Bloomington Car Insurance
All drivers in Bloomington, Indiana are required by the state to carry continuous auto insurance provided by a company licensed to do business in the state. To legally drive through the hilly and forested landscaping in Bloomington, residents must buy a sufficient policy that meets the minimum auto insurance requirements.
Auto insurance is a financial product that is designed to protect all drivers on the road as well as yourself. Before you begin to shop for cover, it is important to know the Bloomington car insurance requirements, coverage types available, and how a policy is rated.
Read this consumer guide, and get the answers to some of the most common auto insurance questions. Be sure to also compare rates using the FREE search tool above!
What Coverage is Required in Bloomington?
Coverage requirements are set by state officials, so all residents in Bloomington must comply with financial responsibility legislative codes in Indiana to legally operate a vehicle that they own. Because Indiana operates under a Tort system, all drivers must have liability coverage to prove that they are financially responsible.
Under a tort system, anyone who is at-fault for damages and injuries can be sued for compensation. The at-fault party's insurer will ultimately pay for the damages, up to the limits on your policy, that have been deemed reasonable.
Liability
Liability insurance consists of two different coverages: Bodily Injury (BI) and Property Damage (PD). Bodily Injury Liability will pay for claims that arise when you cause bodily injury to third parties after being at-fault for an accident. BI is not designed to pay you for your injuries and will not pay for medical bills when passengers are injured due to your negligence.
Property Damage will pay for claims that arise when you cause damage to property that you do not own. Property includes: third-party vehicles, fences, light poles, buildings and more.
Here are the limits that all drivers in Bloomington must carry:
- Bodily Injury: $25,000 per person, up to $50,000 per acciden
- Property Damage: $10,000 per accident
Uninsured Motorist
In Bloomington, the statistics show that about 1 in every 7 drivers is driving without insurance. Because the Insurance Research Council has found that 14.2 percent of drivers in Indiana fail to comply with auto insurance laws, the need for a coverage to protect people from the uninsured is present.
This is why state officials in Indiana require drivers to carry Uninsured Motorist Protection.
Uninsured Motorist Protection works much like Bodily Injury Liability, but it is designed to protect you rather than third parties. It will pay to cover you medical bills and the medical bills of your passengers when one of three things happen:
- You are hit by someone with no insurance.
- You are hit by a hit-and-run driver
- You are hit by someone with low limits of liability that will not completely cover your bills
In Indiana, the Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury requirements meet the Bodily Injury Liability requirements of $25,000 per person, up to $50,000 per accident. Drivers must also carry $10,000 in uninsured motorist property damage cover. This cover will pay up to $10,000 to repair your vehicle if you do not have collision cover.
It will also waive your deductible if you do have collision. Filing an uninsured motorist claim will not affect your auto insurance rates as long as the adjuster is able to identify the driver or verify that the hit-and-run occurred.
What Other Types of Coverage Options Are Available in Bloomington?
Just because Liability and Uninsured Motorist are the only two forms of insurance that are required does not mean there are not other forms of protection that are necessary. If you want protection in various types of situations, you should know about the optional forms of coverage and how they work to protect you.
Here is a breakdown of the other optional coverage types that you can purchase from a company doing business in Bloomington, Indiana:
Medical Payments
Even drivers with medical insurance in Indiana have a need for Medical Payments coverage. Med Pay will pay for your medical expenses when you suffer an injury in an automobile accident regardless of who is deemed at-fault. While Med Pay is not a compulsory insurance requirement, it can truly help you recoup from an accident when you have a high-deductible medical insurance policy or when you have no insurance at all.
Medical Payments coverage will ensure that you receive payment for medical treatment immediately so that you do not have to wait to see a doctor until the claim has been investigated. This coverage applies to you and your passengers and the limit is per person and not per accident.
Physical Damage
If your vehicle is damaged, the damage will only be covered if you carry the appropriate physical damage coverage. Physical Damage consists of two elements: comprehensive and collision. When a policyholder elects to carry both, many say that they have full coverage, even though this phrase is rather misleading.
While physical damage coverage is not required by the state, if your vehicle is leased or financed your finance company will require it so that their interests in the car are protected.
Comprehensive will cover damage to your vehicle if the damage is caused by fire, theft, vandalism, glass breakage, wind, hail or other non-moving perils.
Collision will cover damage if it is sustained in an accident where the vehicle was moving. Both coverages will pay up to the fair market value of the vehicle for repairs minus the deductible that you carry.
This is why it is important to choose a deductible that keeps your premiums low but that you can also afford to pay at the time of a loss.
Rental Car Coverage
If your car is being repaired after a loss, you will need a replacement vehicle. This will only be covered by the other party if you are not at-fault. If your claim is being investigated or you are obviously at-fault, you will need rental car reimbursement to pay for the rental rate charged by a Bloomington rental agency for a specified period of time.
How Are Bloomington Car Insurance Rates Calculated?
Auto insurance rates are set by the companies doing business in Indiana. The rates may not be set by the Indiana Department of Insurance, but they must be approved by the department before a company can use them. The department reviews rate filings to be sure that citizens can buy coverage at a fair price without being discriminated against.
Knowing how policies are rated can help you understand why you pay more or less than other drivers that you know.
Why Insurance Companies Have Unique Rating Systems
Auto insurance companies all have their own target market that they are trying to attract. In order to attract people in a specific demographic, whether it be an age group or a risk class, the company will offer competitive rates.
If a company would like to target younger drivers rather than mature drivers, they will charge more favorable rates to people with less driving experience. This is why it is so important for you to comparison shop when you want to find the best price.
Factors Than Can Affect Your Rates
There is a long list of different factors that go in to determining your rates. Each of these factors can affect the likelihood that you would have filed a claim, and this is why they can affect your premiums. No person's insurance premiums are exactly the same because there is always one or two factors that will be different. Here is a breakdown of the factors that you may not know will affect your rates:
- Age and gender: Young drivers are the riskiest rating group and middle-aged women are the least risky drivers according to statistics.
- Geographic territory: The number of claims in Bloomington will play a role in how much you pay for cover.
- Driving experience: The more experience you have, the less risk you present.
- Driving record: Poor driving habits result in higher premiums
- Vehicle use: Driving for pleasure is less risky than commuting or driving for business purposes
- Annual mileage: The more that you drive, the more risk you present.
- Vehicle type and class: Vehicles will less safety features or higher damage statistics will carry higher premiums.
If you are shopping for Bloomington car insurance, you need to take time to understand what you are buying. Car insurance can be a complex product and this is why agents must be licensed to sell policies. If you want to understand the product, using resources like this one can help you.
Once you understand the product, you can begin price shopping to find the best rates from the best insurer. To save time, you can use an online rate comparison tool that gives you access to the rates with all of the top-rated insurers in Bloomington.