Auto collision insurance? [Archive]

iris lilies

3-9-17, 12:58pm

Background: we did not have collision insurance on our small truck, DH was hit in the rear by a driver with insurance, the guy's insurance company "totaled" our truck. DH was not hurt. We will keep the truck and get it fixed. We did all negotiations with hitter's insurance company since our own insurance guy was not involved because we had no collision insurance with him. All that is well and good.

Here is my question:

How does personal injury work in this situation where (theoretically) I am hurt in a car crash, I have no collision insurance, I am hit by someone who has no car insurance. ? I mean, who negotiates issues?

I do not want to be in a situation where I am physically impaired and I have no one working to negotiate a settlement. Over a third of the drivers in St. Louis are uninsured.

Of course, I realize that getting a court judgement against one of these uninsured jerks, and collecting from them, are two different things.

iris lilies

3-9-17, 1:01pm

Added: i could ask my insurance guy this, and perhaps I will, but I expect him to talk up how I should buy collision insurance to guard against all of the uninsured idiots because he wants to sell me insurance, which is expensive due to all of the uninsured idiots around here.

Float On

3-9-17, 1:07pm

We've always carried collision...just in case. Not sure the stats in SWMO but 2 out of the 4 accidents we've had were with uninsured drivers and both times it was their fault. It use to be our insurance company was good about going after the uninsured or other party. No so anymore. Last accident I had I had to do all the footwork and calls even though it was his fault and we both had full-coverage. The one time we were in an accident and it was our fault (we both had injuries and totaled cars) I never heard a peep from our insurance other than "it's taken care of" when I'd ask about the other party.

Glad your DH wasn't insured in his accident.

Alan

3-9-17, 1:09pm

I would look at the terms and conditions of your policy. Your insurance company would negotiate for you and even ensure your damages were paid if your liability policy included un-insured/under-insured coverage.

ToomuchStuff

3-9-17, 1:18pm

I can't get my train of thoughts out quite right, right now. Do you have someone who in your state, oversee's insurance? You could ask them, but in our state (MO), we are required to have liability insurance, which includes personal injury. Comprehensive, ONLY covers the vehicle repairs, TO THE VEHICLE IT BELONGS TO. Collision, covers the other persons vehicle. (your paying to make them whole, not you) Then there is uninsured motorist, which I believe covers your medical if you are hit by one, but only the medical. I do not believe they act as a subrogate and make you whole (vehicle and medical) and go after the uninsured motorist.

Edit: Not sure when your talking St. Louis, if your talking MO, or East St. Louis, Illinois

iris lilies

3-9-17, 1:23pm

ToomuchStuff

3-9-17, 1:39pm

just fyi, you, me, and Floaton are in the same state, Missouri.

One third of the drivers in. st. louis are not insured, the laws mean nothing.
Then the response I am aware of by LEO's, is ANY accident they are involved in while driving, is immediately their fault. Looked upon similarly to DWI.

When I was 16, there was no required insurance law. Since that time it has come into effect and they must be able to prove they have insurance when they license, and sign an affidavit that they will have insurance when operating a motor vehicle. (if not, they are immediately in contempt of court)
When I was 18, I had a friend who was going to become a cop, who ended up leaving school to recover/relearn to walk. He had an uninsured motorist, that was pushed into him by an elderly couple who switched lanes without looking. They clipped the uninsured van and pushed it into him. The elderly couple was expected to loose their home and all, due to the cost of his medical (legs and one arm through the dash). The last I saw him (back in High school, close to my last day), he was walking, with two canes, like a 80 year old. His life changed forever)
The typical uninsured I am aware of (know two instances, one involved me being hit), they try to drive away, or if caught, fail to appear in court and try to hide from all process servers.

pinkytoe

3-9-17, 9:27pm

Maybe I'm not understanding the question but back in Texas we were required to purchase "uninsured motorists" coverage for such instances since there are so many drivers without insurance. Why is that I wonder?

ToomuchStuff

3-10-17, 3:47am

Background: we did not have collision insurance on our small truck, DH was hit in the rear by a driver with insurance, the guy's insurance company "totaled" our truck. DH was not hurt. We will keep the truck and get it fixed. We did all negotiations with hitter's insurance company since our own insurance guy was not involved because we had no collision insurance with him. All that is well and good.

Here is my question:

How does personal injury work in this situation where (theoretically) I am hurt in a car crash, I have no collision insurance, I am hit by someone who has no car insurance. ? I mean, who negotiates issues?

Maybe I'm not understanding the question but back in Texas we were required to purchase "uninsured motorists" coverage for such instances since there are so many drivers without insurance. Why is that I wonder?
Uninsured motorist for bodily injury is required in MO, and will pay your medical up to the points required.
I did find a link of interest:
http://dor.mo.gov/drivers/insurinfo.php

iris lilies

3-10-17, 9:10am

Uninsured motorist for bodily injury is required in MO, and will pay your medical up to the points required.
I did find a link of interest:
http://dor.mo.gov/drivers/insurinfo.php
Ah, thank you, so we probably have that coverage with our liability coverage. What Alan said, read my policy.

pinkytoe

4-16-20, 2:23pm

Finally got around to dropping collision/comp on our 10 yr old Honda. Statement came today and they raised the liability premium by 20% for some reason. I guess because they can. We aren't even driving anymore with all the poop going on. There is no getting a break with insurance companies.

