oh you don't have rental? OK, here is a crash course for if you decide you want to change your policy and up your coverages as a result of finding out that you did not have rental when you thought you did... (you are about to learn a lot, this will be really helpful to you, yay!!)....
in ny state RENTAL covers 30 dollars a day for up to 900 dollars or 30 days-- whichever comes first
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so you would have had some sort of out of pocket expense either way b/c there are no rental vehicles on long island that are as cheap as 30 bucks! so if it was 50 bucks a day you would have had to pay the additional 20 dollars a day anyway-- maybe that'll make you feel a little better about it.
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and... for the future, now that you know you don't have rental you can ask them to add it to your policy for the future (but let's just hope you never need any of your coverages!)
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while you are at it, this is a good opportunity to check up on your policy and make sure that you are adequately covered. you should have collision and comprehensive (i like a deductable of 500 dollars b/c 1000 dollars is a lot to shell out after having an accident-- 250 bucks is even better!)... then, the collision or comp should not have any limit.
Comp covers anything other than a collision-- like a fire to your car, a flood, a tree falling on your car while it is parked, etc.
Collision is basically you colliding with anything else-- hitting a parked car, hitting another car, hitting a pedestrian, hitting a building, etc.
then there is Property Damage. Your PD coverage covers you for any damage that you do to another vehicle-- so the car that you hit today, if they decide to claim, your PD will cover that. This should be very high incase, for some reason, you hit a very expensive car. The legal minimum in NYS to have is only 10 grand-- that is not a lot considering cars can be worth so much. in one case that i saw, a person was responsible for the fact that his car went on fire-- which in turn, set another TEN cars on fire-- he was responsible for all that damage and his limit was only 10 grand
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So I would suggest a PD limit of 100,000 dollars-- it doesn't cost a lot to up it that much-- i think mine was an extra EIGHT dollars a year or something crazy!! To be protected THAT much-- is so worth it.
OK, after that there is rental reimbursement... that covers 30 dollars a day for up to 900 dollars. you can get rental without any limits but it's very pricey-- and not usually worth it. the 30/900 is standard.
then comes your PIP-- this is a coverage that all people who have auto insurance have. it is called PERSONAL INJURY PROTECTION... so this covers YOU and anyone that is in YOUR car as a passenger if they get hurt. PIP will pay for your (and their if there are other people in the car) medical bills and treatments for any injuries that you sustain. PIP is great b/c you don't have to worry about fault or liability-- you will be covered no matter what. That is where NO FAULT comes from-- no fault really has nothing to do with fault so when a cop tells you 'oh don't worry about it-- no fault will cover it' they don't know what they are talking about.
no fault means that regardless of fault each person's injuries will be covered by their own personal injury protection. so the guy in the SUV that you had an accident with today-- he has his own PIP and you have your own PIP. so if your company decides to bicker with his company over fault-- your med bills will still get paid and you can still go see a doctor while they duke it out over fault-- that is what no fault means 'regardless of fault or until it is determined, your injuries will be taken care of along w/ medical bills' this way, people don't collect med bills (b/c they are waiting for fault to be determined)...
the insurance company can later ask for the other company (whoever accepts blame) for all the money they laid out BACK... that is called subrogation but that's nothing something you need to worry about-- they do it to re-coop their losses.
So those are your basic coverages... you want to make sure you also have high bodily injury limites like 100/300... which means 100,000 dollars per person who is injured in your car (this protects passengers so they can't come after you) UP TO 300,000 per occurance... so that means 100 thou per person up to 300 thousand. also, you want to make sure you have UMBI which is uninsured or underinsured motorist bodily injury-- this is very important if someone either hits you w/o insurance, with very little insurance (meaning state mandated minimums all across the board) OR if they hit you and then run (like in my FH's case)... so you can still claim and get money from your insurance company for this-- so you are still covered if they are not. It protects you from getting sscrewed... i would get 300/300 for that-- so up to 300,000 for yourself and each person in your car up to 300,000 dollars per occurance.
So that's the basics:
Collision 500
Comprehensive 500
Rental Reimbursement 30/900
PIP (standard, everyone has)
Property Damage 100,000
BI 100,000/300,000
UMBI 300,000/300,000
Then I would also suggest getting the additional glass coverage-- which goes with your comprehensive that says you do not need to pay a deductible to get your windshield replaced. All of these coverages are relatively cheap for how much they end up protecting you. To get your windshield replaced out of pocket could end up running between 400-1000 dollars so the no deductable glass is great.
OK, hope all of this helps you!!!!!
it's so much easier when you understand it-- and the companies NEVER give it to you in plain english so people end up not knowing a lot of things and then they can end up getting sscrewed. take care justine!!!!
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maybe this happened for a reason-- so you are better protected
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FM me with ANYTHING you need
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