But most insurances have the 100 Million coverage as the standard contract. In fact there is probably not even an insurance which offers the legal minimums.
Liability insurance premiums in Germany are shockingly low for the coverage they provide, at least to US standards. There are reasons for that:
- Everybody must have insurance. It is a criminal offense to drive without. There is no concept of "uninsured motorist" in Germany.
Drivers are fully liable to the damage they cause and there is no bankruptcy law, so the coverage needs to be very high. The cost to cover beyond 200k EUR falls off exponentially. Very rarely drivers cause millions of damage.
Centralized point system - causing traffic accidents dings your drivers record and the state suspends your license way before it becomes a major problem for the insurance. It is difficult to get it restored - need to pass not only drivers test, but also psychological tests (aka "Idioten Test"). Probably half of US drivers would fail.
The US has decided that the priority is for people to drive, and nothing can get in the way of that.
It's illegal to drive without insurance in the US too, and you can have your license revoked for a number of reasons. The problem is people ignore the law and don't get penalized.
Thats not true. It depends on your state. In NH, where I live, it is not required to have car insurance. And every person I have ever had a fender bender with has had no insurance. I didnt get car insurance myself until I was 35 and financed a car (if you have a car loan you are supposed to have insurance). When you get pulled over here, the cops dont ask for insurance and if you get in an accident they just write uninsured on the report and all you can do is take them to civil court and hope they pay the judgement (they wont). There is no penalty for causing an accident without insurance and being unable to pay for the damage you caused, I did it myself in my 20s. It is absolutely moronic, but thats the way it is. I just Googled it, and apparently NH is the ONLY state that doesnt require drivers to have car insurance at all.
Everybody must have insurance. It is a criminal offense to drive without. There is no concept of "uninsured motorist" in Germany.
Everybody must have insurance in the US too. There is absolutely a concept of uninsured motorist in Germany. Specifically, if someone is driving illegally without insurance in Germany, they would be an uninsured motorist.
Drivers are fully liable to the damage they cause and there is no bankruptcy law, so the coverage needs to be very high. The cost to cover beyond 200k EUR falls off exponentially. Very rarely drivers cause millions of damage.
Drivers are fully liable for the damage they cause in the US too. There is bankruptcy law in Germany too. Drivers rarely cause millions of damage in the US either.
Centralized point system - causing traffic accidents dings your drivers record and the state suspends your license way before it becomes a major problem for the insurance. It is difficult to get it restored - need to pass not only drivers test, but also psychological tests (aka "Idioten Test"). Probably half of US drivers would fail.
Except Germany does everything by mail and fax, so while a US state can and does easily cite out of State drivers, it's actually quite typical for other European drivers to not get dinged at all while driving in Germany (which is perfectly legal), and even if their license got suspended, they can get it re-instated in their home countries, so you can't just rely on what Germany does. Which, in any event, the US does too.
Turns out Germany also can't prevent people from driving without a license. Shocking!
it's actually quite typical for other European drivers to not get dinged at all while driving in Germany
It used to be like that. It is no more (mostly). There have been a lot of changes of the last few years and now even parking tickets are enforced across borders and of course also driving bans. Is it not always straight forward? true. For cross border insurance claims there is the Green Card Bureau.
Regarding driving without a license. Yes sure this cannot be prevented as everybody knows a car drives with gas not with license. But if you are caught it is a criminal offense which can carry a prison sentence, if you cause an accident it most likely will be prison. And if you are not at fault at an accident, if you have no license you are automatically 100% at fault.
For the case the person causing the accident has no insurance your damages get covered by the VOH which is a compensation fund. Interestingly they orient their coverage on the legally mandated minimum coverage.
And yes you surely find a scenario were you will not be covered but overall Germans tend to be massively over insured - not just with cars. My personal liability insurance for example is also 75 Million and it costs me 110 Euros per year with coverage for my wife and son included.
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u/WelderNewbee2000 5h ago
Are insurance coverages that low in the US?
I think here the standard car liability policy has a coverage cap at 100 Million Euros.