Does My Auto Insurance Cover the Kids After They've Moved Out?
Does My Auto Insurance Cover the Kids After They've Moved Out?Parents of teens and young adults know the pattern all too well. A child hits the magic age when he can finally get a learner's permit to drive. After multiple tries, he passes the driving test and gets his license. Mom and Dad open their wallets and tell the insurance company about the new driver. Their insurance policy covers him during high school, while he's in college, and while he's back home. At some point, however, he moves out on his own for good. Maybe he moves to a city with convenient mass transit, and his job doesn't pay well enough for him to buy a car, so he goes without. (
www.loudoun-insurance.com)
One day, he asks out that girl in the accounting department he's been flirting with for a month. Meeting her at a subway stop just won't do, so he grovels at the feet of the best friend with a new set of wheels. The friend, though appalled at the shameless pleading, agrees to lend him the car. Young Romeo picks up his date, pulls out into traffic, and rear-ends a Lexus at the first red light. Flustered, he pops it in reverse and backs hard into the BMW behind him. Two questions immediately come to his mind: 1) Will she still want to go to the movie? and 2) Does he have insurance coverage for this little adventure?
Bad news for Romeo: His date takes a cab home and his friend sort of forgot to pay his car insurance bill; the insurance company cancelled the policy. Then he gets an idea: It hasn't been all that long since he lived with Mom and Dad. Maybe their insurance will pay for the repairs.
Every insurance policy has specific descriptions of who the insurance company will cover. The standard Personal Auto Policy published by the Insurance Services Office says that the person whose name is on the policy and any "family members" have coverage for the ownership, maintenance or use of any auto. Maybe Romeo's in luck.
Maybe not. The policy also has a specific definition of the term, "family member:" A person related to the person named on the policy. The family member must be related by blood, marriage or adoption and must also be a resident of the other person's household. Romeo has moved out of his parents' home, which is why he got the job, met the girl, borrowed the car and had the double dent-fest. Is he still a resident of his parents' household?
Chances are, the insurance company will decide he's not, and it may have the law on its side. A California court ruled in 1975 that an adult son who lived in a separate apartment on his parents' street and who relied on his parents for financial support was not a resident of the parents' household and not entitled to coverage under their auto insurance. (
www.south-riding-insurance.com)
Circumstances may change the answer. Courts have recognized that college students, though they live elsewhere the majority of the year, are still residents of their parents' household. A self-supporting child who lives in her old bedroom and pays rent to her parents also qualifies as a resident.
It's when the move away from home looks permanent that the break in coverage may occur. Even if she doesn't own a car, she should consider buying an auto insurance policy with a special coverage called Named Non-Owner Coverage. This will cover her liability for injuries or damage she may cause while renting or borrowing a car. Coverage will apply after other available insurance (such as the car owner's coverage) is used up.
And, while it wouldn't have salvaged Romeo's date, it would have saved him a whole lot of money. Call us NOVA Insurance Group to discuss further.
Labels: south riding car accidents, south riding car claims, south-riding-car-insurance
Does Your Auto Insurance Policy Cover Your GPS?
Does Your Auto Insurance Policy Cover Your GPS?If you've recently gone somewhere on vacation and your car did not have a Global Positioning System (GPS), you probably wish it did. GPS systems have become increasingly popular as their prices have dropped. Navigationally challenged drivers who used to decipher hard-to-read maps can now rely on these small devices to help them reach their destinations. However, the popularity of GPS devices makes them particularly attractive to thieves. They are also susceptible to damage in car crashes, like any other item in a car. How will an auto insurance policy cover a stolen or damaged GPS?
Unfortunately, standard policies provide little or no coverage for a GPS. Many older policy editions explicitly state that they do not cover losses to any electronic equipment that receives or transmits data signals. A GPS would seem to fall within that description. More recent policy editions may cover electronic equipment, but only if it is permanently installed in the vehicle. These policies provide a small amount of insurance for electronic equipment; $1,000 coverage is typical.
