Minimum Columbus car insurance doesn’t do enough to really protect you.

Make sure you have enough Columbus car insurance to bridge the gap between an accident and the insurance company paying all the expenses.

The State of Ohio created car insurance laws to protect the drivers in their state. The most prominent car insurance laws are the ones that require all registered vehicle owners to purchase a minimum amount of Columbus car insurance. Unfortunately, these minimum Columbus car insurance requirements aren’t really enough to fully protect drivers.

Columbus Car Insurance

To be able to drive in Ohio, you have to have the following minimum Columbus car insurance:

• $25,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for the injuries you cause to one person
• $50,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for all of the medical expenses for two or more injured people in a car accident that you cause
• $25,000 for property damage that you cause with your vehicle

Not Enough for Bad Injuries

While the required $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage is good enough to cover minor or medium injuries from a car accident that is your fault, it is not enough. Major injuries or even fatalities from car accidents may not be as common as less serious injuries, however they still do happen.

What if you are the one that caused one of these few fatalities or serious injuries? That $25,000 is nowhere near enough to cover an extended hospital stay, physical therapy, and medication. And if you kill someone, you have all the costs associated with not only the medical care before the death, but also funeral expenses and more.

Going to Court

After you injure someone in a car accident and they have completed their medical treatment, a pain and suffering settlement is usually offered. If this settlement is accepted then the insurance company pays the claimant and the claim is closed. However, if you have already exhausted all of the minimum required liability coverage on your Columbus car insurance, there will be nothing left for a settlement.

This means that the insurance company won’t offer one, and more than likely you will end up in court. Also, if a person dies because of a car accident that you cause, you can almost be sure that the deceased’s family members will take you to court for a wrongful death lawsuit.

In both cases the court and attorney expenses are usually covered by your insurance policy, unless your $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage has already been used up for the other expenses that usually happen prior to a car accident situation ended up in court. Which means you will have to pay any settlement, court fees, and attorney fees that the court approves in their judgment out of your own pocket.

This is why you need to talk to your Columbus car insurance agent about the amount of coverage you really need to be protected if you cause a car accident.

Q: Is it true that I cannot get collision insurance for a car with a rebuilt title in the state of Kentucky?

A: As far as I know you should be able to get insurance on a vehicle with a rebuilt title in any state. There will be a lot of hoops to jump through with the Division of Motor Vehicle Licensing and also your insurance company, but it should be doable.

To get confirmation, contact the Division of Motor Vehicle Licensing first, and ask them. Then once you get confirmation, contact your insurance company.

Is getting insurance an issue with a suspended license for a non-traffic violation?

Yes, anytime you have a suspended license your future insurance will be affected. You should still be able to get insurance, it will just be at a much higher premium than what you were playing before your license was suspended.

It is best to talk to your insurance agent though, to find out if there is any leniency given in your state due to the suspension being the result of a non-traffic violation. You just never know until you ask.

Tickets happen, but traffic school can spare your Fremont car insurance from rate increases.

Think traffic school to protect your Fremont car insurance when you see this in your mirror.

To control these unwelcome changes to your Fremont car insurance, keeping your record clean and attending traffic school when it is available will help.

Keep Your Driving Record Clean

To keep your driving record clean, there are only two things that you need to do. First, obey all traffic laws. Second, drive safely. Both of these things will help you avoid both the tickets and the accidents that cause your Fremont car insurance to go up.

Traffic School

If you get certain traffic tickets on your California driving record, you can opt to attend traffic school to prevent an increase on your Fremont car insurance. Traffic school won’t cause the infraction to be completely removed from your record, but it will mask it from being seen by the insurance company.

From the California Traffic Safety Institute website, you are not allowed to take traffic school if:

-There is a successful traffic school completion within the previous 18 months.
-The conviction is a major (2 point) violation (DUI or Reckless Driving).
-The driver was operating a commercial vehicle at the time of the violation.
-A Class A or B licensee operating a non-commercial vehicle (0 points displayed).

As long as you meet the requirements though, consider traffic school as a serious option to prevent your Fremont car insurance premium from increasing.

Traffic School Can’t Mask Everything

One of the things that traffic school can’t help you with is a no insurance ticket. Even if it could erase the ticket, your insurance company would still know that you had a gap in your Fremont car insurance coverage and they would still increase your rates.

So to keep control of this potential premium increase, make sure that you are carrying at least the minimum car insurance coverages that are required by the State of California:

-$5,000 property damage liability coverage
-$15,000 bodily injury liability coverage for one person
-$30,000 bodily injury liability coverage for multiple injuries

Again, these are just the California minimums. These Fremont car insurance coverages won’t pay for damages to your vehicle or for your injuries, but they will prevent you from getting a ticket and from getting an increase from a gap of coverage showing on you record.

Q: I have heard that Bear River Mutual coverage limits default to the state minimum when you have an accident? Is there any truth in that claim?

A: That sounds highly illegal to me. An insurance company cannot change your auto insurance coverages without your consent, except in regards to your insurance premium.

In my experience though, an insurance company will jack up your premium or drop you completely before they would decrease your coverage. First of all, they are going to want to recoup the money they just paid out for your claim, so by keeping you at your current coverage level and increasing your premium they will make that money back faster than if they were to decrease your coverages with a lower premium. Second, if you really messed up and they are afraid of you doing it again, they aren’t going to want to keep you around at all and will just give you the boot out the door.

If there are any changes to your insurance premium or policy, most states have strict timelines that the insurance companies have to follow so that you have plenty of notice of any upcoming changes.