What Is The Minimum Required Auto Insurance in Georgia?

 

October 29, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Required Minimum Coverage 

If you want to get auto insurance in Georgia, then you are required to follow the law and get the proper amount of coverage. If you don’t want to get auto insurance, then you’re out of luck, because you have to. End of story. Most car insurance companies will sale you the simple minimum liability of auto insurance if you go in and request nothing more than to be insured, but you still ought to understand what is required and why, and why you should take a step beyond that.

To meet the minimum requirements for auto insurance in Georgia, you are required to have liability coverage. This type of coverage will take care of medical costs and property damage for the person to whom you cause damage in an accident which is your fault. You have to have:

  • $25,000 of bodily injury coverage for each individual
  • $50,000 cap for each accident if there is more than one person
  • $25,000 for damage to property, such as a vehicle or a fence

These are the required amounts, but most companies that sell auto insurance in Georgia suggest that you stack on a little more than this amount of insurance, and the most commonly suggested amount is 100/300/100. You should remember when buying liability coverage for bodily injury that the two amounts do not combine. If you have fifty thousand of coverage for more than one person, then that is all that you get for a single accident, even if four people are injured. If only one person is injure, all they get is twenty five thousand. Considering the cost of medical bills in bad accidents, it makes sense to get more than that amount.

You need to have auto insurance, because the Georgia department of insurance can tell when you don’t. As a matter of fact, they have an online insurance verification system that keeps track of the insured and uninsured in the state. You can check your own status online to make sure that there aren’t any mistakes, although if you have only recently gotten a policy you should let a month pass before checking because it takes time.

If you go without auto insurance for 10 days or more, then your registration could be suspended. You would then have to pay $85 to restore. And although your auto insurance  can be verified online, you should still carry an insurance card in your vehicle for when you get pulled over.

If you want to lower your annual premiums, try raising your deductible amount to something like $1,000 or more.  You only pay when you file a claim with your insurance carrier and the savings over the long term could be substantial.