When you have something to lose, you want to get more coverage to cover it in the event of a loss. When it comes to protecting your vehicle, you need at least liability coverage according to NY car insurance policy rules. There is finite loss potential with property damage; however, there is an immeasurable liability or injury loss.
New York State requires that drivers have at least $25,000 per person body injury coverage with $50,000 per accident. Although you can legally drive with that coverage, it’s usually not enough protection for the majority of people. When obtaining a NY car insurance quote, make sure to double check the liability limit amount to make sure coverage is appropriate for your needs.
What Is Bodily Injury Coverage?
This coverage will pay for injuries to people as a result of your negligence in a vehicle accident. For instance, you’re driving during rush hour along the highway and turn the ac on in your car. Your attention is diverted for only a minute, and you don’t notice the traffic slowing down. Before you have a chance to brake, you rear-end the vehicle in front of you. Both the driver and passenger have been seriously injured and are now suing you for their medical bills.
With that 25k/50k in bodily liability coverage, what happens next?
In this scenario, you could experience some serious financial loss. You could have a judgment put against you, and the $50,000 payment from your insurance company won’t be enough to cover the owed amount. This allows the injured party to go after any personal property, your home, investments, etc.
The judgment’s unpaid amount will go on your credit report, which could hinder you from getting credit, another vehicle and real estate property. It could even cause you to get a job and keep your current job.
You could also experience garnished wages until the judgment is finally satisfied.
The reality is that accidents will happen. Even the best drivers who obey the laws could experience an accident in an incident out of their control. Why have the minimum coverage amount when the cost of an accident and subsequent injury occurs because of it?
There Is Good News, Though…
You can always raise your raise to a better coverage level. And you should.
When you raise your coverage level, your premium will increase, but it won’t be as much as you think. The most expensive part of a policy premium is the collision and comprehensive physical damage coverage.
When raising those limits, the insurance company places you in a more preferred tier that will help reduce the premiums in the future when switching to another carrier. You’ll get better rates with higher limits when you go for quotes. You’ll save more money with higher liability coverage over the lifetime. That is a real key to getting cheap NY car insurance and also protects you adequately.
There is also the option of the umbrella policy that will add another $1 million or more in liability protection for your homes, vehicles, boats, motorcycles, etc. They start around $200 a year.
How much liability coverage is enough? You can never have enough liability coverage! The more protection you have, the better off you will be and you can rest easily at night knowing that your assets are protected.
