Insurance auto
Insurance is a necessity if you drive a car, but if you are looking for coverage that extends to your personal possessions, you may have to look close and read the fine print.
The personal auto policy is designed to provide a broad package of coverage that generally satisfies only the automobile insurance needs of most individuals and families. However, if you look over your policy you will find coverage for a small number of your personal possessions, as well.
Auto insurance is planned to decrease many of the monetary losses that could or else result from operating a car, including the loss of your personal possessions. This is why it is important that you understand the fundamentals of how auto coverage applies to your personal possessions.
WHY YOU BUY AUTO INSURANCE
Usually, the main reason you buy auto insurance is that the law says you have to have it. This mandated insurance covers your liability exposure for any damage that you may cause to other people or their property.
In most cases, coverage under an automobile insurance policy applies to a variety of exposures arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of automobiles.
Auto insurance has two significant elements: liability coverage for damage you do to other people for property; collision coverage for damage you do to yourself or your own property.
PERSONAL PROPERTY
Most contents of a vehicle are not covered under a standard auto policy. This may seem unfair, because all drivers carry belongings around in their cars. But in order to make the risk projections for auto insurance feasible, insurance companies can not calculate losses of personal possessions because they vary so much.
When you buy insurance for your car, the premiums that the insurance company charges for physical damage coverage are based on the maximum amount that the insurance company might have to pay if the vehicle were a total loss. But, this does not include the personal property in your car at the time of loss.
Typically, a personal auto policy excludes coverage for:
Electronic equipment designed for sound reproduction, including radios and stereos, tape decks or compact disc players ;and any other electronic equipment that receives or transmits audio, visual or data signals, including, citizens band radios, telephones, two-way mobile radios, scanning monitor receivers, television monitor receivers, video cassette recorders, audio cassette recorders, or personal computers, tapes, records m disc or other media used with the above equipment.
The physical damage section of the personal auto policy excludes many items which are easily removed or damaged, or are considered to be extra accessories, but a number of endorsements allow you to buy back these exclusions.
To keep up with advances in modern technology, the exclusion now applies to such devices as car telephones, television monitors, videocassette recorders and personal computers.
If you have a radar detector in your car when a loss occurs, your policy will probably exclude coverage for the replacement of the detector.
Radar detectors are used to determine where the police have set up radar to enforce the speed limit. Because the purpose of radar detectors is to help drivers avoid obeying speed laws, and because such equipment is outlawed in some states, insurance companies are usually unwilling to provide coverages for these devices under an auto policy.
If you purchase a camper body or a trailer and it is not listed in the declarations section of your policy, it is excluded from coverage. However, this does not apply if you have acquired a new camper body or trailer during the policy period, if your insurer has been notified within thirty days.
YOUR STUFF IN A RENTAL CAR
When you rent a car, one of the employees at the rental company usually will shove a piece of paper in your face while asking whether you would like insurance coverage. The piece of paper, a collision damage waiver, is designed to release you from any responsibility for damage to the rental car. If you decline the coverage and have an accident, you may be held responsible for the entire value of the rental car.
A collision damage waiver, highly overpriced, contains several limitations for such things as driving on an unpaved road, or engaging in negligent driving. If a car renter violates these restrictions, he or she will not be covered.
Besides the collision damage waiver, a rental car company may try to sell you personal effects coverage. This coverage provides you with limited reimbursement for loss of baggage and other personal property during the rental period.
Generally, your own auto insurance will cover collision damage to the car you rent and most likely for liability in case you hurt someone or damage someone elses property.
And your homeowners policy may cover your personal effects even when you are on a trip.
So, be sure to check out the limits on your homeowners policy they tend to vary, especially with high value personal possessions such as computers and jewelry.
liMIT OF liABIliTY
Under your auto policy your insurance company is liable for the actual cash value or the cost to repair or replace the damaged or stolen property, whichever is less. In all settlements, depreciation and the condition of the vehicle are considered in determining the actual cash value at the time of loss.
Stolen property may be returned to the insured, and payment made for any damage, or the company may keep the property and pay the insured an agreed or appraised amount in money.
CONCLUSION
As you see, there are more situations than you would assume in which your auto policy provides coverage for your possessions.
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