My elder 23 year old daughter will be married within a year. She is also relocating out of Virginia to South Carolina. As the proud owner of a 2004 Camry 4-cylinder, with only 170k miles, it would be ideal if she could come up with some affordable insurance. Given that coverages are also somewhat related to ones liability, it seems that costs could be modulated by choosing different limits. But, with medical costs so high, not having high enough coverages would be a bad idea. Any ideas for coverages to specify?

I probably would skip comp and collision based on the value of the car. I would look at the respective state requirements for liability and uninsured motorist. That's assuming the car is free of liens.

Mike

For a 23 year old of modest means, I would recommend:

Bodily injury Liability
$100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident

Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Bodily Injury Coverage
$100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident

Medical Payments, Medical Expense Benefits, or Personal Injury Protection Coverage (the name of this coiverage is different depending on the state its purchased in)
$5,000 (this will cover most health insurance deductible and maximum out-of-pocket requirements.)

I agree, based on the age and mileage of the car, Collision and Comprehensive not needed.

I am an insurance claims adjuster of 23 years.

Find out the difference in premium for the maximum medical benefit. $10K, if possible. Typically it isn't much more. If she needs it for any reason, she will be grateful.

Go through an insurance broker and shop around at a few different levels of insurance. Dave Ramsey's site has a list of preferred providers. I used one locally and Zander.com and doubled my home and auto coverage and have a $1M umbrella policy for the same price I was paying before.

See what it costs to add coverage for glass. An insurance guy mentioned this to me and said it is generally pretty inexpensive. It comes in handy when a rock its the windshield.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
My elder 23 year old daughter will be married within a year. She is also relocating out of Virginia to South Carolina. As the proud owner of a 2004 Camry 4-cylinder, with only 170k miles, it would be ideal if she could come up with some affordable insurance. Given that coverages are also somewhat related to ones liability, it seems that costs could be modulated by choosing different limits. But, with medical costs so high, not having high enough coverages would be a bad idea. Any ideas for coverages to specify?

Something to consider is who's name is on the title of the car. If its you, then be sure if you only go with the state minimum level of coverage that you also have an umbrella to protect your assets. If its just her, and if she does not have many assets, the state minimum could suffice.

Recommending state minimums is generally bad advice. Sure you may not have any assets now, but have a bad accident and you're almost guaranteed to never have any assets.

As a previous poster mentioned. 100/300 for bodily injury and 100k for property damage, at a minimum.

I've always gone with 250/500 as it's not much more expensive over 100/300.

Hey Micro, how much overtime did you have to put in after the hail storm we had 3 weeks ago? Lots of damage here on the peninsula.

None. I handle severe injury claims. I don't handle homeowner claims - unless it has to do with a severe injury.

I would look at the comp insurance along with liability. Comp is cheap as hell. At least for me it is. It's also the only coverage I've used in the last 25 years. 5 deer and a tree falling all covered by the comp, it'll cover a windshield too.