Author: Anthony Peck
Source: articlesbase.com
It’s the never ending battle between too much car insurance, too little car insurance and the car insurance you can afford! Most people find themselves facing an impasse when they first go shopping for an Alaska car insurance policy, torn between making sure their car is covered in case of apocalypse and not breaking the bank when they write that premium check every month. So the question is, how much insurance do you really need? Liability When you’re talking about the insurance you have to have instead of the insurance you want to have you always want to start with a long, in-depth discussion on liability. Liability is what’s going to pick up the tab to repair the other person’s car (and the glass display window you crashed through) after you’ve been responsible for an accident and includes both bodily injury liability (a fancy way to say “medical bills”) and property damage. According to Alaska state officials you’re only required to carry $25,000 in property damage liability, $50,000 bodily injury liability (per person) and $100,000 worth of bodily injury liability (per accident). Anything you buy above and beyond that point is just going to be icing on the cake! Of course, just because that’s all the car insurance the state says you need doesn’t mean that’s all the insurance you’re going to need to protect you when you’re out on the road. Thanks to the rising cost of health care, treatment after an accident can eat through $100,000 in the blink of an eye. That’s why most experts recommend you carry a bare minimum of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident in bodily injury liability and $100,000 property damage liability-because you never know when your dream of being in a ten car pile-up is going to become a reality. Comprehensive/Collision If you have a lien on your car because you had to take out financing to purchase (and who doesn’t these days?) you can stop reading here. Your lender is absolutely, positively going to require you to purchase both comprehensive and collision coverage from you Alaska car insurance carrier. That way, when you have a close encounter of the head-on collision kind with a respected member of the local wildlife or aren’t paying quite enough attention when you’re out on the roads, they know they’re going to get back their investment. I wouldn’t try to get another car loan from them for a while though! If you own your car free and clear you actually have a choice here. Driving without comprehensive and collision on your car insurance is certainly cheaper, but if you total your car you won’t have a penny coming back from the insurance company to help you take the first steps toward buying a new one. Even if your car’s only worth $2,000, that’s $2,000 you can put toward a down payment on your next set of wheels. Remember, as long as you can still afford to pay the premiums on your Alaska car insurance policy it’s almost impossible to be overinsured. So let your car and your budget lead the way!
Mike McDonough is a National Account Representative for QuoteScout.com, where they’re specializing in helping people get the best rates on their home and auto insurance. To find out more about your Alaska car insurance, visit them on the web at http://www.QuoteScout.com.