Auto & Recreational
Vehicles

Insurance requirements relating to minimum coverage differ from state to state. Liability is the only insurance required by law in California. The limits required in California are often referred to as “15/30/5” coverage and include:

• $15,000 bodily injury per person
• $30,000 maximum per accident
• $5,000 property damage per accident

Is minimum coverage sufficient?
In determining your coverage limit, one of the most important factors to consider is the overall value of your assets. If, for example, you own a business or a home, you may want higher limits of liability coverage to protect those assets. Another consideration is to protect future earnings. While there is no set formula, you always want to secure coverage in proportion to your assets, so in case an accident did occur, you have sufficient coverage to cover the loss. If you are at fault and severely injure another person, you may be held personally liable for the bodily injury and physical damages beyond the scope of your liability coverage.

Additionally, if you lease or finance your car, it’s likely that your liability coverage limits may have to be higher, usually $250/500,000. You should check with the leaseholder to determine the appropriate level of your coverage. For our customers who own businesses we recommend a minimum of $1,000,000 in auto liability coverage. Most auto policies do not offer a liability limit this high so a personal umbrella may be needed.

Our main rule of thumb is to buy as much liability insurance as you can afford. PIA customer support agents are licensed, non-commissioned insurance professionals and can provide advice regarding general coverage limits.

Remember that your liability coverage travels with you from car to car.

So, whether you are driving your car, a friend’s car, or a rental car, your liability insurance follows you. However, the physical damage coverage does not work the same.

In most cases, your personal automobile insurance policy will provide coverage only when you are renting a car on vacation. Many insurance companies no longer extend personal automobile insurance coverage when you are traveling on business.

The best way to find out what rental car coverage you have under your automobile policy is to call your insurance agent and verify if you have coverage or not.

Under California law a good driver is defined as someone who has been licensed to drive in the continental United States for three continuous years and has one point or less on their driving record. Insurance companies verify your point count by checking your motor vehicle record and through the use of shared claims data companies such as CLUE and ChoicePoint. Most tickets and accidents count as one point. However, some count as two. Accidents involving property damage only count as one point. If the accident involved any bodily injury, any at all, it counts as two points. The only way to prove an accident did not involve bodily injury is to obtain a copy of the police report or a letter from your insurance company who covered you at the time of the accident. Major violations such as drunk driving, reckless, exhibition of speed, speeding over 100 MPH are two-point tickets. Tickets count as points for three years. After three years they drop off your point count. They may still appear on your driving record, but the insurance company cannot count that against you. Also, note that some companies use the Violation date to determine the three year period while others use the Conviction date.

As long as you have one point or less and have been licensed for three or more continuous years, your rates should not fluctuate more than 5% or so.

Insurance companies use several factors to determine how much your premium will be. The most important are your years of driving experience, violation and accident point count in the last three years, type of car you drive, where the vehicle is garaged, and most importantly how much insurance you buy.

The best way to lower the cost of your automobile insurance is to look for any discounts that you may qualify for, such as:

• • Multi Car Discount, put all vehicles you own on same policy
  • Auto & Home Discount, insure your car and home with the same company
  • Driver Training Discount
  • Good Student Discounts, 3.0 or better GPA
  • Mature Driver Discounts, for drivers over 55, course certification required
  • Educational Discounts – For certain degrees, Educators, Engineers, etc.
  • Government/Military Discounts , for civil servants and government officials

Find out how much you can save if you increase your deductibles. Usually it is best to keep your Comprehensive Deductible lower. You will find there is little savings in lower the deductible. However, there are larger savings when you increase your Collision Deductible, sometimes 5-10%.

We represent insurance companies that offer the following discounts:

• • Good Driver Discounts, 1 or fewer points in the last three years of driving
  • Good Student Discounts, full time students with a GPA 3.0 or higher
  • Marriage Discounts
  • Multi Car Discount, put all vehicles you own on same policy
  • Auto & Home Discount, insure your car and home, or renters/condo policy, with the same company save 5-10% on both policies
  • Driver Training Discount
  • Mature Driver Discounts, for drivers over 55, course certification required.
  • Professional/Educational Discounts – For certain degrees, Educators, Engineers, Doctors, etc.
  • Government/Military Discounts, for civil servants and government officials
  • Motorcycle – members of the Gold Wing Club

Most companies have special business or commercial use coverage. Check with your Customer Service Representative for verification.

If you are involved in an accident, liability coverage covers the costs related to the injuries and property of the other parties involved in the accident, up to the limits of your policy. This does not include your own medical expenses or the expenses of any of your passengers.

