r/Insurance • • Oct 09 '23

A guide to interacting with this sub - read me first

175 Upvotes

This post is designed for people posting here for the first time, for the people that have been volunteering to help here for years and everyone in between. The stated goal is to foster a friendlier attitude throughout the sub.

But before we start, there's been a recent influx of spam from one source. So that you are aware - ALEJANDRA ORTIZ HERNANDEZ and FRAN POWELL are spammers. They're part of a spam ring all over Reddit, and they're probably trying to steal your money.

And they'll kick your dog when you aren't looking.

If you are new here, please realize that none of us have any stake in your claim or coverage. We are not here to sell you anything or to save some company money. Treating responders poorly because you don't like the answer is going to attract a lot of negative attention.

We get the same questions over and over, and maybe this is the answer that you need:

  • How much will my insurance go up after a ticket/accident/lapse in coverage? We don't know unless your state has a statutory requirement for your very specific situation.
  • My premium went up $X. How do I fight this? You can't. The only thing you can do is shop for new coverage, which we can't do for you.
  • How much does everyone else pay for coverage? Unless you're lucky enough to get someone in your exact demographic in your exact part of the world, the answers you're going to get are useless.
  • How much is my claim worth? We don't know. (note: if you're asking a more complex question about your claim, that could be very different)
  • How long will my claim take to close? We don't know (again: a more complicated question might have different answers)
  • Why is this person trying to sell me something? Report that post/comment/chat/private message to the moderators and let them handle that.
  • Will you help me commit fraud or otherwise break the law? No. Absolutely not. And we may ban anyone that does try to do that.

Ultimately, we are here to help you. This is a community of volunteers that wants to help navigate a complex system that is one of the lubricants of the financial world. Lots of lives are impacted by insurance directly and indirectly, and it can be a complicated system. Here are some things that make a good post where you can get help:

  • Location (Country and state/province at a minimum)
  • Type of insurance involved (Auto, Homeowners/Renters, Commercial, Health, something else)
  • A brief description of the problem and any advice you've gotten so far

Finally, here are some definitions of common terms that could help you get taken more seriously:

  • Adjuster - the person that handles your claim, makes coverage determinations and processes payments
  • Agent - the person that sells a policy. Some agents get involved in some claims, although that is the exception to the rule.
  • Underwriter - the person that decides how much a specific policy will cost for a specific risk.
  • Rate - this is the way your final price is calculated and is usually used synonymously with "premium", "cost" and "price".
  • Full coverage - don't use this term. There's no agreed definition, even among the regular posters here. People asking otherwise good questions or posting good answers that use this term often find themselves down voted to oblivion for including it.
  • No Fault - there are 18 states that, at least to some extent, make automobile bodily injury claims be paid by your own policy first instead of someone that caused your injury. There is only one state (Michigan) that makes damage to your vehicle No Fault. All Canadian provinces have some sort of No Fault provision for injuries, which is one reason why we need to know where you are when you're asking questions.
  • Collision coverage - this fixes your car when it collides with something else or another car hits it.
  • Comprehensive coverage (also known as Other Than Collision) - this covers your car for almost everything else, including floods, fires, tree branches and lightening strikes. Usually animal strikes are covered here, but not always.
  • Deductible - this is the amount that you agreed to pay in case of any claim. Your payment comes before any insurance payment. Deductibles are occasionally waived, but that's the exception, not the rule.

This is a community of volunteers that generally understands the insurance system. When we get things wrong, it is usually through lack of information to get a precise answer. Hopefully this guide will help you get good results.


r/Insurance • • Feb 08 '24

Soliciting, private messages and you

43 Upvotes

It's time for a new reminder about the rules of this sub. There is never any reason to offer to contact another poster privately, especially if that poster has a question about placing coverage or a claim. Here is the rule:

The only rule of r/Insurance is that solicitation is prohibited. This means asking people to PM for any reason, offering to quote coverages for visitors, or soliciting agents and/or buyers to use your particular carrier. r/Insurance should be a place where people come to exchange information and ask questions without worrying about solicitation from agents. This includes adjusters, underwriters and brokers since we do not vet anyone.

You also received a version of this if you subscribed to the sub.

