Insurance Tripled

[newyorkchris]

Any advice would be appreciated, I was involved in an auto accident October 8, 2008 in my wife's car, insurer was Geico. Driving down a highway there was an overpass, as I came over the overpass a treadmill fell off the back of a truck and I swerved to miss the treadmill expecting to hit the car next to me. The driver of the car next to me also swerved and she lost control of her car as she swerved and hit me in the drivers door and quarter panel. Everyone was fine $2,500.00 damage to my car and her car had a small tear in the front bumper cover. The driver decided that I hit her and she know has back pain and sued me, yet there was no damage to either car except where she hit me. The lawyer from my issurance company said they might settle because it's cheaper, they did in February 2011, March 2011 my wife's insurance doubled. By April State Farm tripled it from $90.00 to $279.00, because of the settlement. HELP!!!

We will start shopping rates today, but I believe I will have the same issue were ever I go. Thought three years was the limit for accidents in Texas, has that changed?

 

[Guest]

Some Companies go back 5 years now.

You had an at fault accident, what do you expect?

Second, "assuming" you did 2 bad things here, driving to close to avoid the treadmill, and secondly, driving side by side to another car, you left yourself no escape route.....

 

[1manshow]

Meanwhile the guy who dropped the treadmill enjoys no such drama The saga continues

 

[newyorkchris]

Some Companies go back 5 years now.

You had an at fault accident, what do you expect?

Second, "assuming" you did 2 bad things here, driving to close to avoid the treadmill, and secondly, driving side by side to another car, you left yourself no escape route.....

My insurance company stated that it was an unavoidable accident, they did not deem the accident my fault. The term was I took evasive action and the other driver took faulty evasive action to miss the treadmill and lost control of her car. The police report has the treadmill listed in it.

Second, I was not driving to close to the truck, the treadmill fell off just past the overpass, no one could see the treadmill until you reached the top, at which piont a stopped object comes at you very fast at 60 mile per hour.

Third, the other driver was not next to me, if she was I would have hit her and if that was the case I would accept fault.

"what do you expect?" I expect that with 20 years of a perfect driving record for my insurance to go up 10-20% not triple.

 

[NCAgent]

Under what category was the claim processed for the insurance?

Keep in mind that for many companies and for different types of claims, rates may or may not go up. Some companies, I have heard from other Allstate agents, will put a claim as at-fault while paying out and then when everything is done and processed (which could be a while depending on the claim, bodily injury claims last FOREVER) they reverse it to not-at-fault.

I don't think that's the case here but I'd have to see the claim itself. Did they file it under your collision coverage only or did they do more since the other lady was part of the accident? Who is paying her medical bills?

Find out where the money is going and who is paying it. It helps a lot to know this from an insurance standpoint because sometimes things are told to the client one way but processed another way. I'd ask your adjuster for all of the appropriate information.

Also, the rates will change for multiple reasons, which I am including a few. I am not totally familiar with State Farm or Geico like I am with Allstate, but I'm sure there is some huge overlap.

1) At-fault claim paid out, esp. collision or BI claims
2) If you got a ticket of some kind, that's another addition to the premium. Sometimes people get tickets at the collision site and then you're double-whammied.
3)Being with insurance for 20 years, most likely with almost no accidents or speeding tickets, you probably got preferred rates by going into a preferred line for your auto insurance. Allstate, for example, has a standard, preferred, and indemnity line for many states. You might have been pushed back into a standard from preferred due to underwriting and risk.
4) You probably had a claims free/preferred driver/special package discount for not being in any accidents. Those are sometimes substantial in premium savings (some people get like 25-30% for them) and you just lost it.

Almost all of those things will carry over to another insurance company. The claim surcharge typically will not. But loss of discount, loss of eligibility into a preferred line, a claim on the record (and maybe a ticket) will do amazing things to a person's premium.

Hope this helps, and go talk to your agent AND adjuster to find out the exact details.

 

[newyorkchris]

Thank you for your advice and help.

Under what category was the claim processed for the insurance? I'm not a 100% sure but my company paid the repairs for my car and her insurance company paid her repairs.

Who is paying her medical bills? I'm not sure, that was what the law suit was about. One other detail about the other driver, the car she was driving was a rental because she crashed her car two months earlier and she had back surgery four months ago.

Hope this helps, and go talk to your agent AND adjuster to find out the exact details.

No tickets, I know I had all the discounts and preferred perks for my policy. I also know they are all gone now.

Geico jacked the rates up, I wasn't happy because even though they deemed the accident unavoidable they placed me in a different risk category. My question is, we switched to State Farm and have been happy for over a year, Geico settled the case during February and State Farm tripled my rates from an accident that happened 29 months ago, why is that?

Other than switching companies agian, is there anything I can do?

 

[BTFuzz]

If your company paid your collision damage then it is listed as an at fault accident. And with the suit and everything else State Farm probably adjusted your rate after the settlement was official to a surchargeable at fault accident.

Call your agent...if you don't get answers, call your state DOI...but I think you stuck because it's at fault.

 

[USF3983]

Fortunately, if it was deemed at-fault, you won't have it counting against you much longer. You avoided any surcharge since the accident and once the accident becomes 35 or 36 months old (depending on the company) you will not be surcharged for it anymore. You may miss out on some companies 5-year claim free discount though, but that shouldn't be too big of a deal. As far as the accident goes, I couldn't say for certainty how that should be filed. I'm not in claims. But I often hear of accidents where in this case if she hadn't hit you and she just went off the road, then she would have an at-fault accident on her record. You would not, unless you hit the treadmill. If the treadmill hit you while still in the air, it would be a comp claim (falling object/missile). She probably had right of way privileges. Unfortunately, there are cases in which people will be found at-fault when they couldn't control the situation in which they found themselves, but thats how it works. I'm not a lawyer but I wonder if you'd be able to sue the driver of the truck with the treadmill if you were able to track him down.