Getting A Car Insurance - Decide Whether You Need Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Protection

For one thing, uninsured motorist coverage also protects you against drivers who have less insurance than they really need. This is an important consideration, since many states set the car insurance bar quite low. For instance, some states require drivers to have just $5,000 to $10,000 worth of property damage protection in place. If one of those drivers hits your brand new $30,000 car, you could be in trouble without that extra protection.

Then there are the drivers who simply do not carry insurance coverage at all. Even though the states have made it somewhat difficult to register a car or renew a vehicle registration without proof of insurance, there are plenty of drivers who find a way around a well-intentioned but still imperfect system. Sometimes those drivers buy insurance from one of those companies that sells coverage month to month, keeping that coverage in place just long enough to get the tags for their cars. Then they drop their insurance coverage and go on about their merry way - leaving all the drivers on the road at risk.

No matter how they pull it off, the fact is that at any one time you are sharing the road with hundreds of uninsured, and probably thousands of underinsured, drivers. Some insurance company estimates put the percentage of uninsured drivers as high as 20 to 25 percent, certainly not an insignificant figure. If those figures are to be believed, that means that if you are in an accident you stand a one in four to one in five chance that the driver of the other vehicle does not have any insurance coverage at all. The chances of the other driver being underinsured are even greater, and that is still more reason to buy the extra protection you need. 

Fortunately, coverage for uninsured and underinsured motorists tends to be quite inexpensive, so adding that coverage may not boost your premium as much as you fear. If you already have this coverage in place, you can see its exact cost by looking at the declaration page on your latest policy renewal document. Chances are that you will find that this coverage is inexpensive enough to make it very worthwhile.

So if you have been thinking about dropping your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage to save a few bucks on your premiums, just take a look around next time you are out on the road. Then consider that 20 to 25 percent of the drivers you pass do not have the insurance protection they need.