Car Insurance: How Much Coverage Is Too Much

Buying car insurance coverage can be a confusing experience for many people, most of whom wind up purchasing more car insurance than they really need when they get full coverage insurance to protect their vehicles and others. Certainly, it is good and reassuring to have auto insurance coverage, and all Canadian provinces require some level of liability insurance to pay for injuries to others and property damage. But buying too much insurance coverage is almost as wasteful as not buying enough.

Full-Coverage Car Insurance Is Not Always Needed

Whenever financing the purchase of a vehicle, the lender will require full coverage insurance with a reasonable deductible amount to protect the loan collateral. But once that vehicle is paid off, maintaining full coverage insurance might not make sense. If the value has depreciated enough, paying for full coverage insurance is not a wise move. Most vehicles worth less than $5,000 don’t warrant full coverage unless they are financed, and insurers will refuse to provide full coverage insurance for vehicles that are worth only $3,000 or so, according to Underwriters Insurance Brokers (BC) Ltd., a provider of auto insurance in Vancouver.

Many Additional Protections Are Not Needed

When buying car insurance in Vancouver or other provinces, a lot of insurance professionals like to talk people into buying additional insurance coverage beyond liability, collision and comprehensive insurance. Most people do not need many additional insurance items, such as rental car insurance, towing coverage, trip interruption and other types of optional insurance protection. Most people have credit cards that provide free rental car insurance coverage, so having additional insurance through an auto insurance policy wastes money.

Trip-Interruption and Towing Not Always Needed

Likewise, trip-interruption insurance is good only for people who travel a lot by car. Those who only drive in town and use airlines, rail and rentals when traveling generally won’t benefit from trip interruption. Towing service also is relatively affordable, but in many cases, the benefit amount does not warrant several years of additional coverage payments. In most cases, a vehicle won’t be towed more than one or two times with a maximum benefit amount of $125 or so per tow and the bill paid up front.

Careful Planning Can Prevent Wasted Cash

When discussing insurance options with insurance producers, people need to ask about policies and the coverage they include. In many instances, they will find additional protections they likely won’t need. Eliminating unwanted coverage will make insurance more effective and more affordable and prevent people from paying for too much car insurance.