It’s the weekend, your son is buying a car, but your agent’s office is closed. Do you let your son buy the car, and don’t let him drive it until you can call your auto insurance agent on Monday? Do you assume you have insurance coverage, and allow your son to buy & drive the car? Are you unsure if you or your son are covered to drive it, and take a chance, feeling confident nothing will happen until you contact your insurance company? Life happens outside of 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, so what is the best thing to do, when you need your agent, when your agent’s office is closed?

Making assumptions about your insurance coverage, or taking a chance nothing will happen requiring you to need the insurance, are common mistakes people make leading them to feel they have been ripped off by their insurance company.

Take the situation I described above, where the son purchased a car on the weekend. The father has a family auto insurance policy, and his son is rated as a driver. Why wouldn’t his son’s car be automatically covered? The Father replaced his old car with a new car last year, made the change to his auto insurance a week later, and his agent told him the new car was covered the same way as the old car, from the date it was purchased.

However, the father is the owner of the family auto insurance policy, and the son is covered as a driver for the cars the father owns. The son, purchasing his own car, needs his own car insurance policy. Neither the son, dad, or the son’s car would be covered by the father’s auto insurance.

What if the father bought the car? Would there be coverage? Most likely, yes. unless one of the cars owned by the father is insured with another insurance company. Also, if the father’s wife has her own car and insurance with another auto insurance company, there might be no automatic coverage for the newly purchased car.

How is anyone, who is not an auto insurance agent, expected to know this? In fact, your auto insurance agent might advise you incorrectly about automatic coverage for a newly purchased car, if the agent does not ask you enough questions about ownership of the car, or if the agent is unaware you have a car insured with another insurance company.

Here is one way to avoid feeling ripped off by your insurance, due to an uncovered claim, or higher than expected insurance rates:
Some men get carried away and consume cialis 40 mg pamelaannschoolofdance.com more than the prescribed dosage as it can lead to overdose. However most individuals mulls on whether to go for the branded version of levitra vs cialis . Best Ways To Maintain Your Health 60 ounces of soft pill cialis water. I looked at these odd buy cialis http://pamelaannschoolofdance.com/patsy-rodriguez/ shaped tablets he put into my mouth and chose to eat.
Always call your agent or insurance company, and change your coverage, or find out how you are covered, before you buy a car, borrow a car, use a car not on your insurance, or allow your car to be driven by anyone other than a rated driver on your insurance. Never assume how you will be covered, or take a chance you won’t have a reason to need it.

If you know your son is looking at buying a car, call your agent ahead of time and find out about coverage and pricing. Otherwise, you or your son could be in an uninsured accident, or your son may find out he can’t afford the insurance for the car after he purchased it.

It is always best to have your agent service your policy and answer your questions. But if you can’t help making an impulse buy of another car on the weekend, which you had not planned, most insurance companies have 24/7 customer service. So if you are the father in the above situation, you can call the insurance company at 8 pm on a Saturday, before your son buys the car, and find out you need to own the car to insure it on your policy, or the insurance company might be able to sell your son an auto insurance policy in his name.

Another situation is when customers suspend coverage on one of their vehicles they are not driving. I remember a customer had to drive an uninsured car briefly in the middle of the night and told me about it later. The customer assumed because it was late at night, there was no way to contact the insurance company. Fortunately, nothing happened. Having an accident may be unlikely, but getting a ticket by the police for driving without insurance is more likely to occur. I told the customer, no matter what the time, if you have to drive an uninsured car, call 24/7 customer service to insure it, even if you only have to drive it for a few hours.

You pay enough for your insurance, take advantage of the service your agent or insurance company provides you, at no additional cost, to make sure you are properly covered.

What do you do about insurance when you buy a car? Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Or, you can e-mail me at help@smartshopyourcarinsurance.com if you have questions and would like my help. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.