Car Insurance advice for the USA

[madwife2002]

We emigrated to the USA on the 1st December 2005, and we bought our first car on the 18th December 2005. On the 8th February 2006 we had a massive car accident and fortunatly for us we lived but I have injuries which will take a fair amount of time to heal, and will cost many thousands of dollars in medical expences. Also fortunatly for us we were hit by an insured driver and a company lorry so their insurance is good. So now I want to share with the UK nurses who are on their way over here and the ones who are already here and may be oblivious, of what kind of insurance it is vital to have.

Car insurance is very expensive here but it is important that you pay for the best in this country or else you could be in deep trouble. Fully comprehensive insurance is not the same as it is back in UK.

You will not be covered by your company's medical insurance ( by this I mean the company who employs you) for any medical occurance as a result of a road traffic accident-not even the ambulance which recovers you from the scene of the accident which cost us $700 for one person. So you need to ensure you are medically covered in your own auto insurance just in case your are hit by either an unisured driver or a underinsured driver.

Expect a fully comprehensive policy to cost up to $1000 per six months anything less than $800 is not worth the paper it is written on. We paid $115 per month and it covered NOTHING, only $15,000 per person which doesnt even cover medical expences. No car hire, no road side recovery no medical expences!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So if it had been our fault then we would have been in a dire situation.

If you are over here check now your policy, if you are coming over here then PM me with details of what you have been offered by your insurance company and I will advice you. I can tell you everything you need to have included in your policy.

Nobody here in USA will advice you because they do not know how things work in the UK with car insurance. Remember all health care is free in UK so you dont need to worry about that in UK. I believe the ambulance will charge for RTA's at home but you are talking around 25 pounds.

Please please take this post seriously because I feel we knew nothing about car insurance when we came here, the insurance looked ok to our uneducated mind and had we not had an accident we would not have know how much danger we were in.

[english_nurse]

if you are going to the usa with ogp they give you some information on obtaining car insurance via a company called AIG they also do other types of insurance, international autosource, who are the car finance company ogp recommend are part of the same company.

as i have not personally had dealings with them, apart from a car finance quotation, i cant personally recommend them but i know people who have been pleased with both of the products they offer.

there is a joining fee of around $400 i think

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

:angryfire Have been here 9 months and car insurance is still high $1000 for six months.:angryfire

[geordiegirl2]

We had no real problem getting insurance here, we bought a car through autosource and looked at the AIG insurance but called for rates for them and american family insurance and tey were the most competitive, they did warn us it would be a lot more expensive if we didn't have AZ licenses so we sat our tests in the first couple of weeks which wasn't really hard, our insurance is paid monthly.

[topscot]

:angryfire Have been here 9 months and car insurance is still high $1000 for six months.:angryfire

OGP'S recommendation

autosource offer cut price insurance that takes into account uk driving history and makes it far cheaper, there car finance quote and the rebate i got off a brand new car were also excellant

[english_nurse]

i would agree with the car part, the quote appears good, plus the discount appears good too

i havnt got an insurance quote from them yet, am going to try american family insurance first, they find it hard to quote though as we havnt got an american address yet

[topscot]

i would agree with the car part, the quote appears good, plus the discount appears good too

i havnt got an insurance quote from them yet, am going to try american family insurance first, they find it hard to quote though as we havnt got an american address yet

Autosource reckon they will beat anyone

and going by the price i got my car for i would'nt be surprised if they do

[english_nurse]

i reckon they look good to me

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Who ever you buy insurance from remember to buy insurance that covers the uninsured and the underinsured, as they are more of these kind of drivers in this country. Phoenix is so much more expensive than anywhere else. Even the US drivers complain about the cost.

[english_nurse]

im just in the process of doing my insurance, and thankfully it covers this.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

im just in the process of doing my insurance, and thankfully it covers this.

Good, you know if you live outside PHx the car insurance is a little cheaper.

100/300 is a good amount. Progressive is another insurance I just heard of.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Hey I just got my car tag invoice for the next year ( same sort of thing as car tax) it was $385 I nearly dropped down. AZ must be the most expensive because my friend in another state only pays $35:smilecoffeeIlovecof

[suzanne7575]

frightening stuff, thanks Madwife for the thread. I think if DH doesn't get a job straight away i am going to have to work 72 hours per week, let alone bi-weekly!!!!!what with car insurance and medical insurance costs.