Auto Insurance - to Claim or Not to Claim

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

randelli

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 21, 2015
914
5
Need some advice guys...
Let's say that I have been with the same auto insurance company for the last 15 or so years; and have never filed a claim. I find myself in a position where I need some fairly expensive work done but I am concerned about the repercussions of filing a claim. Here is the scoop:
1) my insurance company starts with g, ends with o, and has great commercials

2) #2 son bought a nice 2015 jeep cherokee latitude in April (I had to cosign)

3) #2 son is 21 and drove too close to a light pole base: scratching the mirror, denting and scratching the driver door, and tweaking the rear door pretty good

4) #2 son ships off to the USMC on 10/9 of this year at which time I am going to assume his car and give him my paid off fusion

5) I was pretty ticked off when he told me about the car!!

6) we can pay for the repairs (assuming a 3K hit) and he can pay us back after boot

7) we can file a claim (assuming 1K deductible) and he can pay us back
What could we expect our rates to jump to with a single car accident?

Is there a break-even point where the increased rate would equal the cost of us covering the repair? Assuming a 3K hit with a 1K deductable; would our 3 year increase be more than 2K?

When my son gets his own policy after boot, and come off ours, will our rates go back down?

Does the claim follow our policy, or, our son?
It seems kinda dumb to pay for insurance all my adult life and never use it. I just want to know when it is the right time to file a claim. Part of me wants to just turn it in and get it done. The cheap part of me wants to not be eternally screwed for this repair.
Any advice?

 

randelli

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 21, 2015
914
5
And all the while the smokingpipes.com banner is taunting me with that Fresh Michael Parks cutty!
:(

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
Your claim will follow you because you are the named insured on the policy and he is (presumably) listed as an operator.
I suspect the increase you could expect at renewal would be around 20/mo, assuming no other claims or citation activity.
I would file the claim in this case.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
Further, just because you'll get surcharged for three years doesn't mean the surcharge will be level for the whole time. The effect of it will diminish over time until it's gone. You may take some time to earn back a good driver discount or similar, though.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
Obviously, after he gets his own policy on the car you're giving him, he will be off yours and no longer be a risk in your household. Your bill is going to get shook up so much at that point with the driver rating changes that any surcharge won't even be noticed.
You won't see anything happen with rates until renewal anyway, so when that is does bear slightly on the situation.
Short answer is, I'd file the claim and all will be well. You may have earned accident forgiveness at this point anyway, as Ben mentioned. That depends on company and state, though. It may be the case.

 

randelli

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 21, 2015
914
5
I knew someone here would know the answer!
20/month is NOT what I was expecting- more like 20/day haha...

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
If it's any more than 20/mo, I would shop it (with a company with an agency model and not a direct selling company with a goofy-ass lizard. But I have no opinions on that.)

 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,699
16,207
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
Yup! Tom is informed alright. Get the risky driver off to the Corps, bless his heart and thanks for his service, off your policy and you might notice a drop in premium. Tom will offer a correction if I'm wrong.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
Bingo. You'll notice a significant drop in premium without the youthful driver and insuring one less vehicle anyway. Your whole insurance world is going to change soon. I'd shop it at that point regardless of the accident surcharge.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
^ Haha. I was going to ask if he'd gotten an estimate as the description sounds like well over 3k of work to me.
I suspect the claim will pay quite a bit over 2k after the deductible. Body work ain't as cheap as it used to be.
Good news is - 2k,4k, 6k the premium increase won't vary. Let it cost what it costs and let the lizard pay for it.

 

oldmansmoking

Part of the Furniture Now
May 13, 2017
587
65
UK
Anything I can't put right myself I would claim for.

In the UK you get the claim moving with you from insurance company to insurance company for 5 years.

It's a delemer on should you claim, I suppose if you can afford to pay for the repair yourself, but then why have insurance.

Difficult one!!

 
Jun 4, 2014
1,134
1
A lot of if's on if it will affect your rates. It will be considered an at fault accident by the company. The next thing the company looks at is amount of the claim. This determines if the claim is above or below the collision threshold. Each company has a set dollar amount threshold for collision claims. If the claim is under the collision threshold then there is unsually no surcharge (unless this is a second or third claim). If it's over the collision threshold then there is a good chance of the company adding on a surcharge, some companies have first accident forgiveness which comes into play in this also. If the do assess a surcharge it usually stays on for three years as most companies assign three insurance points for an at fault accident, the amount of the surcharge usually diminishes each year. Now I'll temper this with individual company rules and state rules may change the above.

 

randelli

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 21, 2015
914
5
I will post a few photos and let you guess away...
Tom- should I start getting estimates, or just contact the lizzard and follow their lead?
#2 son will be visiting next weekend and we will swap cars at that time. I guess I should wait till then...

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
Sorry. I had gone camping without service and forgot about this thread!
Yes. Get an estimate with a shop you like/trust firstly.
When son visits and you swap cars, notify the company of the change in drivers/ownership.

 

flmason

Lifer
Oct 8, 2012
1,131
2
Contact your insurance company. After you file the claim, ask them for some preferred shop recommendations. Then check the online reviews and pick one. By using a preferred shop the repairs are normally completed quicker and any extra parts discovered later in the repair process are normally approved faster.
If your insurance policy mentions LKQ (Like, Kind, Quality) some of the repair parts might come from a junk yard. If you do not want that you should be given the option to pay the cost difference. You want to ask the insurance company about this as many companies keep this hidden from policyholders.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.