It is often possible to buy additional coverage for GPS devices. Any car owner with equipment worth more than $1,000 should speak with her insurance agent about buying a special policy form. It increases the coverage to a specific amount shown on the form. Typically, insurance companies will not offer more than $5,000 coverage. Check with your Insurance Agent for details. (
www.loudoun-insurance.com)
If the policyholder has an older edition of the policy, she will need a different form to cover a GPS. This form covers sound reproducing equipment; audio, visual and data electronic equipment; and tapes, records and disks while in a vehicle. A GPS device falls within the data electronic equipment category. Coverage applies if the unit is permanently installed in the vehicle or if it is removable from a permanently installed housing unit, designed to be powered solely by the car's electrical system, and in or upon the car at the time of the loss. The form provides coverage for devices in cars the policyholder owns and those she rents or borrows. As with the other form, she can buy coverage in amounts up to $5,000. Check with your Insurance Agent for details. (
www.south-riding-insurance.com)
The additional premium for this coverage is normally small. A approx. rate of $4 for every $100 of coverage is typical. For example, the cost for $2,500 of coverage might be around $100.
As car buyers ask carmakers to add more and more gadgets to cars, insurance coverage for those gadgets will continue to evolve. It is unwise to assume that an insurance policy automatically provides much coverage for these gadgets. All insurance buyers should carefully review their policies and ask their agents questions if GPS coverage is a concern. With a GPS and the right insurance coverage, a driver can be confident that she's going in the right direction.
Call us here, at NOVA Insurance Group, for details.
Labels: Chantilly Car Insurance, fairfax-car-insurance, loudoun auto insurance, south-riding-car-insurance
Timing Is Everything When It Comes to Car Buying
Timing Is Everything When It Comes to Car BuyingYou’ve been eyeing that new car for some time now, and finally your budget gives you the green light to go for it. So should you rush right out to the dealerships in South Riding & Chantilly (20151, 20152, 20153)? Only if you want to pay more than you should.
That’s because finding the best car deal is affected by when you purchase. For the optimum bargaining position, the first thing you need to pay attention to is the time of the month. Both the dealership and its sales personnel have to meet monthly quotas. Shopping just before the month is about to end gives you more leverage because sales figures will soon be turned in for the month. A salesperson that has a slow month will be eager to make a deal to give those figures a last minute boost.
www.loudoun-insurance.comThe second time factor that affects the deal is the season of the year. In early fall, dealerships are anticipating receiving inventories of next year’s models. To make room, they put remaining inventories of the current year’s models on sale. Typically this means taking significant markdowns so they can move the merchandise, which means big savings for you. The other seasonal advantage comes at Christmas time when shoppers are busy buying gifts, not cars. The light showroom traffic makes salespersons anxious to close the deal with a serious shopper.
Even the weather comes into play when you are trying to negotiate. Bad weather is another time when a dealer’s showroom will be empty. That leaves more time for a salesperson to try and make you happy enough to leave the lot the proud owner of a new car.
www.south-riding-insurance.comOf course, timing alone isn’t enough to put you in the driver’s seat without spending a fortune. You also need to do your homework and research prices before you set foot on any showroom floor, many of which are located in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties (Chantilly, South Riding, Ashburn, Leesburg, Sterling, Aldie, Arcola (20107), Stone Ridge & Brambleton (20148)). The Internet is the best place to find the information you need. Call us at NOVA Insurance Group (
http://www.loudoun-insurance.com/ or
http://www.south-riding-insurance.com/) for competitive insurance premiums!
There are three web sites that you can use to research the dealer cost (invoice price), and the manufacturers suggested retail price (MSRP), or list price of the model you’re interested in:
1. Kelley Blue Book (
http://www.kbb.com/)
2. Edmunds (
http://www.edmunds.com/)
3. MSN Autos (
http://www.autos.msn.com/Default.aspx)
Always start your negotiations from the invoice price, not the MSRP.
You can also use Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds to find out what car buyers actually paid for the model in your region, based on your zip code, such as 20151, 20152, 20105, 20147 and 20148. When you are using these sites to research a car model, don’t forget to use the “incentives” tab to see if the manufacturer is offering purchasers any kind of rebate. You can also find a full list of rebates on MSN Autos by logging on to
http://autos.msn.com/home/rebates_all.aspx.
Labels: fairfax-auto-insurance, fairfax-car-insurance, loudoun-auto-insurance, loudoun-car-insurance, south-riding-auto-insurance, south-riding-car-insurance
