Car Insurance

Everyone has to have vehicle insurance so who cares where you get it from, right? Well most people have lower coverage limits because they don’t see the value of being protected. At the Balthazar Insurance Agency, we believe one of the reasons people have low limits is because they don’t understand how their policy works for them. 

Car insurance has several different coverage types that are available from most insurance carriers. The first is Bodily Injury. This coverage pays for injury caused to the driver of the other vehicle if you are at fault. It also covers anyone else in that vehicle and anyone riding in your vehicle that isn’t listed on the policy to begin with.

The second coverage is Property Damage. This coverage will cover the costs to repair the other person’s vehicle or anything else that was damaged during the accident (median, trees, telephone pole, front windows of a store, etc).

Next is Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist coverage. This coverage will cover you or your family if the person you are in an accident with doesn’t have insurance. This coverage kicks in during accidents that aren’t your fault but the other driver either doesn’t have insurance or doesn’t have enough. If you’re in the hospital and the other guy has no way to cover those medical bills, where can you get help? That’s the beauty of this coverage.

Medical coverage is the next on the list and it pays out no matter who is at fault. It also pays up to a specific amount but it can be applied to any number of people involved in the accident. So let’s say you are giving two friends a ride and you hit a bus full of kids. This coverage will pay up to a specified limit for the two riding in your car and keep paying up to its limit, per person, for every kid on that bus.

Fifth on the list is Comprehensive and Collision coverage. When people say they have “full coverage” they usually mean that they have these two coverages in addition to the liability coverages mentioned above. Collision coverage is applied if you hit a stationary object (except a moving vehicle, that is still considered collision) and Comprehensive coverage is everything else (vandalism, car stolen, tree falls on it, hail damage, etc). Both these coverages have deductibles associated with them and the higher the deductible, the lower your overall premium will be.

There are several other miscellaneous coverages that we offer including accident forgiveness, roadside assistance, glass coverage, and many more. Let’s start the process for getting a quote. It’s not difficult but it is very important to make sure you are properly covered!