Simon Kerr

How does car insurance work in the states. Is the person insured or the vehicle for anyone to drive? What levels of cover are available?

Tar all.

ian-mstm

The vehicle is insured. There is usually a principal driver who is covered by the insurance. If others drive the vehicle, they must each be added to the policy. If a driver is under age 25, it'll be mega expensive unless the driver is married... then it's less mega expensive.


That depends on which state you happen to be in! Some states have "no fault" insurance - meaning if there's an accident, both people deal with their own vehicle repair. Some states require both parties to submit to mandatory arbitration to negotiate a settlement. Some states require a police report if there's an accident. Some states don't. Best to check with the individual state insurance board.

Ian

lansbury

It isn't like the UK where you can buy comprehensive or third part etc. Here just about each element of the insurance you can pick a level of cover. If it isn't something you have done before I would suggest a trip into an insurance agents office to have it explained. Our agent suggested higher levels for some risks as we owned our own house and therefore more susceptible to being sued if someone was injured in an accident involving one of our vehicles.

fatbrit

It isn't at all like home.

Bob

Just search out that thread that went over minimum recommendations for cover.

What you need legally will depend on your state, that also goes for who you have to cover on the insurance on the household, some you automatically have to add people under 18/21/25 if they live in the same household regardless of them having insurance or being allowed to use the car or not and other states don't have that requirement.

BritishGuy36

Not with all insurance companies.

We are with Progressive, and others are not insured to drive our cars by Progressive, they must have coverage to drive any car with their own insurer.

I asked them twice if this is correct, and apparently it is. Not a lot of insurers are set up like this, but apparently Progressive is one of them.

RICH

Insurance companies rake in cash from Drivers.
If there is an accident, Driver pays more cash.
If there is a victim, they might get some cash.
If there is not enough cash for the victim, a Lawyer gets involved
If there is money left over after that, the victim gets more cash.

md95065

Also, in the event of an accident it is perfectly normal for everyone to sue everyone else that they can think of because that is often the only sure way of getting the attention of the other party's insurance company ...

... and. of course, the lawyers that get involved also rake in cash from everyone ...

If the OP is still trying to come to grips with automobile insurance in the US they still have a real treat in store for them when they try to figure out how health insurance "works" ...

clovist

Are there any decent comparison sites for US car insurance? if not what are a few good websites to check assuming car insurance? and what sort of price range should i expect for insurance in south jersey with a cheap fully owned car from 2005 me being 22 years old with no accidents (though i doubt a UK record means anything, i imagine ill be treated like a 22 year old that just got their licence and has never driven a car before...)

Also, have my passing attempts at quotes been accurate because if so, $4000 for the cheapest insurance possible seems extortionate beyond belief, especially considering motorbike insurance given the same information to the same company can be as cheap as $76

Bob

All depends on your state, different rules, different laws and all that.

Anyway, online rates won't mean anything because as soon as you put in any details, having no US driving history or credit history, the rate will go up.

Just factor in that a new car with decent cover will ball park around a grand per 6 months and be happy if it's less. If you get a beater, or go with state minimums, you'll save even more.

Edit: no US driving history, you'll be treated as a spotty 15 year old. If you're lucky and they look at a clean past driving history, you might get treated as a 18 year old.

Sooyp

I went with Geico, having no car history being new here the best quote I got was $89 per month.

I found theres lots of variables you can dictate on US auto insurance in comparison to fully comp in the UK which covers everything. It is a bit more complex here.

GeoffM

Just shop around. Find a decent broker and you won't get treated like a spotty 15/18yo. Mine applied discounts for mature driver, no claims, etc without even bothering with evidence. Asked to up the limits several months later and the rate actually went down a few dollars a month, albeit switching to a different insurer because the original didn't offer higher limits. That's about $80/mo on a 7-year old car, two drivers. So many variables of course, so YMWV.

Bink

If you do a search for insurance there have been a lot of threads regarding the different level of coverages and that the state minimum limits are generally not advisable (i.e increase your limits to far beyond the state minimums)

$80/month is pretty good. I'm at more like $175/month after getting itdown from more like $225/month...

This is for 2 cars though, one 20 months old and one 10 months old which doesn't help with the premiums.

6mthBreak

Which Insurance company did you go with? Or is the broker local CA cover only?

MMcD

Sorry OP - this is hi-jacking your thread - but thought answering the post quoted above could also be helpful to YOU - because doing so makes an important point:
Amongst the myriad of factors taken into consideration when the insurance companies provide individual quotes - is your zip (Postal) code - The effect of which is that the same individual, with the same car, living in the same city but at a different zip code - would probably receive a wildly divergent quote.
See the following (which relates to New Jersey as that's where Clovist says he'll be living), Google for and type in some local zip code nos. - and you should get an idea of the variables and why it's hard to be categorical when discussing this:
http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division...comparison.htm

Something else to bear in mind...Most insurance companies provide a discount if you also have a homeowners policy with them. I don't know whether they'd do the same with renters coverage - but it's worth asking.