What Your Policy Actually Says

The declarations page is the summary of your policy: who is covered, what is covered, at what limits, for what premium. It is one or two pages, it arrives with every renewal, and most people have never read it carefully. Ten minutes with it settles almost every question on this site.

The top section: who and what

• Named insured. You, and anyone else formally on the policy.
• Policy period. The effective and expiry dates. Check whether you are on a six or twelve month term.
• Garaging address. Where the vehicle is kept overnight. It should be accurate — a stale address here can create real problems at claim time.
• Vehicles. Year, make, model and VIN. Check the VIN, not just the model.
• Drivers. Everyone listed, and anyone formally excluded. Confirm every licensed household member appears correctly.
• Lienholder or loss payee, if any. If a loan is paid off, this should be removed.

The coverage section: the part that matters

Each coverage appears with a limit and, for physical damage, a deductible. On a minimum-limits liability-only policy you should expect to see:

• Bodily injury liability — two figures, per person and per accident.
• Property damage liability — one figure.
• Uninsured motorist — either limits, or a notation that it was rejected.

And you should expect not to see comprehensive or collision deductibles, because those coverages are not on a liability-only policy. Their absence is how you confirm your own vehicle is not covered.

The five lines people misread

1. The premium is for the term, not the year. A six-month policy's premium is half a year's cost. Check the policy period before doing any comparison.
2. A rejected coverage looks like a present one at a glance. Uninsured motorist rejected is a line on the page; read what it says rather than noting that the words appear.
3. Deductibles are per vehicle. Two cars can carry different deductibles, and often should.
4. "Liability" alone tells you nothing. The figures beside it are the whole content of the line.
5. An excluded driver is still named on the page. Seeing someone's name does not mean they are covered — check whether it appears as a listed driver or as an exclusion.

The twice-a-year habit

When the renewal documents arrive, spend ten minutes:

1. Are all the vehicles right, and are any sold ones removed?
2. Are all the drivers right, and are any who moved out removed?
3. Is the garaging address current?
4. Is the lienholder correct, or removed if the loan is paid?
5. Are the limits what you intended?
6. Did the premium change, and do you know why?

Then put the new insurance card in the car and throw the old one away.

Why this matters more at minimum limits

Because there is less margin. A stale detail on a well-insured policy is an annoyance; on a minimum-limits policy it can be the difference between a claim being handled cleanly and an argument at the worst moment.

Send us the page if anything on it is unclear — reading declarations pages back to people is most of what we do, and we will tell you plainly what is missing and what is fine.