You have a series of different coverages on your auto policy. Most of them are listed at coverages that you chose, but some are mandated by the state you live in. Let's discuss.

 Your collision coverage offers you coverage for when you are involved in an accident with: another car, a light pole, a tire in the road. etc.

 However, you are subject to a deductible ( or the amount you pay out of pocket) before the Insurance Company picks up the rest of the bill. So you may have chosen a $100, $250, $500 or a $100 (or more) deductible for your policy.

This coverage applies to people that operate your vehicle under your permission. Insurance coverage always follows the vehicle, not the person driving it.

 This provides coverage for hail damage, water damage, hitting an animal, having an animal eat a part of your car, etc. Almost everything that doesn't involve your car physically striking something (besides an animal).

Again, a deductible applies to all the claims that you file.

 Liability coverage is for when you are found at fault for an accident. So, let's say you rearend a bus full of nuns. (this really happens)

The Insurance will utilize your liability coverage for you to pay for any injuries or vehicle damages resulting from your negligence. There is no deductible that applies to this coverage.

Liability is typically split. Which looks something like this : 25/50/10.

This means the following:

$25,000 per person, $50,000 per occurrence and $10,000 property damage.

The $25,000 is for the Bodily Injuries that you caused to all those nuns. That will help pay their medical bills. $50,000 is the maximum that can be paid under this coverage for those injuries. So basically 5 people can file for 10,000 worth of med bills total. And lastly, property damage for $10,000. This means that the bus you hit is covered for $10,000 worth of repairs.

UMPD is short for Un-insured motorist property damage coverage. This covers you in the event that someone hits your car that is un-insured.

Alas, there is a minimum deductible you must pay to use your UMPD coverage.

Now, if you carry collision coverage under your vehicle, your damages will be filed under your collision coverage, which your deductible still applies.

However, depending on what state you live in, the deductible for the UMPD is often lower than your Collision deductible. So your Insurance Company can refund you the difference of the two!!!

Example. You live in NJ. You carry a $500 collision deductible on your car. You also have UMPD on your poilcy. And the state of NJ says that you, the owner of the vehicle, must pay $200 before the UMPD can be uitilized. So, you have a difference of $300 the Insurance company owes you, provided they cannot locate or prove the other party was insured.

Now, if you do NOT carry collision coverage on your vehicle, you can still claim under UMPD! But you would just pay the $200 out of pocket as your deductible. The insurance will pick up the rest.

 UM/UIM stands for Un-Insured Motorist and Under-insured Motorist. This is different than UMPD. UMPD is for your vehicle damages. UM/UIM are specifically for your injuries from the accident if someone that is either un-insured or under-insured hits your car.

And such as the vehicle damages, your deductible under these coverages apply.

 PIP, Medpay and Medpay Excess are the three different types of medical coverages under your auto policy for injuries resulting from an accident.

Which one you have is mandated by your state.

When you have PIP coverage, you file your injuries with the Auto Insurance first. Then for secondary coverage, you can apply any bills to your personal health Insurance. Medpay works the same way, but provides less coverage than PIP does.

MedPay Excess, is the medical coverage that is secondary to your primary personal Health Insurance. So if you file with your Health Insurance and they don't pay something for you, whether it be a copay or a deductible, you can file it under the Medpay excess for reimbursement.

And Any of these coverages can be supplemented in regards to injuries from an accident, if you do not carry your own personal health insurance.

 Rental and Loss of Use are the same thing pretty much.

Rental coverage provides you with coverage for renting a car while your primary car is either undriveable or in the shop being repaired. So you choose this coverage amount. It can vary from $15/day to $50/day.

However, be careful with this. The Insurance company has to approve how many rental vehicle days you get and often do not cover weekends. So make sure your insurance approves everything before continuing.

Loss of use can be utilized if you have an accident in a rented vehicle. Often times the Rental vehicle owner will charge you every day that he couldn't rent that car to another person, because of the accident you were in. So Insurance companies can utilize this coverage to pay down some of that cost for you.

I hope that this shed some light on everyone's insurance policies. Remember to drive safe and keep that seatbelt on!

Cheers