| Author |
Message |
Chris F. (Chrisfromri)
New member
Username: Chrisfromri
Post Number: 39
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 8:46 pm: | |
Expensive automobile insurance deductibles should really be in a percentage format, like is done with boats. Who wants to bother swapping dollars with the insurance company.
Insurance is really supposed to be there for the catastropic claims only -- not the little stuff that you can afford to absorb rather than paying more premiums to cover little stuff.
Dennis, I like that snitch line concept -- there's a nice way to promote neighborly relations. Reminds me of alternate day watering restrictions and one NJ neighbor who used to turn me in if I screwed up...
Anyway, I have fairly contrarian opinions on insurance and other financial transactions...
Kind Regards, Chris |
Dennis (Bighead)
Junior Member
Username: Bighead
Post Number: 91
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 8:35 am: | |
Doody: re paying more than $35/hr for bodyshop work.
Don't worry too much about it. It's all negotiable. A good friend of mine own and runs a top-notch body shop working on high end European cars (including subcontracting work for major dealers)... and he ALWAYS gets paid what he needs to get paid to get a job done properly.
Insurance companies take what seems to be a hard line, and it discourages consumers enough so that they take their crumpled Accord to Maaco and get it fixed up cheap. A really GOOD bodyshop can negotiate with the adjuster enough to get everything fixed properly.
With a Ferrari, you can even argue to get it fixed at a factory authorized shop, if the car is relatively new. It can be done; I've seen it happen on more than one occasion.
The lesson? G_d forbid you have an accident; if you do, get a GOOD shop, and let them fight it out with the insurance companies. Don't lose sleep over it.
BTW, Chris, regarding the scheme that you observed about people registering cars in other states? Common enough in Massachusetts too, especially with NH (no sales/use tax). But the People's Republic has set up a toll-free snitch line for people to report neighbors with out-of-state plates. More importantly, if one is ever involved in an accident, and the insurance company finds out that you've been using an out-of-state registration on a vehicle principally garaged in the Commonwealth, they WILL deny the claim - and they WILL stand firm on that (easy case for THEM to win). So, it might be cheaper now, but the owner will end up PAYING if there is an accident (and isn't that what insurance is for?).
vty,
--Dennis |
Mr. Doody (Doody)
Member
Username: Doody
Post Number: 1000
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 9:54 pm: | |
insult to injury.....
my insurance agent informs me that the max you can raise your deductible to is $2,000. i already have mine at $1,000, and the savings for upping it the extra $1K is effectively zero.
so self-insuring is effectively not an option either.
always amusing!
doody |
Chris F. (Chrisfromri)
New member
Username: Chrisfromri
Post Number: 38
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 9:29 pm: | |
Doody,
We really like RI. Neither of us were born here, although we both went to college here -- and then we moved away shortly after graduating. We moved back a few years ago for good.
We live in a very rural part of RI where we will not ever see any neighbors from our home, and so our home will always be totally private. Yet, we can be dining in Providence in 25 minutes, or on our boat in Watch Hill in 40 minutes.
It all depends upon what you like, but we feel that moving back to RI is one of the best things we've done.
You can always come and visit.
Kind Regards, Chris
PS: The roads are much better too. |
Mr. Doody (Doody)
Member
Username: Doody
Post Number: 999
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 12:47 pm: | |
actually steven - the one word is "MOVE" :-(
what a load of hooey.
MA and NJ are known as the two most moronic states.
how's RI, chris? my wife is from RI.
doody. |
Chris F. (Chrisfromri)
New member
Username: Chrisfromri
Post Number: 36
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 10:38 am: | |
Doody,
The best bet is always to carry as large a deductible as possible, and self-insure as much of the comp/collision to your own vehicle as you can afford to carry yourself.
BTW, taking your example further, if your bill says 50 hours of labor they will also make every effort to argue that down to only 30 hours -- since that's how long it takes to fix a generic car with the same sort of damage. A double screw job.
NJ was really bad too -- When we lived there I used to pay about the same premium for two low value older cars as what I pay now for six higher value newer cars in RI. But that was because of Jim Florio and his and NJ's mismanagement of the NJ JUA (high risk pool). This all stemmed from their "democratic" concept that financially poor risky drivers have a right to buy affordable insurance to keep on driving/crashing and those extra premium costs should be passed onto the good drivers (plus running the JUA into a billion dollar deficit and then passing that on to the insurance companies that remained in the state) -- rather than allowing a free-market to simply make driving unaffordable for the financially poor risky drivers (and getting them onto mass transit). Remember that when you visit the ballot box, as it's your only chance to object.
Some people I knew in NJ were buying inexpensive vacation properties in the south, where insurance is dirt cheap, and then registering their cars there.
In the end, for most drivers like us insurance is a huge rip off and you are better off self-insuring as much as you can (assuming of course you are like most people and almost never have claims, but your premiums are outrageous because of the above outlined "democratic" principle).
Kind Regards, Chris |
Steven R. Rochlin (Enjoythemusic)
Member
Username: Enjoythemusic
Post Number: 370
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 10:16 am: | |
Doody,
On word for you my friend:
Lawyer |
Mr. Doody (Doody)
Member
Username: Doody
Post Number: 990
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2003 - 7:46 pm: | |
My insurance agent informs me today that she is unaware of any insurance company doing business in MA that can or will pay more than $35 per hour for labor associated with any sort of repair.
So if someone hits you and your car needs 50 hours of work at $90 per hour of labor that's $4,500, and the insurance company will pay $1,750 and you get to foot the remaining $2,750.
I am working from the basic assumption that my insurance agent is WRONG since this is so out of whack of reasonableness. Can anyone refute her data?
I just gotta move the hell out of this state.
TIA,
Doody. |
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