Other than your owner’s manual, your auto insurance policy is the most important document to understand in your car. You might not spend a whole lot of time thinking about your insurance policy, but you will need it if you ever get into an accident, or have to file a claim for any reason. Knowing the details of your 
policy will let you rest assured that a claim will be accepted and processed. Additionally, knowing how it all works can help you be sure that you aren’t paying for more coverage than you need.
Personal Injury Protection
The most important part of your insurance policy is your PIP amounts. A good policy will have coverage in the range of 100,000/300,000. This means that your insurance policy will cover 100,000 dollars of medical bills per each injured person in your car and up to 300,000 dollars total. You can get more, or less, but this is a good place to be in general.
Comprehensive
If a tree branch falls down and hits your car, or a thief breaks into your car and steals something that was inside, are you covered? If you don’t have comprehensive insurance, you won’t be covered for that loss. So, make sure that are not leaving your possessions to chance—especially if you have to leave your car on a street at night.
If you used a bank loan to purchase your car, chances are good they’ll require that you carry collision insurance for the life of the loan. But if your car is older, or you don’t have a loan, you can cut comprehensive to save money on insurance. If you choose to do this, never leave valuables in your car, and hope those tree branches keep to themselves!
Collision
If your car is worth less than about $4,000, you can skip collision insurance. But if you have a newer or more expensive car, you should really have collision insurance. This type of insurance is what pays for the repairs on your car if you should cause an accident. This means that you won’t have to come up with the repair money out of pocket—you just pay your deductible and the insurance company will handle the rest.
How To Lower Your Premium
Part of understanding your policy is understanding why you pay the amount you do. Did you know that you could lower your premium by having anti-lock brakes, or airbags? Another great way to lower your premium is to increase your deductible. This is the amount of money that you have to pay out of pocket for any damages that occur to your car. For example, a 1,000 dollar deductible would require you to pay the first 1,000 dollars worth of damages before insurance kicks in. And of course, the fewer accidents and tickets you rack up, the less you pay for your insurance. Typically, a ticket or accident stays on your record for three years, and after that it won’t effect your rate.
Prior to hitting the road for your next trip, you should take a few minutes to get acquainted with your auto policy. It will help you understand what is covered and if you’re content with your amount of coverage. If you find your coverage lacking, you can take time prior to your trip to make adjustments so that you are truly taken care of should anything happen. Of course, one of the most important things you can do to improve you insurance experience is to get multiple quotes so that you feel comfortable with the rate you’re getting.
Photo credit: Our new car! by starshaped/flickr
Author Stephen Anderson is an insurance consultant who strongly suggests that you search online to Compare Auto Insurance Rates to make certain you get the best possible deal these days.
The General Car Insurance is just one example of the providers available for comparison.