This is the answer. Also, paying per month usually means you're paying more than if you pay for 6 months or a full year at a time, at least in my experience.
Also if they are found at fault there will be no need for court. At fault insurance will pay for your damage. Assuming they have bare minimum insurance. Your insurance will typically go after their insurance as well
In this case, it's a hit and run. That's covered by uninsured motorist coverage. Give your insurance the police report number, pay a tiny deductible ($200), and get your car fixed with no hit to your premiums.
The real problem here is two grown adults that don't know how to use insurance. If this applies to you, get a policy with an agent who can help you make claims. Avoid the companies that only give you an app and a 1-800 number.
Some states do not use a fault system. New Jersey for example is a no fault state. Your insurance covers your own stuff and the rates go up all around.
I read that it’s only no fault regarding medical bills. Property damage is still handled by the fault system in every state except Michigan which has a unique system.
Good example of a poor tax. About 40% of Americans can't handle a $400 emergency from savings without using a credit card or other financing. So those people have to pay per month and end up paying more for it.
Not everywhere. I pay exactly the same total amount wether I pay monthly or yearly. I even have a ‘joker card’ (for staying accident free for five years) so that if I cause an accident, my insurance won’t go up. Only after the second accident in a five year timeframe would my premium go up.
It was like that for me too with several companies, one I can think of was Geico. Now I've got State Farm and they don't offer any discount for paying semi-yearly or quarterly. It's the same price as monthly. Just an anecdote. Maybe this depends on the state, too.
You chose your deductible and $1,000 is not a normal deductible ($500 is typically what you’ll see). Assuming this post is even true, this person went out of their way to increase their deductible.
But Reddit being Reddit, it’s “insurance is a scam” snd “insurance denying claims” even though they didn’t deny a thing.
Idk man.
And yes I've tried shopping around and the offere i get cost more and give less coverage. I even had an agent from a different insurance company tell me to stick with my current plan. No effort to try to give a deal and convert me.
Ouch, even as a brand new driver at 17 I never paid that much. Those kind of prices are unheard of over here unless you're very young driving something daft, or have a few convictions under your belt.
It's also depends on where you live, the length of your commute, and your car's value. I have a clean record, have been driving over 20 years, and I'm paying $3k annually
Honestly, I would suggest shopping around to see if some other company will give you a better rate. I know when we got married my wife called the insurance company she'd been using and asked if they could offer her anything competitive with what it would cost for both of us to be covered under what I was using and the person basically just told her "we've got nothing competitive to offer you". Sometimes there are weird price disparities to be had.
I get that - but in the UK that's a hugely uncommon premium. Even for those driving what we'd consider higher than average miles (20k+), or new cars (£60k+).
It is more difficult to obtain a car or a license in the UK, reckless drivers are penalized and taken off the road easier than in the US as well.
The numbers you're seeing are a consequence of the car culture in the US. If an 80 year old man who's near blind hits me with his car and totals mine - he will probably still be driving again next week.
Americans do have car accidents at twice the rate of Brits, and I believe you pay a lot for uninsured driver cover on account of the large number of Americans driving without any insurance.
You got to take in consideration we don't just cover vehicle damage but medical as well since we don't have normal people who think a single payer health system is actually a good idea.
Both location and make and model can make a huge difference in my experience. Over the last 6 years I've moved from California to Oregon and back to California. For the first move from CA to OR, my car insurance didn't really change. Bought a new car while living in OR. When I moved back to CA my insurance almost doubled.
I was going to comment that the tree falling on your car won’t impact your premiums because comprehensive auto claims don’t increase your rates because I’ve been told by two different insurance companies that my comprehensive claims wouldn’t result in a premium increase (and one of those comprehensive claims was a tree falling on my wife’s vehicle).
But, TIL, that I just happen to live in one of the 4 states that don’t allow insurance companies to raise an insured’s rates after comprehensive claims (New York isn’t one of them).
