Protectall Salvador is an independent agency, which means you are guarenteed the advice of someone who isn't obligated to sell you one particular carrier or one particular type of insurance coverage.
We will help you choose from the various companies by shopping around to match you to the best combination of competitive pricing, appropriate coverage, and dedicated service.
Bodily Injury Liability. Your policy will usually show coverage limits for bodily injury liability. For example, it could be $50,000/$100,000. This means that if you were to be at fault in a car accident, your policy would pay up to $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury for whoever you injure.
Property damage. If you have split limits, there will be another number to indicate the property damage limit. This coverage is very self explanatory. It pays to fix whatever you damage in a car accident. This is most commonly another vehicle, but could be anything such as a fence, a power pole, or even a house.
UM/UIM. Uninsured and under-insured motorist coverage. If somebody else causes a car accident that you are involved in, their policy would pay for your bodily injury. But what if they don’t have insurance? Or, what if they don’t have enough insurance coverage to cover your bodily injury? That is where this coverage comes in.
Example: you are in your car by yourself and are hit by another driver. You are injured and your bodily injury costs reach $150,000. The driver that hit you has an auto insurance policy that has $100,000/$300,000 split limits. The most their policy is going to pay for you injuries is $100,000. After they pay that amount, your own policy would step in and pay up to its limit under the UIM section of the policy.
State Minimum. Each state has different insurance laws, but they all have a “state minimum” liability limits. For example, Illinois' is $25,000/$50,000/$25,000. These are the lowest limits of liability allowed. This is important to note for a couple reasons:
First, knowing that there are drivers with limits this low is a good reason to make sure your uninsured and under insured motorist limits are high enough to cover a serious accident in the event you need it.
Second, knowing how much auto accidents can cost is a good reason to make sure you have much higher limits than the state minimum. If someone that has the minimum limits causes a serious accident, they could potentially be paying for it for the rest of their lives. There is absolutely no reason to have low liability limits. It’s too risky.
Coverage for your own car (full coverage)
Comprehensive. Coverage for damage to your own car is optional. The only exception is if you have a loan on your car, the bank will most likely require you to carry full coverage on it to protect their financial interest in the vehicle. It covers your car for everything other than a collision like fire, flood, theft, etc. Even though it is a collision, collision with an animal is covered under the comprehensive section.
Comprehensive also covers windshield repair and replacement. There are always falling objects that could hit your windshield. It happens more often if you live in or drive through places where there is a lot of construction happening.
Collision. Collision coverage covers damage to your own car in an at-fault accident. If you are involved in a AT-FAULT accident and don’t have this coverage for your car there will be NO coverage to repair or replace it. If you don’t have this coverage, but are involved in a NOT at-fault accident, the at fault party’s policy will pay to repair or replace your car under their property damage section.
If an uninsured driver causes an accident, this coverage will still pay to repair or replace your car, minus the deductible.
UMPD. What if you elect to not have a full coverage policy for your car, and you are hit by someone that does not have insurance? That’s where this coverage comes in. UMPD (there is often a small deductible applied) stands for "uninsured motorist property damage". It simply covers damage to your car caused by an uninsured driver.
Towing/Roadside Assistance. These two coverages are often combined. They will cover up to the policy limit, a tow and/or roadside assistance. Whether it's a dead battery, empty gas tank, a flat tire, etc… They will cover it all. It is a convenient coverage that is very inexpensive.
Rental Car Coverage. Your auto Insurance policy also has the option to have rental car coverage. If your car is damaged in an accident, the company will pay for a rental car while your own car is being worked on. There is a policy limit to this as well. It will have a per day limit as well as an overall payout limit. For example, they might pay up to $40 per day and $1,200 total for a rental car. This is also a relatively inexpensive coverage.
Deductible. An auto insurance deductible is what you pay “out of pocket” on a claim. Comprehensive and collision are the two most common coverages that include deductibles. You may also have a deductible for personal injury protection or uninsured/underinsured motorist property damage in some states.
