When to drop collision?

[Dianol]

At what value should you consider dropping collision/comprehensive insurance on a vehicle and just keeping liability? I'm sorta looking for a consensus opinion here. $2500 ? $4000 ? $ ????

Thoughts? Opinions?

Thanks

Dianne

[Mike in Pa]

Depends on the vehicle and your income. I hate the extra payments. When mine was paid off, I ran "full" coverage for another year or so then dropped to liability. I don't like turning it in unless it is really worth it because it's a strike against you and they can drop you or raise your rates, not to mention the deductible. In my mind, I prefer to save the premiums. If another person hits you, they'll pay anyway.

[Rocky Fields]

Hey.

I'd think twice in light of the severe weather you've had recently. You've got to think if you'd rather pull hundreds more out of your pocket for the insurance, or thousands more for another car.

RF

[Jerngen]

I drop mine once I am able to replace the vehicle with money from savings should the unthinkable happen. For us right now that number is around $2500. We then get plpd plus comp (which covers you if you hit a deer etc of which there are many up here).

[hengal]

Well I'll tell you. DH and I ran into a problem with this issue and actually are still dealing with it. Our oldest son, 19 at the time, was involved in a very bad 12 car accident on the insterstate coming home for the weekend from school. The police sited one man who was responsible for the entire pile up. This guy's insurance coverage was for only $25,000 and here he was responsible for fixing 11 other vehicles.
Since collision is so very expensive to carry for both our boys ( the youngest 18), we've only carried liability on their cars since they've been driving. (they certainly don't drive new cars) Well of course, the insurance company for this guy still has not paid anyone out for damages. We were told by the company it would be best to pursue reimbursement from our own collision policy. Well, I know some people did just that. We do not have that option. My son's car was totaled and we had to buy another (used) car for him shortly after this happened, as he had to have a way to get back and forth from school. So, thats our story. Yes we really could have used it, but at least we are going to get our money back on the loss of the car. We gave it to our tax guy who claimed it on our taxes as property loss, so that at least we are able to get back the money we spent on the second car.
DS graduates from college in a few weeks - already has a job lined up which is good - the insurance bill is being turned over to him!! It's just so expensive to insure teenage boys.

[jerzeygurl]

as my dh is a autobody repairman we drop it as soon as vehicle is paid off

I would say if you have enough in the bank to cover the cost to replace vehicle in question i would drop to liability

[newfieannie]

you know, it pays to read these threads. I was about to drop my collision. I figured if I owned my veh. I wasn't required to have this. I guess I'm not but I wouldn't want to come up with 40k again. I just didn't know enough about this until now. Georgia.

[pancho]

Any time you can invest the amount of money that the vehicle is worth it is alright to drop collision. If you have to use it you will have the money. If you never use it you will have a small investment that will grow.
The mistake many make is to drop collision and not save back enough money to replace the vehicle.

[anniew]

I've only had collision for one year in my many years of driving, and that was the year I bought a new car. If you must have a new car every couple of years, I guess it pays, but I only ever bought that one new vehicle, and probably never will again. I usually have two vehicles (right now a 2001 Saturn and a 1998 pickup), so I always have alternate transportation if something should happen to one.
I would think I have saved enough to pay for a used car over the years.
I don't have any dependents and believe that most insurance is betting against yourself.
Ann

[amelia]

Aside from the value of the car and one's income, it also depends upon one's individual tolerance for risk. Take me, for example. I'm about as risk averse as you can get. I'd gladly pay a predictable premium for the certainty that I will not have any rude financial surprises. This is true even though over time I'd have saved money by self-insuring. The way I see it, the emotional toll of unpredictability has its own cost.

[paulaswolfpack]

collision does not cover severe weather its comp you need for hail and tornadoes,paula

[Jenn]

Another approach is when the insurance company will probably say "this car is worth only $3000 so we will 'write it off' (pay you that much) rather than fix it which would cost more" especially if you pay an extra $500/year to get that $3000 on the off chance you're wrecked.

THink we still have collision on all our cars since even the old one is still worth about $8K- time to think about dropping it on that, but maybe not until a few years after DD starts driving...

[ET1 SS]

I have owned vehicles since 1976.

