Side note, get a dash cam so your rates don’t go up for someone else’s stupidity.
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I was thinking about this no more than a week ago. I have $100 comprehensive and collision deductibles for no other reason than it was not much of a difference between $100 and $500 with a perfect driving record and no accidents. I say it was because I was rear-ended at 5MPH or less a while back. Long story condensed, I was just about to turn in my lease, and something funny was happening with the other driver’s insurance. I waited as long as possible to have my insurance company sort it out (that is what I pay for) but got the worst Claims Rep in the business. So I funded my deductible since the minor scrape was $2,500 to repair. My insurance company told me I would get my deductible back, but I was not concerned about $100. I needed my car repaired for the turn-in (which has yet to happen due to lease extensions).
Nine months later, it is in subrogation due to the driver rear-ending me, claiming I backed into them. I thought my dashcam footage would clear me; it did not (thanks to the opinion of said Claim Rep – once they determine something, no one will change the report). I shop rates yearly and found the accident on my record has significantly increased my rates – except for the company I want to leave. How convenient.
I did not get upset about it. You cannot know something until you go through it. Now I know to pay for the repair out of pocket, keep my coverage the same, but up the deductibles – there is a rare chance I will use them again. I would have been better off taking my car to get estimates and paying for the repair myself. 3-5 years of increased insurance rates vs. $2,500? The answer is obvious. The one great thing the repair shop did on my behalf was not reporting the accident because they saw what my insurance company was doing to me. I had found a reputable repair person who quoted me $500, but they could not guarantee there was no underlying damage, so I went with one who could provide that assurance (for an extra $2000).
You live, learn, never make the same mistake twice, and do not beat yourself up over the lesson. If I have to stick with the company that made everything worse and not pay double elsewhere, that is what I will do. Knowing how insurance works now, I will keep the money in my pocket and stay with them. Spite is not worth losing money.
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In a previous life I did some insurance defense work and while insurance is profitable, it’s a very small percentage of cases that cost insurance company a fortune. The biggest issue is cost of medical care. You put someone in ER for only a couple days and requiring a bunch of imaging you are talking a six figure bill easy. I saw some fender benders with almost no damage to the vehicle but the defendant ended up having to cover a six figure medical bills due to 80+ year old people in car that got rear ended. Then there are the legal costs.
Edit - in most of these cases the responsible party didn’t have enough insurance. So the not at fault persons insurance has to pay out and then try to recover from the at fault driver.
I will say minimum car insurance seems like a much worse deal that being adequately insured. Cheap insurance has all the drawbacks of more comprehensive insurance but doesn’t even provide you with financial protection against causing someone a non life threatening injury (say compound fracture).
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That’s some heavy b*** that they wouldn’t look at the dash cam.
Reach out to the news, and maybe a lawyer.
Which company was it?
Progressive.
The odd thing is that my family uses them and has never had an issue with a claim. I genuinely believe my experience comes down to the Claim’s Rep. I did what I could to get agencies involved without help/resolve. My attorney requested information, and the Claim Rep’s Supervisor instead contacted me (not him) twice, refusing to comply. It was something so insignificant it was clear they denied the ask because they wanted to/could. It was personal for some reason. Maybe contacting the agencies prompted the attitude at that point, but I had to. Fighting with my own insurance company as if I caused the accident was strange.
I could tell from our first conversation that it would be a problem. When you are telling someone what happened and the person is responding with a different story, that only hurts you; it can only go south. At one point, I had to look at my phone’s caller ID to ensure I was not talking to the other driver’s insurance company. That is how bad the initial conversation went. It was bizarre. They refused the dashcam footage as evidence since it did not show the rear of my car. I had to wait until it went to subrogation to admit the file.
Had I known the claim would raise my rates and cause so many problems, I never would have reported the accident. It would have been best for me to pay out of pocket and take them into court if the driver who rear-ended me then attempted to say otherwise. But it was the first accident I needed to file a claim, so I had no idea you want to keep insurance out of accidents unless a large sum is involved. They instruct you to call them immediately for their benefit, not yours. Now I know better.
Live and learn.
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I agree that insurance sucks, big time. You need to weigh what your deductible is vs the damage to your vehicle as well as the potential diminished value, property damage, & medical costs. I carry a $1,000 deductible on my policy. If there is anywhere between $1,500 - $2,500 worth of damage to one of my vehicles I’ll pay out of pocket. As I believe @HersheySweet said above, You need insurance for major damage. Medical bills, property damage, when you hit a guard rail on a state highway and they sue you for the damages…
I work in a bad neighborhood. I park on the street. I think a box truck with a steel bumper scraped the driver’s side quarter panel as well as the painted wheel arch on my (former) leased 2019 Tacoma. I had a guy who does body work fix it and paint it for $250. There was a bit of orange peel, but the paint matched 100% perfect. Cost me $250 + $50 for a car rental…
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Completely agree with this. There are body shops that will do it cheaper than the dealer’s body shop. Get to know a guy you trust that can do little touch up jobs.
