DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Car Insurance Question/Frustration/Help...

Hopefully someone out there on DT can help me w/ this one...

In April 2009 I was involved in a minor car accident. Other party was at fault (young girl just got her license), they took all fault, their insurance paid, etc. Quick and easy.

So I thought...

My car insurance renewal from esurance came today w/ an increase of 45%!



I called them and was told that b/c I have an accident on my OH BMV record, I was getting rated. Huh?

I then call the BMV and was told that my record does say 'accident' but does not show who is at fault. And that's how they do it.

I have to guess that this showed up at the BMV after the police report I filed after State Farm requested this when doing the claim.

Anyone have any ideas here? Are there insurance companies that do not penalize you for being in an accident that was not your fault?


In summary...
I get hit
Other party takes all blame/fault
The total bill wasn't that much (around $1000)
And now my insurance goes up 45%

I shoulda just told the kid no biggie that you hit me, I'll pay for it myself b/c that is going to be cheaper over the next 3 years that this 'accident' is on my record...

Any suggestions?

Sue the BMV. I did that with a lawyer years ago and won. They had to correct the record at the threat of the judge.

Dang that's horrible.. Never had anything like that happen to me.. So I got no advice for ya,,, But it sounds like something that you should fight...

Quick question ... what does BMV stand for? I know DMV, not BMV.

It sounds like something got screwed up with the citation. In no way, shape, or form should there be any notation of 'accident' on your driving record. You did nothing wrong, you weren't cited. You might want to get a hold of the accident report and see if you were misrepresented or figure out how the DMV could have got that screwed up.

It's obviously a mistake or no one - and I mean no one - would ever get the cops involved whether they were at fault or not.

Stuff like this sucks too. It took the insurance company all of about 10 seconds to hike your rates up. It might take months and months fix it. At worst case, get a lawyer like Saint suggested.

Ah hell, BMV is Bureau of Motor Vehicles......DMV is Department of Motor Vehicles. Same damn thing.


If I were him, I'd get a copy of the police report and take it to my insurance agent and say "you do the rest. Here's the proof. Get the crap straightened out".

If he has an agent.

There's something to be said about having an insurance agent you can physically meet.........go to his office........talk face to face.....

It's tough to do if all you're looking for is to save a buck and buy insurance on line.........in my opinion. Wanna save a buck buying insurance on line? Well, you need to do the work in a situation like this.........me? I'd call my agent, show him the proof, and bam, game over.

At fault or not, some insurance companies still take the accident into account in their rating and some to a bigger extreme than others. Auto insurance is very competitive, especially now, threaten to take your business elsewhere and I am sure they will straighten this out in no time.

Yeah, it sucks big time. I think I will be making a few more calls tomorrow and at the very least will be shopping around.

What a PITA.

Just shop around.

I went to that ESurance thing when they first started up ..... and they were really high.

I made some calls on my own and wound up with a much better deal from my current company.

Also ... do you own a home? Combining policies can be a real price slasher.

I also had my old agent offer to reduce my rates to almost what my new insurance company was offering .... but by that point I was frustrated and irritated and told him that I was just moving on ....

Why should you have to call to cancel your policy to get the "best" rate anyway?

It's not just shopping around though - I have an accident showing on my record. All insurance co's will see it.

Probably not a lot you can do about that.

However, for a company to rate you up 45% because of an accident they paid nothing on is ridiculous, I would be ding some serious shopping.

I believe that it's the Ohio Department of Insurance website that I went to for "comparison" rates when I was shopping. You might want to check it out.

- Shop around.

I had Progressive for years because they would always give me the best price then they would always hike the rate after about 3 months.

The last time I signed up with them I did so using the automatic pay thing because it saved me money. Well low and behold they jumped my rate, and guess what they just went ahead and took the money from my account.

But here is the kicker when they sent me an authorization form to sign for the automatic withdrawals I crossed out the part agreeing to pay any increase in premiums and wrote in what the payment schedule would be month by month to the penny.

Here’s where it gets good so they raised the rate (just like they always did) and took the money, so I called the bank and complained that they had no such authorization. The bank took the money back from them on the spot. I then went and got other insurance and will never do business with Progressive again, their scum.

