Hi All! Your friendly, used to be, no longer am, former property and casualty agent here to give you some info about your car insurance!

First I am going to go over the basics.

Every car insurance policy in the United States is pretty much the same. Yup, true story. This is because if you drive from North Carolina to Florida, your car insurance needs to be able to deal with you getting into a car accident in Florida, although there are some exceptions/adjustments, I'll cover at the end of the post.

Liability:
This is coverage that *only* applies to the person/property that you hit. Liability coverage is required if you register a car in any state. Keep in mind, once you have proof of coverage to register a car, nothing is stopping anyone from not paying/not renewing, etc etc. So just because someone is driving a tagged vehicle does NOT mean that if they hit you, you have nothing to worry about. Yes, you can sue them in civil court to cover your damages, but you get hit by a 19 year old with no job, well, you can't get blood from a stone.

Liability limits:
State Minimums: NC state minimums are 30/60/25. This means that if you hit another car, your insurance will pay a maximum of 60 thousand dollars in medical expenses for the accident, with a maximum of 30k for a single person, and 25k in property damage. This may seem adequate, but remember, if you hit a brand new car at 55 miles per hour and shove them into a fast food restaurant, you will now need to pay for the cost of repairing a building, anything over and above the 25k for that brand new car, and if two people in the car break a bone, well... 15 years ago I broke my arm and the medical bills totaled over 50k. For one broken arm. Unless you, too, are a 19 year old with no job, I recommend coverage with higher limits, just in case.

Additional coverage that is covered under liability:

Medical payments:
This is an amount of money paid out to you, and anyone else in your car injured in an accident, regardless of who is at fault. It is *quite* useful if you are waiting on the other company to settle, or if it's your fault and you have a passenger, etc etc.

Uninsured/underinsured coverage:
Remember my 19 year old with no job? Yeah, that's when this coverage comes into effect. If the person that hits you either doesn't have insurance, or has those state minimums, and you need additional coverage, this is what will take over for you. Again, quite useful, and very recommended.

Okay, that's it for liability in North Carolina, now, for your car:

Comprehensive and Collision - The quickest way to explain these coverages is to say, comprehensive covers your car if something strikes you car. Collision coverage is if you strike something while you are driving. Comprehensive is seen as not your fault, and Collision is seen as your fault.

Examples are:
Comprehensive: Hitting a deer, a rock breaking your windshield on the road, a tree falling on your car, a hailstorm, etc.
Collision: You swerving to avoid a deer and hitting a tree, you getting into a car accident that is your fault, you backing into a parked car, etc.

So, do you need either of these coverages? Well, if you have a loan on your car, you have no choice, you have to have them both. If you have no loan, the question becomes, if your car gets totaled for any reason, can you afford to buy a new one out of pocket? If you can't, you should probably get these coverages. If you can, and want to save money, then you can probably skip it.

Personally, I inherited a '23 Subaru, so I have no loan, and I could get another car on my own, but I'd have to get a loan, and it definitely wouldn't be as nice as my current car, so I carry both comp and collision. But you need to run the numbers yourself. And don't run them thinking you *won't* get into a car accident. That possibility is always on the table. Run the numbers as if you were to get into a car accident tomorrow and it would be your fault.

SR-22:

Some of you may have heard of an SR-22 in NC. NC requires you to have insurance just to get a driver's license, which is complicated if you don't own a vehicle. In this case, you purchase a policy called an SR-22 policy, which means you are a licensed driver, with car insurance, you simply don't own a car. These policies may also be required by the state for parole/DUI reasons. NC is one of the only states that require these.

What if you drive your friend's car:

That's cool, everyone is covered. If you borrow your friend's car, your insurance policy will pay out first, and then your friend's policy will pay out if your policy can't cover all the damages. However, if you guys are roommates, or something of that nature, your friend's insurance company may require you to be added to their policy. If it happens more than once, even if you don't live together, that may still be a requirement.

Other states weirdness?

Well, PA has a fun thing called "tort" coverage. If you elect to have tort coverage, your policy basically costs double. If you choose not to have tort coverage, you save a bunch of money, but you are not allowed to sue for emotional distress. You can still sue for any actual damages, just not emotional pain/distress.

Also, state minimums are different in other states, so, if you go to Virginia, for example, the state minimums there are 25/50/25. Medical payments are sometimes called other things in other states, but your coverage will pay you what you have for NC.

Company-wise, well... honestly they're all pretty much the same. Each company has a statistics branch that gives ratings based on their statistical information for who is a safe driver, the primary ones are length of time driving, driving record, and having continuous insurance, some companies also give rates based on credit scores, education, and job. They have to register those statistics with each state's insurance bureau to prove those are legitimate ways to prove good driving history and not overly prejudicial against certain groups for no reason.

As far as claims go, well the fact is, you could talk to 100 people and find people who have had a bad experience with claims at literally every single car insurance company that exists. If you have a loan on your car, your loan will not be paid in full. Almost everyone is at least a little upside down on their loans. If you are injured, yes, you will get paid for the injury, however then your health insurance company will generally required to be paid back for what they paid.