I woke up the other day to find my driver’s side mirror gone and a huge dent in the door. (Damn).
I realize I know little-to-nothing about how auto insurance works and I’m hoping I might get some info and opinions from those more in the know.
I don’t have my State Farm policy handy, but I’m pretty sure I have collision with a $500 deductible. I just called and filed a claim and I was told that the claims adjustors will contact me by tomorrow to make an appointment to assess the damage. OR I have the option of taking it to one of their “Service First” repair shops whom are authorized by State Farm to estimate the damage and make the repairs.
So here are some questions:
Should I take it to one of their “Service First” shops? I’m thinking the whole ordeal might be quicker and less painful but I’d have to pay the full deductible, whereas I might otherwise get an estimate from State Farm first and then shop around. Is the latter more trouble than it’s worth?
Does the cost of repairs depend in any way on where I get it repaired? Would it be more expensive, for example, if I got it repaired in NYC versus the more rural eastern Long Island (where I work)?
Should I expect my premiums to go up even though the car was parked and I’m thus unambiguously not at fault?
moot but: should I have even filed a claim at all? would I have been better off paying for it out of pocket?
It doesn’t matter how much the repairs cost. You are going to pay $500 no matter what. Actually, that’s only if the cost is over $500. If it’s less, you’re going to pay the whole thing and there is no point in filing a claim.
If it isn’t your fault, it shouldn’t raise your rates but ask your agent just to be sure. They’ll tell you.
Our rates were raised on an incident that wasn’t our fault, so you may want to check with Allstate on that (they are our insuror). Ours was an accident with an uninsured motorist.
Unless there is no “Service First” repair shop near you, I’d just take it to one.
They shouldn’t. But keep an eye on your bills- State Farm raised my rates by mistake because of something that wasn’t my fault, and I was able to get them to lower them and refund the difference to me.
That depends how much it costs to fix. Big dents can be surprisingly expensive to fix. Those mirrors aren’t cheap, either. My former landlady’s car got sideswiped (the only damage was that the mirror was gone) by someone who had a boyfriend who worked at a body shop. The person who hit her was able to get a new mirror installed with no labor charge, and it still cost $150.
What if the insurance company estimates it at $1000, but I find a shop willing to do it for $800. Would they just cut me a check for $500 (estimate minus deductible)?
And I’m guessing if it is under $500 that I probably can’t unclaim it at this point?
I am an insurance agent, but not YOUR insurance agent with YOUR insurance company, so take this fwiw, but your rates will go up. If you don’t know who did the damage it doesn’t fall under uninsured motorist (which won’t affect your policy most of the time.) It counts as collision. Your premium will be affected for probably 3 years or so depending on the company. You most certianly can “unfile” your claim if you want with most companies and as long as there was no police report it shouldn’t affect you at that point. That being said, I must mention that insurance really isn’t for this kind of thing. Basically insurance is to prevent you from ending up destitute in the event of a catastrophe. It isn’t meant to cover little things. That is why your premium goes up with pretty much every claim. I personally would never file a claim for less than $1500-$2000 because if I can afford to scrape up the money it won’t impact my premium (and 3 years of increased premium usually ends up costing as much or more than the damages anyway with that small of a claim.) Homeowners isn’t meant to cover your garbage disposal or your stove, it is meant to cover when your roof needs to be replaced. Same concept with auto. Health insurance is different, but I am only licensed in property and casualty (home and auto) so I can’t really speak on health insurance.
3 friggin’ years because some putz hit my car when it was parked?!?! @#$%!
Okay, some follow-ups if you don’t mind: What if during the next 3 years I change companies? Get a new car? Cease to be a car owner for some time and cancel my insurance altogether, then become a car owner again after 3 years? (not because of this mind you, but this is an incidental possibility for me and the answer might affect whether I unfile or not).
I know I must fix the mirror, but what if I leave the dent? Wouldn’t the insurance go down because the value of the car went down? (assuming of course I don’t unfile the claim) How does that work exactly?
I work for State Farm in GA, and i know here you could claim that under your uninsured motorist coverage if you have it bc it counts as a hit and run. Call your agent and discuss your options with them. And they will pay the repair shop that does the repairs, so you shouldn’t ever see the money that State Farm pays.
The company I work for only counts it under uninsured if you can identify the person who hit you and we have a chance to take them to court and get your money back. It depends on the company so you may want to check.
If you change companies the claim will follow you because we have this thing where the company you are applying with calls your current company and has them send a claims history letter, so even if it isn’t on your driving record they will still see it.
If you cancel your insurance all together and get rid of the car until it comes off that is fine, it won’t be held against you at that point. The only downside is the no car issue. However, I know some companies can charge more for people who went without insurance for any length of time for any reason, whether or not you had a car. It isn’t a huge cost difference though so it might be worth it for you anyway.
If you get a new car that claim still follows you because it is attached to your driving record and policy number within your insurance company so there is no escaping it.
Also, your cost of insurance doesn’t necessarily go down because the value of your car goes down. Your total value may be lower, but the cost of replacing individual parts remains the same so the insurance stays basically the same. And you can still do the same amount of damage with the car so your liability will stay the same as well.
If you really would be in a financial pinch right now without filing it may be the right choice for you to keep the claim, but if it wouldn’t hurt you at all you may want to just pay out of pocket. Especially if the damage isn’t much more than the cost of the deductable.
Thanks for the info. I just called the State Farm office and according to the woman I spoke to (who did incidentally tell me to call the claims office since they’d have better info, so some of what she said may not be accurate but…), pbbth you are indeed correct that I’d have to be able to identify the other driver for it to be covered under uninsured.
However she did say that my premium won’t go up because it’s completely not my fault. I’m skeptical about this but I’ll get this confirmed before I go ahead with the claim.
One thing to remember when filing claims; you can be cancelled for filing too many claims.
And if another company can glean why you were cancelled, they may not write your policy as you are now a high risk.
I had an insurance policy cancelled for 3 claims and only one of those was an accident for which my wife was at fault. Hell, at the time I didn’t know that I could be cancelled for filing claims.
There seems to be a trend among insurance agencies to cancel policies on people that use them. So you may want to ask how filing a claim would affect future claims.
I do not work for an insurance company, but my wife does. I think you would be better paying out of pocket if possible. YMMV.
Your claim will be in something called CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) that serves as a central database of claims history used by (I would assume) every insurance company.
I had an accident when parked, had it repaired under my insurance and my rates were raised for three years. When I spoke to the insurance company about this, they said that I should have reported it to the police within 48 hours. Since I did not do this, they assume that I was at fault. They also implied that this was standard industry practice. The cost to fix the car was about $2200.00, a little less than the additional premiums.