Most people think the purpose of car insurance is to reimburse you if your car gets damaged. If your car sustains $1,500 worth of damage from a hail storm you expect to be paid that amount minus your comprehensive deductible.

There’s nothing more irritating that coming out to your parked vehicle and noticing a new door ding. You work hard for your money to buy a nice vehicle and other people slam their doors into your shiny new car. Maybe it’s just jealousy.

Regardless of the motive, door dings are just part of owning a car.

We’ve all been driving down the road when a passing vehicle kicks up a rock and puts a chip in our windshield. It’s frustrating indeed, but there’s a good change that your car insurance company will pay to have the rock chip repaired at no cost to you!

This is a coverage that you definitely want to double check if your company offers.

There was an interesting article posted on Insurance Journal today about a Wisconsin family who had a UIM claim denied. You can read the article here. I’m not going to go into the details of the case, other than to say they had multiple personal auto policies, one of which had lapsed, the other had no UIM coverage.

As winter weather grips the majority of the U.S., hopefully you’ve already taken the time to make sure your car is winterized and ready for the harsh conditions.

Think again.  That three, five or even seven hundred dollar GPS navigation unit that does everything but steer the wheel is essentially uninsured while in full view of anyone looking in your windshield.

Why do I say essentially? Ok, there is coverage actually, but it probably doesn’t come from your car insurance policy.

If you’ve had a bad experience with an insurance company, how do you go about making sure other consumers don’t have the same problem? Your state insurance regulators are responsible for making sure admitted companies handle your claims fairly and to the letter of the law. If you feel you haven’t been treated fairly, you don’t have to take the insurance companies decision as final.