Oakland Car Insurance Coverage is Not Enough

Always buy more Oakland car insurance than what is required to be able to drive.

Having only the required Oakland car insurance coverage won’t protect you from this.

The basic Oakland car insurance requirements were created by the State of California to protect you from another person’s negligence. They are in place so that if you are not at fault for an accident that you don’t have to pay for the damages yourself.

But, these car insurance requirements don’t do anything to protect you from having to pay for damages to your vehicle that are caused by you or by an act that is not a car accident.

Oakland Car Insurance Requirements

Oakland car insurance requirements are the same throughout the state because it’s the state that controls the insurance system. These requirements include having no less than the following insurance coverage:

• $5,000 in liability property damage coverage
• $15,000 in bodily injury liability coverage per person
• $30,000 in bodily injury liability coverage for the entire accident if multiple people are injured.

(Source: California DMV)

Adding Additional Oakland Car Insurance

The Oakland car insurance requirements above don’t come anywhere near the amount of insurance that you actually need for you and your vehicle to be fully protected. For one, if your car is ever stolen or vandalized you will end up having to pay for it yourself. This is because the liability coverage that you are required to have doesn’t cover your own vehicle, it only covers the damage that you do to another person’s vehicle.

So if you live in an area that is prone to car thefts or vandalism, you are going to want to add at least comprehensive coverage to your vehicle. This is to make sure that there is coverage in case anything like this happens.

Also if you depend on your car to get you to work each day because you don’t want to ride the bus or you aren’t close enough to get to BART, you are also going to want to make sure that you have collision coverage on your insurance policy. This coverage pays for the damages to your vehicle whether you are at fault for an accident or not. That way you don’t have to wait to drive your car again until you can save enough money up to get it fixed.

If your vehicle is ever damaged and will be in the shop for longer than you can live without it, rental car coverage will pay for a rental car for you to be able to get to work in.

For more information on what insurance coverages you need on your Oakland car insurance policy to be adequately covered, contact your insurance agent or company.