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Some people in my family have an annoying habit of scratching parked cars, and being the honest types that we are, we always fess up by leaving notes. The latest incident involved a small-seeming scratch on the protruding wheel well of a brand new Lexus SUV, which is unfortunate, because the estimate came back at $1600. I called the body shop and explained this was going to be out of pocket for us, and they adjusted it down to $1400. Plus we'll have to pay for 4 days of car rental for the owner. Our car looks like crap anyway, so we weren't even thinking of getting it fixed, although I reckon that would be another $800-1000.
Does anyone have wisdom about whether to use our insurance coverage to deal with this? We have a $200 deductible, and no accident history, no moving violations. We have one 17 year old male driver, plus myself and
DH
. Safeco insurance. Will our rates go up if we make this claim? Will it make a difference if it was son or DH driving? Our agent tells us there's no way to know what will happen to rates, but I'd love to get input from anyone out there with personal experience or an opinion on this.
Assuming we don't make a claim, does this mean we should raise our deductible really high, since we don't seem to benefit from the insurance? I find this stuff so frustrating; it just seems wrong that we pay for insurance for 30 years but never dare make a claim!
Thanks,
Kathy
DH definition
DH usually means Dear Husband (or, pick your own adjective starting with D).
I've made two claims on my insurance in the past seven years, one for me and one for
DH
. The one for me was an accident, not my fault, and the other guy had the same insurance co., so they paid my deductible from his insurance and we were not out of pocket anything. The other one was when our neighbor across the street backed out of their driveway and crashed into the side of Tom's legally parked vehicle. Her insurance covered everything and we didn't have to pay the deductible in the end...we paid out of pocket but were reimbursed fully.
We've had the same company for many years, and our rates actually went down, not up, over time, even with the two claims.
If you have a good history with them, chances are they won't count this against you. It's not as if it was negligence or poor driving habits. I think I'd claim it...that's a lot to be out of pocket, and if your rates do go up, the breakeven point is way out there.
edited to add: if you've already spoken to your insurance company (not your agent, but the claims people), chances are if it is going to have an impact, the simple phone call will do it...even if you end up NOT filing a claim.
DH definition
DH usually means Dear Husband (or, pick your own adjective starting with D).
I use my insurance - in my mind, that's what it's there for. We keep our comprehensive deductible at zero so that if we have dinged windshields or break-ins they're covered completely and it doesn't count against us in the least.
We recently had an accident where our vehicle was totaled, and there was fairly significant damage to the right front quarter panel and grill of (suprise!) a Lexus SUV. Totally not our fault -the other guy was cited for failing to yield, but still...I claimed it through our insurance. I let them deal with the other company and once they had settled the claim, they reimbursed my deductible which I had paid out of pocket. To me, it was worth not having to dicker with the other company, and I trust my insurance company (USAA) of 22 years - since I started driving! to do right by me. My rates did not go up.
Whether to claim it or not depends somewhat on whether it was your fault. In both Eva's and Susan's case, they were not at fault, so ultimately, it was likely the other insurance company that ended up paying. Therefore, their rates would not go up. Now, I'm in Massachusetts and we have some crazy insurance rules, but in general, I believe that if you file a claim and your insurance company has to pay out, then that goes on your driving record as an at fault accident or moving violation. Here, that adds up to points on your license that take 6 years to fully go away. The points on your license are what determine your insurance rates, so you end up paying a higher rate for 6 years. Here, the threshold between "minor" and "major" accident is a payout of $2000 including the deductible.
Last year, my
DH
had a "major" accident and it came in at $2200. We used the insurance, and I wish we hadn't, but we didn't have a good estimate of what it would cost to fix, and it looked pretty bad. His insurance went up about $500 per year, and will stay there for the next 6 years. Add onto that the $1000 deductible we have to keep our rates low, and we ended up paying $4000 ($1000 + 6*$500) for the insurance company to pay out $1200 ($2200-$1000). Not such a good deal.
To figure it out, I'd go to another insurance company and have them quote your rate both ways, using a scenario like, "so, if I were to get in an accident, what would the rate change be". At least here, it's pretty easy for them to do that, and you can use that as a guide to see how your rates might change.
Hope that helps a little!
Kristen
DH definition
DH usually means Dear Husband (or, pick your own adjective starting with D).
Thanks everyone. Kristen, you're right that this would be an at fault accident, even though only one car was moving , so it's good to see your figures. We would be getting about $1300 of benefit and I suppose it could come at a high cost of increased rates. I like your idea of scoping this out with another insurer. Susan and Eva - I wouldn't hesitate to use insurance in your scenarios, as you were clearly not at fault.
I just realized that part of why this is frustrating is that nobody has ever left a note when they've banged up our cars in the parking lot.
DH
's car looks like it's been through a war, but 90% of the damage is by unknown assailants. I hope honesty is rewarded in heaven, because we're sure paying for it now!
Kathy
DH definition
DH usually means Dear Husband (or, pick your own adjective starting with D).
Like Kristen, we also got burned by using the claim. My wife unfortunately bumped into a tree in a parking lot, and even though it didn't look too bad, the estimate was around $1900. This supposed minor damage killed us on insurance.
We lost our good driver discount. While no points went on the official record, our insurance AAA kept it on their records for 3 years. Insurance went up about 600-700 per year. In the end, using the insurance cost about the same as if we'd paid out of pocket, but the stressful part was having to sweat it out for 3 yrs until it dropped off their records (finally did last yr thankfully). Had we had another accident in the time,...well, let's just say we'd be in a world of hurt.
My new rule is anything 2k and under = pay out of pocket.
Good luck with yours...sorry you have to deal with it...no fun at all.
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, so it's good to see your figures. We would be getting about $1300 of benefit and I suppose it could come at a high cost of increased rates. I like your idea of scoping this out with another insurer. Susan and Eva - I wouldn't hesitate to use insurance in your scenarios, as you were clearly not at fault. 