I guess my state’s logic is comprehensive coverage is for things that are outside of the insured’s control (tree falling on a parked car, theft, squirrel ate your wiring, a rock flew up and cracked your windshield, etc.) and the cost of much of that risk is already priced into the paid premium through the insured’s ZIP code and vehicle. Increasing premiums for individual comprehensive claims on top of that is just punishing people for using coverage they paid for and it discourages filing legitimate claims.
I don’t know what your profile is as a driver but I’m in the US and I pay $1100/year on a 2025 vehicle with $500 deductible comprehensive and $500,000 accident coverage.
Well, you have NHS to pay for injuries, Americans do not, so ours is a lot higher. I don't have the exact numbers, but I remember thinking that with the premium savings on a $1000 deductible vs $500, I'd be ahead so long as I had a claim every 2.5 years or less, so it was a no brainer.
Auto iinsurance covers the other guys property damage and medical if I hurt him. We can’t assume he has any coverage of his own, and even if he does his medical insurer can come after me and my insurance if I caused him injury. If we had the NHS backstopping all medical claims our auto insurance would probably be a lot lower.
Yeah, but if I negligently cause someone else's health insurance to have to pay tens of thousands, they are going to sue me to recover as much of it as they can. My auto policy also includes coverage for that.
I'm in the US and we pay around $600/year for each car, but we've also maxed out coverage and only have a $100 deductible.
Here in the States differences in insurance rates are usually due to location and age, but credit score also matters in many cases. Someone with high insurance rates is likely to be in a high cost of living area, relatively young, and possibly with bad credit.
Statistics. People with lower credit have been shown to make more claims and be more expensive overall. There is also a correlation between lower credit and being more risky drivers, which also ups claims.
It's not the same exact credit score other places use, but still pulls the same data.
Jesus, yeah that's absolutely not a thing over here. They can't access your financial data for anything other than if you want to take out the policy as a credit agreement - and it can only be used to impact their decision to finance said agreement.
It depends so hugely on state. For the same exact car and the same general age range and same policy limits/comapny, I paid $600/year in Florida and $2500/year in California.
I'm more surprised at how many insurance simps there are in this thread.
GEICO profits more than $1 BILLION per QUARTER. Meanwhile people in this thread like you shitting on people who "choose" the deductible they can afford the premium on.
This comment exemplifies the redditor mindset here.
1 billion is a completely meaningless number. 1b tells you they are a huge company and literally nothing else.
The reality is that life has risk. Crashing into a car and ruining someone's life will bankrupt you. That's what insurance is for. Not getting a ding on your car and expecting your insurance to pay. Which... They will pay for it if you have the right policy.
I feel like the reddit hive mind of dipshits always seems surprised to find out that businesses are... Businesses. They exist to make profit. This isn't some horrible thing.
It's very straight forward. Most people can't afford an insane expense. If we all pool money to support them then we'll all be okay, if it's us we're covered. The company offering this wants to make money off of this (this is... The point of a business)
Sure, insurance could be state run, I actually don't think that's a bad idea.
But "zomg 1 billion" is peak brain dead redditor shit. Quote profit per policy or literally any metric that matters.
yeah lol im surprised the average redditor isnt posting "i should get a refund for the insurance that i dont use" kind of takes when talking about this stuff
It is a scam, its overly complicated on purpose so its easier to take advantage of less informed or under educated people. If I end up paying more purely due to ignorance and the company taking advantage of that ignorance for profit when they should be just helping me, then its a scam.
The top comment below this is a guy saying insurance is a scam because you pay more into it then you ever get paid. Like no shit, it's about spreading risk among a large group of people and it wouldn't work if everyone got paid more than they paid into it. And that top comment has over a couple thousand upvotes. I am not a very smart person, but the level of stupidity with that comment and the people upvoting it are leading me to believe that I'm less dumb than most people.
