Have you been involved in a car accident and got injured?
Or have you been researching about filing an insurance claim online?
You might have come across stacking.
Contents
This is an essential concept that will considerably help in increasing the compensation available to victims of accidents in some instances.
But, stacking doesn’t apply to all accident claims.
To make the most of your financial recovery, you should know how you can stack your insurance policy effectively.
This type of insurance increases your uninsured motorist/underinsured motorist cover (UM/UIM) by combining each policy’s limits on every car you insure.
The UM/UIM is a kind of insurance coverage that will protect you if you get involved in a car accident with a driver whose insurance limits are not high enough for paying the injury caused to you, or who isn’t insured.
But including uninsured/underinsured motorist cover in your policy usually only adds a little amount to your every month premiums.
If you have many insured cars, based on your area of residence and whether your insurer permits it, you may stack your insurance, either across multiple insurance covers or the same insurance policy, to combine the insurance limits in the event of a car accident.
If you are considering stacking, it is most likely the best idea to do it.
This will allow you to get the most coverage possible.
Considerations before stacking
Uninsured motorist/underinsured motorist coverage is for car accidents caused by other motorists.
If you are to blame for the car accident and get injured, uninsured motorist coverage will help you.
(However, medical payments insurance cover and personal injury protection would.)
Health policies usually also cover car accident injuries. You might not even require uninsured motorist insurance cover.
However, if your health insurance policy offers high charges, purchasing uninsured motorist coverage is a way to insure injuries due to a car accident without having to deal with health insurance copays, coinsurance, and deductibles.
You might have to pay more for the choice to stack. If this happens, you should choose stacking when purchasing the cover.
You cannot retroactively choose it after getting involved in an accident.
Here is an example of how stacked insurance will provide you with extra protection.
Let’s say you’ve got UM coverage for two vehicles under a single insurance policy, each with a limit of $40,000.
Presently, you have unstaked kinds of coverage.
In case of a car accident, you will be entitled to make claims up to the $40,000 limit.
Any expenses over $40,000 will not get covered by your car insurance.
With stacked coverage, you will combine both your car limits to have combined coverage for both vehicles of $80,000.
Now in case an accident happens that will cause damages of up to $55,000, you will not be left bearing the cost for the $15,000 that will surpass the unstacked limit.
Rather, your stacked coverage will cover all the damage from the accident.
Do l require stacked auto insurance?
Unfortunately, there are lots of uninsured motorists on the road.
If you get involved in an accident caused by a driver does not have license or who is not insured, it will be hard getting compensation for injury to your body.
Even if a driver having liability insurance cover hits you, if they just carry minimum liability limits then you will still find yourself lacking coverage.
These types of limits can often get exhausted very fast if you have serious injuries.
Underinsured coverage plays an important role during this time.
The UIM coverage will pick up from where the liability insurance of the to blame driver ceases.
It will help in covering medical bills left behind from the drained liability coverage of the other party.
Eligibility for stacked auto insurance
Stacked auto insurance coverage will depend on several factors. Not all providers permit stacking.
You should consult your present insurance company to see if stacked coverage is available.
Another essential thing to keep in mind is that stacked auto insurance doesn’t provide compensation if you cause the accident.
For UM/UIM to apply, the accident should be another driver’s fault, especially, a driver who doesn’t have insurance cover or sufficient coverage to correctly cover your losses.
Stacked auto insurance eligibility entails you to have more than one insured vehicle to be eligible.
To stack across multiple coverages
If you have multiple cars and separate policies for each, you may still be able to stack the UM/UIM coverage across policies within the same carrier.
Let’s say you have $30,000 in UIM coverage on one vehicle and under a different coverage on the other car you have $30,000.
You may stack that coverage to increase the limit to $60,000, although you have two separate insurance covers.
Stacking insurance cover: options and considerations
UM/UIM coverages are the best way of protecting yourself in case of a collision with a car driven by an uninsured driver or a hit-and-run accident.
Your health insurance can also cover some of the claims that UM/UIM coverages cover.
But the added inner peace that the increase limits will bring will make the option alluring to most drivers.
If your insurance provider permits it, and you can pay for the extra cost, stacking your UM/UIM coverage limits will be the best idea.
Coverage exclusions and limits
Even if your car policy permits stacking of coverage, it might have conditions about how that policy is applied.
Stacking of insurance policy is normally applicable to the policyholder and the immediate family members of the policyholder.
But this is if the family lives in the same house.
Your car insurance might leave out stacking of coverage for all other people if they aren’t your home’s resident members of your family.
Another limitation that providers usually put in their car contracts is the number of times you may stack the UIMBI (Underinsured motorist bodily injury) AND UMBI (Uninsured motorist bodily injury) insurance cover.
If the cover shows you can stack a policy up to 3 cars and you own 6 cars insured on your auto insurance, you can just stack the policy up to the limit of 3 cars.
Conclusion
Stacking auto insurance is a tool that will help victims of accidents more completely recover financially from a car accident by being capable of making a claim against every policy they are entitled to.
The rules might appear a bit complicated; however, an expert vehicle attorney will help you in finding out what coverages you can stack so you can start the process to get your life back.