Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Should You Buy Uninsured Motorists Coverage?

Uninsured motorist coverage protects you if you’re in an accident with an uninsured driver; underinsured coverage protects you if you’re in an accident with someone who doesn’t have enough insurance to cover your injuries. Both coverages are personal and portable and cover you whether you’re injured as a pedestrian, on a bike or in your car.

Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage could cover medical bills, lost wages from missed work and other related expenses. Try to purchase a relatively high level of coverage if possible.

You can also stack coverage.

An example of stacking is Jim has limits of $100,000/$300,000 for his uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage and is insuring 2 vehicles. If he leaves them "unstacked" Jim's limits would stay at $100,000/$300,000. If Jim instead chooses to "stack" his UMBI coverages then his limits would double to $200,000/$600,000.

Since "stacking" is the application of more than one policy limit to the same loss or occurrence, if you only have one vehicle on your policy than there would not be coverage to stack. With a single car policy there is not multi-coverage to stack thus no benefit since this option would not be available to you.Ask your agent if you can stack policies.