S.G INSURANCE

Vehicle Insurance

Automobile insurance pays for damages, injuries, and other losses specifically covered by your policy.Many insurance companies use a standardized policy form that offers eight types of coverages. Companies may sell alternative policies if the Department of Insurance approves them in advance. Read your policy carefully, as coverages can vary by policy State and company. Pay special attention to the exclusions section, which lists the things your policy doesn’t cover. The front page of your policy is called the declarations, or “dec,” page. It shows the exact name of your insurance company, your policy number, and the amount of each of your coverages and deductibles.

The following summarizes the eight coverages in the Personal Automobile Policy. Although your coverages and policy terms may differ from these, this summary can help you understand various auto insurance coverages and the way they work.

1. Liability Coverage (Basic liability coverage meets the state’s financial responsibility requirement.)
Pays: Other people’s expenses for accidents caused by drivers covered by your policy, up to your policy’s dollar limits. These may include the other person’s
• medical and funeral costs, lost wages, and compensation for pain and suffering
• car repair or replacement costs
• auto rental while the other driver’s car is being repaired
• punitive damages awarded by a court.

Liability insurance also pays your attorney fees if someone sues you because of the accident and bail up to $250 if you are arrested.

Covers: You and your family members. Other people driving your car with your permission might be covered. You and your family members might be covered when driving someone else’s automobile – including a rental car – but not a car that you don’t own but have regular access to, such as a company car. Family members attending school away from home might be covered, as well as a spouse living elsewhere during a marital separation.

Note: Some policies won’t cover other people, including family members, unless they’re specifically named in the policy. Your policy’s dec page should list the names of all of the people covered by the policy.

Who qualifies as a family member?
Generally, a “family member” is anyone living in your home related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, including your spouse, children, in-laws, adopted children, wards, and foster children.

2. Medical Payments Coverage
Pays: Medical and funeral bills resulting from accidents, including those in which the other person is a pedestrian or bicyclist.
Covers: You, your family members, and passengers in your car, regardless of who caused the accident.

3. Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Coverage
Pays: Same as medical payments coverage, plus 80 percent of lost income and the cost of hiring a caregiver for an injured person.
Covers: You, your family members, and passengers in your car, regardless of who caused the accident. An insurance company must offer you $2,500 in PIP, but you can buy more. If you don’t want PIP, you must reject it in writing.

4.Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) Coverage
Pays: Your expenses from an accident caused by an uninsured motorist or a motorist who did not have enough insurance to cover your bills, up to your policy’s dollar limits. Also pays for accidents caused by a hit-and-run driver if you reported the accident promptly to police.
• Bodily injury UM/UIM pays without deductibles for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, disfigurement, and permanent or partial disability.
• Property damage UM/UIM pays for auto repairs, a rental car, and damage to items in your car. There is an automatic $250 deductible. This means you must pay the first $250 of the repairs yourself.
Covers: You, your family members, passengers in your car, and others driving your car with your permission.
Insurers must offer UM/UIM coverage. If you don’t want it, you must reject it in writing.

5.Collision (Damage to Your Car) Coverage
Pays: The cost of repairing or replacing your car after an accident. Payment is limited to your car’s actual cash value, minus your deductible. Actual cash value is the market value of a car like yours without damages.

6.Comprehensive (Physical Damage Other than Collision) Coverage
Pays: The cost of replacing or repairing your car if it is stolen or damaged by fire, vandalism, hail, or a cause other than collision. Comprehensive coverage also pays for a rental car or other temporary transportation if your car is stolen. Your policy won’t pay for an auto theft unless you report it to police. Payment is limited to your car’s actual cash value, minus your deductible. If you still owe money on your car, your lender will require you to have collision and comprehensive coverage.

7.Towing and Labor Coverage
Pays: Towing charges when your car can’t be driven. Also pays labor charges, such as changing a tire, at the location where your car became immobile.

8.Rental Reimbursement Coverage
Pays: A set daily amount for a rental car if your car is stolen or is being repaired because of damage covered by your policy.