They tried to charge me a bounced check fee, and threatened to do all sorts of things to me. I wrote them a letter and laid it out to them and basically said that if they persisted I would be happy to take them to court to settle the matter. I now get their junk mail addressed to me offering to lower my rate.

The moral of the story is to protect yourself at all times. For instance if you had a copy of the police report I believe you would be able to end this thing quickly. I always make it a point to get a copy of everything just in case. It’s one of those deals that if you have it the problem never comes up, but if you don’t you’re screwed.


BTTB

Hopefully I can still get a copy of the report. Will try calling here in a bit. Wish me luck.

My 2 cents:

In a nutshell bro, your insurance company doesn't want to insure you anymore. The increase on your renewal term is to discourage from renewing.

Statistics show that people who have recently been involved in an auto accident are more likely to be involved in another auto accident in the near future.- Regardless of fault. - That's primarily why they don't want you.

So the accident wasn't your fault, yet your premium cost increased. You would think that an insurance company wouldn't be allowed to raise your premium. - Everything your insurance company does is on file with the State Insurance Commsioner.


There are certain discounts that you were getting before that you are probably note getting effective renewal. - Notably, a 3 or 5 year accident free discount, or a good driver discount. - Both of which your insurance comany can strip as a result of being involved in a claim - regardless of fault. Also, you may be getting some sort of loyalty discount, but the loyalty discount may only apply if you are not involved in any sort of claim.

Granted, your MVR may be erranous, but I doubt that's the case. Your MVR may show "Not at fault accident" while your CLUE report shows "Collision Claim or Comprehensive Claim" - Either of which may disqualify you from certain discounts that you were getting before. It's also possible the not-at-fault accident has has put you in an entirely different market or rating tier - one that has a basement premium.

I don't know for sure. But, I can tell you this. - There are many other insurance companies that would be glad to offer you a quote.

You may experience a decrease from what you were paying before.

Here's what works in your favor as an insurance applicant:

- Having 6 months of continuous insurance with no lapses or cancellations grants you what's referred to in the insurance industry as "POP" - Proof or Prior Insurance. - All you need is 6 months consecutive months of coverage with 0-30 days lapse/cancellation before you start a new policy.

- Being married will normally net you a lower rate.

- Being a homeowner nets you a lower rate with most providers (Homeowners discount)

- Paperless discount - nowadays, some insurance companies give you a discount for opting to recieve all of you miscellaneous documentation and bills online only. - Mind you, you will always recieve your renewal work (id cards,dec page) via the postal mail prior to any renewal.

- Multi policy discount - if you have something other than an auto to insure (motorcycle, boat) you usually will get a discount for insuring both products with the same company. - Mind you, they will be on separate policies.

Let me know if you have any questions.

An auto insurance company cannot raise your rates 3 months into a policy just because they want to. - Increases in premium due to market change or rate revision can only come at renewal, which is either every 6 months or 12 months.

However, you will experience increases in premium 2-3 months into a policy term if you have rejected a coverage but not signed the necessary coverage rejection form. In your case, it sounds like you may not have wanted uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. - Which you don't have to carry in Ohio, however, if you don't want the coverage you have to formally sign a form and indicate on the form that you don't want the coverage. After you have checked the box that reads "I reject this coverage" and signed the form, you then have to fax or mail the form back to your insurance company.

- If you don't fill out and return the form, the insurance company has to put the coverage on your policy until they recieve the form. So, what happened to you is probably this: You selected several coverages and rejected others, then you made a payment and started a policy based on the coverages you selected. But, you neglected to fill out and return the necessary uninsured/underinsured coverage rejection forms Then your insurance company, after several weeks worth of reminders via postal mail, and email, had no choice but to put the coverage on your policy per state law. Obviously, if your coverage increases, so will your premium.

To make matters worse in your case, you were on electronic funds transfer. - Meaning that your payments are automatically taken from your checking account. Mind you, any time the scheduled eft withdrawl amount changes, your insurance company will notify you via postal mail/email. But, and this is what got you here in the first place, you weren't opening mail from your insurance company, so you never saw the required rejection forms, nor did you see the rejection form reminders, nor did you see the updated declarations page showing that coverage had to be added until the rejection forms were signed and returned, nor did you see the updated eft payment schedule.

Great info muni. Thank you.

Are you an agent? If so, pm me w/ your info if you are in the Cleveland area.

