Had a minor scratch to fender where I scraped off something in a parking lot.
Estimate was around $1400 to have it fixed. Decided to go thru insurance because hey, its a small hit, no one got hurt etc.
My premium increased from $700/6m to $1200/6m. That is, a $1000 increase per year, and since this is gonna effect my rates for atleast 3 years, obviously its going to cost me a lot more over time.
Obviously Im shopping around, but I’ve been with my current provided for 9 years. This is my first at-fault accident and no tickets etc in that entire time.
Seems shitty to raise rates that much. But this brings me back to my point, what’s the point of having insurance if you can’t really use it. Obviously I can’t turn back time and pay it OOP. Just Live and move on and hopefully someone else can benefit from my mistakes
It’s long been that way. The point is to not use it on the relatively small things. It’s more to cover serious accidents, totaled cars, liability, etc…
Keep in mind when you use it on small things, it goes on the car fax and could potentially diminish the value of the car. Obv less of a concern if a lease. I recently had a small hit & run on my back bumper that I could have claimed. Instead I found a family owned body shop and he said for $500 he could get it 80-90% of perfect. I did that b/c I didn’t want it on the car fax as relatively soon I am going to attempt to capitalize on the equity.
I don’t have any equity in the car anyways, so its not in my interest to do so. I just feel shitty. $1500 is $1500 even to have it repair…
Like at the back of your mind, thats what you pay insurance for, to use it when you need it…
I get it. I was actually in Comm Property & Casualty sales for a few years. Learned a lot from it, including how to make something compelling that absolutely no one actually wants to buy, it’s more of a product that you know and are required to have but it doesn’t make it any easier seeing the premium payments leave my checking account.
I know some carriers advertise that they “won’t raise your rates” for certain claims. I haven’t delved into it to read the fine print though.
Actually i have 1 “free” claim with Allstate. At least thats what they claim. Thankfully and hopefully i will never be in the need to actually check that…
OP i do agree with you, it’s very frustrating to pay for something but when you actually use it it goes up …
This. It’s good to have insurance when you have an event that costs many many thousands of dollars. It’s easier to pay a guaranteed $100/mo vs a rare but painful $10k-$20k. And of course you don’t really have a choice with a leased or financed car.
I always recommend doing the math between each subsequent level of coverage or deductible. I rarely take a lower deductible without doing the math to see if it’s worth it. For example, $250 comprehensive deductible for $1 more a month? One claimed incident of over $2k in 20 years and it would be worth it. It’s not to say I’d make a claim at a lower amount with a lower deductible, it’s more that if I would make a claim anyway, I’d save $250 off my exposure.
Let’s say you make a mistake, and accidentally put the car in R instead of D. You gently press the gas but end up inside of a gas station, or backing into a gas pump.
Or you’re driving down the highway, and you get rear-ended at high speed because someone wasn’t paying attn (they’re uninsured), and you rear-end someone in front of you in a Lambo because you couldn’t control your car after an airbag explodes in your face.
That is what insurance is for, and if you don’t have the funds to cover that, don’t self-insure. Even if highly unlikely, or however great of a driver you are it can still happen.
From my math, I’ve paid insurance company $7000 over the last 5 years alone. Now, if I had them pay out $1400 in damages for my car, and they are trying to recoup $3000 for this claim… seems like the business model isn’t very neutral.
Makes me wonder if there is any chance in hell someone offers takaful in America…
It is not. I have never seen an Islamic lending structure in the USA.
Islam has rules about lending, risk, and insurance. Thus Islamic insurance and Islamic lending must be accomplished in different ways and some Islamic-compliant banks have found a niche in the GCC and Muslim countries.
Well yes I would call most of that collateral damage. Self insure doesn’t mean don’t have insurance for catastrophe. It means don’t buy useless protection for your iPhone or equivalent level moves.
Islamic mortgage financing does exist and I’ve had a few friends who have done it but its more pain than a traditional mortgage obviously. Don’t know why Takaful is illegal
I’ve never seen it, and I would love to be proven wrong.
I don’t think calling comprehensive useless is fair. It can be useful for incidents where you can’t pursue the other party, and that can happen. We carry good insurance on all of our vehicles, at a reasonable price, in case the unthinkable happens.
I"m not going to keep arguing, and I’ll simply counter with that I understand your point of view and argument.
