Going Out of Town for Christmas? Make Sure Your New York Auto Insurance is Geared Up and Ready to Go Too!
Planning on going home for Christmas? Hey, there's nothing wrong with that! The chance to spend the holidays with family and friends definitely beats spending yet another holiday in a quiet, empty apartment or sitting in a bar surrounded by a lot of people you don't know (and quite frankly, don't care to!). Before you decide to head someplace decidedly less snowy this Christmas, however, you might want to take the time to make sure your New York auto insurance is ready to go too.
See, most people don't have a clue about what kind of coverage their New York auto insurance company is going to be willing to send their way once they've skipped state lines. They don't usually take the time to find out before they go either, which is the first (and potentially, the last) mistake they're going to make this Christmas.
Don't let yourself become a statistic. Before you go, make sure you talk to any or all of your auto insurance agents (you usually wind up working with whoever wasn't fast enough to put in for vacation time over the holidays, and there's no telling who that's going to be!) and find out whether your particular New York auto insurance is going to cover:
a) Your car while you're traveling abroad. This is a big one, since most auto insurance companies in the states don't extend coverage across the border and just about every country is going to require you to have it. If you're taking your baby with you on your holiday vacation, make sure you've got your insurance arrangements made before you find yourself staring out the window at local law enforcement and trying to explain to the nice policia why you hopped the border into Mexico without making sure your auto insurance coverage was intact.
It'll be a miracle if you ever see the light of day again once they're done throwing the book at you for that one!
b) Your luggage. The issue of what happens to your luggage when you're on vacation is a thorny one. If you're flying and your luggage gets lost (or stolen) while in the airport's custody you might be able to get back a little of your own, but if you're traveling by car all bets are off.
It's very, very rare that a New York auto insurance provider would be willing to cover your luggage while you're on the road, but it never hurts to ask. You might want to start with your homeowners insurance, however. You've got a much better chance of getting the answer you want to hear.
c) Your car. What's going to happen if your car is stolen or vandalized while you're on vacation? What if you get into an accident while you're visiting a no-fault state if your state isn't? Clearing all that up before you leave can save you a ton of headaches-not to mention financial hemorrhaging-after the fact.
Remember what your high school math teacher said would happen if you assumed? That's where you're likely to end up if you assume you're covered before you go on vacation too! It takes less than twenty minutes to talk to your New York auto insurance company to make sure you're covered when you go on vacation and hours to straighten it all out if you're not. In this case, an ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure.