How can I find cheap PIP insurance?

In some states, Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance is either a requirement or a really good idea in order to keep you and your passengers covered in the event of an injury related to a car accident.

The three basic things you can do to make sure you find the cheapest PIP coverage you can are getting the right coverage amount, having a good driving record, and shopping around.

Searching for cheap Personal Injury Protection coverage or any other type of car insurance? Enter your ZIP code into the FREE search tool now to receive quotes from multiple companies!

Figuring out how much coverage you need is vital. If you buy too much PIP insurance, your premium will be too high, but if you buy too little, you will not be able to pay for all of your expenses in an accident.

In general, you’ll want more than the state minimum, but not too much more, especially if you’re trying to get cheap PIP insurance.

Your driving record goes a long way to determine your insurance premiums, so drive safely, obey the rules of the road, and work with the court system to do what you can to get moving violations removed from your record.

As with any purchase, shopping around for insurance can save you money.

Luckily, there are plenty of insurance comparison websites that can help you to make direct comparisons between insurance companies and policies and find the best deal that suits your needs.

What does a PIP insurance policy cover?

You usually need personal injury protection insurance if you drive in a “no-fault” state, meaning a state that holds each driver responsible for injuries in his own vehicle in an accident rather than assigning blame and having the at-fault driver’s insurance pay for injury expenses.

No-fault states often have a requirement that insurance companies offer PIP insurance but, in many cases, the driver is not absolutely required to take it.

Not taking PIP insurance, however, could leave the driver unprotected in the event of an accident with injuries.

If a driver chooses to decline PIP coverage, most states require that he refuse it in writing through a PIP waiver.

PIP insurance is generally fairly low in cost compared to other coverage, so it is wise to carry as much as you think you’ll need.

There are those who believe that PIP coverage is unnecessary because their medical insurance, life insurance, and disability insurance will cover their injury expenses in an accident.

The problem is that you can’t be sure that everyone in your car will have medical insurance, life insurance, and disability insurance.

According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, PIP insurance will cover members of your household and passengers in your vehicle who do not have PIP insurance, so long as they are not vehicle owners.

PIP can also provide coverage for you as a pedestrian or as a passenger in someone else’s vehicle, and even covers your children as passengers on school buses.

PIP coverage can cover other expenses related to car accident injuries that medical insurance normally would not, such as:

• lost wages
• funeral expenses
• replacement services

These expenses would require additional insurance coverage like life insurance, disability insurance, and supplemental medical insurance if someone didn’t have PIP insurance.

Free Car Insurance Comparison

Enter your ZIP code below to view companies that have cheap car insurance rates.

 Secured with SHA-256 Encryption

Limits of PIP Insurance

The most important limitation of PIP insurance is that it will not cover property damage, only injury, and related expenses.

Personal injury protection insurance (PIP) is supposed to be used to supplement other parts of your auto policy including your state’s minimum coverage requirements. The other parts of your insurance policy may include:

• Property Damage liability
• Bodily injury liability coverage
• Comprehensive coverage
• Collision coverage
• Uninsured motorist coverage

To cover other damages, you would need to have collision or comprehensive insurance, or you would need to sue the at-fault driver for property damage.

Interestingly, in most no-fault states, you cannot sue the at-fault driver for injury-related expenses.

PIP insurance is limited to the dollar amount set in the coverage limit. Often the limit will be split, such as a $40,000 policy will cover $20,000 in medical expenses and $20,000 in other expenses, or $20,000 for the driver and $20,000 for other injured parties.

As with most insurance, PIP insurance will usually not be valid if you are doing something illegal when an accident occurs.

What factors determine the cost of PIP insurance?

The factors that determine the cost of PIP insurance are mostly the same factors that determine the cost of any auto insurance:

• your driving record
• your age
• your location
• the deductible amount

The amount of coverage you require is also going to affect the price, as well as the number of vehicles you need to insure.

