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im not sure exactly what the title name is
Well, you need to be, because that and only that determines ownership (in the US, at least).
See Wikipedia: Vehicle title
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You are talking about spending about a third of all your money on a car and committing to do so for the next 4 years.
As an 18 year-old you have a tidy disposable income and few expenses. But the one thing that is certain is that your circumstances will change, even over the next 4 years.
It is a terrible idea.
As a simple example, you could:
a) buy ...
106
I think the key to this question is your last sentence, because it's applicable to everyone, high net-worth or not:
How would one determine whether they are better off without insurance?
In general, insurance is a net good when the coverage would prevent a 'catastrophic' event. If a catastrophic event doesn't happen, oh well, you wasted money on ...
102
Negotiation 101, never be the first to say a number.
You tell them you have a $300,000 limit and magically they want $300,000. Alternatively, they may just assume you carry the minimum.
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The answer is YES. The responses saying no are so wrong it isn't even funny. How do I know - I used to do tech work for a repair shop and saw all of the inner-goings.
A shop is a preferred shop because they will repair the car basically as cheaply as possible. They have to abide by certain things or they will lose their "certified repair shop" status. ...
72
Having worked in insurance, I can give you a few pointers.
Firstly, state that you "may have to complain". Insurers hate complaints because they really complicate matters, are loads of work and must be tracked. I would advise not actually escalating it to a complaint until later as this may cause a delay as the actual process is quite convoluted. Mentioning ...
71
Yes, and the math that tells you when is called the Kelly Criterion.
The Kelly Criterion is on its face about how much you should bet on a positive-sum game.
Imagine you have a game where you flip a coin, and if heads you are given 3 times your bet, and if tails you lose your bet. Naively you'd think "great, I should play, and bet every dollar I have!" -- ...
70
There are several aspects to this but at a high level it boils down to
To some extent the insurer has fixed costs.
Underwriters apparently think there is a marginal decrease in risk for each marginal mile driven.
In the case of comprehensive coverage the car is being covered whether or not it's being driven, insurers are about to get pummeled with flood ...
62
I think I understand where JonathanReez is coming from owing to the fact that the Canadian province of British Columbia, along with Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec have nationalized car insurance.
So one can make a comparison to single-payer healthcare. Everybody pays the government for health insurance. If you slip on a rug at home the government pays ...
58
It isn't just GEICO that tells you this, every US car insurance company instructs their customers to not mention the amount of coverage.
Your job is not to negotiate. Your job is to collect the specified information and to hand the claim process over to the insurance company. That is also why they tell you not to admit fault.
When you start discussing the ...
54
Personal experience-
I did the math. I had enough. I bought the car. I LOVED that car. I had FUN.
Nothing went wrong. I paid everything I had to as it was due. Luck was on my side.
At the end of 5 years it was paid off. I had a 5 year old car.
My buddy had a similar job paying about 10% less. He didn't buy the car. Instead, he bought a cheap ...
53
I assume this happens to everyone in the US, and I believe the reason is simply due to competition. Here are my data points:
I was with Allstate for 17 years, and the rates were pretty consistent for a long time, then about 6 years ago every 6 months my rate would go up slightly. After 2-3 years of that I called and I asked why? I was told it was due to the ...
51
There are 2 maxims that help make sense of insurance:
never insure anything you can afford to replace
always insure anything you can't afford to lose
Following those 2 rules, "normal" insurance makes sense. Can't afford to replace your car? insure it. Can afford to lose your TV? Don't insure it.
People with a net worth in the low millions have very ...
48
To expand on riya’s answer...
When the other driver is at fault, their insurance is the one responsible for covering any claims. You have 3 broad choices at this point:
Pay out of pocket for your repair and skip any claims.
Claim against your insurance, get your repair covered, and let them process the claim against the other person’s insurance.
Submit a ...
38
The answer, of course, is "no" to the Audi. But you already knew that.
I applaud your willingness to ask the question.
