Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Bad Day, Part 2

Why? Why am I paying money for services that don't support me when I need them? Why do I pay for a locked garage that lets people break into my car anyway? Why do I pay such high rent to a place that has no actual security and a front desk that can't answer basic questions or provide basic assistance in an emergency to residents? Why do I pay for insurance that uses a new math to turn my $250 deductible in to $420+ out of pocket expenses (and I'm not done replacing what was stolen)? Why do people try to rip me off?

It turns out that my stolen back-pack and said contents are not covered by my auto insurance. Instead, they are covered by my renter's insurance (which is with the same company). I also decided to get my windshield replaced (since it's had a crack all the way across for a while now) while I was getting my driver's side window repaired. For those keeping track at home, that's three claims in one day, two of which were for the same incident. None of the associates I talked to today reminded me that each claim had it's own deductible. So instead of this mess costing me $250, it could have potentially cost me $750 dollars. The insurance company will pay me absolutely nothing, especially since my backpack theft is so conveniently covered by a different policy and therefore doesn't bring the cost of the incident above my deductible, which is effectively $500 for the incident (I'm kind of pissed about the windshield, too, because if I'd realized the deductible was per claim instead of per year like it is with health insurance - way to be consistent with terminology, insurance industry - I wouldn't have bothered. But I was honest about it being a separate incident. Honesty is costly).

On top of that, the glass repair center I went to wanted to charge me the full deductible for both glass repairs, despite the fact that each repair cost less than the deductible. I refused. He dumped the claim forms in the trash. I paid the actual cost, which was still more than my cost would have been had it been covered by a single claim.

I called my insurance agent to ask why my insurance costs me so freakin' much if it doesn't actually, you know, help me. Turns out, I was only saving $14 a month by having a deductible. You better believe my deductible is now zero. I reduced other things to bring down my cost, but I'm still paying a ludicrous amount. I refuse to go through this B.S. again. It will now take me fifteen years to pay the insurance company as much money as I lost on this.

The windshield and the window I can almost understand (though it still makes me angry). But why on earth does a single incident require two separate claims? The bag was not stolen from my apartment. It was stolen from my car.

And now I'll have the two insurance agents who read this telling me why this is all a perfectly legal shell game.

So tell me: does the fact that I made three claims that will pay me nothing still count against my premium? Because I don't feel like getting robbed again just because I did what I thought I was supposed to do. Being punished for being a good person is starting to wear a little thin.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Well, the homeowners claim should go under a separate policy. I would imagine that they have some sort of threshold. Since the payout was $0, I don't think that it would impact your homeowner's insurance. Now for the auto policy; you will not have any surcharge for comprehensive claims. If you let your policy cancel and then reissued it, it could be considered in the underwriting. If you shop around for other insurance, don't tell them about it. There was a $0 payout, so you didn't really make a claim. You wouldn't want there to be a negative impact on your rate for something that your current insurance didn't cover anyway.

1/22/2009 12:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I talked with a colleague and your premium will definitely not be affected by this. Even if there had been a payout, this was not an at-fault loss so it wouldn't have counted against you. Your company's policy regarding coverage of the contents of your car is standard (some companies have special endorsements). Go to an agent that deals with multiple insurance companies so they can shop for the best policy for you. I did that some years ago and saved big time. Maryland is not friendly territory for insurance companies, so that may explain some of your premium.
-Jason

1/22/2009 10:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now tell us about a good day.

Dad

2/03/2009 9:14 PM  

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