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It’s based on risk, you have an accident, you’re more of a risk to them, so they charge more.
Insurance isn’t for minor things like that, it’s for major things. If you hit someone, total their car, your car, and injure them badly, it’s going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, that is when you need to have insurance, to protect you. $1400 won’t bankrupt you and lose your house or other assets, $300,000 in damages and hospital bills m/pain and suffering would be catastrophic.
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This is correct.
Your homeowner’s deductible should be at lowest $2,500.
I understand the situation, but if its obviously the other drivers, fault, then I would have no problem reporting.
Maybe it’s bec I have a decent agent with my insurance.
Yes. My auto policy deductible is $1,000. My Homeowner’s is $2,500. I’d have a $10,000 deductible for homeowner’s if they allowed it. Pay, pay, pay and they cover squat. My basement has flooded twice. Once for a sump pump failure (I own a plumbing supply business, so how’s that for irony?) which they gave me $5K. That $5K covered the cost of Serve Pro to clean everything up and dry it out. The second time was from Hurricane Ida. An ankle deep creek behind my house flooded my entire back yard and basement with over 2 1/2 feet of water. Insurance paid out $0. I don’t live on a “flood plain,” so I didn’t have flood insurance. Even If I did have flood insurance, it would only cover the mechanicals essential to run the house (Boiler, Hot Water Heater…). Now, if a washing machine hose breaks when I’m gone for the weekend, they would pay to redo the entire basement.
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I dont understand why these insurances can’t offer calculators or forecasters that hey, if you file a claim for X, your premium is going to go up by Y. My health insurance provides cost estimates for different plans, my credit score forecasts impacts based on changes or applications etc. I am sure insurance companies can do the same.
AFAIK, health insurance is now (and for the past 10 yrs) simply based on your age bracket, not your personal history of usage. And, depending on how old you are and your own medical needs, it’s also meant to be used on a regular basis for preventative/maintenance care.
That’s a very diff thing than car (or homeowner’s) insurance conceptually, logistically, and actuarial-y (if that’s even a word), which is intended for routine, expected maintenance.
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Insurance companies look at severity and frequency of claims. You are rated on that as well as your zip code and insurance score (based on credit). If you are one to turn in smaller claims they know you will turn in everything and that will lead to higher rates.
I would rather see it that way. Try to buy health insurance on the exchange (non rated- only based on age). Everyone’s premiums are high. I would much rather have a chance on getting a competitive rate based on my history vs paying a huge premium so it is fair to everyone.
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Fair enough, But my point was, when I am about to submit a claim, the insurance should give me a heads up that filing this claim is going to raise your premium by $50/m or whatever. They do this calculation all the time but only when the policy is being renewed.
Most credit scoring websites provides you projections what happens if you take out a loan for $10k or open a new card.
Just a brief off topic: everyone will eventually die. Not everyone will file a car insurance claim. ::shrug::
I say this from professional experience. Prior to the ACA, individual insurance plans could exclude maternity benefits. And just being a woman could result in being charged higher rates for an individual plan. And since pregnancy was a pre-existing condition, they could also be denied health ins coverage. None of that seems particularly “fair” to me.
Back to on topic…
What I have done is that I call my agent to ask what might happen if I were file a claim if a hypothetical situation occurred…
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Tried that, its BS.
Back in 2009, when I first moved to America and got my first car, my door scraped the neighboring car’s door. I did exactly what you said, the cost of repair was $500. I asked my insurance what would happen if I filed a claim. The agent, laughed, literally laughed, that these small value claims are typically ignored and your rate won’t go up. Guess what, it went up by $1000 a year… for a $500 claim.
Thankfully, shopping around I did see most other companies just ignore that claim back then. For some reason, I thought the same would happen this year… my loss
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Small claims are not particularly fun because you might get a little 5% bump in premium over a $1000 payout. But when you grind up against a concrete barrier and need a $20k repair that only bumps your premium 10% for 2 years, you’ll feel much better about the value of insurance.
In the end, most people will pay more into premiums than they receive in payout benefits, and that’s just a cost of owning a vehicle.
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Just remember, insurance companies are a “for profit” business.
They ain’t there to do you any favors. .
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