Auto insurance USAA: How Much Bodily Injury Liability Do You Need to Carry?
How much bodily injury liability you carry depends on how much your worth and how much you could lose in a lawsuit. And it really doesn’t matter how much of a safe driver you are. Even if an accident is not your fault, you can still be sued.
Bodily injury liability, which is required by law in many states, covers the driver and passengers of the other car in case of an accident. It will also compensate your passengers as well.
This type of insurance is sold in two parts - how much coverage you have for each person in an accident and a total limit per accident. If, for example, you purchase bodily injury of $100,000/$300,000, each person would be covered for $100,000, but only up to a limit of $300,000 per accident.
When deciding how much coverage you need, you have to take a look at your total assets. If you have low income and limited assets, whatever your state minimum is would be enough. However, if you earn a six figure income, own a million dollar home and have a healthy stock portfolio, you should probably consider taking coverage of at least #100,00/$300,000 – if not more.
How much more in premium costs you would have to pay by increasing your bodily injury liability depends on a number of factors. Your age, marital status, driving record and where you live all come into play. When I moved from New York City to Atlanta and then to the mountains of western North Carolina, my auto insurance costs kept going down. Of course, if I was moving in the other direction, my costs would be moving in the other direction.
To keep your bodily injury insurance costs low and still be adequately covered, you have another option. If you have considerable assets, look at buying $300,000 on your car policy and another $300,000 on the liability portion of your homeowners policy.
If that isn’t enough for you to feel secure, you could also invest a couple of hundred dollars more for a million dollar umbrella policy and, for about another fifty dollars, you could up that to two million, if you want.