Long Beach Car Insurance Beyond the Requirements

For good protection, your Long Beach car insurance should be more than just the mandatory liability required.

Will your current Long Beach car insurance coverage protect you if you vehicle is stolen?

Long Beach car insurance requirements are established by the State of California to protect the people you hit with your vehicle. They are also in place to protect you from financial disaster if you cause an accident, but in reality the amount of coverage that is required by California is not enough for how expensive vehicle repair and medical expenses are today.

To make sure you are truly protected, you need to purchase more than the minimum amount of liability coverage that is needed to keep your vehicle registered in California. In addition to liability coverage, you also should talk to your insurance agent about Long Beach car insurance coverage that also protects your own vehicle. Because even if you don’t think that you will ever be in a car accident, other things can happen to your vehicle that can be protected by car insurance.

Mandatory Long Beach Car Insurance

The absolute minimum amount of Long Beach car insurance that you need to be able to drive and maintain a current vehicle registration is:

• $15,000 in coverage for the medical expenses you a liable for if you injure another person with your car.
• $30,000 in coverage for the medical expenses you a liable for if you injure more than one person with your car.
• $5,000 in coverage to pay for damages to another person’s property that you cause with your vehicle.

As you can see the coverages are not really enough to cover much of anything, especially if you cause a serious car accident. To make sure you have enough coverage in the event you total another person’s vehicle (how many vehicles do you know of that cost $5,000 to replace?) or kill someone, talk to your insurance agent.

Any expenses that you are liable for above and beyond the amount of Long Beach car insurance coverage that you have will have to be paid out of your own pocket.

Other Suggested Long Beach Car Insurance

So, let’s pretend that you are invincible and that you never get into a car accident. Your vehicle never gets damaged either by someone else that has no insurance or by an accident caused by you that results in damages to your vehicle.

But, what if your vehicle is stolen?

In 2012, Long Beach had 2,622 vehicles stolen; which is 421 more than they had in 2011. And that minimum liability coverage that you have on your vehicle will not pay to replace your vehicle if yours ends up being one of the ones taken. Liability coverage is only for the damage YOU do to another person or vehicle; it does not protect your stuff.

To prevent from having to scramble to buy another vehicle with money out of your own pocket, you might want to think about getting insurance protection that will pay you for the value of your stolen vehicle so you can get another. Your insurance agent will be able to walk you through what additional coverages that you need to add to your Long Beach car insurance policy to protect yourself in addition to the required coverages you already have.