Help with insurance estimate / body shop

[Skippy722]

Going through my own snafu with insurance. My own fault, so they direct deposit their initial estimate into my bank account. Only problem is, it was half the estimate of the body shop. My mistake was to submit photos as part of the claim. They looked at the photos, as opposed to shop which put it on a lift and then priced out parts not located several states away.

Not submitting photos ever again for a claim.

I dragged my feet on telling them how to issue their initial “estimate payment” that they ended up paying the shop directly anyway, but they did the same thing… initial estimate was half of what it actually cost.

 

[92saturnsl2]

No. When they ultimately subrogate the claim it will not count against you.

https://www.thehartford.com/aarp/car-insurance/auto-subrogation

That's not entirely correct.

Like I said, depends on your insurance company, and perhaps state law. Obviously your own insurance company is going to subrogate, and work to get their money back from the at-fault driver. If you stay with that insurance company, perhaps your rates stay the same, maybe not, but they're not going to go into great detail if and when your rates do increase (the standard reason these days is inflation).

But what most people don't understand is that nearly all claims (at fault or not at fault) are reported to a claims history database, which is usually CLUE by LexisNexis. Even LexisNexis claims on their website [https://risk.lexisnexis.com/products/clue-auto] that 99% of insurers report their claim data to the database.

If you happen to shop around for a new insurance company, that claim you made with your insurance is going to be in the CLUE database, subrogated or not. It will show as zero dollars paid out (not at fault), but there's a claim in there. Most insurance companies will ding you for that when you are shopping new policies, even though you were not at fault. Do some research, I'm not making this up.

On the other hand, if you work with the at-fault drivers insurance company, the only claim that's opened is with the at-fault driver. Yes, the other insurance company is not your friend, so you have to put in some extra work to get paid fairly-- but you won't be paying increased insurance premiums for the next 5 years on the off chance you want to switch insurance companies.

If you're one of the people that stick with State-Farm, Liberty Mutual, whoever, for 20+ years and have an established relationship and don't plan on changing, this probably isn't something you need to worry about. But if you shop for new insurance companies routinely to find the best rate, it's best not to open up claims in your name.

 

[CKN]

That's not entirely correct.

Like I said, depends on your insurance company, and perhaps state law. Obviously your own insurance company is going to subrogate, and work to get their money back from the at-fault driver. If you stay with that insurance company, perhaps your rates stay the same, maybe not, but they're not going to go into great detail if and when your rates do increase (the standard reason these days is inflation).

But what most people don't understand is that nearly all claims (at fault or not at fault) are reported to a claims history database, which is usually CLUE by LexisNexis. Even LexisNexis claims on their website [https://risk.lexisnexis.com/products/clue-auto] that 99% of insurers report their claim data to the database.

If you happen to shop around for a new insurance company, that claim you made with your insurance is going to be in the CLUE database. It will show as zero dollars paid out (not at fault), but there's a claim in there. Most insurance companies will ding you for that when you are shopping new policies, even though you were not at fault. Do some research, I'm not making this up.

On the other hand, if you work with the at-fault drivers insurance company, the only claim that's opened is with the at-fault driver.

If you're one of the people that stick with State-Farm, Liberty Mutual, whoever, for 20+ years and have an established relationship and don't plan on changing, this probably isn't something you need to worry about. But if you shop for new insurance companies routinely to find the best rate, it's best not to open up claims in your name.

I have been in this position. You are right-it does show a claim, but with any insurance company I have worked with a copy of the letter settling the claim with subrogation is enough to where you don't get dinged. There are plenty of Insurance Companies that look at it differently. So yea-I have done research-I'm not making it up. It does take an extra phone call or two-that I will give you.

 

[92saturnsl2]

I have been in this position. You are right-it does show a claim, but with any insurance company I have worked with a copy of the letter settling the claim with subrogation is enough to where you don't get dinged. There are plenty of Insurance Companies that look at it differently. So yea-I have done research-I'm not making it up. It does take an extra phone call or two-that I will give you.

I can see and agree with your point-- in the case of subrogation, personally I'd rather work it out with the at-fault driver's insurance company than have a claim record in my history; even though it's zero dollars, it still counts against you when shopping for a new policy.

It's more work on the front end (dealing with low-ball quotes and getting your own estimates), but I'd rather do that than have the extra legwork (sending letters and such) to get an accurate quote each time I shop for a new policy for the next 5 years. I get quotes every 6 months, all are done online so the computers/AI don't differentiate-- it just counts as a non-fault accident claim and all insurers in my experience (for a new policy) charge extra for that. Correcting it would be a big hassle.

 

[CKN]

I can see and agree with your point-- in the case of subrogation, personally I'd rather work it out with the at-fault driver's insurance company than have a claim record in my history; even though it's zero dollars, it still counts against you when shopping for a new policy.

It's more work on the front end (dealing with low-ball quotes and getting your own estimates), but I'd rather do that than have the extra legwork (sending letters and such) to get an accurate quote each time I shop for a new policy for the next 5 years. I get quotes every 6 months, all are done online so the computers/AI don't differentiate-- it just counts as a non-fault accident claim and all insurers in my experience (for a new policy) charge extra for that. Correcting it would be a big hassle.

We agree-it is a hassle and requires a phone call or two.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

Is there a better place for insurance information specifically? I mean other than Reddit, which I would say is less trustworthy than BITOG. I'm not aware of any insurance specific forums but also have never searched for one.

www.city-data.com/forum <--- Car Insurance sub forum (it is near the bottom, after States and Countries, but near the top since it starts with Automotive.)

 

[hemitruck]

My daughter hit a dear with our wrangler, drove it to local body shop and the shop handled everything. Even rejected “substandard” parts. All through ins company.

Ok, but my vehicles get fixed right the first time.