As the owner of an independent health insurance agency and the founder of a website for comparing health insurance providers (http://www.healthinsuranceproviders.com) I often get asked, “What type of health insurance do YOU have?” Of course, no one health insurance company or health insurance plan is right for everyone because everyone has different needs, lives in a different area, etc… but I can certainly feel comfortable telling people that I personally have a Health Savings Account (HSA) and I absolutely love it!
[Read more…] about Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) Are Awesome – 7 Reasons
Insurance
We Got Our Insurance Deductible Back
Some years ago we got into a car accident.
Fortunately I called the police and had the officer file a car accident report. As a result, a full report of the accident was on file for my insurance company to use in their case against the person who hit us. If we didn’t have a report on what caused the accident, the other driver, then we would have been responsible for the deductible.
Not calling the police would have cost us $1000!
How is that possible? The other driver rear ended us putting the fault of the accident on him. Without that police report stating what happened, and that the other driver got a summons for driving too close, then we would have shared the blame in the accident. That would have meant we’d have to pay our $1,000 deductible.
A little while after we repaired the car from the accident we got a check in the mail from the car insurance company for $1,000.
Whew! Everything worked as it was supposed to and we got our insurance deductible back.
Our insurance company paid for all of the repairs but we had to pay $1,000 of the repairs out of pocket. I was afraid everything would drag out and it would take even longer to get the deductible back. Or even worse, something would happen and we wouldn’t get it back. In fact the collision company that fixed our car stressed that we should firmly follow up with our insurance since some companies keep the deductible. You always hear about some paperwork SNAFU that causes you to not get your insurance money. Thankfully our insurance was great and they paid us back without any problems.
So you understand, our insurance takes all of the information about the accident and basically sues the other driver’s insurance company for the damages. The success of the case determined whether we got our deductible back. If our insurance couldn’t win it back then we wouldn’t get it back either. Fortunately that wasn’t the case. A big part of that was having a police report saying the other driver rear-ended us.
Some of you might wonder why our deductible was so high?
I set it up that way with my insurance so I would have lower payments. Since we had the $1,000 socked away we could afford to have a high deductible. A higher insurance deductible is a great way to save on your car insurance.
This is a great example of why it’s important to have adequate savings! If I couldn’t back up the deductible I’d be paying higher insurance OR I might have to find the money somewhere else such as a credit card. That would not have been good.
If you are going the higher deductible route to save on your car insurance make sure you have that deductible handy in savings.
So to recap: Make sure you have the police at a car accident. And raise your car insurance deductible as much as you can afford in order to get lower car insurance payments. Also have enough savings to cover your deductible should you ever need to pay it.
Not Having The Police At A Car Accident Can Cost You
As I mentioned in an earlier article, our new car got into an accident on our vacation driving down to Virginia. The weather had recently turned to rain. We were driving along the highway below the speed limit making sure to keep a safe distance from the car in front. Suddenly traffic slowed down so we did as well. Then I saw it coming in the rear-view mirror – BAMM!! We just got hit from behind. The force was enough to throw us forward. I moved to avoid the car in front but ended up clipping his fender. All three cars pulled off to the side of the road. Thank goodness no one was hurt! The kids were shaken up (heck, we were all shaken up) but we were OK. I got out and assessed the damage. Man I didn’t realize how bad we were hit. Back door was crunched inward. At first I couldn’t even open it. Our front has a small dent as well. The other two cars – scratches at best. It was an SUV Oreo and our poor mini van was the creamy middle.
Still a bit frazzled from the accident the other two drivers and I began to exchange automobile insurance information. The person who hit me was in a rush to leave. He didn’t think we needed to call the police since no one was hurt and we were exchanging info already. Something didn’t feel right about this to me. Thankfully, I listened to my Spidey sense and called the police. A few minutes later an officer arrived and took all of our information.
What A Police Officer Does At The Accident
- The officer took all of our pertinent information and heard separate descriptions of what happened from each of us. This was good because the officer gave us each a Driver Information Exchange Report which listed car insurance information, driver’s license #, address, phone number, car description VIN, and more. After an accident it’s easy for a driver to forget to get a piece of information or write something down incorrectly. Getting this from a police officer helps to prevent that.
- I didn’t know it at the time but you could be given a ticket for driving too close and causing an accident (at least where I was). This may have been one of the key reasons the driver who hit me wanted to leave. It ends up the officer gave him a written warning. This is very important in that it gives official evidence that the officer felt it was the driver’s fault for causing the accident! This will help in determining the fault for the insurance companies which will lead to me getting back my car insurance deductible from repairs on my accident claims (my deductible is $1000).
- The officer filed a police report for the accident. The insurance companies will use this as well in determining the fault. Without getting a police report you run the risk of a driver changing his story after the fact and it becomes an issue of his word against yours. Again this will help in getting my deductible back.
- Having an officer there helps keep everyone’s heads level. Things can get heated when there’s an accident. I’d rather have the officer do the peace keeping than worry about it myself. Also, I want to believe in the best in people but I don’t know the person who hit me from Adam. An officer can confirm that this isn’t a criminal. A little paranoid? Yes. Does it give me additional peace of mind at a stressful moment? Heck yeah!
As you can see calling the police was important. With the written warning and the police report the automobile insurance company should see that the fault was on the other driver. This will save me my insurance deductible of $1000. Had I not called it could possibly cost me that $1000!
