Carrollton Car Insurance
Carrollton is a big city that feels a lot like a small town. This is why residents of Carrollton, Texas take so much pride in their community.
With endless shopping centers, no income tax, a fair cost of living, low crime rates, and future job growth projected at 42.40 percent, Carrollton is a great place to call home.
Living in any city or Texas suburb comes with some rules. Not only must you love the American football, you also must abide by state auto insurance laws. Owning a vehicle that's registered to be driven on public roads must be insured by a carrier licensed to do business in Texas.
If you're not familiar with Texas insurance code, here's what you should know:
What are the insurance requirements in Texas?
There are two types of state in this country: tort states and no-fault states.
In tort states, when you cause damages to someone operating a motor vehicle, it's your legal duty to pay for those damages. In no-fault states, anyone who suffers injuries will file a claim against their own policy to be compensated. As you might already know, Texas is a tort state.
Anyone living in Carrollton or any other area of Texas must comply with auto insurance laws to legally have a vehicle registration.
Unlike some other states, you need to furnish proof of insurance just to register a vehicle. Once the vehicle is registered, a minimum amount of liability insurance must remain active at all times.
How much insurance do you need to have?
You're only required to carry coverage to pay for the damages that you cause. This is called third-party liability coverage. Any first-party coverage that you buy to pay for your vehicle or your medical bills is considered optional in the eyes of Texas state officials.
Third-party coverage consists of both Bodily Injury (BI) and Property Damage Liability (PD).
BI specifically pays for medical expenses and transport when you or a driver in your home causes an accident and there are injured claimants. PD then pays for the cost to repair vehicle damage or to replace property that's not owned by you.
You can't choose just any limit when you're building your policy. You must carry at least a minimum amount of coverage to satisfy the law. In fact, you're not able to carry less than the requirements when you buy coverage through a licensed carrier.
In Texas, you can carry no less than:
- BI: $30,000 per person, up to $60,000 per accident
- PD: $25,000 per accident
- Limits are written 30/60/25 on your policy
What happens if you don't have insurance in Texas?
If you've registered your car in Texas, be sure you've switched your policy or you could be penalized.
Failing to make the switch or to maintain continuous coverage can be not just risky, it can also become very expensive. That's because the justice system is targeting uninsured drivers to combat the problem.
Penalties vary dramatically from state to state. Some states only assess fines and others assess other non-monetary penalties that can really make life hard. If you're found guilty of driving without insurance in Texas, here are some of the major consequences:
- Fine between $175 to $350 for the first offense
- Fine between $350 and $1000 for second offense
- Suspension of license for second offense
- Suspension of registration for second offense
- Impoundment of vehicle for 180 days plus an impound fee of $15 per day on second offense
How is auto insurance verified in Texas?
If you live in Carrollton, you can still be fined for being uninsured even when you haven't been cited by Texas officials.
That's because the state has a unique and intelligent vehicle insurance verification system called TexasSure. This verification system makes it possible for the Department of Motor Vehicles to verify coverage for lapses real-time.
Like other electronic verification systems, the TexasSure database connects insurance companies, law enforcement agencies and departments of transportation to ensure that people who're driving without insurance can be caught as soon as possible.
The program will also help prevent the use of fraudulent ID cards.
What other types of coverage are available to Texans with vehicles?
You're required to buy basic liability coverage that pays for third-party medical expenses, car repair, car rental, and punitive damages, but what about coverage for yourself?
Liability coverage does protect your assets and wages, but that doesn't help you recoup from a loss when you have hospital bills or auto body repair bills.
If you want additional coverage, there is first-party protection available.
The coverage options that pay for your bills are optional but they are necessary if you can't afford to recover from a loss paying money out of your own pocket. Here are some of the coverage options:
- Physical Damage
Physical damage coverage, while it sounds similar to Property Damage, it's exactly the opposite. Instead of paying for someone else's vehicle, physical damage coverage pays to repair your own.
Physical damage consists of comprehensive and collision coverage. You'll either have a comprehensive-only policy or a full coverage policy with both options. Collision pays for damage caused in a crash or when the vehicle overturns.Comprehensive pays for other non-collision losses like fire, theft, and vandalism.
While it's not required under the insurance code, full coverage very well might be required if you have a lease or lending contract. That's because lenders and lessors require that the collateral on the loan has protection until the contract has been paid off. You'll also need to add the entity to the policy with a loss payee clause.
- Personal Injury Protection
Even though Texas is a tort state, you're still able to purchase no-fault coverage for an additional premium. This coverage is called Personal Injury Protection and it pays for reasonable medical expenses and other things like lost wages. By law, all Texas insurers must offer at least $2500 in Personal Injury Protection.
- Uninsured Motorist Protection
Even though insurance is the law, there are still people in the state who drive uninsured.
These uninsured motorists put everyone on the road at risk because they don't have the liability coverage to pay for damages that they cause.Uninsured Motorist Protection (UM) helps fill in the gap.
By carrying UM, your policy will pay on a per person and per accident basis if you're injured in an accident and the at-fault driver didn't have insurance. The coverage also kicks in when the other driver doesn't have enough coverage to pay for all of your bills.
- Uninsured Motorist Physical Damage
If you don't want to pay for repairs or you don't want to pay for your deductible after a loss with an uninsured driver, you can also carry what's called UMPD. UMPD pays either $3500 for repairs or waives your deductible if you have collision coverage.
Do you really need Uninsured Motorist coverage?
You might not think it makes sense to protect yourself against people who're breaking the law, but it is a coverage to really consider. Throughout the state of Texas, about 13.3 percent of the drivers don't have coverage.
The state as a whole ranks 19th in the nation for the rate of uninsured drivers.
If you sit down and look at the number of vehicles located throughout Texas, there is some serious risk of getting into an accident with a driver who doesn't have liability insurance.
In Carrollton alone, almost 17,000 drivers don't have coverage if you do the math. That's why you should consider UM and UMPD coverage options.
How are your auto insurance rates calculated?
The average expenditure for coverage in the state is $895.44 per year.
While averages do help you budget, no one pays the same rate for coverage. Rates are based on risk factors and how likely you are to file a claim. Some of the different factors that are considered include:
- Years of driving experience
- Age, gender, and marital status
- Credit history and credit-based insurance score
- Accident history
- Motor Vehicle Record
- Vehicle type and safety record
- Driving habits
- Annual mileage
- Zip code of your primary address
- Coverage types of limits
The only effective way that you can go about pricing the cost of auto insurance is to get rate quotes.
You can do this by using online quoting systems or by contacting insurers directly. If time is of the essence, the best tactic is to use an online rating system that connects you with dozens of insurers at once.