Handy extras for your Illinois car insurance

If you’re driving around Illinois, there’s one thing you need to pay close attention to, to make you both a legal and safe road user – your car insurance.

There are many aspects to this, one of which is the many great extras you can gain from the right provider.

However, before you know what these extras are, it’s also good to cover what the legal minimum requirements are, along with other coverages available to you.

This will all highlight how beneficial these insurance extras are when paired with your standard coverages.

The standard requirement for insurance in Illinois

As you might already be aware, different states in the country will have their own minimum requirements for car insurance – i.e., the insurance you need to have in order to be a legal road user.

In the state of Illinois, the minimum requirement is to have liability coverage, and uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury coverage.

Liability coverage comes in two main parts – bodily injury liability and property damage liability.

The former refers to coverage that helps you pay for any medical bills that result from you injuring another person in an accident, who isn’t in your car.

The latter refers to coverage that covers the cost of repairs or replacements for another person’s property you damage whilst driving, such as their car or a garden fence, for instance.

Uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury coverage is there to cover you if you’re involved in an accident with another driver who either isn’t insured or doesn’t have sufficient coverage to cover your injuries.

This applies to any medical bills that occur from the incident, plus any wages that you lose out on due to the injuries.

It’s also important to know, that in Illinois, there’s minimum amount of $25,000/$50,000 that you need for this type of cover.

Other types of coverage available

There are many other types of coverage you can have, on top of the legal requirement:

• Comprehensive coverage

This is also known as an ‘act of god’ cover since it covers you for any damages to your car that arise from something other than a car accident.

For example, this involves the cost of repairing or replacing your vehicle after – you collide with an animal on the road, a tree falls on your car, or your car is stolen or vandalized.

• Collision coverage

This coverage is specifically for the event of a collision with another vehicle. Liability coverage is there to help cover costs for the other person, but especially if the accident is your fault, this coverage is essential for helping your own costs.

This will help repair or replace your car following damages made in the accident.

The beneficial extras you should consider

Now that you know the minimum and standard insurance coverages, let’s look at some of the great extras you could get in your policy – when choosing an expert provider:

• Emergency roadside assistance

This is a great option to have, since you may easily find yourself in a situation where your car is stranded far from home, and you need help to get it moving or to a shop.

Roadside assistance will be sent to you promptly, to perform a range of helpful actions – inflating your tires, towing you to a garage, or giving you a jumpstart.

• Temporary transportation coverage

If you have a situation where your car is in the shop, and you need to travel somewhere, this insurance type can help cover the cost of alternative transportation.

For example, if you need to take a bus or train somewhere, or even pay for a Lyft or Uber, this will cover the costs whilst your car is unavailable in the shop for repairs.