In the past few months we have had a few clients who have been hit by another vehicle, with minor damage, and not had Full Collision coverage or Limited Collision coverage on their own auto insurance policy.  Because they lacked collision coverage, they had to report the claim through the other person’s auto insurance company to get the damage fixed.  In both cases, the police were not called to the scene as the damage was minor but the other party claimed that it was my insured who hit them and not the other way around.  Because of the conflicting stories by each party and police report to back anyone up, the other company had to believe their own insured over mine and my insured’s were denied coverage on their vehicle.

In both cases, my insured was very upset.  As they should be, but you can never tell what the other person is going to do once they drive away from the scene of the accident.  But if my insured had coverage on their own auto insurance policy, they would have had the damages fixed and could let the insurance companies fight it out.  That is why we always suggest collision coverage on the policy.

We understand that for many people, finances might be tight but also if you have an older car you may not feel it is worth the full coverage.  But clearly, in cases like this, it is worth it.  There is an alternative to full collision that many people aren’t aware of called limited collision.  Limited Collision is a cheaper version of full collision; however, it has some restrictions that differ from full collision.

Limited Collision will cover you for a collision accident as long as you know who it was who hit you.  So if it was a hit and run it will not be covered under limited collision.  It will cover you for any direct and accidental damage to your auto caused by collision, direct and accidental damage to a non-owned private passenger vehicle, it will pay the cost to physically repair the auto up to the actual cash value of the auto or the lesser of the actual cash value or the cost to repair.  Limited collision offers deductibles from $0 up to a $500 and is a much lower cost to full collision.

Another aspect of limited collision that differs from full collision is that the driver of the vehicle (you) must be no more that 50% at fault and if you are less than 50% at fault, it will not affect the amount of payment.  The company will determine fault once the claim has been reported.

Some examples of a 50% or less at fault accidents that could be covered under limited collision are:

• An auto legally parked
• An auto struck in the rear
• The other operator was convicted of a violation at the time of accident.  This is as long as the operator of the covered vehicle is not also convicted of a violation.
• If the covered driver is entitled to recover in court against an identified person for other reasons not listed above.

So if you are reviewing your policy and do not have collision coverage because you feel it is too expensive, consider limited collision so you at least have some extra coverage during an accident.  It is worth it, just ask our clients who learned the hard way!