Only one vehicle ever had comprehensive coverage, and that was because I bought it new. I will never do that again.

Our vehicles get the bare minimum required by the nation we are in at the time. No more than that.

[beorning]

Insurance is, essentially, legalized gambling. You're betting that you'll need to make a claim that will justify the expense of premiums. The insurance company is betting that you won't. The odds are heavily stacked in favor of the insurance companies. If they were not, there wouldn't be any insurance.

We drop collision as soon as we are able to do so. As soon as the vehicle is paid off. The savings is considerable, and the odds are that you won't need to use the insurance anyway.

There are always circumstances where you might be glad you had comprehensive insurance, but when you add up all your premiums, it is pretty rare that it's worth it. Insurance companies also like to do things like write a car off as a total loss when the repair exceeds the book value of the vehicle. With depreciation being what it is, you won't get enough money to replace the vehicle anyway.

[Citiot]

I dropped mine as soon as the car was paid off. Everytime I get another dent I just laugh, it's nice not to have to stress over stupid things.

It depends on how much the insurance costs and how much the car would cost to replace. If 3 years or less worth of collision insurance payments would buy the car then I think the insurance is a bad deal. Once you drop the collision you can put that extra money into savings and create your own insurance fund of sorts.

[PineRidge]

We have full coverage on our van, since it's for family use and I would need a replacement quickly. The value of it is only about $7000, but it's too much for us to come up with in a hurry.

Dh's car is only worth about $2500, so we only carry the minimum required. Even if it was totalled he could use my van until we bought him another.

I will probably always keep full coverage on one vehicle just because we couldn't afford to replace them both.

[Kevingr]

I always carry liabilty (have to), collision and comprehensive. For me I insure 2 cars (one is a 2000, one is a 2005) a boat (liability only) and 2 snowmobiles (liability only) for a mere $900/year. At that cost it's not even worth thinking about dropping collision and comp for me, the real cost is in the liability. Dropping collision and comp barely makes a dent in my bill.

But, as others have said, when you can afford to lose the vehicle and pay for it out of your pocket, then you can drop it if you want. We've had accidents in the past that were not our fault and haven't been able to get paid from the other guys insurance, so don't count on that being your saving grace either.

[momanto]

Used To Only Have Liability Ins. On The Older Car I Had.

Then One Day A Hit And Run Driver Totalled My Car. Guess What, Hit And Run.......because They Had No Ins......i Suffered A Concession. Didnt Know I Had Pip And Went To The Hospital On My Blue Cross/blue Shield Which Paid The Bill. Nowadays, Bc/bs Will Not Do That. When I
Finally Found Out I Had Pip, My Car Ins. Reiumbursed By Hospital Bill And I Used That Money To Pay A Friend Who Fixed The Car......the Hood Had To Be Painted And It Was Always Darker Than The Rest Of The Car.

So Dont Count On Having An Accident And The Other Guy Have To Pay.

[michiganfarmer]

Originally Posted by Dianol

At what value should you consider dropping collision/comprehensive insurance on a vehicle and just keeping liability? I'm sorta looking for a consensus opinion here. $2500 ? $4000 ? $ ????

Thoughts? Opinions?

Thanks

Dianne

I hate care insurance companies. I get rid of any coverage I can as soon as I get a vehicle paid off, and the bank will let me drop full coverage.

Even with full coverage, the insurance companie only pays a depreciated wholesale pay off if the car is totaled. They suck

[Country Doc]

I will mention an experience that makes me keep it, even though I don't need it for a 10 year old truck and 10 year old car. My 19yo son was run off the road by a 16 year old girl who had her license 2 weeks. She changed into his lane when he was in her blind spot. The cops wrote her a ticket. Nobody was seriously injured but his car had a lot of damage and hers was totaled since she then lost control and ran into the woods. Her father was a methodist minister who basically was going to sue us. Both his and our insurance had a mandatory arbitration clause that (as I understand it) would cause him to lose his coverage for the accident if he sued. The arbitrator found in our favor. All of this was handled by the insurance co. with us not even attending the meeting. This was all in a town 100 miles away. (He was driving to college).
So, I keep it to help avoid the lawyers. The time saved makes it worth it to me. I am in Texas and certainly am not a lawyer, but thats how it was explained to me.