Largo Car Insurance

Residents of Largo, Florida, are required by law to carry car insurance at all times. Failure to purchase and maintain Largo car insurance that is provided by an insurer licensed by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation will result in expensive and life-changing penalties.

If you own a vehicle that is licensed in Florida more than 6 months out of the year, it is time to learn about the unique car insurance requirements and the process of buying coverage.

Read this consumer guide to buying insurance in Largo, FL, and learn how to find the most affordable premiums and buy adequate coverage in a matter of minutes.

Then, enter your zip code above for FREE car insurance quotes from the top companies in Largo!

How much insurance must you legally carry in Largo?

When you drive without insurance in Florida, you are violating civil law. In no event should you start your engine and put your vehicle in drive unless you are complying with compulsory insurance laws.

Florida is unlike a majority of the states in the nation. Instead of requiring fault to be determined before a claim is paid out, drivers are legally required to carry both liability and no-fault insurance so they can be compensated for medical expenses from their own insurer.

This no-fault system is meant to reduce the strain that automobile liability lawsuits can put on civil courts when minor accidents occur.

It can also reduce the amount of time it takes to receive your claims payments when you seek medical treatment. With this being said, to satisfy the insurance laws in a no-fault state like Florida, you must carry additional cover that is not required in a fault-based state.

Here are the coverage options that must be active 365 days per year.

Third-Party Liability Cover

Even though Florida is a no-fault state, none of the 12 states that operate under this type of system have a purely no-fault system in place. This is because there will always be out-of-state drivers to worry about who do not have special no-fault cover to protect them.

This is why third-party liability cover, which pays for bodily injury and property damage that you are legally responsible for.

Each of the two components of liability cover will only pay third-party who is not related to you and was not in your vehicle at the time of the accident. It will, however, pay when you, household members, and permissive drivers are driving the car that is listed on the policy.

You do have the right to waive Bodily Injury, but must carry Property Damage to pay for damage that someone else sustains because you were negligent.

• Bodily Injury (BI) - will pay if you are in a serious accident and you are legally responsible for injuries or the death of a third-party person. In Florida, all drivers are mandated to carry Personal Injury Protection to pay for their own medical bills and this is why this traditional coverage is not required in Largo. For added protection, you can elect to carry tort protection.
• Property Damage (PDL) - In Florida, you still are held responsible for the damage that you cause to property that you do not own. when you are in an accident. State officials mandate that drivers must carry at least $10,000 per accident in PDL cover.

Personal Injury Protection

No-fault insurance benefits will pay you when you or your passengers are injured in an automobile accident.

If no lawsuits are filed, your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) will provide you with payment for immediate medical treatment, up to the limits on the policy. The benefits will be paid to you and to named insureds on the policy no matter who is at fault for the loss.

In Largo, residents can have no less than $10,000 in PIP cover.

What other types of protection are available?

You should always know what you are mandated to carry by law, but you should also know what types of protection are available to make life easier on you if you experience a loss or are involved in an accident.

In addition to carrying the state-mandated liability coverage and bodily injury, you should consider other forms of protection that were designed to protect your finances.

Here is a list of coverage types that you are not required to carry but that you are advised to consider:

• Comprehensive and Collision - Will pay to repair the covered vehicle or replace it up to its market value in Largo. Comprehensive covers losses like fire, theft, vandalism and glass breakage, and collision covers accidents. Deductible must be paid first.
• Uninsured Motorist - Pays when someone without insurance causes you or your passengers physical injury in an accident.
• Rental Car - Pays for a replacement car when you have a covered physical damage loss and your vehicle is not operable.
• Towing and Labor - Pays when vehicle is disabled and you need roadside assistance. Check the limits on the policy and the terms and conditions.

It is also in your interest to carry higher limits of PIP and PDL so that you are not left paying for a majority of medical expenses and repair bills out of your own bank account. Failing to buy adequate liability limits is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make in an effort to save money.

Steps to Finding Competitively-Priced Largo Insurance

Being familiar with Florida insurance laws is the first step to being an educated consumer.

The second step would be to know how to price the cost of insurance and then select the most affordable and comprehensive plan.

Here are the steps that you should take to choose the right insurer and the right plan at the best price:

• Find a List of Licensed Insurers

You must buy coverage from a licensed company that is recognized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The NAIC has a list of licensed insurers that have an active status. Check the list first so that you know that your policy will be recognized by state officials and the Division of Motor Vehicles.

• Financial Security

Financial ratings tell you if you the company has the revenue and the money in reserves to cover claims when they are filed.

If a company does not have the funds to pay for projected claims, they will attempt to deny them in hopes that you will not appeal the decision. Check the rankings of the company through third-party sites like A.M. Best, and only keep strong companies on your list.

• Check Complaint Indexes

The quality of your coverage is only as good as the insurer providing it. If you buy coverage from a subpar company, you can expect to have difficulties when filing a claim.

This is why you should check complaint databases and cross companies with a history of upsetting their clientele off of your list. You can access claims trends and detailed filing information through the NAIC by entering the company's name in the company search tool.

• Gather All of the Information That you Need

Many people assume that when they receive an auto insurance quote, this is the amount of money they are locked in to pay.

What you might not know is that you will be asked a set of questions to underwrite your risk class, and your quote can change if the information you provided is not completely accurate. This is called a misquote and it is entirely legal as long as it is unintentional and due to inaccurate information being provided.

Necessary Information for Purchasing Car Insurance

To avoid selecting the wrong quote because you did not give the right information, you need to have a list of the information you need available to provide to your agent or to enter in a quoting system. Here are the pieces of information that you will need:

• Year, make, model and VIN
• Odometer reading, register owner, lender, and annual mileage estimate
• Name, date of birth, driver license number and occupation of all drivers
• Prior driver license number in another state for driving experience credits
• Aftermarket features on the vehicle
• Driver safety course information
• Accident dates and dates of moving violations if applicable
• Good student information
• Bank account information for automatic drafts
• Prior insurance policy to reference coverage limits and inception date
• Letter of Experience from your insurer to prove clean driving record

Once you have all of the information and documentation that you need, you can enter it into an online rating system so that you can compare rates on a single platform.

These intelligent quoting tools make it possible to find licensed insurers, compare coverage options, price rates, and then build the best priced plan without contacting several different companies.

If you want to find the best price without being forced to spend days or weeks shopping for a new Largo car insurance policy, online comparison shopping sites are the key.

Get online, enter your details, and build your insurance policy now.

In fact, you can use our FREE quote tool below to enter your information and receive car insurance rates from the top companies in your area today!