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Mistakes I made with my car insurance

Here's a list of mistakes I made as a consumer with car insurance:

Driving Uninsured

When I was younger, nothing could go wrong. Of course, I go into an accident and ended up paying $7,000. Much cheaper to have insurance. You see it those days, the insurers were not networked with the DMV. So they did not electronically let the Department know you were driving without auto insurance. A popular option was to call an insurer, get the binder or policy number, give that to the DMV and then cancel.

You could get your plates and tags, but not have to pay for insurance. Wasn't I smart? until I go in an accident, which was my fault. Lucky it was only minor and ended up costing me $7,000.

Canceling theft coverage

I also had secured my nissan truck with a kill switch and club. I thought, why am I paying for theft?Until one day I heard someone starting my truck under our carport. I ran out and my car their sped right past me with this shadowy figure inside.

I called it in right away but the thief still got away. He was good at his profession. They found my truck 3 days later stripped in national city. And since I got rid of theft like 3 days earlier, the insurer paid me nothing. Of course, the title was salvaged anyway, so I would have gotten very little. Does that count as a mistake?

Dealing with rogue adjusters

A near mistake was my claim with AAA. Another truck of mine, a mazda was stolen. They found it several days later broken down and vandalized. So AAA hired an independent adjuster to handle my claim. They call them adjusters because they adjust the amount you think you will get on a claim down. Anyway, the adjuster totalled the vehicle, said it was not worth fixing. She did the comps on my mazda truck, and used 3 work trucks with 300,000 miles each on them and in bad condition.

I complained to AAA of SoCal, and they sent me out a check for the amount I was asking for. I sent them a detailed letter showing the crazy comps the adjuster was using. They sent me a check for $2000 for my truck, the crazy adjuster comps had me at $300, I was shooting for $1,500! AAA really took care of me.

Keeping low or no deductibles

After the incident where I lost $7,000 for driving without insurance, i decided since I had insurance i was going to use it. So I drove for years without a deductible. Huge mistake! Since I would likely not report small claims anyway (my rate could have gone up),

Driving an older car with comprehensive coverage

The types of vehicles I used to drive, older beat up chevy trucks, did not warrant full coverage. Even if they were stolen or totalled, the value I would get back from the insurer was not worth the expense. If you are paying more than 10% of the value of your car in insurance, that is a clue you need to reduce your coverage in some way.

Not shopping around

I am guilty of this. When I used to shop for car insurance, I would find something cheaper than I had before. Feeling I had saved money, I would stop. But some carriers actually offer you BETTER coverage for less money. Get rates in the yellow box at the top. Don't just select one carrier!

Written by Craig J. Casey

Financial Writer helping people with their insurance problems on the net since 1998.

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