What is the most ideal auto insurance ratio for a person on a budget?

Question

I am switching insurance now and I know their are some ratio's like 50/100/50 and such. My wife and I are on a real budget. She does not drive now, so would not be part of the quote at this time, but we don't want to get the lowest just to have a horrible accident and pay so much. What is a good ratio or something to find. I am in my upper 20's if that helps.

Answer 1

50/100/50 is a pretty good place to be.  That is relatively what I have and is 50K Bodily Injury(BI) per person, 100K per occurence and 50K Property Damage (PD).

This covers damage to other people and their property (normally their vehicle).

There usually isn't a HUGE difference in premium when you are adjusting your BI/PD limits so if you want to be extra safe you may even see how much more a month it would be to raise those to the next tier that your insurance company offers.  You may find that it is only $10 or so more and worth it if you ever caused a bad accident.

Also, minimum limits vary state by state and are a bad idea unless you are choosing between feeding your family and insuring your vehicle for more.  It doesn't take long for minimum limits to be exhausted and would leave you holding the bill.

Answer 2

When I quote people's insurance I always run several options such as 50/100/50, 100/300/100, 250/500/250, etc. the reason that I do this is because the actual difference in premium in some cases is not that much over a 6 or 12 month period.

If I had to choose a minimum I wouldn't suggest purchasing anything under 100/300/100.

I have written some free articles that I submitted to a site at http://www.InsuranceEasy.org that will help you.

The site is a free consumer insurance site.  Click on some of articles located at the bottom of their home page in the sections called "Consumer Learning Center". This should better help you make a informed decision.

Answer 3

The lowest you can go is  25/50  : $25k per person/$50k per accident.  Just go with it.  If you want added protection, add to it "Full Coverage"  it will be less then $100 extra.  The only other thing I see would be your deductable.  The money you would have to pay out of pocket before the ins. steps in.  You have the options of $200 (some ins co.)  $500, or $1000.  the higher you go the cheaper your payment.  I've always gone with $500.  But this time around I finally have an emergency fund, so I upped it to $1k.

Answer 4

That ratio is actually a COVERAGE limit.  So, the lower the coverage, the cheaper the insurance.  Of course, the lower the coverage, the more likely that you won't have enough insurance to cover the accident, and have to pay a check.

It doesn't matter how old you are.  It matters what you're worth, and how much you make, as wages can be attached.  

Don't do this yourself - go talk to a local, independent agent.