H and I had 3 minor at-fault accidents in the last 2 years. All were in parking lots, backing up, and minor, like very small dent, broken tail-light, on the other car. Our car had no damage whatsoever. We dutifully reported to our insurance, since that’s what you are told to do. Insurance payouts were $500, $1100, and $1200. Crazy how much a small dent costs. We’ve been with State Farm for 25 years and after the last the last one they were going to cancel our insurance but our local agent stepped in and got them to agree not to.
I told our agent I’d be fine with a high deductible liability insurance and pay out of pocket if we get in another minor fender bender, but our agent said that car liability insurance never has a deductible.
Anyone been in a similar situation? For now we are with State Farm and they have not raised our rates, but I’ll feel better if I have an idea of what to do if we get in another fender bender in the next 3 years and State Farm gives us the boot. Don’t say ‘just don’t hit a car’. That’s obvious. But I live in a city with insane traffic and our own parked car gets dinged 1-2 times a year (and no one leaves a note, but we always do…).
I’ve never tried negotiating a repair without involving our insurance, maybe that’s what we need to do if mishap strikes…after I install a back-up camera on our old car…
PS We don’t carry collision or comprehensive. Not worth it on our cars.
It doesn’t sound high to me. I’ve been the victim of 3 minor parking lot dent incidents, and in all cases the payout was far higher. The most recent payout was over $3000 for essentially a small scratch. The damage was so minor that nobody has been able to find the scratch, unless I first point out the exact location to them.
Car insurance is legally required in nearly all states, so there are no doubt options for higher risk drivers. However, you may have a limited selection of insurers, and the increased risk will be reflected in increased insurance rates. Another relevant question is why you keep getting in at fault fender benders and what you can do to prevent it from happening in the future.
All 3 cases were very similar. It wasn’t in a parking lot exactly, rather on our street which has parking on both sides. Backing up, in the dark, and someone stopped in the no-parking spot where I back into when getting out of my driveway. I’m plotting how to park differently so I don’t do this maneuver anymore. But to be honest, I was also distracted all 3 times—talking with the kids and late to something.
Our street is actually a nightmare. Residential and beautiful but very narrow and there is a school across from our house. 2x a day (8am and 3pm) the street is impassible. Everyone on the street gets dinged/hit 1-3 times a year. We don’t file claims when our car gets dinged. We’d never afford the insurance.
Ask your agent who does the State Farm claim assessment in your area. In my area it’s a collusion place right up the street from me. Next time a bump occurs, leave a note asking them to take it to xx (State Farm claim assessor) and give you the estimate. Then just pay it out of pocket. It isn’t the cash amount of claims that is hurting you but the number of claims. Also where you live makes a difference. Because some states passed laws regulating the amount that your insurance can be raised (like New Jersey), State Farm set up basically separate companies within the company just for those states. This way they keep all the auto losses in that state together in that company and the increase or decrease is according to the losses in that state alone instead of across the country. They separated out some states at least 10 years ago.
Just had this conversation with a new insurance agent today as we were trying to secure new insurance on a new house purchase and exploring bundling our insurance needs. First of all, we have 4 kids who are drivers so 6 total drivers. We pay for each driver and have Liberty Mutual who advertises their “accident forgiveness” program. Turns out that even though we pay for six cars and six drivers, only the first incident is forgiven on the whole policy. Six drivers don’t earn six forgivenesses. Just FYI.
Anyhow, over a 3 year period, there are a total of a half dozen minor fender benders or bumping of parked cars. Remember, six drivers, four of them teen/young adults, so when you do the numbers, one per person over those 3 years is not so bad. Three of the claims involved no payout-just were reported because my husband suffers from hyper truthfulness (Mr. Leave a Note). Due to that record, several insurers won’t even pick up insuring us. From the point of view of the underwriters, even the zero payouts count against us because they indicate “activity”. This might be where you are being impacted.
We make every effort to pay out of pocket but we had two incidents where people refused to let us do so and had repairs done at our expense beyond what that had nothing to do with our encounter. The chance to exploit insurance companies propels the worse of humanity. We alerted our agents in advance both times but in neither case did they put any effort in to fighting the bogus claims. It costs the insurance companies less if they don’t fight even though it costs us more because we get penalized with higher rates.
So I’m sorry to see you are dealing with possible policy nonrenewal. So annoying, Good luck figuring it out.
Many of the insurance companies (GEICO for example) will supply you with a free insurance quote (online). I suggest you try a few and see what kind of quotes you get.
Three at-fault accidents in two years is very high, regardless of the payouts. I have never heard of a deductible on liability insurance. It’s doubtful that the regulators, or the insurance companies would allow that. It would complicate settling claims.
Your best bet is to probably speak to your agent if State Farm drops you. He should be able to direct you to another company that would be likely to take you on as a client.
If state farm drops you , you will probably end up in the high risk pool. You should contact an independent agent, some specialize in the kinds of situation you are now in. In the future, pay for small claims out of pocket.
