Insurance going up because YOU hit ME?

Question

Can some one, anyone, explaine to me the logic of my insurance going up when some idtio hits my car while it was parked in my driveway?
I have a perfect driving record. Not even a speeding ticket. Never even pulled over!

How come the victim is yet again victimized by the Insurance company?
Where's the logic?
Is there any logic?

Answer 1

yeah, like Copernicus said, insurance is not meant for a person to profit, but rather cushion the shock. If u r certain of losing a certain big amount of money but u have no idea when it will occur, you use insurance to cushion yourself, to spread the payment of the amount of money into a long time as premium. If u r 'lucky' the loss occur earlier and u pay less premium, if u r 'unlucky' the loss occurs late and u pay more in premium. But this is better than suddenly having a huge sum of expense occuring most inconveniently when u cannot afford it.. forcing u to sell your house, your business and cut into your kid's college fund and etc, right? Insurance premium rate are determined using objective methods that applies to everyone. If you live in a risky neighbourhood, u are charged the same rate as those who also live in this risky area. You might argue you are "safer" than others, but insurance companies have no objective ways to determine the truthfulness of your claim. It would not be fair to you too if someone lied about her "safety" but then turn out to be lying and very risky and then she drain fund from your insurer, causing your insurer to run the risk of running out of fund to insure you, right? To be as accurate as possible, insurer use all kind of objective and fair methods. These methods sometimes sacrifice flexibility for objectivity as well as simplicity. A complicated methods would be very hard to manage, driving up costs, which will eventually be passed on to you as customer, and would be very hard for customers to understand too. Their methods are not perfect but for the price everyone pays for insurance, that's the best they can do. they have to sacrifice something in order to get other under limited budget.

Insurance companies' methods are not perfect. However, they are in a difficult position, balancing the interests of all policy holders. When you make a claim, if the evidence are not clear cut, if they refuse you, you think they are not fair and are blood sucking crooks. If they pay you with inconclusive evidence, there is no guarantee you are not lying and this would be unfair to the rest of the policy holders. You should give a f about other policy holders because without them to pool their risks with yours, insurance companies would not be able to remove your uncertainties. Insurers are middle men.

A lot of times, people bought the wrong policy, either they do not understand the policy, or they think they can cheat their way out. Or some people provided fake details in their application rendering the contract void when a claim arises... even under valid conditions. A lot of times, conflicts happen not because of insurance companies not honouring their contract but the policy holders themselves breach or not satisfying the conditions in the contract. But they cry foul.

So, beware of rogue insurance agents. Educate yourself about these things. Read the fine prints. Be honest with your information. Be reasonable with your expectation.

Answer 2

Any activity in your driving history may bump you into a different program. If you're in a higher program, a not at fault accident wouldn't affect your rate.

Best example is a department store credit card.

One you first get the card, you're in the lowest program (which means a high APR)

After a while, you get into the next high program (which means a lower rate but if you miss a payment it jumps to a higher APR)

Usually the highest program (which means if you miss a payment, the APR stays the same and they would just re-invoice you)

Translate this into insurance terms: If you were in the middle program the not at fault accident bumped you to a lower program (which charges more...)

Also, the more incidents in your driving history (ANY accident or violations) will predict that you would have more things happening.

Answer 3

There is no logic to the insurance racket, I mean industry. You can't do anything. They have total control to take as much money from you as you want. The wonderful thing for them is that in many states it's illegal to drive without it. Gotta love it.

In their minds, it's your fault for parking in a parking space that allowed your automobile to be struck by another car. Really, the only to save on car insurance is to not own a car and take public transportation.

Answer 4

In my mind, there is very little login in many insurance dicissions.

Any time you claim something from an insurance company, however, your rate will tend to go up. This is because they see the chances of you filling again larger then the normal person. Whether this is a correct assumption, it is one they use.

My advice: do not claim anything from an auto insurance company unless you absolutly have to.

Answer 5

That's not always the case though. If someone else hits you, you are supposed to claim your car's damages on their insurance, not yours. I have been in several accidents....one was mine, the others weren't. Insurance claims on the other person, if it was their fault, don't affect you. Your insurance is only affected if you claim on it, which you shouldn't do if it's not your fault...in fact, if it was the other persons fault then your insurance will never even know about it. Even when i had to claim personal injury on my insurance because the other person, who's fault it was didn't have enough insurance to cover my medical costs, it didn't negatively affect my insurance.

Answer 6

Insurance companies are now the biggest crooks in our nation. They have one of the largest Lobby's in congress and now compile huge databases and statistical processes to determine if you are "high risk" of them having to payout. Now, they even look at your credit , and if it is bad they will decide if that you must pay higher premiums because you might rip them off, even though you pre-pay your premiums. If you continue to have accidents, even if it is"not your fault" they will eventually drop you because you just have too much bad luck. Like the people who lost their jobs and have bad credit, bad luck is too risky.
Because of high insurance premiums in our litigious society many businesses, doctors and others have now made decisions to not do business. Different than most business who have good and bad years, insurance companies continue to profit by passing costs on to consumers. Since most insurance is mandatory, as consumers we are a captive audience. Insurance companies are crippling the economy of country and until Americans elect lawmakers who will face these crooks head on, this injustice will continue.

Answer 7

That doesn't make sense
There are also home insurance and car insurance companies that will drop you as a customer if you make a claim
Anything to make $$$$

Answer 8

All I can say is it happens. As much as I hate frivolous lawsuits, maybe we should have a class action lawsuit against insurance companies because they do that. Of course, then, somewhere down the road, they'll raise all premiums because of the lawsuit. It's a vicious circle.

Answer 9

You probably live in a no-fault state. Complain to your state insurance commission. For whatever good it might or might not do...

Consider switching insurance companies. Not all will burn you like that.

Answer 10

I can't explain it, but that's ridiculous.
Try shopping around for a new insurance company.