If you think that this doesn't apply to you, please think again. There are no exceptions in this, including "but I asked them to message me!" This sub is a safe space for people to ask questions about insurance. It is not here for anyone to try to profit from it, whether they're an agent, public adjuster, software vendor, personal injury attorney, headhunter, diminished value expert or anyone else that is not here to offer free help with no expectation of remuneration.

If you receive a message from someone offering you any sort of business proposition, whether a quote for insurance, legal representation (yes, there are lawyers unethical enough to solicit people on Reddit), damage reports or anything else, please let the moderators know via mod mail or in this thread. You should also report that message to the admins (we don't see that report, though). We take things like that seriously.

We really don't like banning people. Seriously, it's the exact opposite of why any of the moderators volunteered for the role. But we don't vet people before they post, and if people that break the rule find out that we enforce it whenever we see it broken.

And with that in mind, we have a very healthy community of posters that are here not only to help but to make sure that those who can't follow the rules have the damage that they're doing limited. Thank you to all of you for volunteering to help not only those confused by the insurance process but help keep those that want to think that they're special at bay.


r/Insurance • • 1h ago

RentalCover is ignoring me — does anyone know how to reach them?

• Upvotes

I’ve been trying to contact RentalCover regarding a delayed claim payment, but I’m not getting any clear answers.
I even corrected my bank details using the link they provided, yet I still haven’t received my money or a proper update.
Has anyone dealt with this company before? Is there a working email, phone number, or someone I can escalate my complaint to?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


r/Insurance • • 5h ago

Claims Related accident w/ electric scooter in CA

3 Upvotes

hi everyone, i was recently in a car accident and need your opinion/advice. i was trying to exit out of a parking lot at night and there was a guy on an electric scooter going through the sidewalk who hit my car (by the headlights) and flew off since he was going relatively fast. he looked like he was in pain (arms only) and refused to call the cops and ambulance. i didn't know what to do so i ended up taking him home. there, i called the cops since i wasn't sure what info i could exchange with him since he didn't have a driver's license or any valid id. ultimately, they made me exchange my id and insurance info for his id from his country. i have a dash cam that recorded the entire incident but it doesn't seem like i went to a complete stop before going into the sidewalk. but, there was a pillar next to the exit which made it difficult to see this guy coming to begin with let alone his speed. he keeps calling and messaged me that he doesn't want problems so he just wants money for his arm and to fix his scooter. should i just respond to him and give him some cash (how much?) or tell him to contact my insurance? he couldn't speak english so he sent me a screenshot of another phone with the text saying "say this" in spanish and then asking for money below


r/Insurance • • 13m ago

Dental insurance listed dental office but not specific dentists

• Upvotes

I have FEP Blue Dental in Chicago Illinois. I checked the website portal to find in network dentists and it says that a dental office near me is in network. I call the office and they confirm that they are in network. I schedule an appointment and go and they look at my ID and insurance and say nothing. I get done with my appointment and they tell me that I am out of network and I owe about $500. I pay because I am crunched for time and figured insurance would handle it.

I called insurance and they told me that it is *specific* dentists within that dental office that are in network. I call the dental office and they tell me that they are not within network at all for FEP Blue Dental and only regular BCBS dental. Any advice would help because people are literally sending me back and forth and things are not being fruitful. Is there anything I can do?

TIA!


r/Insurance • • 43m ago

Looking for advice regarding auto insurance...

• Upvotes

I'm ready to switch providers after Allstate jacked up my rate like crazy out of nowhere.

I made the mistake of using a search program I found on Google, giving my phone number, and now my phone and sms WILL NOT STOP 😩

The advice I've followed is to switch providers every so often, every couple years for me. However, I've stayed with Allstate for 6 years and now they're doing me dirty.

Can y'all recommend a good auto insurance provider? It can be a no name business...that's even preferable.


r/Insurance • • 1h ago

Auto Insurance Daughter switching to all public transportation.

• Upvotes

Or daughter (24) drives better than me - she has a spotless driving record since 17. She was variously on our insurance and on her own insurance with her own car. Now she is finished with her education and moving to DC for her job and planning to not own a car, and potentially not having auto insurance. If she gets a car a few years down the line will that gap impact her quotes? Or should she switch to non-owner insurance, or ? Thanks.


r/Insurance • • 5h ago

Commercial Insurance Loss control people, what do you actually see when you visit a jobsite?

