Expert: Richard Hixenbaugh - 5/11/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hello Sir,
Can you plz help me with this Homework Question? Its about Auto insurance and Honestly I think the question is wrong. But I have to answer it. It goes like this:

You have a very old car and you know that you need collision insurance and liability coverage. You don't want to insure your car for any other damage. Therefore you wouldn't elect to take out    
A) Uninsured Motorist coverage
B) Comprehensive coverage
C) Medical Payment coverage
D) Bodily injury coverage

I was going with B option as owner have OLD car (low value). But then I thought If the car is that old EVEN Why to take Collision coverage?
Anyways this point is enough to confuse me.
Option C covers medical expense for injuries, while Option A covers bodily injuries and damages. Option D is already in Liability coverage... Please Help me Sir! I m so much confuse and tense.. the more I search the more I got confuse! every option and its details seemed the same...
Kindly help me here
Waiting for answer...
Sonia

ANSWER: Hi Sonia,

You are correct. This is a confusing question. You should bring this to the attention of the person who wrote the question.

Both Comprehensive and Collision cover damage to your car. Collision covers from actual collision or upset and comprehensive covers damage from fire, theft, vandalism, falling objects, hitting an animal, etc.

You are also correct about C & D since they both relate to injuries and D is included in Liability.

Based on reviewing the question, I would have to agree that the answer to the question is B Comprehensive.

However I would argue that the writer of the question does not know very much about insurance themselves. If they did, they would know that Comprehensive and Collision are generally sold together and usually not an option to select independent of each other.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sir, I will go with this but again bit confused. If both coverage couldn't be sold independently then how it will be in this question?

thank you so much for responding to my question!

Answer
Hi Sonia,

As i said this is "generally" the case, not always. Each state has different laws and requirements. It is ossible in some states to purchase comprehensive and collision independent of each other. But in my experience this is generally not the case.

Feel free to check other sources of information to be sure you are getting accurate information.

Good Luck
Richard Hixenbaugh