With COVID-19 still having us in lock down people are driving much less. Calling your insurance broker is a great idea as they might be able to save you money based on reducing usage. What should you do though if you aren’t driving at all? Some companies will let you put your vehicle on “fire & theft” or comprehensive coverage only. This totally deletes all coverages from your vehicle other than comprehensive coverage. This means you cannot drive it, you don’t have your accident benefits and if another car hit it while it was parked you might be left without coverage. This might be fine if you have another vehicle with road coverage and accident benefits and it’s parked somewhere safe. But what if you only have one car insured?
There is something called an OPCF 16 (Suspension of Coverage) which you can add to your policy. This has some requirements that have to be met such a signed form and it has to be in effect for a certain amount of time. What this coverage does is “cancels” your coverage for the use and operation of the vehicle. This means as long as no one drives or operates the vehicle you get to keep all of your coverages. This means your accident benefits provided by your policy would still kick in if you were driving a different vehicle or a passenger in one. (Very important if you are travelling) If you have full physical damage coverage your car would maintain that coverage in the event another car hit it while parked in your driveway or garage(not parked on a roadway). You do have to pay as you are still getting coverage but it is a lot less expensive than what you would be paying without suspending coverage.
All of these insurance terms and coverage jargon can be quite confusing. The best thing you can do is call your broker and they would be happy to explain coverages and help you customize your policy to best suit your needs.
It is a tough and challenging time right now for everyone but we at Absolute Insurance Brokers are happy to work hard to help you with all of your insurance needs. Give us a call today or email us!