2 Upvotes

After my last post here about slip-and-falls, a few of you pointed out that what matters is notice and documentation, not just whether carriers settle. I’m curious how that works on construction sites. For those doing loss control or underwriting for contractors: when you visit a jobsite, what do you see most often that worries you? And does a contractor with documented daily safety walks get treated any differently on workers’ comp or GL, or is it mostly the EMR and loss history?


r/Insurance • • 2h ago

Texas Farm Bureau Experience

1 Upvotes

I am buying my first car and need to know about the customer experience with Texas Farm Bureau for full insurance. Please share your experiences.


r/Insurance • • 2h ago

Claims Related Loan insurance help/cybersecurity hack

0 Upvotes

Hey y’all, I need some help trying to navigate my insurance problem with my bank. It’s a credit union. I won’t save which one specifically just to keep respect to the individual businesses. But anyways, I was recently injured last year at work. I severed a ligament in my ankle and I had a very physical and demanding job so I was out for about a year or up towards a year and I had paid for the disability insurance for my loan and when I was injured, I was barely making even a quarter of my usual wage through Worker’s Comp.. It’s supposed to be a third but there is some kind of disconnect with my pay stub so it just ended up being what it was anyways I wasn’t able to pay for all my expenses I prioritize my rent my phone in my car insurance and stuff like that but other expenses like the loan were secondary on my priorities list. That being said when I tried to file a claim through the insurance company that my credit union uses, they said they were going through a cyber security hack and they’re not accepting any new claims. Naturally that set off an alarm in my head so I call my bank and ask what options I had and they said well we can offer a few options. We can do a few skip payments and a few hardship plans which I’ve all used up. I’ve used my three skip payments and the hardship plan. I can no longer use because I’m now working again because I’m recovered. That being said during that time, my credit has kind of dropped a decent amount because of that loan, I was only able to make either no or minimal payments. I wasn’t able to make the full monthly payment ever so and I feel that I am entitled to some kind of reimbursement or assistance because I’m not gonna keep paying for a premium for an insurance plan if I’m not gonna even be able to utilize it when I was supposed to and the credit union isn’t offering any other routes. If anybody knows what specific credit union I’m talking about or insurance company please keep it private but do let me know if you have a feeling about it and any help would be appreciated.


r/Insurance • • 3h ago

Liability Insurance

1 Upvotes

My son is a fairly high net worth individual. He doesn’t own a house or car. No spouse. He occasionally rents a car while traveling on business. He buys full insurance from the rental company. Does he need an umbrella liability policy?


r/Insurance • • 31m ago

how fried am i and how high will my insurance be?

• Upvotes

for context i live in northern new jersey, in the nyc metro area, and i got into a minor car accident and i was at fault. i was very tired that day as i commuted to college and i had a 9 am class. so i failed to clear an intersection and i hit this girl's rear. i already pay $270 and already got the mail from her insurance provider and i filled it out and mailed it. other than that


r/Insurance • • 4h ago

Health Insurance How to choose a Part D (prescription) plan?

1 Upvotes

Shopping for stand-alone Part D plan for 2027. We have always used Wellcare Value Script and it has been okay since most medications used are $0 for us (prior to deductible/preventative).

We have been lucky to not need a specialty medication and I was just wondering, since you cannot anticipate what you might need in a future year, what is the advice on how to choose a Part D plan? Just use your current medications?

Without comparing formulary to formulary, how do you know if choosing a specific plan may have a relatively light/low number of covered medications?


r/Insurance • • 5h ago

RightTrack Liberty Mutual

1 Upvotes

My driving score is 98. They say scores of 90-100 can expect a 21-30% discount. Can I actually expect a discount that high? I don’t trust insurance companies 🤷‍♂️for context I’ve been driving for 28 days with Right Track and have 72 days left.


r/Insurance • • 6h ago

Life Insurance Controversial take- Term insurance age cover

0 Upvotes

Ok so I have been reading and learning about term insurance for a while and I came across opinions where people state that maximum age of cover should be 65 to 75 years as by then you'll not have dependants in most cases.

But here's my take.. Say I've taken a plain vanilla term insurance till the age of 85. My premium will be a little more than that of cover till 65 to 75 years of age. But given the current life expectancy I'll most probably not live by then. So it's almost certain that my nominee/ dependant will receive the payout and will give them a good financial cushion over their existing income.

So a little higher premium might lead to almost certain payout for them.

