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Don’t repeat my mistake when it comes to buying car insurance.
Key points
- When I first purchased auto insurance, I waived rental car coverage.
- I was involved in an accident that destroyed my car.
- I had to pay for a rental car for two weeks until everything was sorted out.
Many years ago I bought my first car while in law school. This meant that I had to buy insurance for my vehicle for the first time, whereas I previously drove my parents’ cars and was protected by the auto insurance policies they owned.
I was on a student budget and didn’t want to spend much more than necessary on my auto insurance costs. Unfortunately, this led me to make a major mistake that cost me $630. Here is what my mistake was.
This is the biggest mistake I made when buying car insurance
The huge mistake I made when buying my auto insurance policy was giving up very inexpensive coverage to save a few dollars a month.
You see, when I purchased coverage, I was offered rental car insurance as part of the policy. It cost a few dollars more per month, however, and without really thinking about it, I just assumed there would be no real reason why I would want my insurance company to pay for a rental car for me. .
The problem arose, however, when I was involved in an accident. My boyfriend at the time was driving my car when the accident happened, and he was held responsible for the car accident – but my insurance covered him because he was driving my car at the time there and he didn’t own a car or have his own auto insurance coverage.
My car was destroyed in the accident and I needed a vehicle to be able to travel to my summer internship – and all of a sudden the choice of not getting rental car insurance came up. turned into a major and costly mistake. It took a while to settle the insurance claim and get a check so I could buy a new vehicle. And during that time, I ended up spending $630 on a rental car so I could get to work.
You can learn from my mistake
After buying my new car, I made a very different choice when it came to buying car insurance. Rather than trying to save a few bucks by giving up essential protections, I made sure I understood exactly what coverage I was buying and considered the potential long-term consequences of accepting or declining one type. specific insurance.
I’ve insured myself since I have full coverage since I prefer to pay a bit more up front to get the most protection possible later. I prefer to transfer the risk of large losses to my insurer, even if it means paying additional premiums.
The good news is that others can learn from my mistake. While buying extra coverage might seem like an unnecessary expense, no one wants to end up with a big bill that their insurance would have covered if they had paid a little more premium. So before you decline any type of car insurance coverage, think about what it would cost you if the worst happened and that protection wasn’t in place. You may just decide that paying a slightly higher premium is worth it after all.