Teacher Terry

4-16-20, 3:56pm

PT, call them and threaten to leave. I shop for cheaper rates every 2 years and then ask them to match. If they don’t I switch.

rosarugosa

4-16-20, 4:14pm

Our insurance company (Safeco) said they would be giving policyholders a modest rebate on our auto insurance since much less driving is translating to far fewer claims.

jp1

4-18-20, 2:27am

State farm has emailed me that I'll be getting $28. I will be calling my agent next week to ask if they will also be reducing my renewal (6 months, starting 5/1) by that amount as well. My auto policy has had price creep from $250 for six months six years ago to just under $400 for six months now. Our renters and umbrella policy have both gone down a few bucks. $160/year and $130/year respectively. I dread moving everything because of the hassle of finding all three policies, making sure I'm not losing coverage, and the general fact that I LOVED the way state farm dealt with the one car accident we have had. (not our fault. state farm paid out because we have collision but then geico, the other guy's insurance, took responsibility so state farm and I got fully reimbursed.)

ApatheticNoMore

4-18-20, 3:25am

Rebate from the auto club too. I have AAA for insurance, easy to deal with. I've shopped around at times, only to find that noone was all that cheaper, might as well deal with a company that's easy to deal with like the auto club has been.

SteveinMN

4-18-20, 10:20am

I dread moving everything because of the hassle of finding all three policies, making sure I'm not losing coverage, and the general fact that I LOVED the way state farm dealt with the one car accident we have had
Check out an independent insurance broker. Typically they represent a few dozen companies, some of which offer auto/home/umbrella. They do the comparisons, they know which companies handle claims well (they don't want the hassle of a crummy company because it reflects on them), and the prices are at least competitive with the highly-advertised national brands. If you belong to a credit union, they likely also offer insurance (or cooperate with a company that does); that should come at a decent price and offer good claim service.

We went with a broker a couple of years ago, knowing that in retail insurance, if you don't move around every couple of years, you just get -- well, ripped off. With a broker it's likely we'll find another company without having to go through the whole search process and all of the paperwork. Still call the same office, still work with the same people.

pinkytoe

4-18-20, 11:10am

I am using a broker and current insurance is Safeco. I have made several attempts to comparison shop but the whole process drives me nuts.

iris lilies

4-18-20, 11:14am

I suppose we should invest time in shopping around, or at least using a broker. It’s just that we have two properties and five vehicles to insure, it seems like a lot, although our real estate needs are more simple these days since we no longer have the tiny houses with liability only coverage. Apparently those liability -only policies were hard to find , and our insurance guy went to another underwriter for it.

Oh, also – I’m pretty sure we have earthquake insurance on our St. Louis house and you can’t get that anymore.

I remember that we got a reduction in auto insurance some years ago when we turned a magic age, maybe it was 55? Maybe 60?, And then, we got a rebate on our Hermann house when they learned it had asbestos siding rather than conventional siding. They like asbestos siding, it is hail proof.

sweetana3

4-18-20, 12:12pm

Sometimes you don't need to move to a new company. We switched agents due to the first one retiring. He suggested we allow for monitoring of our usage over about 3-4 months and due to our usage and driving quality, they reduced our insurance 40%. Just a review of our current situation, retired, got us a first reduction and the 40% was in addition. Make your agent work for you too.

SteveinMN

4-18-20, 1:29pm

Make your agent work for you too.
Excellent advice. I tried that with our previous company (captive agent) and he trimmed and nicked but really didn't do anything beyond "pay less; get less". I do expect our broker to do that work (he did to get our business in the first place; that's what they get paid for -- though some offices may have to be prodded to do what they're supposed to). IL, two properties and five vehicles are not that many. Anybody with a cabin has two properties. I have two properties in our house and my rental. Writing for the vehicles will be a fair amount of copy-and-paste work, but, again, that's what the folks in the insurance agent are paid to do (unless you go on-line with something like Progressive or esurance; then you do it).

jp1

4-22-20, 10:27pm

ON tomorrow's agenda is to try and find a broker. Although I deal with insurance brokers on a daily basis for work I'd always assumed that for personal lines brokers only dealt with rich people. After all, I'm only spending $1000/year on all three policies, so that's only $150 or so in commission for them. And saving me $100 or $200 is going to cut that commission even lower.

Since the policies that I write for work average more in the $30,000 price range I, perhaps mistakenly, assumed that brokers wouldn't be interested in putting much effort into a small personal lines client like me.

catherine

4-22-20, 10:38pm

I have an amazing auto/home insurance broker and I'm not rich by any means. I've had him and his team for years and they are amazing in terms of proving excellent customer service. I used to HATE the idea of thinking through policies but they make it so easy it makes my head spin. But I think I'm just lucky. I'm not suggesting all brokers are that good.

razz

4-23-20, 8:58am

Just got an email advising me to sign up for a 10% discount due to the reduced driving during virus lockdown for 2-3 months.

iris lilies

4-23-20, 12:23pm

Excellent advice. I tried that with our previous company (captive agent) and he trimmed and nicked but really didn't do anything beyond "pay less; get less". I do expect our broker to do that work (he did to get our business in the first place; that's what they get paid for -- though some offices may have to be prodded to do what they're supposed to). IL, two properties and five vehicles are not that many. Anybody with a cabin has two properties. I have two properties in our house and my rental. Writing for the vehicles will be a fair amount of copy-and-paste work, but, again, that's what the folks in the insurance agent are paid to do (unless you go on-line with something like Progressive or esurance; then you do it).

well, you are right that we don’t exactly have an empire, but we do have a fleet. One of the cars is insured in Hermann and we will eventually move all the vehicles there because insurance is cheaper, but right now they spend most of their time in the city.