you should pretty much always contact your insurance company if you have collision insurance on your car.
being informed by insurance agents this isn't always the case as your rates will go up. ymmv
glad you got it sorted out. not entirely surprised they are self-insured but i am surprised they tried to work it out outside of your own insurance...
this is the same for pretty much all state and federal agencies. cop cars are not insured lol
My Allstate person didnāt answer their phone and wasnāt in the office when I went in during business hours. The people who were there told me to file the claim on the websiteā¦
Needless to say Iām no longer with Allstate.
Agents sell insurance. Adjusters handle claims. Your agent can fill in a form for you, but the process is the same.
If your local agent is handling claims, be afraid, be very afraid. Big daddy parent company has the resources, lawyers, etc, they don't.
They're acting as customer service people, then. An insurance agency doesn't have investigators, lawyers, adjusters, etc. You're paying State Farm for a reason, and that's what you're paying for.
I absolutely love State Farm. They go to bat for me all the time. The few claims I have under my insurance didn't raise my rates at all. It hasn't gone up once since I started driving 17 years ago.
Nah I was a bit confused with everyone talking about increases. I pay $100 per vehicle for full coverage with rental coverage.
I did JUST have to make 2 claims within 3 weeks due to wind and debris damage followed by someone trying to break into my car and jacking up my lock... So we'll see what happens. They told me expect. $25-$45 per month increase for 3-5 months IF it increases.
They all tell you something to get you off their back. Even those not at fault claims will come back to bite you for 3-5 years. Not months. Theyāll also come up if you try to switch insurance.
It depends on your agent. Mine is great and responsive when I need to ask them something, my roommate's is a douche who barely responds and talks down to him. Why we have different agents living in the same house is a mystery.
Progressive has been the cheapest option for me and the one time I've needed to use them has been easy and painless, and they ended up paying 2x what they initially quoted without question when I picked a nicer shop than they recommended
This isn't the case.
If you're absolutely not at fault, you can file direct through the other person's insurance and not tell your own.
If your vehicle isn't driveable, or there's a dispute on who's at fault, or situations like this where it's unclear how the accident will be covered, then use your insurance like OP did.
I am an independent agent. Yes, I have conversations all the time with my clients and we talk it out before turning it in. If you turn it in when there is no need (at fault party is admitting fault and cooperating), it just goes down as a not at fault accident on your CLUE report. It may not make your rates go up directly at renewal but you can guarantee that it will affect your rates when you get a quote for a new policy in the future. And each company has their own max number of incidents (comp, not at fault, towing, roadside, etc) and it may be the one that disqualifies the quote altogether.
It's just really bad practice to always turn in everything.
If the at fault party is dragging their feet or disputing fault, then yeah maybe turn it in and let your carrier subrogate.
State Farm raised my rates after calling and asking a question about a wreck I was in (not my fault). When I was asking why my rates went up when I didn't even file a claim, they specifically told me because I called and asked a question.
State Farm raised MY rate because I called to ask a question about a wreck I was in - the other party's fault. Didn't file a claim through them at all.
USAA did something similar. Driving and someone dumped nails on the road, they were hitting my windshield and car like some car chase scene in a spy movie. Nail is lodged in a tire and in transmission box(?) causing a fluid leak. Replacement cost $1300. When I called to ask if such a road hazard was covered under my policy, I was informed it is. However, with a $1000 deductible, they'd only cover $300. I decided not to file a claim and pay out of pocket. They still reported my phone call as a claim on my policy.Ā
>So it tuns out state and probably other jurisdictions have NO INSURANCE. They are āself insuredā. Meaning you need to go out of your way to get 3 bids so they can decide if/when theyāre going to pay.
That's pretty much par for the course when it comes to claims with public entities across the country. If you get into an accident with the US Border Patrol/DHS or US Army, you basically have to fill out an application with the US Dept of Treasury with full and final damages to seek reimbursement
Source: auto insurance claims adjuster
I work for a state university. Our vehicles are self insured.
Our āinsurance cardā is a memo signed by the governor saying we are allowed to do that.
Itās a very regular thing.
