Many of us wait years to celebrate sending in that last car payment. We tick those last couple of months off the calendar like a child ticking off the days until Spring Break arrives, reveling in the sense of accomplishment of a long-term debt finally paid. If you find yourself in this situation you may realize one other thing: once you have paid off your car in full, you are no longer obligated to carry full-coverage Chicago auto insurance. Instead, the legal obligation switches to liability-coverage which has greater limits in coverage, but costs much less each month. Although it is tempting to want to pull back as much as possible, monetarily speaking, it is best to ease into a decision by doing some simple research and having an honest talk with yourself.
A few things to take into consideration as you make your decision:
- Year/make/model of the car
- Actual value of the car
- Age of the driver or drivers (teens included)
- How often do you drive the car
- The congestion of traffic or routes you take for work
- Your personal driving history
One of the reasons you want to take into account, the year, make and model of the car is to find out if your model is one that has a high rate of theft, statistically speaking, within the U.S. If so, you might want to consider staying with full-coverage and a car alarm if one did not come equipped as most already do on today's market.
Another thing to consider is if you have teenager, elderly person or multiple drivers using this vehicle. The more people that use it, the less control you have over what happens to it. Where you live, geographically speaking, in relation to where you work is another important aspect of this decision making process. If you commute to and from work five days out of the week, you are probably often stuck in traffic with thousands of other vehicles. That is not to suggest that all of these people will try their best to wreck into your car, no, but only to suggest that with such crowding, it is sometimes inevitable.
Lastly, you want to take a really hard look at your own personal driving history. Are you prone to little fender-benders or speeding tickets? Or are you prone to those things but somehow never get caught having to pay the fine? Be as honest as you can be with yourself because these answers are very important.
You have already paid off your car loan and will be saving that extra money each month now, so congratulations are in order!
Before you decide to pull back from full-coverage to liability only, give Prime Insurance Agency a call at 630-442-0282 so we can answer all of your questions and help you reach the most informed decision possible.