[OT] I'm paying $350 a MONTH in Car Insurance!!
- Thread starter Paul_Klein
- Start date
tarchon said:
Hear! Hear!
Here in Australia we have trouble with the insurance companies going broke. Despite insurance rates that make me wince, profit margins are not exploitative. The problems are:
1) Stupid reckless drivers
2) Arsonists and other vandals
3) Thieves
4) Fraudulent claims and fraudlently inflated prices on 'insurance jobs'
5) Juries handing out insurance companies' money with both fists on personal injury and emotional upset claims, many of them with ridiculous bases of liability.
Settle the blame where it belongs.
Regards,
Agback
jdavis
First Post
I have been told that if you are ever dropped by a company (for pretty much any reason) every other company will view you as high risk. I don't know if that is true but it probably is.
Yes insurance rates are outrageous but the insurance companies are not making any money. So it has to be going somewhere, and that is normally to pay for higher claims and repair bills, and to cover fraud cases and car theft. Don't blame the insurance companies, the fault lies with greedy people (the whiplash lawsuit is so prevailent it has become a joke) and the fact that it cost a arm and a leg to repair a car these days. I hit a pole in a parking lot going less than 5 miles a hour, just barely rolled into it, the damage bill was $1500, it was only a $4000 car (my wife's I paid it out of pocket to keep it off the insurance record.) That minor repair would of cost the insurance company much more than she had paid them for a whole year. Car insurance just isn't a very profitable buisness anymore and it's getting worse.
Yes insurance rates are outrageous but the insurance companies are not making any money. So it has to be going somewhere, and that is normally to pay for higher claims and repair bills, and to cover fraud cases and car theft. Don't blame the insurance companies, the fault lies with greedy people (the whiplash lawsuit is so prevailent it has become a joke) and the fact that it cost a arm and a leg to repair a car these days. I hit a pole in a parking lot going less than 5 miles a hour, just barely rolled into it, the damage bill was $1500, it was only a $4000 car (my wife's I paid it out of pocket to keep it off the insurance record.) That minor repair would of cost the insurance company much more than she had paid them for a whole year. Car insurance just isn't a very profitable buisness anymore and it's getting worse.
Tyberious Funk
First Post
Agback said:
Pisses. Me. Off.
I have 10 years driving experience with no accidents, claims or tickets. My partner has 13 years driving experience with no accidents, claims or tickets. We own a '98 Mitsubishi lancer *stationwagon* with an agreed value of $10,000 and the best insurance I can get is over $900+ a year. I'm paying almost 1/10th of the car's value just for coverage! I'd self insure except I'd lose my (recently acquired) Rating One.
Agreed that part of the problem is frivolous claims and reckless drivers, but insurance companies themselves don't help with some of their attitudes. A co-worker of mine, with approximately 2 months driving experience and only recently off her L-Plates can get insurance for her $25,000 Honda Civic for less than me!
mythago
Hero
I can't speak for Australian companies, but here in the US--yes, it is also the insurance companies.
When I lived in Michigan, with Satan's Own No-Fault Insurance Laws, nobody claimed anything on a car unless it was pretty much a total loss. Because there was no other party to collect from (no fault, right?) if you made ANY legitimate claim, you could be expecting to pay it back in spades when they jacked up your rates next chance they got. So everyone had very high deductibles; you didn't dare report an $800 loss anyway, why not have a $1000 deductible?
When I lived in Michigan, with Satan's Own No-Fault Insurance Laws, nobody claimed anything on a car unless it was pretty much a total loss. Because there was no other party to collect from (no fault, right?) if you made ANY legitimate claim, you could be expecting to pay it back in spades when they jacked up your rates next chance they got. So everyone had very high deductibles; you didn't dare report an $800 loss anyway, why not have a $1000 deductible?
Tyrant said:
Move back into the house and have the car under the parent's name!
New cars are bought and put under the parent's name. The oldest car is transferred to in child's. Works for us, although I loathe the thought of driving an SUV in a few years... 
Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^
Shapermc
First Post
Tyrant said:
Also you can get no fault insurance in Michigan I think, and it is closer to IL (I lived there for a bit as well).
Paul: I am not here in NO by choice (well it was 6th on my list) and I was Born and raised in Palatine, then moved to Unincorperated Barrington (technichally Lake Zurich cuz the kids down the street went to Lake Zurich and I went to Barrington, but that was only like 5 blocks of us in the middle of no where :Shrug: ) Anyways, I'll look you up in 3 years when I move back
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