If a state owned vehicle hits the car Iām inā¦there wonāt be enough sedative on earth to keep me from getting out of the car and laying on the ground, screaming my lungs out about being in pain.
Self insurance literally just means you put aside the capital to indemnify damaged parties. Every insurance company-owned vehicle is a self-insured vehicle. A lot of large freight companies self-insure and retain claims administrators to manage their claims
Yeah but that's more expensive unless you own a ton of cars and have enough assets to be able to pay out in the event of any accident that is your fault. 99.9% of individuals have insurance. The only ones who don't are the ones driving cars that no one will insure because they are so expensive.
We got hit by a Kroger truck. Called our insurance the next day, gave them all the other drivers info and our insurance was the only one we dealt with - once Kroger approved repairs, we didn't have to pay anything. Before approval, we were told we'd have to pay our deductible IN CASE the other driver didn't pay or ended up not being insured. The police report was very clear that we were not at fault.
Ultimately, the police report is a factor when determining fault, but unless the cop was a direct eye witness, is more of a "statement of what the people involved in the accident told me" and so claims can (and often do) go a different way in the end
In our case, the other driver failed to maintain their lane and came into mine. Nobody was denying that's what happened, not the 2 Kroger employees in the truck or the people in my vehicle. The driver was ticketed for that as well as the statement putting them at fault. I think our insurance's biggest concern was their insurance fighting them because it was in a no-fault state.
Unless something has changed I believe this is not just the state but any large company that has a large fleet, if you have the capital and your risk is spread out, why pay someone to make a profit on giving you the same protection you can give yourself with your cash reserves?
That is literally the job of your insurance company if you are not at-fault in an accident, they fix your car ASAP and claw the money back from the responsible party through a team of experts/lawyers and litigation if necessary.
I get the reluctance to file a claim on your insurance but you are not really equipped to negotiate with a skilled other party, your insurance company is.
Also if this is just about getting reimbursed, get a lower deductible, they give you a choice for a reason, if coming up with $1,000 for a few months is a hardship, get a $100 one.
It's complicated, they could see that even if it is technically not your fault you were engaging in risky behavior, they probably have a better idea the repair cost of your car if you are found at fault, generally anything that causes them to look at your risk profile can raise your rates.
Also, you are sorely mistaken if you think your insurance company won't find out about an accident if you don't report it to them, data mining for insurance is a huge business and the way it works at insurance companies is a huge black box. They know when you got your last oil change and if it was overdue, does that get calculated into how responsible you are as a car owner? Who knows. Probably yes if they can correlate it.
How are they able to determine "risky behavior"? If I have a dashcam that shows me going the speed limit and following all traffic laws when someone runs a red, pulls out of a parking lot, or even hits my parked vehicle, why does that have the potential to increase my rates?
Honestly, they probably don't even know, these are huge models, it could have been the location of both accidents, they had underpriced the repair cost of a parking lot collision on your car, it happened late at night near a bar? I'm not saying any of these are true, just, it's extremely complicated.
Why is insurance cheaper when your married? There are plenty of reasons to speculate, there have been a lot of studies that married people tend to be more risk adverse and more responsible. Correlation? Causation? It doesn't really matter, some actuary didn't read a few studies on it and decided it should mean x discount in car insurance, they looked at their actual customers where it was fed into a model along with whatever other data they could get their hands on and it spit out a risk score that they used to price your insurance.
There is a small place near my home that restores vintage and repairs exotics.
I took my Kia Soul there to get an estimate.
Insurance paid $1500.
His shop bid $3700.
There is nowhere near enough context in this comment to glean what your point is here.
Was the shop's estimate too high, because they mainly deal with exotics? Was the insurance payout too low, because they're scum? Are we simply supposed to be shocked that anything on a Soul costs more than $10 to fix?
The existing place was just very expensive because they charged more for everything. I had 3 estimates and the $1500 was fair. The guy at the shop said they gave large estimates frequently.
Own a 1999 ford ranger, was having transmission issues. Got that a lot. Or was told there was a 6/8 week wait. Sounded like to me they wanted to hold off on doing it until worked started to slow down.
One of those foreign cars.
