Guam Auto Insurance Claims Explained

Most Guam drivers carry the legal minimum and assume it means they're covered. It doesn't mean that. Here's what the minimum actually buys, and what it leaves out.

What Guam requires

Under Guam's mandatory automobile liability insurance law, every registered vehicle must carry: $25,000 per person for third-party bodily injury $50,000 aggregate per accident for bodily injury $20,000 per accident for property damage That's it. That's the whole mandate.

What that does not cover

Liability coverage pays for damage you cause to other people and their property. It does not pay to repair your own vehicle. Not one dollar of it.

To have your own car repaired after a collision you caused — or after a hit-and-run, or after a collision with an uninsured driver — you need collision coverage. That's optional on Guam. Most people only carry it because a lender required it, and many drop it once the loan is paid off.

Comprehensive, and the typhoon problem

Comprehensive coverage handles non-collision losses: theft, fire, vandalism, falling objects, glass breakage, animal contact.

Here's the part specific to Guam, and it catches people every season: under Guam's automobile tariff, typhoon and wind damage is treated separately from Comprehensive. Comprehensive is defined as coverage for damage other than collision and typhoon damage. Typhoon, windstorm and flood coverage is sold as an additional coverage at additional premium.

Meaning: you can carry full Comprehensive and still have zero coverage when a storm drops a tree across your hood — unless you specifically bought the typhoon endorsement. Check your declarations page. Not your memory of what the agent said.

Deductibles

Your deductible is the portion you pay before the insurer pays. It's a contractual term in your policy, not a shop negotiating point. Any shop offering to make it disappear is telling you something about how they bill. (See our post on "free deductible" offers.)

Loss of use

Rental reimbursement — sometimes called loss of use or transportation expense — is optional coverage on Guam and typically capped both daily and in total. If you can't be without a vehicle, check whether you have it and what the caps are, before you need it.

Uninsured motorist

Uninsured motorist coverage responds when the at-fault driver has no insurance. On Guam this is commonly written as bodily injury coverage. Whether and how your own vehicle's damage is covered in that scenario depends on your policy — usually it comes back to whether you carry collision.

The practical summary

If this happens	What pays
You damage someone else's car	Your liability (up to $20k PD)
You damage your own car	Collision — only if you bought it
Tree falls on your car in a typhoon	Typhoon endorsement — only if you bought it
Car stolen or vandalized	Comprehensive — only if you bought it
Uninsured driver hits you	UM for injury; your collision for the vehicle