Unless something crazy happens Sunday at the NASCAR season-ending race at Homestead, FL, Jimmie Johnson will win his sixth Sprint Cup title. He only has to finish 23rd or better to guarantee the championship. Some say Johnson’s quiet excellence – he also won the title in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 – makes him boring.
At AutoInsurance.US, we know how he feels. Some people find car insurance boring, too. That’s until they cause a wreck, have a windshield shattered by a rock, or get their car stolen.
Then they find car insurance pretty interesting. In fact, that’s when most people actually learn what’s in their policies.
We say car owners should take an interest now in what’s in their coverage as well as what isn’t. You don’t want to hit a deer and find out you don’t have comprehensive coverage – the insurance equivalent of Johnson finishing 24th (without leading a lap) and losing the title.
So dig out that policy now and review what’s in it. Here are some coverages you might want to check on:
Liability coverage. Liability coverage is required in some form in every state. It kicks in if you cause a wreck that injures someone else or his or her property. It’s expressed as a three-number ratio such as 100/300/50. In that example, 100 means you have $100,000 worth of coverage for injury per person; 300 means you have a maximum payout of $300,000 per incident for injuries; and 50 means the policy will pay for $50,000 per occurrence. By the way, those are the limits of your coverage – you’re still responsible for amounts over those amounts, so make sure your limits are set high enough.Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. It does just what you might expect, helping if the other driver causes a wreck and doesn’t have any or enough coverage. It also typically covers hit-and-run cases when you likely don’t know who caused the accident.Collision. This helps if you’re responsible for your vehicle colliding with an object on the road, as long as that object isn’t an animal.Comprehensive. This covers nearly anything that happens to your car other than a collision. This is what could pay should you hit a deer, for example. Other things covered by comprehensive protection include the theft of your car, glass breakage, hail damage, fire, and flooding.Deductible. The deductible functions like a co-pay in medical insurance. It’s the amount you agree to pay when making a claim. In general, the lower your deductible, the more you’ll pay in premiums for your auto insurance. Conversely, raising your deductible generally will lower your premiums. However, you should exercise great care in using this strategy; you’ll have to be ready to pay this amount should you need to use your coverage.There’s at least one other thing you should check as you’re perusing your policy. Look at the last time you shopped your coverage with multiple carriers. Why? Because you may be paying too much for your policy. It’s true that many car insurance providers offer loyalty discounts to customers who don’t change providers; it’s equally true that you could save even more by shopping coverage with several highly rated carriers.
So don’t declare auto insurance boring without considering the ways it can help you in a crisis, whether one of your own making or one that a driver makes for you. And don’t deride Jimmie Johnson’s ability to stay out of crises on the track. Sometimes that’s what makes a champion.
Starting out his career as a journalist at a smalltime newspaper, Peter Caldwell now works as a blogger for AutoInsurance.US. With a background in finance writing, Peter is an expert on insurance, closely following regulation and industry news. 
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