Coverage for Stereo Equipment
Your policy won’t pay for CDs, tapes, cell phones, citizen band radios, or stereo equipment not permanently installed in your car. However, you can buy endorsements to your policy that provide separate coverage for these items for an additional premium.

Coverage of New or Additional Automobiles
If you buy another car, your policy might automatically cover it with certain limitations. Read your policy to know whether it automatically covers an additional or replacement car.
• In general, an additional car usually has the same coverage as the car on your policy with the broadest coverage. For example, if you have two cars – one with liability coverage only and one with liability, collision, and comprehensive coverages – and you buy a third car, the third car will automatically have liability, collision, and comprehensive coverage.
• A replacement car usually has the same coverage as the car it replaced. For example, if you trade in an older car that only had liability coverage, the new car will automatically have only liability coverage.

Be sure to tell your insurance company as soon as possible that you have added or replaced a car and which coverages you want. You could lose coverage on an additional or replacement car if you wait longer than the number of days specified in your policy to notify your insurance company.

Coverage for Rental Cars
Auto rental agencies offer collision damage waivers and liability policies. The collision damage waiver is not insurance. It is an agreement that the rental company will waive its right, with certain exceptions, to recover from the renter the cost of damage to the car.
If you have auto insurance, your policy may already cover damage to a rental car. Your coverage limit, however, might be less than the value of a rental car. Read your policy to know what’s covered and the coverage limits. If your coverage limit is too low, consider increasing it. You will pay more in premium, but it might be cheaper than buying additional coverage through the rental agency, especially if you rent cars often. The Texas Automobile Rental Liability Policy provides liability insurance for renters who do not have a personal auto policy.
If you don’t own a car, but borrow or rent cars often, you can buy a non-owner liability policy. A nonowner policy pays for damages and injuries you cause when driving a borrowed or rented car, but it does not pay for your injuries or damage to the car you were driving.

Auto Insurance for Young Drivers
Young drivers must comply with the state’s financial responsibility laws. Parents can usually add their children to their auto policy to satisfy the financial responsibility requirements. Adding a young driver to a parents’ policy can be expensive, but it’s cheaper than buying a separate auto policy.
Some policies require all drivers to be named on the policy for coverage to apply. Therefore, it’s important that you list all family members on the policy as soon as they reach driving age. If you don’t have all of the drivers in your family listed on your policy and the company learns about them later – because of an accident claim, for instance – the company will bill you for the extra premium you should have paid and could deny your claim and coverage.
If you have children attending school away from home, tell your insurance company. Because companies base rates on where a car is usually located, it might need to adjust your premium. If the school is in another state, check on the financial responsibility laws in that state to make sure you have the appropriate coverages.
Generally, if a teenager is the principal driver of a particular automobile, the company will base the teen’s rate on that car. Otherwise, the company will assign the teenage driver to the car (usually the most expensive) in your household that produces the highest rate.

What To Do After an Accident ?
• Move your car, if possible, to avoid blocking traffic and to protect it from further damage.
• Call the police if somebody is injured or killed, if you can’t move your car, or if the accident involved a hit-and-run driver. Your uninsured motorist coverage pays for a hit-and-run accident only if you report it to police.
• Get the other driver’s name, address, telephone number, license plate number, driver’s license number, and insurance information. Give the other driver the same information about you.
• Write down the insurance company name and the policy number exactly as shown on the other driver’s proof-of-insurance card. Insurance companies often have similar names, so make sure you get the correct company name.
• Get the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of any witnesses to the accident.
• Notify your insurance company as soon as possible. Your company probably has a 1-800 number to report claims. If not, call your agent. The agent or company will advise you about seeing an adjuster and getting repair estimates. Also, give your agent or company the names and addresses of any witnesses and anyone injured.
• If you reported your claim by phone, follow up in writing as soon as possible to protect your rights under Texas’ prompt payment of claims laws.
• Send the company copies of the accident report and any legal papers you receive about the accident.
• Cooperate with the company’s investigation. You might have to submit a proof-of-loss form or have a medical examination.
If the other driver refuses to tell you the name of his or her insurance company, get a copy of the police accident report. The accident report should list the other driver’s name and insurance company. If the police did not investigate the accident, you can report the driver’s refusal to police.