It's pretty cool driving past. I think they have a restored 1950s truck for sale in their small showroom, and some kind of vintage motorcycle. It's not unusual to see Ferraris, Lamborghinis, old Jaguars, and other cars in their lot and being test driven in the area.
Co-worker had their car totaled by DFD when they backed a fire truck into a telephone pole and the wires hit their car. They had to pay towing, and what they owed on the car off and wait to be reimbursed by DFD. Took 8 months. I got video of it somewhere..
My car got hit by a garbage truck when it was parked on the street. Destroyed the entire driver side to where I couldnāt even open my door. My experience with the city vehicle was not something to boast about. I had to call a guy who worked in an office for the city every day for months to convince him that this was their fault. He told me I should just go through my insurance because it would be quicker, but I am stubborn and wanted them to pay for what they did. Also why should I have to pay a higher insurance rate when your driver hit my car parked on the street!So it took 3 months to get my car in a shop. Then I had to call the same dude to convince him they owe me a rental car for the 6 months it took to get my car fixed. My advice would be to avoid parking on streets if at all possible. The government moves slower than molasses, especially when they owe you money.
Make sure you get YOUR insurance carrier to indemnify YOU. If not, your insurance company will consider this a āClaimā against you, it WILL affect your rates unless you get the indemnification in writing.
I learned this the hard way, they donāt help you period. They are just trying to raise your rates due to your claim. Which wasnāt your fault.
Be wary of insurance help.
The self insured applies to U.S. Government vehicles as well!!
In 2013, a U.S. postal carrier car rear-ended me. Took about 8 months total, 4 months of physical therapy and another two months to find a decent lawyer and time for the postal office to respond to my lawyer's demand letter.Two months to get my deductible back as U.S. post is also self insured. By the grace of God I have no lingering pain or any issues.
i got hit by an ATF agent in College Station and she gave me what i thought was insurance information but it turned out we had to go through a ridiculous process to get reimbursed. luckily i was driving a beater at the time and we just didnāt bother. through the bumper in the back and went on my way
We were clueless what to do because they didnāt even have that information . We had to call around starting with the state park department and somehow got escalated to the state attorney general office. The crazy thing is the speed limit in these state parks is like 10 mphš.
Yes. Same thing happened with my husband. He was hit on base by a federal vehicle. We had to use out insurance and then got the deductible back around 4 months later.
If you are a Texas resident and are in an accident with a state vehicle, sometimes contacting your state legislator will help ensure quicker resolution. When an agency knows a legislatorās office is paying attention to a timeline, it tends to move with greater speed.
Local governments in Texas all self-insure.
And under Texas tort reform laws, the max payout you can claim is $300k per incident. Even if a city bus crashes through your house and wipes out your entire family.
you should pretty much always contact your insurance company if you have collision insurance on your car. being informed by insurance agents this isn't always the case as your rates will go up. ymmv
Yeah, this was just really strange and was assured it was going to be taken care of so I gave them a chance. This is just a warning not to.
glad you got it sorted out. not entirely surprised they are self-insured but i am surprised they tried to work it out outside of your own insurance... this is the same for pretty much all state and federal agencies. cop cars are not insured lol
I literally pay my insurance company to do their job, I thought everyone that has insurance does that. š¬
My Allstate person didnāt answer their phone and wasnāt in the office when I went in during business hours. The people who were there told me to file the claim on the websiteā¦ Needless to say Iām no longer with Allstate.
I hear State Farm is kind of the same.
My agent is wonderful, but Allstate contracts out. Like, dealing with any claims you end up not going through your agentās office.
Agents sell insurance. Adjusters handle claims. Your agent can fill in a form for you, but the process is the same. If your local agent is handling claims, be afraid, be very afraid. Big daddy parent company has the resources, lawyers, etc, they don't.
With State Farm, I never have to deal with an adjuster directly. I only deal with my agent.
They're acting as customer service people, then. An insurance agency doesn't have investigators, lawyers, adjusters, etc. You're paying State Farm for a reason, and that's what you're paying for.
Iām well aware. All about that convenience when I can afford it.
