The Importance of California Car Insurance for the Other Guy

Considering how important California car insurance is to you does involve taking a look at the other guy as well. One has to be careful not to place too much priority on the cost of insurance as the ability for the policy to adequately reduce liability and pay for medical damages. Carrying only the minimum amount of coverage required can still be exposing you to a large liability problem. If you are found to be responsible for a percentage of damages the price tag could be expensive.

Coverage Considerations

Even though California car insurance coverage is mandatory the sad fact is that many people continue to drive around without any coverage at all. Many also drive around with totally inadequate coverage levels to be financial responsible in the case of an accident. The only time it is usually discovered that these drives have no or inadequate insurance coverage is after an accident has taken place. At that point the damage has already been done and other drivers are left to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately many drivers find out at this time they too have totally inadequate coverage.

When the other guy has no California car insurance coverage and no money it is going to be tough to collect from them. But you are still left with a huge medical bill, auto repair bill and damages. When you purchased that cut rate policy you thought it was a great deal because it saved you so much money off your old premium. You didn’t as how the policy could be so much more inexpensive. And now you know it is because the coverage levels were so much lower and the risk to the insurance company was shifted from them to you. It would have been better to opt for the higher coverage levels even though it was going to cost you more each month.

Reducing Liability with California Car Insurance

It is important to understand your California car insurance in the proper light and not only in terms of monthly premiums. The policy you currently carry provides both a top end and a bottom end liability. This is kind of like a ladder and the middle of the ladder is the level of liability the insurance carrier will cover. Anything below the first step or above the top step is going to be your responsibility. If all policies were unlimited coverage levels as many think then only one policy would be necessary for all drivers. Of course this is not the cause.

Of course many drivers have very little assets anyway and so the risk to them is low at best. If a major liability on their part is determined they can just file bankruptcy and the liability goes away for them. But that might not be the case for you. You have to make the decision exactly how much liability you are willing to be responsible for. Less California car insurance coverage is always bad and more coverage is always better. Higher levels of coverage will protect you and your assets in more situations then carrying cheap insurance with low premiums.