# Thieves, Insurance companies, $500 per-incident deductibles, and suckiness **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 31, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thieves-insurance-companies-500-per-incident-deductibles-and-suckiness/378599 "2006-10-31T17:13:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![The\_Swan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Swan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Swan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thieves-insurance-companies-500-per-incident-deductibles-and-suckiness/378599/61 "2006-11-02T18:22:12Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] Not with me at the moment. From a cursory review of the report it would seem that the situation is a little different in CA, at least the last couple years. If I had to guess, I’d say the use of credit reports in recent years has helped improve the loss ratios as well as more stringent risk assessment. The one big thing I noticed in there is all they included were loss ratio and LAE, no other overhead is included in those totals, which can easily account for another 20% or more in total expenses. Since I have never worked auto insurance in CA I was speaking from my experience on the east coast and reports of national averages. Over the 6 years I worked in auto insurance it was considered a very good thing if we didn’t have total expenses over 100% of paid premiums, we got emails many many times saying that they were impressed that we had dropped our expenses to _only_ 101% since they were expecting 103% for that year from our line of business. That is also why we didn’t just handle auto insurance, because the profit margins were slim to nothing most years. [/QUOTE] My understanding is that, in such cases, the insurance company makes its money from the interest earned on the amount of money it holds. In other words, I have heard of the same scenario you are reporting. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thieves-insurance-companies-500-per-incident-deductibles-and-suckiness/378599/62 "2006-11-02T18:23:36Z")
I realize I’ve let myself get sidetracked in this thread as well, sorry about that. While I still think your pitting was focused on the wrong people, I do agree that what happened to you and the missus sucks big time. My own experience with auto ownership has been less than stellar as well; I’ve had 2 cars stolen, several break ins, a couple accidents and so on. I don’t think I ever owned the same car for more than two years, which is part of why I’ve chosen not to own a car or drive very much for the last few years. Hope everything works out for you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thieves-insurance-companies-500-per-incident-deductibles-and-suckiness/378599/63 "2006-11-02T18:54:08Z")
As somebody who works in medical billing, I have to say I sympathize with the idea that insurance companies are, by and large, scum. I’ve seen claims rejected based on the flimsiest of reasons — for instance, a patient who was non-ambulatory for a week following surgery was required to pay for follow-up care himself because he didn’t have it done within the requisite 3-day follow-up period allowed by his policy. What I’m getting as a life lesson from my work, and from this thread, is _read your insurance policy._ Backward and forward, upside down, and translated from Chinese. _Know_ what they cover, read all the fine print, because if it’s got your signature on it, they _will_ use it to deny you coverage if there’s any way to do so. Knowing your policy won’t make insurance any better for you, but it’ll keep you from being disappointed when they turn down your claim. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thieves-insurance-companies-500-per-incident-deductibles-and-suckiness/378599.md?page=3)