When The Auto Insurance Company Doesn't Pay Up

I read an article about something that could teach all of us a great deal about car insurers. A person with comprehensive insurance on their automobile had it vandalized during the night in front of their house. The insurer said that because the automobile had not been broken into, and because they did not know who had done it (!?) they would have to treat it as accidental damage. Further, because the insured was under 25 years old, there was an additional $500 charge for any accidental damage. In other words, the car insurance firm was treating it as though they had driven automobile into a wall, and was charging them as such.

A few things jump out at me when reading this. Of course, the car insurance firm does not want to pay out any money. And they really don't want to pay out money when they know they won't get any of it back by increasing the premiums as is the case. Comprehensive premiums are based on the value of the vehicle, and the region. So we should never be amazed when the insurer doesn't want to pay us anything. The second thing to remember however is that they have vast experience in legally avoiding their responsibility to pay their clients, and we generally have no experience whatever in getting them to pay up. When we make a claim, it is more often than not the first time, or at least the first time with this particular insurer. We need to understand that they always have caveats to put the incident in a special category which would allow them to treat it in the way that most benefits them.

Auto insurers are not the only ones to do this. I had a leak in the upstairs bathroom in a rented house some time ago. This caused a stain which needed repainting downstairs. I called the insurance company and they asked me to show them the invoice for having had the room painted initially. I asked them why. They maintained that I had to prove that I was damaged financially in order for them to reimburse me anything, and if I did not pay anything to have the house painted originally, then I had not been damaged financially. According to their logic, the individual who originally painted the room was the one who was damaged, and therefore they did not have to reimburse me. Talk about convoluted reasoning! They must have stayed up late to think that one up.

What does all of this mean? Basically, that for the most part your insurance policy is useless. Get over it. Buy insurance with the objective of protecting yourself against a disaster. This means public liability insurance only, and nothing else (unless required by law) for your vehicle insurance. The purpose of insurance is to forsee the worst. Take the money you save and put it into your savings account. And learn how to get the lowest auto insurance quotes on line.