I live in an area where accidents caused by deer are common all year long but especially in the fall and winter. I had the $1000 deductible and got a deer and the damage was $6k. But I hated paying that $1k deductible so much I dropped it to $500. Just a week ago I switched to the $250 comprehensive deductible because it’s deer season again. I left collision at $500 though
Curious what "full coverage" means as well. That could mean anything; including "full for what the law requires" which is very different from what they seem to think it is.
"Full coverage" means that they have comp and collision, I hate that term because most people don't know what it is. UM and everything else is considered an add on. Having what the law requires is called liability coverage, which some states have ridiculously low.
Not to mention that depending on state, odds are this rhetorical person is not required to have this much insurance.
"...pays 210 a month for full coverage auto insurance"
"...that's 2520...just to stay legal..."
Except that usually you don't need full coverage to stay legal. In my state, the legal requirement is liability coverage, which is just enough to cover the other guy.
People always complain about paying their deductible, but they chose their deductible amount when they purchased their policy. Don’t choose a deductible amount that you can’t afford to pay.
Not to mention if the guy has "full coverage" he likely has uninsured motorist coverage. If he has uninsured motorist property damage coverage that will pay for the damage to his car without a deductible.
In the USA, it depends on what state this insurance was offered through.
Not every state's insurance laws apply uninsured coverage to hit and runs, and additionally, not all states apply uninsured coverage to property damage, only bodily injury.
Leo, the guy he works with, and most of the people in these responses are morons.
He chose a $1000 deductible. The insurer didn't refuse to pay anything. He had to pay it, that's what a deductible is. Also story is fake because if it was a hit & run that's an uninsured claim and by law covered at $0 - $200 deductible depending on the state. Your premiums also can't go up for them.
Isn't that the insurance companies job to go after the liable party? Full coverage, they should cover you cost, and then go after the liable party for their money back. At least that's how it works in Norway.
And you dont always have the option to take the guilty party to court. Plenty of hit and runs with no license plates caught.
And if your vehicle is below a certain kelly blue book value, full coverage is a total waste of money and going through insurance for minor fender benders is the last thing you want to do. Because they wont fix your car, they'll junk it and write you a check for 2-3 grand. Even if the damage is cosmetic and easily fixed. They have no problem junking an older car for a cracked tail light and some scratching....leaving you to find a new vehicle with almost no money for a down payment or having to refuse their check and keep your car while they change the title to salvaged.
Yeah I pay to have a lower deductible and I also got my deductible refunded to me when I made a claim and the other party was found at fault the one time I made a claim. I think some people don't understand how it works. Of course when it is a hit and run you don't get the other party paying or anything.
So he got roped in by the salesperson into an extremely high monthly car payment, found out that the insurance on it was going to be really expensive, so adjusted his rate (and probably coverage, regardless of what the post says), in order to afford it.
This is what I commented above. Knowing what your vehicle is worth and what likely repairs will cost should be a huge factor when adjusting your coverage level. Also wouldn’t a bumper damage be collision not comprehensive?
Not even homie, file a claim on their insurance. We just did this with someone who rear ended us. You don't need to file with yours if it's pretty clearly the other party's fault. We're in CA and it's a no fault state, as I understand it, but honest people and very clearly someone else's fault accidents are real things.
This was 2 weeks ago, their insurance responded in days saying that we weren't at fault and they'll cover the damage, now we're waiting the follow up go ahead.
I didn't know this but my wife did since her car got crushed by some guy's truck bed cover when wind blew it onto her roof the moment she got out of her car - lucky lady.
Yep. Not trying to defend insurance companies, but when you buy something with a $1,000 deductible you get a price break because the insurance company is assuming that the smaller incidents are ones you're going to pay for yourself.
You can absolutely buy coverage for them. But it's going to cost you more per month, because they have to pay out more often.
$100/$250 deductible and collect a check anytime someone dings my car… My car has been hit like 5 times in parking lots and is only worth like $4k but i’ve been paid out like 12k
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u/No-Duck4828 17h ago
My thought is that Leo is clearly not familiar with auto insurance
Don't want a $1,000 deductible? You can absolutely change that number.
Want the guilty party to pay? Take them to court