One special factor that can affect the cost of PIP insurance in some states is lawsuits.

An article in the Tampa Bay Times states that an excessive amount of PIP claims has caused car insurance companies to increase their rates, sometimes charging customers four times the amount they would have paid in early 2009.

In particular, it appears that attorneys for medical facilities are suing insurance companies for relatively low sums of money, but the process is costing the state a fortune in legal fees–a cost that they pass on to the consumer in the form of higher rates.

What are some other options to cover accident injuries?

If your state is not a PIP state, your best bet to cover injury expenses related to an accident is to collect from the liability insurance of the driver who is at fault, assuming that you are not that driver.

In most cases, liability insurance, which is required by law in most states, would protect the driver and cover the expenses, but if the driver did not have the necessary insurance, you might have to rely on your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.

In a worst-case scenario, you would have to sue a driver for injury damages if no insurance would pay.

If you are at fault and you do not have PIP insurance, your options are much more limited.

In most cases, your health insurance will pay for injuries related to a car accident, but only after all other insurance options are expended.

The website also warns that you would be responsible for deductibles and copayments from a medical insurance policy.

Free Car Insurance Comparison

Enter your ZIP code below to view companies that have cheap car insurance rates.

 Secured with SHA-256 Encryption

Which are no-fault states?

There are several states that are considered no-fault states for auto insurance, meaning that the at-fault party does not need to be identified in order to decide which insurance company pays.

In a no-fault state, each person involved in the accident would theoretically have PIP insurance that would cover the cost of injuries.

The exact requirements for PIP coverage vary from state to state, even within the no-fault states.

For example, Minnesota requires a minimum of $40,000 in PIP coverage, while some other states do not require it at all, but only require that an insurer offer it.

The 12 states that are currently no-fault car insurance states include:

• Hawaii
• Florida
• Michigan
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• New York
• Massachusetts
• Minnesota
• Utah
• New Jersey
• North Dakota
• Pennsylvania

Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington D.C. have an add-on no-fault insurance law, which means that people are allowed to buy no-fault insurance, but drivers can still be sued for damages if an accident occurs.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of being in no-fault states?

The greatest advantage of a no-fault policy is speed.

Rather than being forced to pay for medical expenses out of pocket while courts battle for months to decide who is at fault in an accident, under a no-fault law, the insurance companies would pay immediately, and the blame would be sorted out later.

This saves time and, in many cases, legal costs, since proving fault in court would only become necessary in the case of catastrophic injury or extremely expensive property damage.

No-fault states also allow people to be reimbursed for injury costs when an accident is legitimately no-fault.

Accidents do happen that are unavoidable, regardless of what either driver does to prevent it.

There are also accidents in which there is no other driver, such as when a car hits a tree or a light pole; in a no-fault state, a driver and his passengers can be reimbursed for medical costs, funeral costs, and other related expenses.

However, this benefit comes with one major drawback — it’s difficult to prove negligence on behalf of another driver.

A major disadvantage of this system is that the cost is not necessarily assigned to the responsible party.

Rather than having the at-fault driver’s insurance pay the bill and watch his or her insurance premiums go up, under a no-fault policy, even the victim’s insurance will have to pay, sometimes resulting in a premium increase.

A no-fault system allows injured parties to receive compensation without having to go through lengthy litigation processes.

It also makes sure that victims get their money quickly, rather than waiting years before they see any funds.

But because these benefits come with certain drawbacks, it may make sense to purchase additional liability insurance to protect yourself against lawsuits.

There are often limits in place on what the victim can sue for, too, making it difficult for them to recoup the full amount of damages that they suffer.

No matter what the insurance laws are for your state, you can find the right auto insurance policy for you.

Enter your ZIP code into the FREE tool on this page to get auto insurance quotes from multiple companies today!

Free Car Insurance Comparison

Enter your ZIP code below to view companies that have cheap car insurance rates.

 Secured with SHA-256 Encryption