Believe it or not, the only part of your car insurance that will pay someone else is the liability coverage. In Pennsylvania, car insurance companies are required to offer two coverages that I believe are vital to your protection when it comes to car insurance. These are a coverage called Uninsured motorist and a coverage called Underinsured motorist. I know. I know. You are wondering why you have to have coverage if it is required to carry car insurance.
There was a time in Pennsylvania when statistics suggested that 30% of the motorists in the state were uninsured. Some of these people were intentionally not buying coverage. Fortunately, the market place has changed and the enforcement has changed. Unfortunately, this doesn’t prevent people from being uninsured when their check doesn’t reach their company on time. It doesn’t help in these challenging economic times when people pay their rent instead of their car insurance.
Uninsured motorist coverage protects you in the event you are injured by someone who has no coverage. Imagine being rear ended and being paralyzed by an Uninsured motorist. Having unisured motorist under your own policy is an essential part of your protection.We believe your coverage on yourself should be at least equal to the amount of liability coverage you carry. Why would you protect yourself for less than you would protect others?
So, Uninsured motorist protects you in the event the other motorist does not have car insurance. What if they have coverage, but it is less than you need? Safe Auto and “The General” specialize in offering drivers the state minimum coverage. Do you know that the minimum coverage for injuring someone is ONLY $15,000? Imagine being paralyzed or incurring another serious injury to find out that the responsible party’s car insurance offers ONLY $15,000! This is where your Underinsured motorist coverage is essential. You are protecting yourself for situations when the other car insurance exists but it is inadequate.
In Pennsylvania there is a coverage option within the Uninsured and Underinsured motorist coverages. It is called Stacking. Simply, you may have a multiple of this coverage based on the number of cars you own. If you are carrying $300,000 of coverage and you have two cars, you can “stack” the coverage and you would end up with $600,000 of protection.
Questions about these coverages? Call your insurance professional. Not one of our clients? Call us to make us your insurance professional.