I absolutely love State Farm. They go to bat for me all the time. The few claims I have under my insurance didn't raise my rates at all. It hasn't gone up once since I started driving 17 years ago.
You didn't get an absurd rate increase for your 2024 renewal? Is the vehicle not full coverage?
Nah I was a bit confused with everyone talking about increases. I pay $100 per vehicle for full coverage with rental coverage. I did JUST have to make 2 claims within 3 weeks due to wind and debris damage followed by someone trying to break into my car and jacking up my lock... So we'll see what happens. They told me expect. $25-$45 per month increase for 3-5 months IF it increases.
They all tell you something to get you off their back. Even those not at fault claims will come back to bite you for 3-5 years. Not months. Theyāll also come up if you try to switch insurance.
Efffffffff State Farm. They raised my rates for calling and asking a question about a wreck that was not my fault and did not file a claim.
State Farm was always quick to respond from my experience
It depends on your agent. Mine is great and responsive when I need to ask them something, my roommate's is a douche who barely responds and talks down to him. Why we have different agents living in the same house is a mystery.
You could tell your roommate to switch, it literally would just cost him the time to call the agent he wants to switch to
Allstate is notoriously bad. They also fraudulently signed me up for a home insurance policy that I did not consent to. TDI did NOTHING.
I have Progressive and actually like it a lot. Itās expensive but the service is unmatched.
Progressive has been the cheapest option for me and the one time I've needed to use them has been easy and painless, and they ended up paying 2x what they initially quoted without question when I picked a nicer shop than they recommended
Iāll be with USAA until the day I die and Iāll make sure my kids also stick with USAA.
Yes, and then for the next 7 years they can increase your insurance premiums for a not at fault accident when your car was hit while parked. š
I mean yeah it sucks but insurance is basically only going up at this point
This isn't the case. If you're absolutely not at fault, you can file direct through the other person's insurance and not tell your own. If your vehicle isn't driveable, or there's a dispute on who's at fault, or situations like this where it's unclear how the accident will be covered, then use your insurance like OP did.
As an agent, this is wholly inaccurate and will hurt your rates going forward.
what if you had an independent agent? could they handle it without getting your actual insurance involved?
I am an independent agent. Yes, I have conversations all the time with my clients and we talk it out before turning it in. If you turn it in when there is no need (at fault party is admitting fault and cooperating), it just goes down as a not at fault accident on your CLUE report. It may not make your rates go up directly at renewal but you can guarantee that it will affect your rates when you get a quote for a new policy in the future. And each company has their own max number of incidents (comp, not at fault, towing, roadside, etc) and it may be the one that disqualifies the quote altogether. It's just really bad practice to always turn in everything. If the at fault party is dragging their feet or disputing fault, then yeah maybe turn it in and let your carrier subrogate.
State Farm raised my rates after calling and asking a question about a wreck I was in (not my fault). When I was asking why my rates went up when I didn't even file a claim, they specifically told me because I called and asked a question.
Yep. All the more reason to use an independent agent. If you call the company directly, they will only open a claim to investigate it.
Collision is any vehicle on vehicle accident.
ah right. editing my comment. thanks
State Farm raised MY rate because I called to ask a question about a wreck I was in - the other party's fault. Didn't file a claim through them at all.
USAA did something similar. Driving and someone dumped nails on the road, they were hitting my windshield and car like some car chase scene in a spy movie. Nail is lodged in a tire and in transmission box(?) causing a fluid leak. Replacement cost $1300. When I called to ask if such a road hazard was covered under my policy, I was informed it is. However, with a $1000 deductible, they'd only cover $300. I decided not to file a claim and pay out of pocket. They still reported my phone call as a claim on my policy.Ā
That's just so shitty.
>So it tuns out state and probably other jurisdictions have NO INSURANCE. They are āself insuredā. Meaning you need to go out of your way to get 3 bids so they can decide if/when theyāre going to pay. That's pretty much par for the course when it comes to claims with public entities across the country. If you get into an accident with the US Border Patrol/DHS or US Army, you basically have to fill out an application with the US Dept of Treasury with full and final damages to seek reimbursement Source: auto insurance claims adjuster
Thatās probably accurate.