One interesting facet of most insurance is that hitting an animal is covered under comprehensive and doesn’t affect your rates or insurability at all. We had a front bumper replaced after hitting an opossum or racoon , and lucked out a few weeks later when a deer hit us (side of car) instead of the front.
In our state (MI) Progressive was the cheapest in a family with college aged drivers, but you have to check every year.
Just have to ask…how much is you deductible? We would not have submitted claims for these amounts through our insurance at all…our deductible is about the same amount.
It’s so complicated with every state having different rules around insurance but ask your agent if there is a high-risk pool that can help with your insurance costs while you wait out how long this stays on your insurance record which sounds like 3 years at least. I think it’s 3 years to 6 years depending on how many at-fault accidents are on the record but I have no knowledge since no one in my family has had an at-fault accident. I just know about the high-risk pool from other friends talking about car insurance.
Being a former auto insurance underwriter and currently a personal insurance broker I can tell you that 3 claims (at fault or not) is quite a bit. The carriers I underwrote for (and currently broker through) typically see most households turn in 1 claim every 3 to 5 years, so 3 in 2 years is well above the norm.
There are companies out there that have made a business out of providing high quality coverage for higher risk drivers at affordable prices. Progressive comes to mind, they are the innovator for this type of coverage.
One additional thing that I am sure State Farm is considering. All of your losses are the same, backing up which makes matters worse, you are repeating the same mistake, which is concerning. The underwriter is surely looking at this as inattentive backing and while the payments to date are small this type of accident leads to big liability losses. Think of it this way, what if it was a jogger that was behind you instead of a parked car? Or what if it was a small child? These are the losses they are scared of as the medical bills, lost wages, etc. add up really quickly.
Ugh, this is true! My husband inspected many houses after Hurricane Sandy. He prepared independent damage reports for insurance companies. He was unbiased and if anything, erred on the side of the homeowner if it was a close call. But he saw quite a few cases in which owners tried to claim that damage occurred during the hurricane when he could tell it happened before the storm! That made him mad.
Re avoiding this kind of accident: Can you learn to back into your driveway? I know that can be a tough skill to master depending on the layout of the street, driveway, and garage (if any), but it would mean that you would be better able to see anything at the end of the drive on your way out with those screaming kids in the car.
Hi all, thanks for the info. Right now State Farm is not dropping us because our agent stepped on our behalf. We have been with them 25 years, this last 2 years was a blip, no tix/marks on our licenses for 20 years. However, I 100% understand why the underwriters would see this as a big red flag.
@thumper1 Liability has no deductible. I have to do what others have suggested which is work something out with the other driver to fix. But I didn’t. Our car had no damage whatsoever.
@dowzerw The kids are part of the complication. Currently neither kid drive, though our 16-year old just got his learner permit.
@iaparent Yep, 3 at-fault in a year is a lot. And 3 inattentive backing ups, even very slow, is bad. Technically only 2 are mine and 1 was a very small ding from my hitch (that was the $500 one). But still, yes, it was inattentive and it alarms me. I ordered a back-up camera kit to install to reduce the risk and thinking about how to eliminate the manuever that got me in trouble. I know the exact payouts since I went over everything with our agent, btw.
I’m just trying to get an idea of what others experience has been getting car insurance when you’ve had claims. Hopefully, we are claim-free for the next 3 years and all is good, but we drive on snow and ice all the time and driving in our city is difficult (dark, rain, nasty traffic). I always like knowing what plan B if plan A doesn’t work out. We were thinking to put the kids on our insurance, and now are rethinking that or thinking maybe to put one car on a different policy. Not to ‘hide’ the accidents, but to have H on his own policy with his own car that no one else drives.
In the last three years dh had two claims, one at fault and one “no fault.” State Farm dropped us right after paying out on the second claim despite our agent’s appeal. His rates had already increased significantly after the first claim. We’d been with State Farm for >10 years.
We obtained coverage with USAA, which was informed of the two claims, and our premium is less than it was before. I am not happy with USAA’s customer service (lots of conflicting and erroneous information, and too many phone calls), but will stick with them for at least three years.
As far as splitting insurance coverage for different family members, it might not do much good if they all have the same official residence. That’s something you may want to ask an independent agent about before you start actually getting quotes. I recall being told, years ago, that as long as a driver was part of a household that would impact the rates. That may not be true for all insurance companies, but it’s worth asking about before you make any decisions.
Silpat is right on splitting insurance, generally carriers will not do it because any family member that lives with you meets the definition of an insured and therefore are covered if they are listed on the policy or not. To combat hiding drivers there are reports that are run showing anyone with a license at your address. It amazes me sometimes when we see prior owners of a home who obviously never changed their license address with the state show up. More frequently we see 35+ year old children who have just left mom and dads address as their own, those are tougher to prove to an underwriter that the “kids” are on their own.