The Pennsylvania Car Insurance Policy Your New Car's Going to Need

The Pennsylvania Car Insurance Policy Your New Car's Going to Need

 

As much as we would all love to live the rest of our lives debt free, chances are it's not going to happen. At some point or another you're probably going to have to take out a loan, and when you're shopping around for a new car is usually one of those times. Since most lenders want to make sure their investment is protected (and they tend to repossess the car if you're not living up to your end of the bargain!) it's important to make sure you're up to date on which Pennsylvania car insurance policy your new car's going to need.

What's Your Insurer Going to Say?

If you're asking yourself what kind of car insurance you'd need for your new car that you didn't have on your old one the answer is going to either be none or everything (depending on how conscientious a car owner you happen to be). See, just about every Pennsylvania car insurance provider you're going to work with is going to demand that you keep full coverage on your car.

What's Full Coverage Mean?

The phrase "full coverage" is confusing to a lot of people. Many times if you happen to own an old, secondhand clunker (and who didn't at one point or another) and you have a healthy bank account it's not going to be worth it to carry more than liability coverage on it. That keeps your car insurance rates down and doesn't make you pay more for insurance in the long run than you paid for the car in the first place!

Since car insurance companies don't want to take the risk of your car being destroyed and you not being willing to continue paying your car payments they want to make sure you're going to be covered for the full value of the car if you're in an accident. That means they're going to want you to carry full coverage.

Pennsylvania car insurance companies offer four primary types of car insurance coverage:

1) Liability-Liability insurance picks up the other guy's bills if you're responsible for an accident protecting you from being slapped with a lawsuit and/or thousands of dollars in damages and medical bills. What it doesn't do is cover the damages to your car.

2) Comprehensive-Think natural disasters here. A tree limb falls on your car in a thunderstorm or your windshields are completely shattered by hail. Comprehensive coverage protects you against acts of God you couldn't do anything about.

3) Collision-This is what's going to pick up the bill for your car's damages after you've been in an accident.

What You're Probably Not Going to Need (But Might Want to Pick Up Anyway)

That covers the basics of your car insurance coverage. Most Pennsylvania car insurance companies are going to offer a lot more in their insurance packages than these four levels of insurance. Things like extra medical coverage for you and your passengers, rental insurance and emergency roadside assistance are fairly commonplace. These are nice to have, especially if you don't have medical insurance or AAA, but they're not required. Whether you choose to take advantage of them or not is entirely up to you.

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