4 Scenarios That Prove You Need Car Insurance

By Kaitlin Hurtado on February 10, 2017

Having a car in college allows you to not be limited to campus during your free time when you have the freedom and means to get where you want when you want.

When considering bringing your car to campus (or getting one yourself), it’s important to think of what having a car on campus entails, including getting car insurance. If you’re thinking that car insurance is an unnecessary expense in your already tight college budget and you don’t really need to spend more on something “unnecessary,” read the following scenarios and rethink the importance of car insurance.

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1. You are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way to school, so close to the parking structure, yet so far. The red light turns green, the person behind you gets a little too excited and accelerates too quickly and early, right into the back of your car. 

Rear-end collisions are the most common type of car collisions – about 1.7 million rear-end collisions occur each year.

If you are to blame for the collision, you will be glad to have liability insurance, which pays for the damage (to both vehicles and persons) caused in a collision. The amount of money that your car insurance will pay does have a limit, so depending on the extent of the damages caused, you may have to pay out of pocket, even with car insurance.

Even if you are on the receiving end of the collision, you can’t always trust that the person who is actually to blame will step up and provide their correct information so that their car insurance could cover it. People tend to avoid responsibility and turn a small collision into a hit-and-run. In cases like these, you would have to go to your own car insurance for damages.

 2. You leave your car in the parking structure, perfectly parked and safe. You come back after a full day of classes only to see a dent or scratch that wasn’t there before. There are no other traces of the culprit. 

Unfortunately, these situations are highly common in parking structures and lots on campus. Campus Facebook pages have students posting about finding their car damaged after leaving it parked on campus, calling for any witnesses to step forward with any information, on an almost daily basis. If you’re lucky, someone was actually able to get the culprit’s license plate numbers, but more often than not, you are on your own without someone to put the blame on.

Instead of playing the “What if?” game with yourself — what if you had parked one level lower, or what if you had actually had car insurance if you didn’t have it — save yourself the trouble and get car insurance for unstoppable situations like these.

3. You are on your way back home for the weekend, coasting down the road until you realize the ride isn’t as smooth as it was before. You pull over and get out of the car, only to find a flat tire. 

If you happen to have a spare and know how to change out a tire, that’s great. If not, you will be stuck on the side of the road helpless trying to figure out what your next step is.

Depending on the type of car insurance coverage you have, roadside assistance can be a part of your coverage. Roadside assistance can collectively include help with tire changes, a battery jump, or towing with a single call. Unexpected situations like this, especially when you are in a time crunch, become less stressful when you have car insurance to help you get through the situation.

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4. You decide to spend a sunny day out hiking, and the road to the trail’s start is an uphill, unpaved pathway. Instead of going up the road smoothly like you would expect, your tires lose traction, sending your car back into a gate. The back window shatters and your rear-end gets dented. (Otherwise known as The Very Random Accident). 

You may think you’re the world’s best driver, but unexpected situations do happen, and you should be prepared.

Situations like the one detailed above can be covered by your car insurance. Just like roadside assistance, another extra part of your car insurance can be insurance on your car’s windows. Full glass coverage can pay for broken glass from collisions and/or accidents.

Collision insurance covers if your car crashes into an object (like the gate) or another car, saving you from covering all damages solely out of your own pocket.

Regardless of whether these situations convinced you to rethink not getting car insurance, every state in the United States requires you to have some type of car insurance. The type of insurance depends on which state you are living in, as the guidelines on coverage and policies vary from state to state. Getting caught driving without car insurance can lead to fines, getting your car impounded, and/or your license revoked — so don’t risk it and drive insured.

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