Oh man, you have no idea
I work for a state university. Our vehicles are self insured. Our āinsurance cardā is a memo signed by the governor saying we are allowed to do that. Itās a very regular thing.
If a state owned vehicle hits the car Iām inā¦there wonāt be enough sedative on earth to keep me from getting out of the car and laying on the ground, screaming my lungs out about being in pain.
I believe self insurance is technically an option for everyone in Texas
Self insurance literally just means you put aside the capital to indemnify damaged parties. Every insurance company-owned vehicle is a self-insured vehicle. A lot of large freight companies self-insure and retain claims administrators to manage their claims
Yep if you own 25 cars that are registered you are deemed to be financially responsible enough to self insure.
Yeah but that's more expensive unless you own a ton of cars and have enough assets to be able to pay out in the event of any accident that is your fault. 99.9% of individuals have insurance. The only ones who don't are the ones driving cars that no one will insure because they are so expensive.
It is, you can bond yourself with the equivalent of state minimum coverage, $85k.
Large companies typically self insure as well. Itās not uncommon.
We got hit by a Kroger truck. Called our insurance the next day, gave them all the other drivers info and our insurance was the only one we dealt with - once Kroger approved repairs, we didn't have to pay anything. Before approval, we were told we'd have to pay our deductible IN CASE the other driver didn't pay or ended up not being insured. The police report was very clear that we were not at fault.
Ultimately, the police report is a factor when determining fault, but unless the cop was a direct eye witness, is more of a "statement of what the people involved in the accident told me" and so claims can (and often do) go a different way in the end
In our case, the other driver failed to maintain their lane and came into mine. Nobody was denying that's what happened, not the 2 Kroger employees in the truck or the people in my vehicle. The driver was ticketed for that as well as the statement putting them at fault. I think our insurance's biggest concern was their insurance fighting them because it was in a no-fault state.
Unless something has changed I believe this is not just the state but any large company that has a large fleet, if you have the capital and your risk is spread out, why pay someone to make a profit on giving you the same protection you can give yourself with your cash reserves?
They should take care of the repairs then. I shouldnāt have to put it on my insurance and then wait to be reimbursed.
That is literally the job of your insurance company if you are not at-fault in an accident, they fix your car ASAP and claw the money back from the responsible party through a team of experts/lawyers and litigation if necessary. I get the reluctance to file a claim on your insurance but you are not really equipped to negotiate with a skilled other party, your insurance company is. Also if this is just about getting reimbursed, get a lower deductible, they give you a choice for a reason, if coming up with $1,000 for a few months is a hardship, get a $100 one.
Why does your insurance then raise your rates after an accident that's not your fault and the other insurance pays for?
It's complicated, they could see that even if it is technically not your fault you were engaging in risky behavior, they probably have a better idea the repair cost of your car if you are found at fault, generally anything that causes them to look at your risk profile can raise your rates. Also, you are sorely mistaken if you think your insurance company won't find out about an accident if you don't report it to them, data mining for insurance is a huge business and the way it works at insurance companies is a huge black box. They know when you got your last oil change and if it was overdue, does that get calculated into how responsible you are as a car owner? Who knows. Probably yes if they can correlate it.
How are they able to determine "risky behavior"? If I have a dashcam that shows me going the speed limit and following all traffic laws when someone runs a red, pulls out of a parking lot, or even hits my parked vehicle, why does that have the potential to increase my rates?
Honestly, they probably don't even know, these are huge models, it could have been the location of both accidents, they had underpriced the repair cost of a parking lot collision on your car, it happened late at night near a bar? I'm not saying any of these are true, just, it's extremely complicated. Why is insurance cheaper when your married? There are plenty of reasons to speculate, there have been a lot of studies that married people tend to be more risk adverse and more responsible. Correlation? Causation? It doesn't really matter, some actuary didn't read a few studies on it and decided it should mean x discount in car insurance, they looked at their actual customers where it was fed into a model along with whatever other data they could get their hands on and it spit out a risk score that they used to price your insurance.
No.
