Why Do You Need to Pay for Texas Auto Insurance and Umbrella Coverage?

Why Do You Need to Pay for Texas Auto Insurance and Umbrella Coverage?

Texas auto insurance agents are harbingers of doom, aren't they? They take speculating about the "worst case scenario" to a whole new level. I mean, let's face it-there's nothing particularly cheerful about looking at your brand new, $60,000 automobile and thinking about the day it's going to get flattened at the bottom of a ten car pile-up!

You don't plan on driving like a moron down the interstate (Hey, just because* you spent a small fortune to buy a snappy little convertible doesn't mean you're going to drive like you're in the Indy 500!) You've always been responsible about your insurance coverage. Your regular Texas auto insurance liability coverage should be more than enough to keep your bank account intact after you've been in an accident.

Right?

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it's the harbinger of doom in me, but I've gotta tell you, I've seen a lot of people step out of their houses in the morning thinking their liability auto insurance had them covered and go to bed at night with hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills hanging over their heads. Nobody asks to be in an accident when they roll out of bed in the morning. You can guarantee nobody asked for the cost of medical care to go through the roof! But since you can't predict when you're going to be in an accident that's going to eat through the amount of your liability coverage, you've got to anticipate this.

This is how it works. When you buy a Texas auto insurance policy you take out liability coverage up to a certain dollar amount for bodily injury and property damage resulting from an accident you were responsible for. You get in the accident, you pay your deductible, insurance takes care of the rest.

Here's what could be the million dollar question: Did you remember to read the fine print? If you did, then you would know that when the bills from that accident go zooming past the maximum coverage limits on your liability policy your Texas auto insurance company isn't going to pay another dime. You're responsible for everything else out of pocket. When you consider the fact that $50,000 will only pay for ten days of care in the ICU for a single driver, it's easy to see where the bills could start to rack up!

That's where your umbrella policy steps in. Once the accident has eaten through your regular coverage your umbrella coverage will help cover the remainder-again, up to a certain point. So if you have $50,000 in bodily injury liability coverage and the bills from the accident total to $70,000, your umbrella coverage will help you pay off that $20,000 without cashing in on every stock, bond and retirement account you've got.

Think of it as walking out in the middle of a summer shower in a raincoat and popping an umbrella over your head. Yes, your raincoat would probably keep you dry enough, but the umbrella's going to catch anything the raincoat might have missed. Yes, your Texas auto insurance coverage will probably be enough, but the umbrella policy is going to pick up anything that slips through the cracks.

It's all about your peace of mind, and that peace of mind (and the ability to retire before you're 90) is the only reason you would pay for both Texas auto insurance and a good umbrella policy.

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