Your Insurance Answers

By Joseph Welusz

With the price of gas rising, a lot of people are looking for better ways of commuting more than ever, more commuters are beginning to car pool or use public transit. Many urbanites rely only on public transit and taxis to get around throughout the city; when they go on longer trips they rent vehicles. There are now at least 20 US cities where car-sharing clubs have been started. If you are a club member you can rent a club owned automobile hourly. This gives people who seldomly need a automobile access to a automobile without having to purchase, maintain or store one while living in the city.

This is great until something happens. What are the consequences if someone has an accident while using one of these automobiles? Who is responsible to pay for injuries or damage?

The driver will most likely think that the club has insurance to pay for any accidents that occur, and that’s possible. Although, relying on the club’s insurance is risky:

* It’s out of your control if the club is late with a payment and unknowingly has no coverage.
* Your particular automobile may not be covered under the policy if it was not on the original policy. There is no guarantee that the club’s policy will automatically cover a newly acquired automobile.
* A policy condition might have been overlooked by the club, giving the insurance company amble reason to deny the claim.
* The policy itself may not include coverage to you for this particular type of loss.
* The policy may have low limits possibly to low to fully cover the loss.

As a car club member you most likely have no control over the amount and/or terms of the club’s insurance policy, nor will you have any say if claim arises. You run into the same issues if you rent a car or borrow a friends. As odd as it may sound, you should consider buying your own Discount Auto Insurance policy.

There are special Non-owners policies you can purchase from most large insurance companies. This type of policy provides car coverage to specifically named persons in the policy when they use an automobile they don’t personally own.

If you own an automobile and have a policy this coverage is already in place for you, but if you don’t own an automobile you will need to purchase this special coverage. The policy will include the following coverages for named individuals:

* Liability Coverage (injuries or property damage)
* Coverage for Medical Payments
* Coverage for Uninsured or Underinsured Motorists

Each state offers their own coverage requirements, so make sure to ask your insurance agent when getting free insurance quotes about this coverage where you live. If you happen to purchase an automobile, the policy usually provides these coverages automatically for up to 2 weeks.

It’s critical that you know the insurance this policy offer only goes into effect after the automobile owner’s coverage is exhausted. Also remember only specifically named persons are covered not all family members unless they are specifically named on the policy. This policy doesn’t include any type of coverage for damage to the automobile you are driving. When speaking to your insurance agent they can explain all the available options. Since the policy only offers limited coverage the cost may be considerably inexpensive.

When you are driving a car you are always at risk, whether the driver borrows, rents or owns the Vehicle. Be sure to have the coverage in place encase of a large financial liability loss.

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