Insurance deductibles

[LCB]

Since no one mentioned my ins co, I'll throw this out there... I've got 5 bikes (including a Harley & a Hayabusa) and I pay under $1400.00 for full coverage all year - no winter storage. My premium actually went down a bit this year. Great customer service too.

Contact Foremost : www.foremost.com

 

[gixxerjasen]

I love some of the online tools because you can fiddle with your coverage and see the difference it makes. Make sure you play with your deductibles and know that they don't have to match each other. I was running the standard $500 each on mine for a long while till I started playing. Moved my collision deductible to $250 and the rate went up by about double the $400 per year I was paying. Kept that at the $500. Moved the comp deductible to $250 and there was little change. Moved it to $100 and it only went up by like $7 per year.

So, if I wreck it I gotta pay out $500, but if someone steals it (happened to me on two bikes) I only gotta fork out $100. That's worth it to me.

 

[Fred W]

So, if I wreck it I gotta pay out $500, but if someone steals it (happened to me on two bikes) I only gotta fork out $100...

... or if you hit a deer (that's covered by comp).

DAMHIKT

 

[Old Guy]

So, if I wreck it I gotta pay out $500, but if someone steals it (happened to me on two bikes) I only gotta fork out $100...

... or if you hit a deer (that's covered by comp).

DAMHIKT

For that reason, I often don't carry collision on older bikes but still carry comprehensive. Where I live, I seem to have near misses with deer several times a year -- had two yesterday. Sometimes, the value of the bike doesn't warrant the high cost of collision, but comp's cheap.

 

[YummYam]

Dairyland wanted $687 to renew...my third year with them, no claims but good coverages I guess. I thought nah, enough of this.
Looked on the forum here and tried Geico, Progressive and Allstate. Allstate came up trumps...I reduced coverage slightly but look to be saving nearly $500!!! (If it all works out, we'll see).

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

All the stuff came through and yes, for $207

 

[bwv]

I have progressive, year round, $311/yr i think my deduct is $200

 

[Big-B]

I have Foremost and am very satisfied with them. Two claims and everything went great. Free roadside service too.

I have Progressive for my cars and they really tried to rip me off when paying off a car that was totaled from behind. They don't use NADA or KBB for pricing and really hit high mileage vehicles hard. I had to file my claim against the other guys podunk insurance company to get a decent settlement.

 

[Fred W]

Just as an FYI...

You don't have to accept an insurance company's initial offer of settlement on a total. It is in the company's own best interest to pay out as little as possible on every claim. Ask them for the paperwork on how they arrived at that number. It will usually be a series of ads for used cars that are supposed to be comparable to your car before the damage.

If their comparables aren't (comparable) you can give them your evidence why (it has to be accurate) and tell the adjusters to go back to the drawing board and come back with a better number. It's a lot like when you negotiated with the salesman to buy the car in the first place. He (or she) will go back to their managers and come back with a number closer to what you feel it is worth.

Claims that do not involve a total loss are much easier. They just pay whatever it takes to make the car right again, minus your deductible of course.

 

[gixxerjasen]

What Fred says. Ask for the CCC report. The "Comparables" that are on the report should be just that...comparable. They should be like year, make and model and similar mileage. Additionally, and lots of people overlook this, they have to be in your market. Usually that's defined as 35-50 miles from where you reside. I had an insurance company give me a comparable that was on the other side of the country. Another they gave me had no mileage listed. I pointed out that it's difficult to compare it if you don't know whether the vehicle listed has 20 or 200K miles on it. Both stricken from the report.

If they get stubborn about you arguing with the report, you can request that they have a third party evaluate your vehicle. This will be paid for on their dime so they usually don't want to do that.

I think I uppped my claim by 30% the last time I had to do this by just doing the above stuff. I worked hard and found their hard line though. They even let me on the impound lot to remove stuff they weren't willing to pay out for. Lots of time spent going back and forth and them talking to their manager.

I thought I was being all slick on the medical claim though. They came to me with a number of X. I told the adjuster handling this part that I thought it was awfully low. He asked what I was expecting so I threw out 2X. He replied "Oh sure, we can do that!" Damnit! Too easy, should have asked for 3X.