Hawaii Auto Insurance Basics

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Car is inevitable for the fast modern life. Since the place of work and residence are quite a distance away, commuting by car is the easiest proposition, even though car pooling and traveling by public transport might sometimes be possible. While driving a car in crowded city traffic, chances of accidents always exist. Even in Hawaii, the possibilities of auto accidents are substantial. Auto insurance becomes inevitable to protect yourself from heavy financial requirements under such circumstances. As such, it is imperative that you know the auto insurance basics to get yourself adequate auto insurance coverage

The auto insurance format varies slightly from one insurance company to another in Hawaii but the basics are about the same. They are presented here briefly. 

Declarations Provided by You When You Apply for Auto Insurance 

If you wish to purchase auto insurance, you should first submit complete details about you, your family members, and the vehicles that you have. Full names of yourself and the members in your household, the home address, social security numbers of all the persons listed in the auto insurance as drivers, the makes and models of the vehicles owned by you, and the registration numbers of those vehicles would need to be submitted by you to the insurance company. You should also specify which types of coverages that you wish to purchase and the duration of the auto insurance polices desired by you. If you provide any false information which is discovered at a later date, the insurance company would refuse to honor any claims that you make when you get involved in an auto accident. 

Insurance Agreement 

After you submit the application, the insurance company would scrutinize your application and inspect your vehicles. If the insurance company is satisfied, it would issue auto insurance policy to you. This policy is a mutually accepted agreement between you and the insurance company. The agreement would contain the types of coverages that had been selected, the coverage limits of each type of coverage, the period of the policy, the deductible committed by you, and the insurance premium amount that you should pay every month. The auto insurance policy document is the commitment by the insurance company to meet your legal claim when an accident occurs. However, your claim could not exceed the policy limit. 

Exclusions from Insurance Agreement 

The auto insurance policy would also spell out the items that had been excluded from the scope of the policy. When you file your claim after an accident, the insurance company would check whether your claim contains any items that had been excluded from the policy. Those items would be omitted from the claim and only the items that had originally been agreed upon in the policy would be considered against your claim. 

Terms and Conditions 

This section would describe the actual terms and conditions that had been laid down by the insurance company and accepted by you. The monthly premium amount to be paid by you, the action to be taken if you delay or default on the payments, the procedure for filing claims, and settlement process in case of disagreement would be clearly stipulated in this section. 

Definitions 

The definitions for the various terms used in the insurance policy would be presented here. Auto insurance people had named this section as ‘fine print’, because some of the definitions could be ambiguous and more than one interpretation could be possible. Hence, it would be advisable for you to study this section carefully or consult an auto insurance expert to comprehend this section thoroughly.