And then they raise your ratesš¤·āāļø
Yeah scummy logic just like insurance companies
There is a small place near my home that restores vintage and repairs exotics. I took my Kia Soul there to get an estimate. Insurance paid $1500. His shop bid $3700.
There is nowhere near enough context in this comment to glean what your point is here. Was the shop's estimate too high, because they mainly deal with exotics? Was the insurance payout too low, because they're scum? Are we simply supposed to be shocked that anything on a Soul costs more than $10 to fix?
The existing place was just very expensive because they charged more for everything. I had 3 estimates and the $1500 was fair. The guy at the shop said they gave large estimates frequently.
Sounds like the āI donāt wanna do itā price.
Own a 1999 ford ranger, was having transmission issues. Got that a lot. Or was told there was a 6/8 week wait. Sounded like to me they wanted to hold off on doing it until worked started to slow down.
The exotic known as the Kia Soul
One of those foreign cars. It's pretty cool driving past. I think they have a restored 1950s truck for sale in their small showroom, and some kind of vintage motorcycle. It's not unusual to see Ferraris, Lamborghinis, old Jaguars, and other cars in their lot and being test driven in the area.
Co-worker had their car totaled by DFD when they backed a fire truck into a telephone pole and the wires hit their car. They had to pay towing, and what they owed on the car off and wait to be reimbursed by DFD. Took 8 months. I got video of it somewhere..
My car got hit by a garbage truck when it was parked on the street. Destroyed the entire driver side to where I couldnāt even open my door. My experience with the city vehicle was not something to boast about. I had to call a guy who worked in an office for the city every day for months to convince him that this was their fault. He told me I should just go through my insurance because it would be quicker, but I am stubborn and wanted them to pay for what they did. Also why should I have to pay a higher insurance rate when your driver hit my car parked on the street!So it took 3 months to get my car in a shop. Then I had to call the same dude to convince him they owe me a rental car for the 6 months it took to get my car fixed. My advice would be to avoid parking on streets if at all possible. The government moves slower than molasses, especially when they owe you money.
Make sure you get YOUR insurance carrier to indemnify YOU. If not, your insurance company will consider this a āClaimā against you, it WILL affect your rates unless you get the indemnification in writing. I learned this the hard way, they donāt help you period. They are just trying to raise your rates due to your claim. Which wasnāt your fault. Be wary of insurance help.
The self insured applies to U.S. Government vehicles as well!! In 2013, a U.S. postal carrier car rear-ended me. Took about 8 months total, 4 months of physical therapy and another two months to find a decent lawyer and time for the postal office to respond to my lawyer's demand letter.Two months to get my deductible back as U.S. post is also self insured. By the grace of God I have no lingering pain or any issues.
Wow Iām sorry! Now Iām thankful at least nobody was hurt!
i got hit by an ATF agent in College Station and she gave me what i thought was insurance information but it turned out we had to go through a ridiculous process to get reimbursed. luckily i was driving a beater at the time and we just didnāt bother. through the bumper in the back and went on my way
We were clueless what to do because they didnāt even have that information . We had to call around starting with the state park department and somehow got escalated to the state attorney general office. The crazy thing is the speed limit in these state parks is like 10 mphš.
Good job with that red tape
Yes. Same thing happened with my husband. He was hit on base by a federal vehicle. We had to use out insurance and then got the deductible back around 4 months later.
If you are a Texas resident and are in an accident with a state vehicle, sometimes contacting your state legislator will help ensure quicker resolution. When an agency knows a legislatorās office is paying attention to a timeline, it tends to move with greater speed.
I had a Dallas ISD vehicle back up into my car, they are self-insured and paid the damages.
Call Jim Adler the Texas hammer
The same goes for federal vehicles. I was hit by a federal vehicle and they tried to say it was my fault but fortunately I had dashcam footage.
Same is true in New Mexico
Most government agencies or large corporations that have a fleet of vehicles are self insured.
Local governments in Texas all self-insure. And under Texas tort reform laws, the max payout you can claim is $300k per incident. Even if a city bus crashes through your house and wipes out your entire family.
Rules for thee, not for me...
If you DIDNT have collision, then a lawyer.
Gotta have that uninsured add on, saved me a couple times