insurance policy because your deductible and the cost to total out the vehicle negate each other.

Whether your vehicle is not worth much or not, you will probably still have to purchase an insurance policy if you want to drive. If your vehicle is not worth that much than you may be better off paying the lower price for the liability policy and just looking for a new vehicle to replace the old one if you get into an accident.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment