Getting Your Car Insurance As Vacation Ready As the Rest of Your House

You'd never leave for vacation without making sure your fridge was empty, your bags were packed and the car had enough gas in it to get you where you needed to go, so why would you take off without making sure your car insurance (the thing that's going to keep your entire vacation from going broke) was firmly in place?

Car insurance is an essential part of this complete vacation experience. Picture this: You're 1,400 miles from home. You're cruising along an abandoned parking lot. You go to stop, misjudge your distance and beach the car up over a cement divider.

Now, if you've been cruising insurance free you're going to be facing a mountain of bills right now. You've got to pay for the tow truck. You have to pay for the repairs, and the scrap fees when your car can't be fixed. Then there's the little matter of the rental car and how on earth you're going to get home. 1,400 miles is a long way to walk!

Car insurance companies have policies in place for just this sort of situation. If you've made the right choice in providers your insurer will send a rental car out to pick you up, send a tow truck to get your car, make arrangements for an insurance appraiser to look it over and get it fixed and let you keep the rental while you're at it. Simple. Easy. And the deductible is so much cheaper than what you're going to pay out of pocket!

If you're spending your holiday in the good old U.S. of A. and you have a current car insurance policy that's keeping you out of local law enforcement's line of fire you're probably good to go. Most insurance policies are recognized nationwide, so it's really easy for you to get your car to a provider and repairs underway in the time it takes you to pick up the telephone.

That only applies in the States, however. If you're spending your holiday in Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean, or you've opted to ferry your car to South America or Europe (recommendation-renting a car is usually cheaper) you're going to need to pick up a policy from a local provider. The last thing you want to do is be an American on the wrong side of foreign law enforcement, especially over the holidays.

There's nothing like a little quality time in a jail cell or ridiculous fines for driving uninsured (issued in a foreign currency, of course) to completely ruin your Christmas. Why do that when a simple phone call to your insurer can put you in touch with car insurance companies that can make sure you've still got a fighting chance to relax and enjoy the Christmas vacation you signed up for.