Cheap Liability Car Insurance Coverage In Florida

 

September 18, 2007 by fashun · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Liability Only Insurance 

Reader question:

Do I need to get uninsured motorist Florida car insurance coverage if I live in Tampa? I just need cheap liability coverage.

Charlie

Glad you asked, Charlie.

Uninsured motorist protection is not a required part of Florida car insurance coverage law, so really it all depends on your options and your priorities. The first thing that you need to consider, before you take in to mind any extenuating factors, is that no matter where you are, no fault state or no, there will be people driving without car insurance. Depending on what state you are in, it might not even be necessary to get extra coverage because of this, but this is still something that you should keep in mind.

First of all, in Florida they only offer one kind of uninsured motorist coverage, and that is for bodily injury. This can be a good idea to carry if you don’t have anything else that would cover the bodily injury of a victim of an accident caused by you if that victim did not carry car insurance coverage. However, it also provides protection for yourself in this area, and that is where it begins to become redundant. In Florida, you are already required to carry personal injury protection coverage, and then most people have health insurance on top of that. It is very unlikely that your health insurance coverage and your personal injury protection would run out after one accident, making it to where you need even more coverage.

One thing that you might consider when thinking about getting uninsured motorist coverage is the possibility of getting a pain and suffering benefit. This might not be possible if you do not have this type of car insurance coverage.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Are You Looking For Cheap Florida Car Insurance?

 

September 3, 2007 by fashun · Leave a Comment
Filed under: auto insurance quotes 

Florida has two kinds of laws when it comes to car insurance. First there is the financial responsibility law, and then there is the no fault car insurance law. What the financial responsibility law does is that it requires you to have coverage for your vehicle if you get into an accident in which you are at fault, so that the other car can be covered by your insurance policy. The limits are lower than for other states, with a 10/20/10 policy required rather than the amounts of other states which tend to be several thousand dollars more. If your license is suspended, you have too many traffic violations, you get into a car accident, or you are caught driving drunk, then you will need to prove financial responsibility.

If one of those above things happens and you aren’t insured in Florida, then you will have your license revoked for a period of three years. The only way to avoid this is to get Florida car insurance before the suspension of your license. It’s possible to get it very soon afterwards, but then you will have to pay a couple hundred dollars to get your license backed. Once you are with a car insurance company, they will have to file an SR 22 form in order to prove that you are insured with them, and SR 22 insurance tends to cost more than other types.

Florida is not new with its policy of having car insurance companies tell the DMV whenever they sell a new policy or when another one isn’t renewed. The DMV is informed that your car insurance policy is either canceled or not renewed, then you wil be required to prove that you have insurance or turn in your license plates. If you don’t do either of those, you’re looking at a license suspension of three years, yet again. No fault car insurance comes with its own requirements for coverage, and those are $10,000 PIP (personal injury protection) and $10,000 PDL (property damage liability). Unlike the minimum under the financial responsibility law, these amounts apply to you and your vehicle. This simplifies the claims process by keeping you with your own car insurance company.

Every time you lapse in your car insurance, the amount that you’ll have to pay to keep it goes up. The first time it’s one hundred and fifty, the second it’s two hundred, and the third it’s a whole five hundred dollars. Even if you don’t live in Florida for the whole year, so long as your car is there for three months (which don’t need to be all together), you have to be insured. One of the exceptions is if you use your car entirely for business, such as if you ar a taxi driver. If this is the case with you, then you don’t have to have insurance. However, if you get into a car accident while you are not insured, then after that you will be required to have SR 22 car insurance, which is more expensive.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.