Here is a decent article: Opinion: The road to riches is this simple: Drive a crappy car
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You should start by making a written complaint to the insurance company itself. You have two angles of attack:
What was discussed when she was sold the policy. Make sure you set out exactly what you believe you were told and highlight that they didn't ask about commuting (assuming that's the case). Ask them to preserve any recordings they have of the call ...
answered Jun 20 '17 at 20:56
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There is a kind of insurance like this, for people who don't own a car but nonetheless want to be covered for any car they drive, for example when renting a car or borrowing a friend's car. This kind of insurance goes under a couple of different names. When I first got it over 10 years ago, it was called "no-name insurance". But when I did a web ...
36
If the loan is unsecured, then you own the car.
If the loan was secured on the car, and you lost, sold or destroyed the car, you would have to repay the loan. Since it's not, you get to keep the debt until you pay it off, regardless of whether you still have the car or not.
36
I'm not aware of one's personal liability in an accident being in any way limited by personal assets
But in effect it is, because of bankruptcy (debts well beyond your assets can be wiped out). The guideline you asked about can be understood from two key points:
Bankruptcy is not the end of the world. It is inconvenient and stressful, but sets a limit on ...
34
(Edit: answered before "What if I have my own insurance?" was added to the question.)
Is that true?
Yes, because you'd be someone who lives with her, and who can drive. You'd have implicit permission to drive her vehicles.
Thus, the insurance company will have to take into account that another (and presumably young and inexperienced) person in the ...
28
First you should understand the basics of how insurance companies make money:
In a simple scenario, assume 1,000 have car insurance. Assume that on average, 100 people have accidents per year, and that each accident costs $10,000. So, we can expect total costs to be $1,000,000 per year. Some of those costs will be paid by the drivers, who have some sort of '...
27
In general leasing requires you to have an insurance policy that meets certain criteria (such as the policy being comprehensive).
However, in the event that the vehicle is written off the insurance company will give you (their belief of) the value of the vehicle at the time, less any excess, whereas the leasing company will expect you to give them (their ...
26
Not all miles carry the same amount of risk. A survey by Progressive indicated that accidents are most likely to occur within 5 miles of home, and 77% of accidents occur within 15 miles of home. Only 1% of accidents occurred 50 or more miles from home. That's from 2002, but it seems unlikely to have changed much. Since the miles closest to your home carry ...
26
Let's look at your examples one by one:
driving a friend's car
Your friend's insurance would likely cover you instead of your own
If I was on vacation driving a rental car
Many, but not all, insurance policies cover cars you rent by the insured drive. You can also get insurance for a fee from the rental company. A 3rd option, is that some credit cards ...
24
Most of this content is gleaned from Geico's website:
There is no need to notify the insurance company about this situation, however there are some rules and liabilities to be aware of before you lend the car to someone. In case of an accident, your insurance will be used meaning YOUR deductible and, if damages exceed your coverage, you could be liable for ...
24
The point of insurance is to trade high variable costs for much lower fixed costs. The question isn't whether you can afford what would be a catastrophic event for anyone else, but whether it would be better to pay a small amount regularly vs. a possibly larger amount occasionally.
One of the reasons to buy insurance is to avoid costly litigation (rich ...
answered Mar 20 '17 at 14:58
NL - Apologize to Monica
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Source: I worked as an IT consultant for a major US multi-line insurance company, working on policy rating - Property and Casualty.
A few notes:
You can't simply remove your wife if she ever drives; she needs to be insured. She may need to be insured if she doesn't drive, but has a driver's license. She will be if she's a named owner of any of the vehicles ...
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You must pay every dollar of the value of the car as agreed to on the lease. Period.
Some people carry insurance. This insurance will pay out based on the insurance policy. The usual default is that the insurance will buy you a non-smashed used car of comparable make, model, age and trim options. Minus any deductibles.
Note that these are two ...
answered Jun 9 '19 at 18:58
Harper - Reinstate Monica
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The car is most certainly in your mom's name, and as such she is the owner. This is an easy thing to find out, look at the registration that should be in your glove box. Being that she is the owner she can do what she wants with the car, and that may include preventing you from driving it. Another resource to tap, is a police officer. You can ask the ...
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