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Car Forum / Honda Cars / February 2005GEICO and rates after a fender-bender
I posted here a while back about having been in my first at-fault fender-bender. Low speed, I was an idiot. Anyway, I decided it would be best to report it ad get everything fixed by the book. ~$1500 on my car, I dunno yet what was on the other guy's, but it was really just a scraped rear bumper corner and slight scrape on the side panel, so probably not too much. GEICO maybe paid $1500 total. I'll probably see the details sometime or other. So. Impact on my insurance? It went *down*, from $564 to $498/6 mos. And after I took a defensive driving course thinking to head the adjusters off at the pass, it went down further, to $452. That includes collision ($500 deductible) and full glass, and is about on par with the insurance for my old 85 Pontiac wagon, on which I didn't have collision. 94 Civic EX. Apparently I got lucky, though as I said, they didn't have to spend much. I'm a little paranoid about landing in another mishap that will be more severe, but given that I've managed for 16 years without anything at-fault, I'll hope for the best. Let's hear it for that 10% discount for that defensive driving course. $35 through AAA and 6 hours of my time. Not a bad course, either. > I posted here a while back about having been in my first at-fault > fender-bender. Low speed, I was an idiot. Anyway, I decided it would be [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Let's hear it for that 10% discount for that defensive driving course. > $35 through AAA and 6 hours of my time. Not a bad course, either. There's a catch to your story. All at-fault claims will increase your rates, and considering that auto insurance is a loss leader for the providers then it is definately not in their interests to ignore at-fault claims. There has to be more to your story. GEICO(which I have) has some kind of policy currently which goes something like this: they reward their customers by not raising rates for a single at fault accident if the customer has not had any accidents in the last 5 years. I don't have the exact wording handy but that's basically how it works. Ken >> I posted here a while back about having been in my first at-fault >> fender-bender. Low speed, I was an idiot. Anyway, I decided it would [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > providers then it is definately not in their interests to ignore > at-fault claims. There has to be more to your story. I had a fender bender where I was at fault like you. It was very low speed (backing out of a parking space) and caused approximately the same damage as you and I had GEICO at the time. They didn't raise my rates until the next year but they did, eventually. GEICO, does however, have some policies where if you are a driver in a certain state things don't change much. For instance, I got a speeding ticket long ago and was so upset they would raise my rates when I called them. They said that since it was my first ticket and I was living in a state that doesn't "hide" tickets with traffic schools (like California) my rates wouldn't change. Richard > GEICO(which I have) has some kind of policy currently which goes something > like this: they reward their customers by not raising rates for a single [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] >> providers then it is definately not in their interests to ignore at-fault >> claims. There has to be more to your story. Fair enough, they reward their customers by not raising the rates for 1 at fault but your accident doesn't dissapear. Try switching companies in the next 5 years and I'll bet the other companies will nail you on the rates, which is what Geico anticipated when launching that program. Some brokers will do the same thing and it looks like a reward but it's just a way to guarantee you to them - as a customer for a few years. Naturally the actuarial tables will show that should you have a 2nd at fault in the 5 years then you're not the kind of customer they want and then the change in your pricing will reflect that. Typically auto insurance is a loss leader - do you have any other lines of business with Geico and have they tried cross selling to you? > GEICO(which I have) has some kind of policy currently which goes > something like this: they reward their customers by not raising rates [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] >> providers then it is definately not in their interests to ignore >> at-fault claims. There has to be more to your story. No, no cross selling--they haven't bothered me at all--seem happy to have me with just the auto insurance. As far as what happens if I have another at fault within 5 years, would any company consider a driver with 2 at faults within 5 years as desireable? I'm not defending GEICO but hey, if I did have 2 at faults in a row, maybe I deserve to have my rates go up. > Fair enough, they reward their customers by not raising the rates for 1 > at fault but your accident doesn't dissapear. Try switching companies in [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > insurance is a loss leader - do you have any other lines of business > with Geico and have they tried cross selling to you? > GEICO(which I have) has some kind of policy currently which goes > something like this: they reward their customers by not raising rates > for a single at fault accident if the customer has not had any accidents > in the last 5 years. I don't have the exact wording handy but that's > basically how it works. It's called Accident Forgiveness. Since my 5-year good driver discount is still listed on my bill, it clearly kicked in. We'll see what happens next year... In NYC, BTW. I posted the current experience because when I started looking into what would happen to rates after a first at-fault collision, I found it difficult to find data. It would be nice to have a site that tracked this sort of thing. Obviously the insurance companies aren't going to provide it, so it would have to be based on user experience. Varies by state law too much to comment on the specifics of your situation. However, it is the company's "underwriter", not the adjuster, that may eventually look at your policy and decide to "re-rate" it and increase your premium. Frequently this happens by moving you to an alternate, "sub-standard" company that they own. This could take a year or so to happen. Or might not happen at all. By the way, underwriters look more to how many reported collisions you have, not just the cost. A $500 claim is about as bad as a $10,000 claim. JM > Varies by state law too much to comment on the specifics of your > situation. However, it is the company's "underwriter", not the > adjuster, that may eventually look at your policy and decide to > "re-rate" it and increase your premium. Frequently this happens by > moving you to an alternate, "sub-standard" company that they own. This > could take a year or so to happen. Or might not happen at all. > By the way, underwriters look more to how many reported collisions you > have, not just the cost. A $500 claim is about as bad as a $10,000 > claim. Is it how many claims, or how many collisions? For example, I rear-ended someone and settled with him at the scene of the accident with cash, but filed a claim for $1500 for the damage to my car. Would an additional claim by the person I hit have made any difference in how the insurance company perceives me as a risk? Andrew > Is it how many claims, or how many collisions? For example, I rear-ended > someone and settled with him at the scene of the accident with cash, but [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Andrew If your carrier understands that the accident was your fault, then I don't think you likely gained anything by paying the liability portion of the collision out of your own pocket. If you fibbed, and told your carrier that you found the car in the parking lot that way (wrecked), then it would not be handled as a collision claim but instead as a comprehensive claim. I'm guessing here, but I think a comp claim would be less likely to affect your rates, although you should not try this. Too many comp claims will get you canceled, also. JM A $500 claim is about as bad as a $10,000 > claim. > > JM Well, let me update that thought a bit to account for inflation. I know, for instance, that State Farm will increase your premium if they pay a claim for more than $750 for which you are at fault. So, these days, a "$750 claim is about as bad as a $7,500 claim." In other words, there is a minimum amount, varying by insurance company, for which they'll just pay it and forget it. Progressive, according to a recent magazine article (Kiplinger, I think), will pay only $400 for an at-fault claim without raising your premium. JM |
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