Car insurance conundrum

August 2, 2017 3:26 AM

One day when my spouse and I weren't home, a stranger doing a three-point turn in our city driveway hit our leased car hard enough to do nearly $900 worth of damage to the bumper. They then merrily drove away. Our car insurance would cover fixing this (minus a $500 deductible) but punish us with a raised premium. Paying out of pocket would be an inconvenient but affordable expense. I'm more stressed out about this than is probably reasonable. What do we do?

We'd like to make the least expensive and exhausting decision here. Our car insurance is through Safeco (in Washington state) and our insurance deductible is $500. The last time we actually had to use our insurance - for something much more serious and also not our fault - the premium went way up, and I'd expect that to happen again.

Does anyone have experience that could give me a clue of how much the premium might go up if we used insurance for this? Would dealing with a raised premium and jumping through whatever hoops Safeco makes us jump through still be better than paying out of pocket, or would the expense be worth it? What would a person who wasn't overwhelmingly stressed about this do here?

(Assume I'm a generally competent and financially stable adult whose buttons are really being pushed by this.)

posted by anonymous to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)

I wouldn't assume the deductible and premium increases will apply in this case. When my wife's car was vandalized while parked a few years ago, we filed a police report (as should you) and our insurance covered it at no cost.

Since your car was hit by another car it might be handled differently, but it's worth learning more about how this would actually be handled rather than assuming based on a very different previous experience.
posted by jon1270 at 3:55 AM on August 2, 2017

It sounds like you're basing the premium going up on a past experience - have you talked to your insurer and found out what putting it through your insurance will cost? My insurer told us what it would cost and $400 in short term benefits seems unlikely to be worth it.
posted by notorious medium at 5:27 AM on August 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure that your premium would go up. My car was also vandalized while parked, and while I did have to pay the deductible, my premium stayed the same. I would just ask your agent what to do in this situation, and for sure file a police report.
posted by katypickle at 7:00 AM on August 2, 2017

I damaged the side of my car recently and discussed the details with my agent when debating whether to pay out of pocket or file a claim. My insurance premium was only going to increase if their payout hit a certain threshold, in this case $2K, and the increase would only be on the car I was listed as primary driver on, our old Corolla. And only for a short amount of time until an older accident fell outside the three year look-back window. So I wouldn't assume an automatic increase; there could be a lot of variables you aren't considering.
posted by JenMarie at 7:29 AM on August 2, 2017

Generally, a hit-and-run damage claim does not cause your rates to increase. At-fault damages are what ding you the most.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:46 AM on August 2, 2017

I'd be more upset about all that money I'd sent to the insurance company over the years if I didn't intend to take them up on their service when the time came.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:48 AM on August 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah, most companies have a threshold for premium increases. My current company's is $500; others are $1000.

There's also the issue of no-fault, which I don't know enough about to discuss, other than to say "call your agent".
posted by kevinbelt at 10:15 AM on August 2, 2017

Well, $900 should not raise your premium very much, but it depends on your insurance company. You could switch to a cheaper company if they do try to jack up your rates. I was getting very high quotes due to an accident and, through some sort of broker that I *think* was offered via Esurance or Allstate some company I called, I was able to find a way cheaper rate through a company called 21st Century. The "broker" didn't cost anything either, it was just someone who was able to look at rates across a bunch of companies not even affiliated with the company I had contacted for a quote. I assumed the broker got some sort of commission from 21st Century, but I am not sure how it works because they just said, "Hey, do you want to be transferred to a broker" and I said sure.

Furthermore, I am not sure about Washington, but my understanding is that states have different thresholds of recording something as an accident that is going to stay on your record or penalize you. I had an accident in California that raised my rates, but when I moved to Oregon and was told I had a clean driving record and received lower quotes, it was apparently because the accident threshold that I could be penalized for was higher there. I don't know exactly and the details are fuzzy in my mind, but it was something like a $750 threshold vs. a $1000 threshold. Or maybe it was $1000 vs $1500. Not sure, but as I recall, my accident was between those two numbers.
posted by AppleTurnover at 12:07 PM on August 2, 2017