Not required by law, covers you for your bodily injury bills if you are hit by someone who does not have enough insurance. In the form of a split limit or a single limit with some companies. Example if you purchase $15/$30,000 UM coverage, and you are hit by someone who only has $15,000 of bodily injury coverage but you have $30,000 of bills, the company will pay you up to $15,000 since you were hit by an underinsured motorist.

An evaluation method that depreciates the value of a good to determine current value. If you buy a car for $20,000 brand new and drive it for 3 years. The value depreciates each year due to wear on the car. To determine actual cash value you subtract the depreciation amount from the cost new.

If you have a glass waiver deductible, your insurance policy covers the repair cost for a broken or damaged window.

Without a glass waiver deductible, your comprehensive deductible would apply, which can often total more than the cost to repair the window.

A very important coverage, pays the difference in the vehicles market value at time of loss, and the value stated in the lease. If you lease a car we highly recommend this coverage.

Pays for the cost to have your car towed and/or rent a car after an accident. You must have Comprehensive and Collision coverage for this coverage to take affect.

Yes and no. If you have collision coverage on your policy you are covered. However the deductible still applies. Most people believe they are covered under Uninsured Motorists coverage. This is not the case. The company believes that you cannot prove if the motorist that hit your vehicle was uninsured. They also believe that most of the claims are for damage the insured caused to their own car. Even if you have a witness and police report, you will only be covered if the motorist that hit your car is identified and it is determined that they do not have coverage.

Danger, Will Robinson!! Dealers are not insurance agents. There have been a lot of problems with auto dealers telling people they have insurance when they drive off the lot. Most dealers do not have licensed agents on staff. Occasionally they will sell you or include an insurance policy. However 99 times out of 100 that policy is just a physical damage policy that only covers the car. This usually happens when you buy the car with a loan from the dealer.  It contains NO LIABILITY insurance.

Whenever you knowingly loan your car to a friend, family member, co-worker etc, you may be covered under your automobile insurance policy. In fact, even if you do not give explicit permission each time a person borrows your car, you may be covered as long as they had a reasonable belief that you would have given them permission to drive the car. If you are carrying a named-operator policy, only the individuals named on the policy are covered while they drive your car. Although often less expensive, a named operator policy should be clearly disclosed before you purchase the policy.
Also, you should be aware that when you purchase liability insurance, that coverage goes with you from car to car. (This is not true in all cases read your policy) In other words, if you borrow a friend’s car and are involved in an accident, and have car to car coverage, your liability policy will cover you when driving your friend’s car. However your liability policy will not protect your friend, he/she must have their own liability insurance to be protected. Conversely, it is important to make sure that the people who drive your car have insurance. Because irregardless of whether or not they have insurance, you can still be sued. Very important to understand is that under California law the registered owner of the vehicle is the one responsible for the damage caused by their vehicle, even if they are not driving it (except in the case of stolen cars). So if your friend is driving your car not only will your friend get sued but so will you.

Most policies are “permissive” use policies so you would be covered. If you purchased a “named-driver” or “named-operator” policy, only drivers listed on the policy are covered.

Many people forgo the Comp/Coll coverages because of the relatively low values of their car. It does not hurt to find out the cost of the coverage to see if it fits in your budget. Say you have a car worth $3000. It may only cost $200 a year to insure it with a $500 deductible. If the car is totaled you would get a check for $2500. So it might be worth the coverage. However sometimes the cost of repairing the damages to an older car is greater than its value. In these cases, your insurer will usually just “total” the car and give you a check for the car’s market value less the deductible.

Yes, under all circumstances. You need to keep your point count at one or less. Also remember you can only go to traffic school to dismiss moving violations, not accidents. Say you get a ticket and decide not to go to traffic school, after all with only one point you are still a good driver. But what if you get into an accident after that? Now you have two points. And you cannot go to traffic school to remove the accident from your record. Protect your self and go to traffic school. Plus with many of them on-line, they can be completed easily and quickly.

Your car must be registered in your name in order for you to obtain insurance. If the vehicle is registered under a different name, no insurance can be issued to you until your name is on the registration. Electronic registration verification is available through the DMV for an additional cost.

Your auto policy may provide coverage in all 50 states, U.S. territories and Canada. If you are traveling in Mexico, we recommend that you purchase a separate insurance policy, which is typically available at the border. Best to check with your company and ask your Customer Service Representative.

No, personal items would need to be insured on a homeowner’s or renter’s policy.

A very important coverage, pays the difference in the vehicles market value at time of loss, and the value stated in the lease. If you lease a car we highly recommend this coverage.