Lauderhill Car Insurance

Florida has unique car insurance laws and operates under what is referred to as a no-fault system. If you reside in Lauderhill and you own a vehicle that is licensed to be driven on public roads, you must comply with the compulsory insurance laws by purchasing a minimal amount of Florida insurance.

Failure to buy coverage and continuously pay your premiums could result in serious penalties that range from hefty fines and suspensions to more serious non-monetary penalties like license revocation and jail time.

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If you are new to Lauderhill, or you are not familiar with auto insurance, read this consumer guide to Lauderhill car insurance and become the informed consumer that you need to be to build a sufficient policy and stay within your personal budget.

How Much Insurance Must You Purchase to Comply with the Law in Lauderhill?

Insurance laws are mandated by state officials. This is why there are different requirements for drivers based on the state that they call home for a majority of the year.

In Florida, insurance can get very complicated because many residents have dual residency.

In order to avoid penalties, you will need to buy insurance where your vehicle is primarily registered rather than just choosing which state has the lowest premiums.

Within 10 days of establishing residency in Lauderhill, you are required to register, title, and insure your vehicle.

If your vehicle is registered with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, you must prove that you have at least a minimal amount of no-fault and liability cover that is mandated by the Department of Insurance and Florida vehicle code.

The coverage requirements in Florida are as follows:

Property Damage Liability

In a majority of states that operate under a fault-based or tort system, drivers are required to carry two different components that are called Bodily Injury Liability (BI) and Property Damage Liability (PDL).

Tort auto insurance systems are systems where the at-fault driver that causes a motor vehicle crash must pay for the victim's medical treatment and other related expenses. They must all pay for the loss of wages and other claims like pain and suffering.

Florida, however, operates under a no-fault system where the injured party is paid by their own insurer with their own benefits.

Because of this, state officials only require a single component of Property Damage Liability to be carried. PDL will pay for the property damage that you cause to a victim's vehicle or to multiple vehicles up to the limits on your policy.

You must carry no less than $10,000 per car accident in PDL to pay for damages that you could potentially be responsible for.

Personal Injury Protection

In a no-fault system, you will purchase your own personal injury protection benefits that will be paid to you to cover medical bills if injured in an accident.

The benefits will pay regardless of who is found to be responsible for the crash itself. Personal Injury Protection, also called PIP by insurers, is required under Florida's No-Fault Law, and all residents must have a minimal amount of cover. Based on the law, residents must have $10,000 in PIP.

This benefit will pay for 80 percent of medical expenses that are considered reasonable, 60 percent of lost wages, and $5000 in the event of death. You can raise these limits for added protection for higher premiums.

Can You Purchase More Coverage For More Protection?

One of the worst assumptions that you can make is that complying with state insurance laws will fully protect you when you get behind the wheel.

Auto insurance laws are simply in place to protect drivers, but they are not designed to guarantee that your finances and your vehicle are covered 100 percent of the time. If you want to avoid paying out-of-pocket for steep costs, you need to buy additional forms of cover and higher limits for PIP and PDL.

Here are optional types of cover:

• Bodily Injury Liability

You are not required to buy Bodily Injury Liability, but it is recommended to purchase this optional cover to protect you in the event of a lawsuit.

Just because Florida operates under a no-fault system does not mean that it is purely no-fault. There are specific cases where an injured party can sue you for their damages, especially if they are from another state where they are not required to buy PIP benefits.

This optional form of Bodily Injury cover will pay for not just the medical expenses of people that injure in an accident where you are negligent, but also your legal representation if you are fighting the claims in more complex cases.

Be sure to price the cost of BI and understand person's right to sue in Florida before you reject such an important form of protection.

• Uninsured Motorist

Another optional but recommended form of protection is called Uninsured Motorist Protection.

UM, which it is commonly labeled on insurance declarations' pages, will kick in to pay for your medical bills if someone without insurance were to injure you in a crash. Florida is a huge tourist destination, and many of the drivers in the state do not have state-mandated cover.

This is why 23.8 percent of drivers in the state are found to be uninsured, which means Florida ranks second to only Oklahoma for the most drivers without insurance.

Uninsured Motorist protection will pay for your expenses for doctor visits, hospital stays and loss of wages.

It will pay you in addition to your PIP and also pays for passengers in your vehicle if they are injured. It is recommended to consider buying this cover due to the fact that about 16,600 drivers have no cover in Lauderhill alone.

• Comprehensive and Collision Cover

Is your vehicle financed or leased? Is your vehicle's value at least 10 times the amount of your term premiums for insurance coverage? You need to consider value and cost when you are determining if buying physical damage is appropriate.

If you are not the owner of the car, you are required to buy both comprehensive and collision.

Comprehensive will pay up to the value of your vehicle in the Lauderhill market to replace or repair your car when possible if it is damaged or totaled due to a fire, theft, vandalism or other non-moving types of perils.

Collision pays for moving perils like an accident or when your vehicle overturns.

What are the best strategies to save on Lauderhill car insurance?

According to the Insurance Research Council, the average cost of insurance in Florida is 1090 per year. This makes Florida the fifth most expensive state to buy coverage in, even when you are buying only the coverage required by the officials.

In a state where it is already expensive to buy motor vehicle insurance coverage, taking the time to compare premiums and find affordable insurance plans is crucial.

The last thing that you want to do is select low coverage limits and reject optional types of protection because you do not know other ways that you can save.

Before you elect to build a bare bones policy that fails to provide you with protection levels that you need for real peace of mind, consider these money-saving strategies and save without being vulnerable:

• Insure all of the vehicles that you own with the same insurer for a multi-car discount.
  Buy property, life, health or disability insurance from the same insurer for a multi-line discount off of each plan.
• Keep a clean driving record and take traffic school when eligible to avoid surcharges that last for 36 months.
• Check a car's safety record before you buy it. Vehicle classifications can significantly affect your rates and a safe car is cheaper to insure.
• Make your child 25 or less get good grades to keep their driving privilege and receive a Good Student Discount of as much as 30 percent.
• Classify children at college as Student Away if they are more than 100 miles from home.
• Raise comprehensive and collision deductibles if they are low.
• Give your prior license number from another state for all of your driving experience credits.
• Exclude risky drivers who have no access to your vehicle from the plan to avoid being penalized for other people who live in your home.
• Take a Driver Safety Training or Mature Driving course by choice for a 36-month credit.