Thanks… I don’t have any assets, how ever I have a immaculate driving record and I own my older vehicles, and after full research and discussion with USAA I got my 6 month premium down to 886.00 , three vehicles. Thanks for your help.
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We pay 653 per 6 months, 0 comprehensive deductible, collision of 1k deductible, 150/300k coverage. 2 2017 cars. American Family. Not saying you can get a better deal, just offering my cost.
Shell shock every time I go to buy stuff, Needed new print cartridges and paper. Don’t do much, but print cartridges $35 each, got Office max of 4 colors for $69. Paper was $20 or so a ream, I was surprised. Course 20 years ago it was only $6 a ream and 15 per cartridge. Wonder what it will be like 20 years from now when I need to resupply.
Don’t worry, the printers down there are always jammed…
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Are you saying the name of the assurance company you use is “American Family”?
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You may not have current assets but you may have future assets and future income that can be attached.
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Sure, and if a person with minimal income/assets is hit with a judgment, the most logical response would be to declare bankruptcy, thus eliminating any further liability for that judgment. Only a fool would allow the judgment to accrue interest, and watch their wages be garnished for years on end to repay a debt which could easily be discharged in bankruptcy.
Also, most reasonable people insure for risks that they expect might happen, not for remote risks which probably will never happen. It is fairly common to see accidents which involve little or no injury, and just involve property damage. It is much less common to see accidents which involve major injury, and rarer still to see accidents which result in death or permanent injury. Similarly, cars worth $5k or less are extremely common, cars worth $5k to $20k are very common, cars worth $20k to $50k are somewhat common, but cars worth $100k or more are quite rare.
How much insurance coverage is reasonable for a person of low-to-moderate income? That is actually a very good question, and one which we should probably discuss here.
I currently have three vehicles–a 2004 Toyota Corolla, a 2002 Daewoo Lanos, and a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado. All three have the same policy limits of $50,000 bodily injury to one person/$100,000 bodily injury liability per accident, $50,000 property damage per accident, uninsured/underinsured motorist of $50,000 per person/$100,000 per accident, and $5,000 per person medical payments (to cover the injuries of myself/my family regardless of fault). The Corolla still has comprehensive and collision coverage since it’s worth over $3,000. For this, I pay about $950 every 6 months.
I have no idea if most people would consider this level of insurance adequate or not, however it’s not worth it to me to pay a lot more money for higher policy limits which would probably never be needed. In the unlikely event that we are involved in an accident with somebody driving a super-expensive car, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the burden is on them to pay for sufficient insurance to cover their car. Sure, they could attempt a judgment, but the generous homestead exemption here protects my house, and if they attempted to garnish my wages, I’d pull out the Chapter 7 trump card.
Not to mention there’s not a lawyer around who’d take a case to sue someone with no assets. They are what’s called “Judgment Proof”.
Think about the level of coverage you’d like the other party to have should you become the victim of a life changing accident that “probably” won’t happen.
I’ll have to edit my comments a little. Regardless of what levels you have, I think one should take responsibility for negligence and damages they may cause. For most of us that means having insurance to fill the gap between what we can pay and what the damage may be. So if you feel good about filing bankruptcy to avoid a judgement, I just can’t help you.
Now I just got my statement for one of the cars. My limits are $100,000 and $300,000 but of course have an umbrella policy if damages go beyond that. My deductible is $250. My 6 month premium is $190, but looking more closely, I have about $200 in discounts such as multi-car, accident free, and so on. So without the discounts the premium would be about $400.
Declaring bankruptcy is certainly an option, but it’s not one you particularly want to take. It’ll be nigh impossible to get a loan for anything for at least 7 years after you declare, so unless you can pay cash for a car, you’d better hope whatever heap you’re driving doesn’t die on you. You’d also better hope you don’t get evicted or your landlord doesn’t raise the rent beyond your ability to pay, because getting a lease or a mortgage when you have a bankruptcy on your record is much harder than if you didn’t.
And your credit rating can affect your employability. Many employers will run a credit check, and if yours sucks they will pass on hiring you to guard against the possibility of you stealing from them to cover the bills. Whether you’re actually a thief or not, having bad credit will make employers assume you might be one.
What you see in the real world and what you see on the plaintiff’s complaint are sometimes two different things. You ram someone from behind, you’ve got a good shot at getting sued for giving them whiplash whether you gave it to them or not. A PI attorney I knew a long time ago used to like to boast about how he had a string of “whore doctors” who would get on the stand and say whatever he wanted them to say. And plaintiff’s attorney is working on commission. Yours is not. Plaintiff’s attorney is very motivated to kick your butt, and if you can’t afford proper insurance coverage, you almost certainly can’t afford a lawyer that’s good enough to handle the average PI attorney.
We don’t agree often, but we do agree here. If you’re going to drive a multi-thousand-pound death machine on public roads, you have a responsibility to mitigate the potential harm you cause. First step is not driving like an idiot, but second step is making sure your victims are taken care of if you have a lapse on that first step.
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Yeah I agree with everything else but during the crazy 2008 period, bankers were actually saying that a bankruptcy was a positive somewhat. Why? Because you were not allowed to file for another one for a few years so they were somewhat protected. World upside down and all that. 