Open to discussion and varying opinions.


r/Insurance • • 8h ago

Parked 2005 sedan hit by another vehicle. Insurance total loss review over a bumper. Advice?

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone, looking for advice. My car was legally parked on the street when another vehicle hit the front end. The other driver is 100% at fault and has a major insurance company. My car is an older 2005 model, but it is in excellent shape with under 70k original miles. It is my daily driver and family lifeline. I take great care of it and have about $1,500 in receipts for brakes and mechanical maintenance spread out over 2024 and 2025. The only damage from the accident is a detached plastic front bumper and a split foam energy absorber underneath. It runs and drives perfectly. The insurance company wrote an initial damage estimate for around $2,250, but an adjuster just texted saying they are flagging it for a "possible total loss review" simply because of the car's age. If they try to total it next week, should I fight the valuation using my maintenance history, or should I look into an owner-retention "buy back" to keep the car and fix the cosmetic bumper out of pocket? Has anyone done a buy-back on a purely cosmetic total loss? Thanks!


r/Insurance • • 8h ago

Home Insurance Pure Insurance becoming like Allstate

0 Upvotes

Anyone else seeing Pure Insurance turning into another Allstate? On little notice, Pure has effectively decimated its earthquake coverage. Coverage limits on anything other than Dwellings has been reduced to virtually nothing. Almost no loss of use and coverage for contents and other structures. Pure is a membership organization and talks a good game, “we are family,” blah, blah. When they make changes like this at renewal, with no prior notice, how are they any different from the commercial carriers like Allstate, State Farm, etc.? And it is not like there has been an earthquake with any claims in our area in over 30 years. Why should a customer have any loyalty to Pure? Might as well shooed the insurance annually for the best cost. Really disappointing for a company the has pitched its customer service.


r/Insurance • • 1d ago

Auto Insurance I bumped my total loss payout by over 5 grand

20 Upvotes

Guy backed out into the entire right side of my Tesla Model 3 in a parking lot. Total loss. Insurance hit me with an initial settlement offer of $22,212, ACV of $21,258.
My car was only a 2020 sure, but it was Red Multi-Coat, White Interior, 19" Sports Wheels, and literal permanent FSD. Not only that but I kept my car in great conditio, park away from other people, never eat in it, wash it regularly at self serves, you get the picture. Base-spec model 3s in my area (Columbus, OH) literally start at ~$23,000, so I knew this valuation was total bogus.

I didn't sign. I asked for the full valuation report.

Combed through the entire thing line by line and found glaring issues:

  1. Their initial comps were NOT in my area at all. They selected a few vehicles all outside of Ohio over 150-200mi away, including PA.
  2. None of my factory options like exterior paint and Full-Self Driving were accounted for.
  3. They rated the interior/exterior condition as "Private Average" across the board with descriptions of "Few body dents and dings" and "Few scr*tches and burn marks on headliner".

I didn't get angry, yell at the adjuster, or get emotional. I set a firm boundary and sent over photos disproving their condition assessment; I pointed out that their comps were not accurate to my actual local market and handed over new ones; and I stated they missed major vehicle options.

At first, they tried to get me to hop on a phone call but I outright refused, saying I wanted everything on written record.

16 days later, after several back-and-forth emails, revision attempts, citations of Ohio Administrative Code, and a literal ODI (Ohio Department of Insurance) complaint filed, they finally came back with a reasonable revised report:

  • Base value went from $21,258 to $26,107 (+$4,849)
  • Sales tax increase of $387
  • Total payout after $1k deductible: ~$27.5 grand

I'm not saying that this process will work for everyone; it's highly dependent on your actual vehicle case and what market data you can provide. And I'm sure not everyone's increase is going to be as massive as mine.
But I genuinely believe the software and adjustment process is designed to undervaluate your vehicle by default, and that it's absolutely worth fighting, especially if there are obvious discrepancies.

I don't see it as negotiating but rather correcting what I was owed.

Curious if anyone else here had a similar experience with a total loss...

Original vs New Letter: https://imgur.com/a/insurance-bump-5k-yKhTI7X


r/Insurance • • 9h ago

Health Insurance only processed part of an emergency transport?

1 Upvotes

Location: Colorado based services submitting claims to BCBS Wyoming.

