Car Insurance How It Works and Why It’s Important
Car accidents happen all the time on the road in the United States. There are rear end collisions, high speed collisions, fender benders, single car accidents, and much more. In each case, a person is looking at hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in damage. This may be to their car or the car that they hit. This can bankrupt someone.
A person who is in a car accident will likely rely on one thing to get them through the financial part of the accident: car insurance. Car insurance is a type of insurance that makes sure that the damage to the person’s car and the damage to the car that the person hit are covered.
Not completely exactly. But covered.
Car insurance works by taking everyone in a certain region and partly nationwide and putting them in a “bucket.” The bucket is there so every gets roughly same price for car insurance. No one is grossly higher. No one is grossly lower. It works in the following way.
The people in the bucket are both the high-risk drivers and the low-risk drivers. There are medium-risk drivers as well. They are the average between the high-risk drivers and the low-risk drivers. The high-risk drivers are those that have either been caught being risk (getting in accidents or speeding tickets) or those who are statistically risky.
The low-risk drivers are those that have not gotten many or any speeding tickets, haven’t gotten in many or any accidents, and who are not statistically risky. One example of a type of person that is statistically risky is young adults who are statistically more likely to get in accidents due to youth, inexperience, and behavior.
They are all put into a pool, where the insurance company averages out the high-risk drivers and the low-risk drivers. This is how the insurance premium is decided. It is possible for someone who is a high-risk driver to have a premium a little higher than the average, or a low-risk driver to have a premium that is a little lower.
But in general they all stay in the same general area.
When someone gets in a car accident, the first thing they must do to handle the damages to their car and the other person’s car is file a car insurance claim. A car insurance claim is a claim to the insurance company that details the circumstances of the accident and the actions that happened during the accident.
A car insurance claim is also supposed to show “fault,” meaning which person is responsible for the accident. This determines who will pay for part of the damages in the case. Sometimes it’s just a few hundred. Sometimes it’s more. The amount that is paid by the person depends on the type of insurance that they have.
A car insurance claim can be for a comprehensive type of car insurance or a less comprehensive type of car insurance. Car insurance can contain a certain amount of coverage. There may be a deductible, which is the amount a person has to pay before insurance kicks in.
There may be a coverage amount, meaning how much is covered in the event of a car accident. This can be a small amount, such as a few thousand dollars covered or more than that. Like health insurance, people can select the type of car insurance they want and how much coverage they want. A low-risk driver might try for a less comprehensive coverage.
This is because they are less likely to get in an accident and therefore won’t need the coverage. There are some statistics about car insurance that are worth noting, as well as accidents. They are:
- There are 6 million car accidents in the U.S. each year.
- There?s a rear end collision on U.S. roads every eight seconds.
- There are four main causes of auto body damage: weather, negligence, fender benders, and high speed collisions.
- According to a recent study by AAA, the average auto repair bill comes to between $500 and $600, and one in three drivers can’t pay it.
There are terms to know regarding car insurance and accidents as well. They are auto insurance claim, auto insurance coverage, auto insurance policy, car insurance coverage, car insurance policy, car repairs, and more.