Why We Filed a Claim Against Our Car Insurance When It Was Someone Else’s Fault
I’ve written in the past about why it matters to have health insurance. But health insurance is not mandated by law. Car insurance is. And here’s why.
A little over two weeks ago, C was in a very low speed car accident. No one was injured, and it was the other driver’s fault. (That was not disputed.) The accident happened only a block for so from C’s campus. He got to school, emailed me the important information, and then went to class. I called our insurance company and started a claim.
Since it was the other driver’s fault, and she was not trying to claim otherwise, we could have waited for her insurance company to call us. But we chose not to, even though it meant that we would pay our deductible on the body work for our car. Why? Time and convenience.
It was a full three days after the accident before the other insurance company contacted C and said they would pay for things. That would have been 3 days where we would have been down to one vehicle. Could we have managed? Yes, but not without a lot of rearranging the schedule. That would have been 3 more days while our car sat in our garage, not being repaired. As it was it took over two weeks (due to weather conditions) for the car to be repaired.
Sure, we could have gotten a rental car without the insurance coverage, but then we would have paid retail rates and not gotten the rental company discount- which was about 40%.
But mostly, it would have meant that we would have had to deal with the other insurance company- make sure they were being billed, and paying the bill ourselves if there were problems. It would have been us arguing with them if they did not like the charges from the body shop.
Honestly, that’s why I have my own insurance company. I can afford my deductible. We have an emergency fund for a reason. And this way, I know everyone is getting paid. I may have to wait a little bit to get my deductible back, but this way, it is up to our insurance company to argue with their insurance company. And guess what, our insurance company will almost certainly getter better and faster results that we would.
Nope, as it is, 16 days after the accident, we finally have our car back. In between, we incurred over $775 in rental car fees (and that’s with the insurance company discount) and $4,445 in car repair. We have paid $500, and we’ll get that back.
And yes, I know I pay for coverage like this, but the total still adds up to more than 3 years worth of my premiums.
No, for what I pay my insurance company, I want a no hassle experience. They can argue with the other insurance company, and I’ll just collect my check when it’s all said and done.
I'm glad no one was hurt in the A/A. We are so dependent on our vehicles that it is especially trying when they must go to the shop for extended reapirs-whatever the reason. Three weeks was a long time.
It really bothered C being without the VW, especially when the bad weather hit. Driving the Leaf and later a mini-van in that mess was not fun
Michigan is a no-fault insurance state, so don't get to sue or go after the insurance company of the other driver. This is more convenient but it results in higher premiums than most states.
I wonder if the rates are higher than Seattle's? Our insurance costs nearly tripled when we moved from Reno.
This is exactly the way I feel about paying for services – if someone else takes care of the hassle for cheap – let them do it!
That's right. Since I'm going to pay my insurance premium whether I do the arguing here or not, let them take care of the arguing and make my life much easier.
Okay, I officially learned something. I didn't know you could even do that with your own policy. Knock on wood, thankfully we don't have to use ours very often, so I wouldn't even know I had options.
Besides filing a claim with your car insurance company and letting them take care of the hassle, you can also be seen for an accident using your regular health insurance, and then let your health insurance company know it should be covered elsewhere. They have entire departments -OPL Other People's Liability – whose entire job is to get money from other people.
You pay for their services, USE them.
I am not sure if I would have thought to call my own car insurance company first. However, you are correct, rental car prices can be so expensive.
Maybe it's because I work in insurance (health), but I always, always contact my insurance company when I'm in an accident- my fault or not. I pay them a substantial amount of money for their services, and I am going to use them.
The main reason for calling though, is what if the person who is at fault is lying about having insurance, or doesn't call their insurance company to report the accident? Our car still needed major body work. By reporting all the facts to our insurance company, we were able to start the repair process much more quickly, and could also be assured that things would be paid for.
As a side note, we paid our repair deductible last Thursday evening. We got the check refunding it from our insurance company this Monday. I'm pretty certain they had to have had it cut and ready to go, just waiting to hear that we paid, in order for us to have gotten with only one working day separating our payment from our refund.