Baja Auto Insurance Review
Auto insurance is required in all states, so it’s not something you can choose or not choose to have. Choosing the right insurance can be difficult because there are so many insurance companies from which to choose. Baja Auto Insurance has been providing insurance to drivers for a long time and has some excellent policies available. They also have some affordable policies for college students.
What Auto Insurance Is and Why It’s Important
Auto insurance is a type of insurance that protects you while you’re driving as well as while someone else is driving or riding in your vehicle. There are different types of auto insurance, and you’ll learn a little about each of them here. Auto insurance is important for a couple of different reasons.
- The Law – Auto insurance is required in all the states if you own a vehicle. Even if you don’t drive the vehicle, you are still required to carry insurance on it. Although there are different types of coverage, liability insurance is the only type that’s required. Coverages like comprehensive or collision are optional. Drivers who drive without insurance are at risk of being fined.
- Protection Against Damage – Auto insurance will pay for the repair or replacement of your vehicle if it’s damaged in an accident. The cost of auto insurance is next to nothing when you consider what it would pay to replace your vehicle out of your own pocket.
- Protection Against Legal Action – Auto insurance includes liability coverage, which protects you if you’re sued by a passenger who is injured while riding in your vehicle. When people are sued today, it’s never for just a few hundred dollars. It’s for much larger amounts. Liability insurance pays for this for just a small amount each month.
Why College Students Need Auto Insurance
If there is one thing you always hear about teen drivers, it’s that their insurance premiums are much higher than their parents’ or other adult drivers. The reason for this is that young drivers typically drive faster and are involved in more accidents or traffic citations. Although boys do tend to drive faster and more recklessly than girls, auto insurance premiums are high for both genders.
To save their children money, many parents include their college students on their auto insurance. Even if students are living away from home or on campus, they still need auto insurance to protect them and their vehicles from loss. Because of their driving reputation, college students need auto insurance.
Baja Auto Insurance Coverage
Baja auto insurance is a Texas-based company that’s been around since 2006. They offer insurance coverage to Texas drivers and currently have about 59 offices covering the Dallas/Fort Worth area. If you’re doing a Baja Auto insurance review, you’ll find that they strive very hard to help drivers find affordable auto insurance.
Baja Auto insurance offers a few different types of coverage.
- Liability Insurance – This protects you from damages to others and their property. It pays their medical bills if they’re involved in an accident while in your vehicle and also protects you if the individual sues you for damages.
- Comprehensive Insurance – This pays for damages done to your vehicle by something other than your driving. It includes things like vandalism, theft, deer, storms, and civil disturbances.
- Collision Insurance – This pays to repair or replace your vehicle if it’s damaged by your driving.
- Uninsured Motorist – This pays for damages done to you or your vehicle by a driver who has no insurance.
- Underinsured Motorist – This pays for damages done to you or your vehicle by a driver that has insurance but not enough to pay for the total damages.
- Medical Payments – This pays for medical expenses to an individual injured while in your vehicle or if the damages are caused by your driving.
- Personal Injury Protection – Also known as PIP, this coverage is similar to medical payments coverage, but it pays for not just the medical bills but also things like extended medical treatments, and loss of wages. PIP insurance is very helpful for those that have long-term injuries due to car accidents.
When choosing auto insurance, the cost is typically the biggest concern, especially among college students. College students often have limited funds, so they want to find not just the best auto insurance but the one that’s most affordable. The first thing college students discover is that premiums are not the same in all cities. Factors that can affect the cost include:
- Geographic location
- Age of driver
- Vehicle type
- Gender
- Driving record
- Marital status
- Credit score
- Type of coverage
Sample Quotes
To help you better understand how different factors, especially location, can affect the premiums, here are some sample quotes for college students living in different cities in Texas. The quotes are all for a 20-year-old male student that drives a 2015 Chevrolet Malibu and has a clean driving record. This student also commutes two to three days per week and puts on less than 8,000 miles per year.
Quote #1 – Houston, TX. – The premium is $602 per month is for this coverage.
- Personal liability $30,000 per person/$60,000 per accident
- Property Damage – $25,000
- Comprehensive – $500 deductible
- Collision – $500 deductible
Quote #2 – Richardson, TX. – The premium is $560 per month for this coverage.
- Personal liability $30,000 per person/$60,000 per accident
- Property Damage – $25,000
- Comprehensive – $500 deductible
- Collision – $500 deductible
Quote #3 – Waco, TX. – The premium is $468 per month for this coverage.
- Personal liability $30,000 per person/$60,000 per accident
- Property Damage – $25,000
- Comprehensive – $500 deductible
- Collision – $500 deductible
Quote #4 – Lubbock, TX. – The premium is $525 per month for this coverage.
- Personal liability $30,000 per person/$60,000 per accident
- Property Damage – $25,000
- Comprehensive – $500 deductible
- Collision – $500 deductible
Quote #5 – San Antonio, TX. – The premium is $546 per month for this coverage.
