Fairfield Auto Insurance
Fairfield, California is a desirable urban city to live in because of its natural amenities, its convenient location and its diverse population of civilian residents and military families. With a stable housing market, high graduation rates, and beautiful weather, residents take pride in their local community and it shows.
While Fairfield has a moderate population and loads of amenities, it lacks when it comes to sidewalks and public transportation.
That's why it's been classified as a car-dependent city by WalkScore.com. If you're like most people who require a car to get around for business and for pleasure, it's important to assess the cost of car ownership. Part of your responsibility as a vehicle owner is to buy insurance.
Here's what you need to know before you start comparing rates.
Financial Responsibility is Mandatory in California
Owning a car comes at a cost. The true cost to own a car includes the purchase price, taxes, title fees, maintenance costs and repair bills.
If you live in California, the ownership expenditures will include the cost to maintain proof of financial responsibility because it's mandatory all throughout the state.
Proof of Financial Responsibility is documentation that shows that you have the financial means to pay for damages when you're to blame for a car crash. This evidence can come in a few different forms.
You can either buy an auto insurance policy or put up your own money or property as collateral to demonstrate your ability to pay.
Buying Auto Insurance to Demonstrate Financial Responsibility
If you're like most residents in Fairfield, you'll buy auto insurance to establish financial responsibility.
When you buy auto insurance, you enter into an insuring agreement that says that you'll pay your premiums to secure coverage through the carrier. In exchange for your premiums, the insurer promises to pay the valid claims that you submit.
You get to decide how much coverage you want to carry. The only rules are that you must buy coverage from a licensed carrier and that you have to carry a minimum amount of liability coverage.
If you buy coverage out-of-state or you don't carry liability, you're not in compliance with the CA vehicle code. Here's what's required under the law:
- Bodily Injury (BI): $15,000 per person, $30,000 per accident
- Property Damage (PD): $5,000 per occurrence
What if your car is registered in another state?
One thing that makes Fairfield unique is how close it is to the Travis Air Force Base.
Since the base is the site of the largest military aerial port in the nation, many active-duty servicemembers are stationed in and around Fairfield. Military personnel must comply with unique laws when it comes to registering their vehicles and insuring them.
If you intend to keep your vehicle registered in another state, you don't need to buy auto insurance from a California insurer.
In fact, you won't even need to comply with state insurance laws until you transfer your registration. If you plan to keep license plates in another state of residence, simply comply with that state's rules.
Alternative Methods to Demonstrate Financial Responsibility
If you have in-state plates and you don't want to pay for insurance, you do have the option to prove your financial responsibility with alternative filing methods.
Each of the alternative methods will require approval through the DMV and some form of collateral. Here are your alternative filing options:
- A certificate of deposit issued by the DMV showing you've deposited at least $35,000 in cash with the state treasurer
- A certificate of self-insurance issued to vehicle owners with more than 25 cars
- File a bond in the amount of $35,000 issued by a surety bond company licensed to do business in California (must be approved by the DMV)
What's the penalty for driving without insurance?
It's your legal duty to comply with state laws whenever you're driving on California roads.
So before you get in your uninsured car to drive to Green Valley or Cordero Junction be sure that you know the consequences for driving without insurance.
Here are just some of the monetary and non-monetary penalties that you could face:
- A fine of $100 to $200 for first offense
- A court-ordered impoundment of the vehicle
- A fine of between $200 and $500 for second offense
- License plate suspension for failure to maintain coverage
- Reinstate fees
- Driver license suspension when you're in an accident and don't have insurance
- Requirement to file an SR-22 for up to 3 years
Will your auto insurance costs go up if you have a citation for being uninsured?
Most people know that driving infractions have an impact on their rates, but non-moving violations are handled a little differently by auto insurance companies.
You may not see the relevance when a company asks you about your insurance history, but to the company lapses in coverage matter.
If you disclose that you've been uninsured for a long period of time, it affects the company's ability to assess risk. That's why a company will classify someone with lapses of coverage as a high-risk applicant.
When you're deemed a high-risk, you'll pay more for coverage than the average driver.
Do you have to buy Uninsured Motorist Protection?
You may be really good about maintaining your insurance but there are drivers out there who aren't.
If you're building an insurance policy for quotes, it's important to take a look at some optional provisions that you can add for added protection. Uninsured Motorist Protection is one of these provisions.
All insurance carriers are required by law to offer you an opportunity to get the pricing for Uninsured Motorist coverage. While it must be offered, you're not required by law to buy it. You can review the cost for a minimum amount of coverage and sign a rejection form if you really deem the coverage unnecessary.
Is there a large population of uninsured drivers in Fairfield?
Before you sign on the dotted line, you should take a look to see if your chances of coming into contact with an uninsured motorist are high. In the state of California as a whole, about 14.9 percent of drivers don't have insurance. This means that about 4.1 million drivers in California aren't insured.
These statistics might help, but what's more useful is to determine how bad the problem is near you.
Fairfield is located in Solano County. Based on the latest numbers, there are around 401,635 registered cars in the county. If you do the calculations, about 59,800 cars aren't insured. This doesn't include out-of-state vehicles that could be driving around putting you at risk.
Are there other types of coverage to consider?
California carriers offer a long list of first-party coverage options that'll help you pay for your own vehicle repair bills and your own medical bills. If you don't want to be stuck paying for expenses out of your own pocket, you need to consider adding the coverage for a small cost.
Here are the coverage types available:
- Medical Payments Coverage
- Comprehensive Coverage
- Collision Coverage
- Rental reimbursement
- Towing and roadside assistance
- Accidental death
Do you need physical damage coverage?
Physical damage coverage consists of comprehensive and collision. Comprehensive pays for losses to your car that are not preventable.
These include losses caused by fire, theft, explosion, flood, wind, hail and more. Collision pays for losses caused when you collide with any type of real property. It's advised to remove collision when the value of your car drops.
Under the law, California officials don't require you to buy physical damage coverage.
It's only really required if you have a finance contract on the car and it's not paid off. It's still wise to consider carrying at least comprehensive on your car to protect yourself against Fairfield's high property crime rates.
Since your chances of being a victim of property crime are 1 in 29, it's worth it to pay the small premium for at least comp coverage.
How to Keep Premiums Low
California auto insurance premiums can be high if you don't take advantage of discounts and your freedom to shop around.
The best way to find low rates is to get quotes from multiple providers that each has their own unique rates for each demographic.
If you don't feel like contacting a long list of reputable carriers individually, you can easily get multiple quotes through an online rate comparison tool.
Enter your zip code into the tool and you'll be directed to all of the carriers doing business in Fairfield. Once you get your instant quotes, you can choose the best plan for your budget.
In fact, you can get started using our FREE quote tool right now to find the best auto insurance coverage in your area!