A car insurance policy is meant to help avert any financial disaster resulting from a car crash. Whenever you encounter a road accident and cars or property is damaged, your car insurance can help you compensate another party for the loss. This is provided you are found to have caused the accident. If there are any injuries or even death, compensation is also paid via your car insurance policy.
A typical accident involves anything from small dents and cracks to the total destruction of the entire vehicle. Restoring small damages can cause the car owner anything from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. This depends on where the damage occurs. Some damages may need more spare parts to restore. Others require many surfaces to repaint. So it all depends.
If your motor insurance policy costs a few thousand dollars and the accident only involves a few hundred dollars, it may not be wise to claim from your insurance policy. This is because if you have any claims in the past 3 years, the insurance company will require you to pay additional premiums so they can recover what they lost in payouts to you. This may seem ridiculous, but it is definitely true.
You should only claim from your insurance policy if your accident damage exceeds your insurance premium by a large factor. This means your claim will need to be at least 150 percent of your premium amount to make your insurance claim worthwhile. If it is a very big claim of several thousand dollars, by all means get a compensation to save yourself from any financial distress.
The real pain occurs if you encounter an accident that involves bodily injury. This means people literally get hurt and require medical attention. As such, emergency procedures, medical expenses and hospital bills can suck your bank account dry in no time if you are found guilty of causing the accident. This is why car insurance is so important, even if you do not use your car often. Accidents can happen. No one wants it to and do not know when they will occur. Yet they still occur. Your car insurance policy takes care of such risk for you because the insurance company will pay for all the damages you cause in the event of an accident.
Finally, when you choose an auto insurance policy, make sure you are buying a comprehensive policy. This is because a third-party or third-party fire and theft insurance only cover the loss you cause to others. It does not pay for any damage to your own vehicle. As such, you are still exposed to heavy financial loss whether your vehicle is fully paid up or not.