- Personal liability $30,000 per person/$60,000 per accident
- Property Damage – $25,000
- Comprehensive – $500 deductible
- Collision – $500 deductible
To give you an example of how gender affects premiums, I also did a sample quote for a 20-year-old female living in San Antonio, TX. For the same coverage, she would have to pay $477 per month.
Discounts
Although these are the basic rates for this college student, Baja Auto Insurance offers college students ways to save money in the way of discounts. Some possible discounts include:
- Good student discount
- Safe driver discount
- Locked garage discount
- Bundling discount
- Safety device discount
These things may only offer a 5 or 10 percent discount, but these can really add up if the driver has a couple of discounts. Let’s take the male student from San Antonio with the $546 premium as an example. Five percent is $27.30. Ten percent is $54.60. If a student is receiving a couple of discounts, the savings can be substantial.
Limits
As is the case with most auto insurance companies, there are certain limits as to what Baja Auto Insurance will pay. In the case of collision or comprehensive coverage, the insurance company will only pay up to the value of the damages or the value of the vehicle if it’s totaled out minus the deductible.
When using the term “limits’, what the insurance company is usually referring to is liability coverage. Auto insurance companies usually offer several options for liability coverage. You may find the following options available.
- $25,000/$50,000/$10,000
- $25,000/$50,000/$15,000
- $25,000/$50,000/$25,000
- $50,000/$100,000/$15,000
- $50,000/$100,000/$25,000
- $50,000/$100,000/$50,000
- $100,000/$300,000/$50,000
- $100,000/$300,000/$100,000
- $250,000/$500,000/$100,000
- $250,000/$500,000/$25,000
- $500,000/$500,000/$250,000
Each of these figures represents a specific amount and type of coverage.
If you are driving your vehicle with passengers and are involved in an accident and have liability coverage of $25,000/$50,000/$10,000, the insurance company would pay up to $25,000 per person, up to $50,000 for bodily injury liability per accident, and up to $100,000 for property damage liability per accident.
There are also some things that Baja Auto Insurance will not cover. These include driving while drunk, acts of war, or if the government confiscates your vehicle.
Deductibles
All auto insurances offer a deductible on their collision and comprehensive coverage. PIP coverage may also have a deductible. The deductible is the amount the driver must pay before the insurance company pays. Deductibles may be $250, $500, $1,000, $2,000, or more. The higher deductible, the lower your premium will be. However, if you have a higher deductible, you will have to pay more at the time of an accident.
If you have a $1,000 deductible and have $8,000 in damages to your vehicle, you will have to pay the $1,000, and the insurance company will pay the remaining $7,000. Unlike health insurance which requires a deductible per year, auto insurance’s deductibles are per accident. If you’re involved in two accidents in the same year, you would have to pay the deductible for each accident.
Claims
When doing a Baja auto insurance review, customers claim that one of the best things about Baja is their easy claim process. They also offer customers various ways to open or submit their claims. They can email the company, call them on the phone, register online, or register their claim through the company’s app.
With the high use of smartphones, many customers use the mobile app to submit and monitor claims. If any forms are needed, they can be downloaded off the internet. Once the claim has been submitted, customers can follow the claim up until the claim is paid.
Additional Info
The one thing that a Baja Auto Insurance Review will show is that there are a lot of positive things to say about Baja Auto Insurance. Their easy claim process was at the top of the list. Another interesting fact is that Baja itself does not offer auto insurance.
What they do is browse through different insurance companies so they can find their customers the cheapest insurance possible. Their ability to browse through many auto insurance companies is what allows them to find you not just the best auto insurance for you but the cheapest as well.
They don’t just work with safe drivers with clean driving records. They’ll work very hard to find good affordable insurance for drivers with less-than-perfect driving records. Their excellent customer service has made them very popular with customers.
They also offer various payment options to their customers. Some customers prefer to pay annually while others might find monthly payments work better. Baja tries to accommodate all customers.
Another thing that Baja auto insurance prides itself on is its ability to give potential customers a fairly accurate quote in a matter of seconds. As handy and convenient as it is to do everything online, some customers still prefer person-to-person contact and communication.
Baja offers these customers the option of visiting any one of their locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. You can stop at a location near you and talk with an actual agent.
One thing that customers do not like about Baja is that they do not offer coverage to those traveling to Mexico. If you plan on driving into Mexico, you will need to purchase a policy in Mexico. However, Baja is not the only insurance company that doesn’t offer coverage while in Mexico.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for an affordable policy with some allowances for a less-than-perfect driving record, then look to Baja auto insurance. Get a quote today and compare rates against different companies.
Annie Johnson is a licensed insurance broker, specializing in auto, home and renters insurance products. She reviews insurance content on College Educated for accuracy and has a particular passion for making sure that college students and recent graduates have proper insurance coverage. Her latest passion includes researching all forms of business insurance, to ensure that recent college grads who look to entrepreneurship can have the right protection.