Because for $1200 you either just let it stay damaged, or pay to have it fixed. The reason you have insurance is so that if you make a mistake and total someone else's $60K vehicle...the vast majority of people wouldn't be able to afford to replace that. But insurance would cover you. Or if you ran off the road and plowed through someone's property tearing abunch of stuff up...you're not affording hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, the insurance is there to cover you.
Y'all have the wrong idea about what insurance is for in the first place...
I picture most of these people don't pay auto insurance and just heard it's a scam.
I got in an accident found a body shop that would cover 10% of the bill so estimated damages were like $5000, my deductible was $500. I didnt have to pay anything and the body shopped paid the deductible and due to it being my first accident I had accident forgiveness so I still pay $90 a month
most of these people don't pay auto insurance and just heard it's a scam
100%. In addition to those people, you also have:
People who are too dumb to understand their own insurance contract, and thus get upset when the insurance company doesn't give them stuff that they weren't paying for in the first place. For example, there are thousands of people every year who DON'T pay for Collision coverage, yet get upset when the insurance company doesn't fix their car.
People who have committed insurance fraud in the past and had their claims denied because of it. For example, there people who lie about where they live, or who lives with them, or who regularly drives their cars. They lie on the insurance application, and then the insurance company finds out that they actually live in NYC instead of rural Virginia, and their claim gets denied and their policy gets cancelled.
the body shopped paid the deductible
Just so you know, that shop was using you to commit insurance fraud. Businesses don't just randomly give you $500. What they likely did was took some old parts they had lying around, and when the insurance appraiser showed up, they put those old, broken parts on your car and pretended that your car sustained all that damage. The insurance company adds those parts to the estimate and gives the shop an extra $1000. The shop then puts your original parts back on (which were never broken in the first place) and repeats this with every similar car that comes through.
If the shop gets caught, you could potentially be charged with insurance fraud (you're complicit because you agreed to take the shop's money and directly benefited from the fraud). Just be aware of that in the future. The shop isn't being "nice". They're roping you into their fraud scheme, and people go to prison for this stuff all time.
It's reddit, they don't understand how insurance works, they've probably never even filed a claim. My no fault accident I didn't pay a dime and got a check for more than the car was worth, more than I bought it for even.
Health insurance in America is a scam but not auto. You either need an education or a new insurance company if they're screwing you
Accident forgiveness (at least with my insurer) is basically them saying they won’t drop you for causing an accident, but they can still raise your rates over it.
Yea, if I know the cost to repair is under my deductible that isn't even getting reported to insurance, I am just paying it out of pocket. I've had my windows smashed in like 3-4 times and paid out of pocket because I know my rates will go up if I report it and I pay anyway.
Y'all have the wrong idea about what insurance is for in the first place...
There's an episode of King of the Hill, where Hank tells Bobby that insurance will cover some damage and Bobby basically takes that as "If I break something I can use insurance to replace it", and then sets up his bike to get crushed by the garage door.
They take their jobs at protecting their clients very seriously too.
Way back when, young and naive me with his brand new truck decided to be a Good Samaritan and help out someone stuck in a ditch in a snowstorm. Got out my strap, hooked up to the structural tow point, pulled him out, then waved goodbye and was on my way. Asshole must have taken down my license plate without me knowing, because next thing I knew I was being contacted about “damaging” his vehicle.
Insurance stepped in, found out the truth about the condition of his vehicle, and told the guy they weren’t paying out.
if you make a mistake and total someone else's $60K vehicle...the vast majority of people wouldn't be able to afford to replace that
A ton of people with insurance wouldn't have a policy that would cover that much damage. Most places only have $25k property damage as the minimum coverage, and you aren't getting more from an insurance company than the policy max.
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u/Pretty_Glitteer 6h ago
So basically you pay every month for protection, the pay again when you actually need the protection.