Yes, here in California we use insurance to minimize our liability to others while we drive. With everyone required to be insured before they can drive, that should cover everyone, making it so you don't have to worry about the liability of a car accident right? Wrong, when in a car accident you are going to be facing bills. With these bills coming up you may find that California minimum required policy is $15,000 and that is nowhere near enough. If the crash wasn't your fault your insurance will do everything they can to pass on the liability to the other company, rather than take care of their client and then ask for the bills to be paid later. Sadly, this is how it works. and the insurance companies certainly give you the runaround prolonging payouts as much as they can which is what you can expect from them. There is a way to get your insurance on your team when you have been hit by someone else, and it is actually pretty cheap.
There is only one way to have this done and that is with UIM. UIM ( uninsured or underinsured coverage) is useful for two reasons, first the obvious one: if you are hit by someone who does not have auto insurance you will still be insured. The other reason is if they do not have enough insurance coverage. If you you are in a car accident and injured it is more than likely that your medical expenses will well pass the minimum requirements for CA insurance liability which is $15,000. To ensure that this does not occur all insurance companies are mandated to offer UnInsured Motorist insurance at a reduced rate even. How UIM works is on top of the existing insurances. So if you are hit by a person who has the minimum insurance policy of $15,000 and you are injured. That $15,000 is going to be a plink in the bucket but you can be saved by the UIM. Say you got a policy for 100,000, that will then take effect on top of the insurance policy of the person who collided with you so now you have 115,000 worth of coverage and that is quite a bit more realistic for the cost medical care and bills while you are laid up recovering. The other amazing part of this is that now your insurance has a vested interest in making sure the other insurance company pays so that they don't have to. Suddenly the insurance is actually starting to work for you and sooner because of their liability for payout. What a great product UIM is right?!
The thing is, these insurance companies present this option as an extra when this should be a mandatory fixture, especially if you plan on driving more than one person often. Insurance companies play down the importance of UIM because it is where they loose most of their money. You will often see a pop up screen asking if you want the extra coverage and having decline highlighted, the insurance companies do this because you are trained to dislike and close pop ups especially when asking for money. Ignore the temptation to close the page and look it over, purchasing UIM could be one of the best decisions you have ever made.