I use to sell home and auto insurance for 4 years before I began selling group health insurance (I'll probably be selling home and auto again considering the healthcare issues).

Anyway, this is a common thing. The accident will always show on your record at the BMV. If you were at fault in the accident, there would be a corresponding citation with the accident - so your report would show 2 things, the citation and the accident on the same day. That is one way an agent can determine the accident was not-at-fault. Also, there is a national claims database managed by Choicepoint. Every independent agent that quotes insurance will subscribe to Choicepoint and run accident reports, called C.L.U.E.s, on you that they will compare to your BMV report. The can deciphre from there that you were not at fault in the accident and not charge you. Call an independent agent, not State Farm - Allstate - Nationwide - American Family - Etc., and have them quote your insurance with the multiple carriers they represent.

Funny you say all that but when I went to safeco I think it was, they never DID IT TOO ME.

Now I have Gieco and they NEVER DID IT TOO ME.

So I will have to say your just wrong.

I think and basicly have proof from my years of experience with Progresive that it was just normal for them to underquote the policy then raise the rate. I saw it to to to many times not to have the belief that it was how they did business. In fact when I switched policies my agent said that Progressive did this very thing to many of his customers. He also used to sell Progressive insurance ( and dropped them) so I imgine he had a front row seat to their antics.


You don't know me but I'm very detailed person I wouldn't ignore their mail, it never happened.

At the end of the day they didn't get to screw me.....

BTW you sound like a guy that sells their insurance... Do you?


BTTB

Listen Bro I don't lie, they always seemed to have some sort of excuse although I was with them for years. The final straw was thier final rate hike.

Like I said I dropped them after their last rate hike and I went to another insurer (safeco I think) and they never raised my rate, not one time EVER. But it happened repeatedly with Progressive, believe it don't believe it thats your choice. I know very well what happened, and I aint no liar, even if your trying to say I am.

Have a nice DAY!!!

BTTB

Yeah Muni hit the nail on the head with everything he said,,it sounds like we work for the same company.

But yeah most insurance companies may uprate you a little for having a recent accident even if it's not your fault. Just b/c stats show if it happens once it is more likely to happen again. I run into this all the time when running a quote. for someone. An incident happened and the further you get away from the incident date (5 years at fault, 3 not-at-fault) the better. We just had a meeting showing my company versus some of the others and Esurance is doing very bad. I would check around,,hey, the company that gives you the rates of up to 3 other companies is a good start Just don't call at 4:00am with dumb questions please

And POP,,POP makes me mad at least once a night. That and people lying about their friken driving record,,like were not going to check.

Brown To The Bone, what state are you in? Were you thru an agent or Progressive Direct?

Does anyone know a company that will insure a vehicle that weighs more than 10,000 lbs?

The only company I know of is progressive...

The reason I ask is one of my other vehicles is a f350 turbo diesel and most companies I've called don't cover a vehicle who has a GVW over 10,000.

I have a 3rd that I am rebuilding that does not need to be covered right now.

The shopping around continues. I plan to contact:

State Farm
Progressive
Liberty Mutual (I was w/ them for a few years before switching)
Safeco (a number have recommended them)

So we'll see. Not fun, but I'm not about to pay these huge increases unless this is what they all will tell me.

I just know of Progressive. Personal use is up to 12,000. Anything over is commercial line.

CDawg, work up your quote online b/c there is a unadvertised discou8nt that way. Any questions you can call or use the talk-to-me feature.

When I lived in Ohio, I went through a number of insurers before finding Erie Insurance that I was happy with and kept. But that was my situation 30 years ago. I do see they're still fairly highly rated but sadly they're not available here in Arizona.

I hope this will help with shopping, JD Powers 2009 auto insurance ratings:

http://www.jdpower.com/autos/ratings/autos-insurance

I can't believe it - after emailing esurance customer service and 5 days later, somehow they re-rated me w/o the accident. My renewal is actually cheaper than last year's renewal. Looks like I am staying put assuming the bill reflects this properly.

I had given up hope w/ them but thought I would send an email and see. After receiving the standard 'sorry, we can't do anything' and being persistent the rep did some 'research' and it's been lifted from my record with them.

I'm still going to shop around to see but last time I did this no company could come close to esurance. I know it's nice to have an agent you can call but I rarely use this stuff, so email/online is fine for me. Actually, I prefer it.