$ Question, car about to be paid off...

I'm refinancing my home and one of the requirements is that my car be paid off via refinancing.

I have a cute 2003 Kia rio ... great condition, only 50K miles....

Now since it will be paid off, I"m debating whether or not to drop the full coverage insurance and just have the liability insurance? Or keep the full coverage for a few more years?

I am kinda on the fence for this and trying to fall onto the just liability insurance side, but more leaning towards keeping full coverage for a little longer.

What would you do?

Thanks!

BG

Keep full coverage atleast until you get another vehicle is my recomendation.

You never know what could happen.

Not to jinx anything but my mothers van was stolen shortly after we refied the house and I don't think she had full coverage so they aren't paying her back.

Also a few years prior to that we had another car that was within 3months of being payed off and we droped full coverage, some guy ran the light and we got nothing for it even though it was his fault.

Before I bought my current car I had an old 84 Fiero cute but I wanted to make sure if I lost it I would be in a position to atleast get something back and start all overagain vs not having anything to start with.

Not much but I hope it helps.

I consider insurance a necessity. So obviously my vote is for factoring in the insurance and keeping it!

Depends on how you drive and what your record's like. Personally, I've only ever had the legal minimum required car insurance, and I've never regretted it for a moment. You only need full coverage if you have an accident that is your fault, or you're especially unlucky in that you happen to be hit by an uninsured driver. Even then, unless it's big, it's not going to be worth claiming and losing your no-claims bonus for x years to come. Almost everyone loses money on average over a period of years with full coverage. If you want to remain with them, go ahead, but don't do it under the illusion that you'll be saving yourself money. You won't; you'll be paying for peace of mind for a worst-case scenario, just as with any other type of voluntary insurance, and how much you should pay depends on just how much you need that peace of mind. To be perfectly blunt, insurance is a tax on worrying, in the same way that lottery tickets are a tax on low IQ or greed.

Good points, karvala.

Insurance doesn't really save money. But if you chose to go the light insurance route, it's probably a good idea to keep money saved aways somewhere to replace what may be lost anyways.

Or not. It depends on what is important to you.

Insurance doesn't really save money. But if you chose to go the light insurance route, it's probably a good idea to keep money saved aways somewhere to replace what may be lost anyways.

Yeah, that's definitely a good idea. That's what I did when I stopped having home contents insurance, partly as an experiment as much as anything, and so far I'm well ahead of the game.

Now I'm hoping not to get burgled tonight....

it's still a relatively new car...I'd keep it.

I had PLPD for my old jeep but that was because it was crap and if something happened, I wouldn't be out much money.

With my newer '02 toyota, I have full-coverage...

you never know what's going to happen

lol.

Even my jewelry is insured. So I admire brave souls such as yourself.

To me, the money spent really is for peace of mind more than anything else. At the end, it is just stuff. But it's the mental security that I am buying.

So any decision yet, OP?

Gee I gotta say good luck, I knew someone who had a 2004 kia rio broke down at 50,000. well around here there are only about 3 dealerships left of kia and the one he bought it from closed down after this whole thing went down.

And I seen plenty of things where this car got broke into PIECES from an accident.

Not trying to scare you, each car is different, so is each year. But this guy took very good care of that car.

Keep the full insurance coverage. Here where I live insurance companies never really add full coverage, just minimal when cars are of a certain year and/or worth very very little like a few thousand dollars. They figure since its not worth much and if anything does happen to it, its going to be a write off anyways. So I say you keep the full insurance and only cut it when the car gets too old that its not really worth having full coverage or cut it if for some reason your financial situation changes and you can't really afford full coverage.

I'd keep the full insurance coverage.

My car got stolen on Christmas Eve. I still had full coverage on it, with a $250 deductible. When the car was recovered, insurance covered most of the damages (minus deductible and some other stuff I wanted fixed). My car was 7 years old with almost 100K miles on it.

I would have been up "crap" creek if I didn't have comprehensive coverage

You never know what can happen. But if you have a nice chunk of money saved up for in case something happens to your car, then maybe take off the comprehensive.