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Queston about insurance
Grimm
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Well long story short, i had an accident yesterday. Tried to move out of someones way and i wasn't able to see the cement pole sticking out of the ground. I made a thread about this on a chevy message board i go to and everyone over there seems to agree on about $4,000 in repairs. Im still waiting on the estimates from the garage though so nothing is for sure yet. I just dont know if i should turn this in to my insurance company. While i really dont want to pay for repairs myself, i also dont want it to raise my rates. Im 22 years old and got my first and only ticket for speeding a couple months back but i didnt get any points on my license. Other then that, my record is clean. I was thinking about calling them and asking but im worried that alone would give then enough of an excuse to raise my rates. What do you guys think?
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If it's $4000, that's a good chunk of change. If your insurance goes up a hundred or two every 6 months, that's well under $4000 over the next 3 years (and in 3 years you can just switch insurance companies). You could try calling your insurance company and ask them about it, without filing a claim. If there's no injuries and no other parties involved, they usually will be fine answering questions about claims and costs.
That said, 4 grand is a pretty big chunk and it may be a while before the increased rates catch up with it. Unless there were some huge deductible, I would file -- but that's just me.
What he said. Also, im with Geico. I think my deductible is 500$.
I was just going to suggest something like this. The problem with that is that they can't give you an accurate estimate without at least knowing the baseline stuff about the situation, which is easier if you're a customer.
You can either not give a name or number, and be totally safe, or just call up as yourself and make it clear that this is a HYPOTHETICAL situation, and that no accident has occurred. Apparently some places can actually use a customer calling in to check on a claim/rate estimate as justification for raising the rates anyway. So proceed with caution.
My advice, considering how young you are, is to pay the damage out of pocket if at all possible. Even if you have to take out a small loan or something, the interest rate a bank would charge is still cheaper than the higher rates you'll pay after a year or two.
This applies only to my insurance in Ontario, Canada. I have no idea what the rules are elsewhere.
If you report any "at fault" accident, regardless of whether or not they have to pay anything out, your rates will change. Either you'll loose your "one free at fault" or your rating will change and your rates will go up. So even reporting that such a thing occured will alter your rates because you are "at fault"
Reporting "not at fault" accidents will do nothing to your rating, or your personal rates. You also won't pay your deductable to get repairs done for "not at fault" accidents. Although if you want to look at the grander scheme of things, technically every time your insurance company pays money to anyone, it's one more drop in the bucket that will make them consider raising *everyones* rates. But that's looking at the really really big picture.
Just so you know, when I called my broker with this question, by the time they transfered be to an agent. She was able to ask me things like "How's your wife? Are you enjoying living in your condo? Is this regarding the Jetta?" without me telling her more then my first name. They use call ID and possibly the billing address by number system that isn't blocked by blocking call ID.
Go to a friends house, and tell them you are having a discussion about insurance and need them to settle something. They should beable to tell you what you need to know, but they won't beable to tell you what kind of changes you can expect without knowing your profile.
IMHO, taking out a loan, or sticking it on a credit card will in the end cost you less then if your rates go up. Then again I have no idea what kind of money you make.
Thats a good idea. Since the only phone i have is my cell, i might do what Cycophant said about calling from a friends house.
I also talked to a friend tonight thats the same age as me, uses the same insurance company, and also has 1 speeding ticket and an accident on his record. He got points on his license while the cop didnt even write down the speed on mine and i didnt get any points. His car needed to be repaired too but im not sure whos fault the accident was. He said his rates didnt change at all with his accident. I dont see how this is possible but i can hope the same would happen for me if i do end up turning it in to the insurance company.
The biggest thing is that you'll be unable to change insurance companies. Not because you can't, but because their rates will all be even higher than whatever your rate will change to. This isn't always a problem. Of course, it also depends on what discounts you have on your insurance plan. If you have "good driver" discounts, you'll lose them, which may make your rate jump significantly.
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
I pretty much have no credit one way or the other. As for my driving record, it was clean till my speeding ticket a couple months back.
Your post is very helpful, thanks.
Now all i have to do is get my truck back from these people and take it to another place to have the body work looked at. Im starting to wonder if maybe i shouldnt trust them. Instead of typing the story back out, im just gonna copy and paste what i said over on the other message board.
http://chevytruckworld.tenmagazines.com/ew/topic.asp?id=182483&P=2&s=so_how_much_is_this_going_to_cost_me
Well i finally heard from the mechanics about the reasons i took it there in the first place. I'm already not liking the sound of this. I asked them to check out my fuel pump but when the guy called this afternoon, he said "i don't know why you wanted me to check the fuel pump, it started up just fine". After i got the estimate for the work i needed done, i tell him i have a 2 year warranty that should cover everything. When i went back in person tonight, the same guy tells me that they want to replace the fuel pump now. It seems its within operational range or something but its on the low end of that range and if i have the warranty, i might as well have it changed out while im there. The body shop manager didn't even come in today so im still waiting on a price on that. I was hoping to take it to a place i trust and have them look at the body damage but it looks i wont be getting it back till at least tomorrow. Still have no idea how im getting to class tomorrow.