Uninsured/Underinsured Auto Coverage?

[greydog17]

As someone whose whole career was in the auto insurance business, I view Uninsured Motorist and Under-Insured Motorist as the most important coverages on my policy besides Bodily Injury Liability coverage.

Why most important? Because UM and UIM is coverage for injuries to me and my family, not to others. As noted by other posts there is a large % of Uninsured vehicles. And when you add the equally high or higher % of vehicles covered only to the low state minimum coverage there's a high probability of the other party not being adequately insured to cover serious injuries they may cause. Yes, after the accident I could sue if they didn't have adequate coverage, but its doubtful I'd recover much, so I buy a high limit for UM/UIM equal to my Umbrella cov limit.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

My experience in police work was that if 10% of the drivers in your state are uninsured, they cause 30% of the accidents.

I do have a fair amount of un/underinsured coverage.

 

[Senator]

That makes far more sense to me than what your agent's best guess is.

It was a link to the chart someone else posted above.

It wasn't the agent's best guess. It was American Families statistics. Do you really think most people on public assistance have auto insurance?

Do you think people with multiple DWIs have auto insurance? With the background checks I see, there are a bunch of people without licenses, or insurance.

He also said a great trick people with large families do is this. The best driver has all the cars registered to them. They are the only driver, until there is an accident. Then, the new person was only borrowing the car. Of course their rates skyrocket, but then they go to a different company.

Or, they have a decent car with just the minimal coverage. Once it gets into an accident, they tow it home and take out full coverage and make a claim.

 

[iac1003]

Personal note - someone hit my parked car (across the street from my house) over the weekend. This is considered a hit and run in my state (Texas). Because of my uninsured/underinsured collision insurance, my deductible is only $250 instead of $500 and all expenses incurred for my rental car are paid. In all honesty I didn't realize what this insurance does until I had to use it.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[John Galt III]

I would probably get UM coverage to protect myself from the crowd of uninsured sc*mb*gs out there, if it were priced lower, but in my state it would double my premium ! I can't believe UM coverage is so cheap in other states. ($13 a year in a previous post !! )