Auto Insurance in Southern California – What You Need Now & Savings Coming Up
As with most states, California auto insurance law requires all motorists to carry 3 fundamental liability components.
Bodily Injury Liability or BIL of $ 15,000 per person
Total Bodily Injury Liability (Total BIL) of $ 30,000 for each accident
Property Damage Liability or PDL of $ 15,000 / accident
In insurance industry jargon, this is known as 15/30/15.
To limit your coverage to these minimums, would be looking for trouble. Multi-car accidents and ambulance chasing lawyers commonly drive the cost of an auto accident to several hundred thousand dollars. If you’re at fault and you’ve gone with the minimums, you personally, are now on the hook for the shortfall. As a result, you’ll need to sell your home, empty your savings account and possibly more. How does that sound to you?
From experience, I recommend no less than 100k/300k/100k and more, if you are on the road frequently…particularly in the abundant elite communities of Californ-i-a. Spending a few extra bucks here is money well spent.
So far, we’ve discussed only liability coverage and that doesn’t apply to injuries to you and damages or loss of your vehicle. The rest of what we will talk about is not required by California statute.
First, let’s take care of you. Personal Injury Protection (PIP) pays for injury to you and your passengers no matter who was at fault. I recommend PIP coverage of no less than $ 100,000.
Next, your vehicle. To most folks, full coverage means the combination of collision and comprehensive.
The purpose of collision insurance is two-fold; to cover the cost of the repair to your damaged vehicle or if “totaled” to make a cash settlement. You are liable for a predetermined “deductible” amount and the insurer pays the balance.
Comprehensive covers your car for theft and vandalism and damages caused by fire, animal impact and acts of God.
Another essential coverage is protection from uninsured drivers. It’s not your fault, but he won’t pay. Here’s where your uninsured/underinsured driver coverage comes to the rescue.
Auto insurance Southern California introduces “pay-by-mile” program.
California’s Insurance Commission has tabled a proposal allowing insurance companies to charge consumers based on actual miles driven. Similar to purchasing prepaid minutes for a mobile phone…the consumer would pay up-front for a fixed number of miles to be driven in a limited period of time. A monitoring device installed in the car will allow insurance companies to observe a driver’s car usage and charge accordingly.
Consumer advocates are in favor of the proposal because charging for miles driven (as opposed to an insurance company’s projection) should mean savings to low mileage motorists.
And possibly more important, it will serve as an incentive for drivers to stay off the road. Environmentalists predict this type of auto insurance La Mesa will encourage consumers to drive less…meaning lower fuel usage, reduced pollution and less congestion on the road.
The plan looks good to me.