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What You Need to Know About Car Insurance

Tijuana didn’t the reputation it has for being a Mexican tourist trap for nothing. Every day thousands of Americans cross the border from California to Tijuana, enjoying the huge assortment of “sights to see” and the wild nightlife that draws people in droves. Before you hop the border into Tijuana, however, make sure your car insurance arrangements are well in place.

Car insurance? Well…yes. Despite the fact that the quantity of American tourists traveling into Mexican territory every day makes it easy to forget, Mexico is, in fact, another country, and like any other country it has its own set of rules it expects tourists to live by. One of those rules is the necessity of a car insurance policy that’s recognized by local hospitals and repair shops. Guess what’s not on that list? Right. Anything issued in the U.S. of A.

Since your car insurance isn’t going to be valid in Mexico, and since the Mexican policia are usually pretty adamant about making sure you’re covered before they let you hit the highways, you’re going to need to pick up a temporary coverage policy in Mexico.

Where to Buy Mexican Car Insurance

You have two choices when it comes to buying Mexican car insurance. The smart bet is to make the purchase before setting a single tire tread over the border. There are companies throughout Arizona and California that work with Mexican insurance agents to procure policies, and they do both long and short term (some as short as a single day) to make allowances for the fact that most Americans are tourists, not residents.

If you didn’t pick up a temporary car insurance policy before you left the states you can usually get one in the border towns, including Tijuana itself. It’s unclear whether doing this costs more than purchasing it in the states, although the necessity would indicate that someone’s going to try to take advantage of it. If you’re shopping for car insurance in Mexico make sure you follow the same set of rules you would were you shopping in the states.

How Much Insurance You Need

Like most of the states north of the border Mexico’s only insurance requirements are for liability insurance. American drivers are required to have at least $20,000 per incident in bodily injury protection. Also like the United States, that’s probably not going to be enough. You’re going to want to consider raising your levels of insurance.

If you live in Arizona or California you may find that your car insurance policy offers some collision and comprehensive coverage for a certain distance south of the border; however, since that’s not set in stone you’re going to want to include that in your Mexican insurance policy as well.

The Mexican police force has a well deserved reputation for having no tolerance when it comes to Americans crossing the border and breaking their laws, so the best thing you can do for yourself is make sure you’ve got a good Mexican car insurance policy backing you up before you step onto Tijuana soil. It’s definitely better than spending the night in a Tijuana jail!

Those deserve their reputation too. In case you were wondering.

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