That was the highest choice I had through my provider’s app. I might give them a call and see what else I can get.
I have a two million dollar umbrella policy.
The thing is, say I get sued for $100m. It’s great for my victims that I paid extra all these years for $5m in coverage, but I’m going bankrupt either way.
Indeed collision on an older vehicle often doesn’t make sense. And could result in your vehicle prematurely salvaged.
If you have many millions you need much different insurance than normal plebeians.
You want liability protection such that your assets (whether small or large) are unlikely to be impacted by a reasonably foreseeable outcome I.e. $300k of liability covers 55% of likely outcomes vs $3m covering 85%
Check the bogleheads forum for discussions on insurance.
This isn't universally true - I have an umbrella policy with USAA. They require me to have a minimum of coverage on my home and auto to have the umbrella policy, but it's not the maximum they offer. It's a couple tiers down.
Of course, the price for the umbrella policy might depend on your home/auto coverage.
This blend of private/public insurance results in super cheap rates, while keeping injury insurance in place.
Both BC (full public) and Ontario(full private) have higher rates for the same coverage. 2x as much per year.
I do know that I pay almost $400/year* between my license and registration in Quebec which would be ~$0 in Ontario. As well as a lot more for gas.
* I have a "luxury" car because it cost > $50k CAD (about $38k USD) and therefore is so-defined by the province (a Volkswagen). And Montreal imposes extra fees.
But the insurance fees were 1/2 the price when I moved here. I don't know if that has changed a lot?
How much do you pay for car insurance in the US? Mine is 1,200NZD per year, about 730USD
I use Geico and they give a breakdown of the cost per vehicle. My full size pickup is double the cost of my wife's mid-size SUV, which I cannot argue against.
The first dollar in any claim is always paid, the last dollar hardly ever, so the first dollar is worth more. Maximum deductible also reduces the chance you’ll involve insurance at all. Why report a $200 fix when your deductible is $1000?
Comprehensive insurance is for when you CANNOT afford to lose the car. If it would be painful but you’d survive, you probably don’t need it.
As a general rule - You should buy insurance on something when you both 1) have to have it and 2) can't afford to replace it.
Once you can afford to comfortably absorb a loss equal to the value of your car, you should consider dropping collision and comprehensive. For me that's when the car is worth less than around $5k.
I pay ~$50 per month for 5k miles per year for $500k liability coverage and uninsured/underinsured coverage.
But I also have a few million in umbrella coverage, so not sure if it’s even comparable.
Some places have insurance laws that will make people say "wait, car insurance pays for that?"
Also, most of the reason US car insurance is so expensive is due to the cost of healthcare, which is paid for in other ways in many other countries.
It looked identical when they were done, but I ended up getting a check cut for half the value of the new panel because the used one was so much cheaper.
As I was in college at the time, a free $800 made my day.
> insurance companies insisting that shitty used parts were fine
That's not up to the insurance company, because they aren't the ones sourcing the parts or doing the repairs. You go to a body shop that either works directly with the insurance company, or the company cuts you a check in the shops name for the quoted work.
It makes no sense whatsoever to put a brand new body panel on a car that's already lost 70-80% of the MSRP value to depreciation... IF the used parts are not damaged already, and the paint matches. Again, though, that's in the hands of the mechanic, not the insurance company.
Does anyone know how to get higher limits?
Most umbrella policies require you to carry a certain amount of homeowners and auto liability coverage, and then they add additional coverage on top of that. It's relatively cheap (hundreds of dollars per year for millions of dollars of coverage).
The thing about it is: your risk doesn't change because you have extra coverage. All that actuarial work is priced into your base coverage. In fact, they may even have factored in that people willing to voluntarily buy umbrella coverage are a little less risky than their model predicted.
When I originally got my umbrella policy around 10 years ago the cost was about ~$120/year for $2million in coverage. I'm currently paying $183.47/year for $2 million in coverage. Covers myself and my spouse.
It also scaled fairly linearly.
I’m starting to wonder if it’s time to go higher.