5 Coverages You Didn’t Know Your Car Insurance Covered for Your Family

Kevin Gardner
3 min readAug 10, 2017

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Surprising is not the way you want to describe car insurance, it often conjures negative images. Things like rate increases come to mind. However, not all surprises that involve car insurance are negative. No surprise could be better than one that saves you money. There are actually a number of things that may be covered by your auto insurance that you did not even know about. Here are just five of them.

1. Loss of Work Wages After an Accident

If injuries you sustained from a car accident causes you to miss out on work which resulted in a loss of wages, your car insurance provider should be able to compensate you for the money you lost during your recovery period. This perk is a part of your personal injury protection policy, which can cover your injuries for either you or your passengers, no matter who was at fault.

2. Protection From Earthquakes and Floods

If you add earthquakes and floods to your list of risks covered when renting or owning your vehicle you can be covered if it is affected by these weather conditions. Unfortunately, home insurance doesn’t offer you coverage for earthquakes or floods, but with slight fiddling with your coverages in your auto insurance, you will be able to do so. However, under your auto insurance, your claim check can be reduced by how much your deductible is.

3. Pet Injuries

It’s not uncommon for pets to ride in cars, but, unfortunately, doggie seat belts are. Luckily for you and your pets, pet injury coverage is available through insurance companies like Progressive or Erie and Chubb. This helps you pay for your pet’s injury treatment if they are hurt while riding in your vehicle. However, the average treatment payment limit ranges up to $1,000 per accident.

4. An Auto Collision When Your Friend is Driving Your Vehicle

You may be confused as to who pays for your car repairs if a friend gets into an accident with your car. In this case, their accident claim goes directly onto your record and your insurance provider pays for the damage to your car.

Due to your liability insurance, your insurance provider will pay for the damages to your car or people involved in the accident. However, it has its limits based on your policy, as well as the limit of collision coverage you pay for your car.

This can be an issue, however, when it comes time to renew your insurance for another year. Since your friend’s accident can cause a rate increase when you want to renew your auto insurance, make sure they are trustworthy enough to be using your vehicle. Otherwise, you will be spending a lot of time finding the cheapest car insurance. Know your responsibilities when you hand over the keys to other members of your family or your friends in general.

5. Street Parking

If you live in a city and frequently park your car on the street, you run the risk of damage from other drivers, bad weather, and even riots. It does not matter if a few sports fans are getting rowdy or a peaceful protest turns less peaceful. Your car insurance will help to cover any damage done during the riot. Riot related damage and vandalism are often covered if you have comprehensive car insurance. This can include things like broken windows, dents, scratches, and more.

However strange or improbable the cause of the damage, you should always check with your car insurance to see if it is covered in your policy. You may be surprised at all that your insurance policy covers. After all, if you assume your coverage will not pay for the damage, you may miss out on the financial aid you need and are entitled to.

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Kevin Gardner
Kevin Gardner

Written by Kevin Gardner

Kevin Gardner graduated with a BS in Computer Science and an MBA from UCLA. He works as a business consultant for InnovateBTS

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