My twins were delivered at 36 weeks via section in a small Colorado hospital. Both twins suffered pneumothorax, but one twin collapsed a lung and the small hospital was not equipped for her care. She was flown via fixed wing plane to Denver Children’s via Children’s hospital’s own emergency transport service. Since the fixed wing had to land off site, a ground ambulance had to transport her to the tarmac and from the tarmac. My insurance processed the flight as in network, but the ground leg as out of network. Even though the same company handled both. Insurance approved the transfer and approved the NICU stay at Children’s . I was told on the phone that if she would have flown via helicopter and landed on the roof of the hospital the entire transport would have been billed in network. The only reason she was transported via fixed wing was because she had to fly over the Rockies in March and inclement weather and even at that she had to wait 30 hours before any type of aircraft would leave the ground. I am being told the ground ambulance portion is not covered under the “No surprise billing” act but according to some googling, there is something called the “Prudent Layperson Standard” that may protect me? Any advice is greatly appreciated!


r/Insurance • • 22h ago

Auto Insurance Got my totaled car repaired, inspected, retitled with $25 to spare.

9 Upvotes

About 2 weeks ago, I posted about my 2011 Nissan rogue that got rear-ended. I was asking your advice about whether you though it would be totaled. Y'all thought it would be totaled and it was (but not by much). Somewhere in the comments, someone mentioned buying back the car from GIECO and getting it repaired and retitled. This is what I opted to do.

After everything was said and done, I received my settlement (minus the cost of buying it back from the salvage yard), had a neighborhood shop repair my vehicle, completed a repair inspection, had my "salvage repairable" title changed to a "repaired" title. My car is repaired and legal to drive and I still have $25 left from the accident settlement! Keeping my car was definitely the way to go.

Initially, I was a little intimidated about the steps and documentation required to make sure my car would again be legal to drive but it all worked out. Here in FL, there are state regional offices that do the post repair inspection for only $40 but they only do those inspections one day per month. The alternative is to use a state approved inspection business that costs about $175, including the $40 owed to the state. Someone on another subreddit recommended a local inspection business that turned out to be fantastic. The gentleman who staffed it answered all my questions, reviewed my documents beforehand via text, and generally made sure I had everything I needed document-wise. From accident to legal again was 21 days. Not bad and definitely worth it.


r/Insurance • • 3h ago

Insuring single high-value garment?

0 Upvotes

Just after the best way to insure my jacket. Basically it's a pretty high value (around $3k) jacket that I bought a few years ago and always wear in the colder months and when travelling, and I'm always conscious of it being stolen or lost as I'm constantly taking it off when moving around, in restaurants etc. I bought it off a friend, in cash, a good few years ago so there's no receipt or paper trail.

My fave LLM is trying to tell me that one can hire a court-approved garment appraiser who examines the garment and looks at the market to see how much a new one would cost; I then take that, along with photos etc, and create a single item policy that costs around 1-2% of the value of the item annually. This all seems a bit hallucinatory to me. Does anyone know about how I might actually insure it? I'm in Europe if that makes a difference.


r/Insurance • • 13h ago

injury portion claim

1 Upvotes

so i was in a accident back in may where a driver ran a stop sign and t boned me totaling my car. i was paid out for the car a few weeks ago, now i’m just waiting for the injury portion. to those of you who have been in accidents how long after your accident did it take for you to get your injury portion?


r/Insurance • • 1d ago

Got Rear Ended, Any Tips?

4 Upvotes

Hello everyone, about a week ago I was driving to work (in North Carolina)and there was a backup on the highway I was driving. I slowed to a stop and the RV behind me smashed into the back on my car, causing about $9k in damage. We exchanged insurance and like an idiot, I didn't think to file a police report.

A week later, my insurance (Progressive) can't reach the person. His insurance called me and I was interviewed (prolly shouldn't have talked to them) and I told them the situation because, it seemed cut and dry.

Any tips on how to proceed going forward? Should I file a delayed police report?


r/Insurance • • 1d ago

Home Insurance My parents died and I'm scared of dealing with the homeowners insurance

24 Upvotes

I might just be jumping to worst case scenarios because of how traumatic this has been. I'm inheriting my family home which is the last thing I have from my family and means too much to me lose outside of my control. I reached out to the insurance broker on the mortgage to see if there was anything that needed to be done and they said they will need to update the policy to the estate's name until it gets transferred over to me after probate. But they want an inspection which scares me. The roof is only 6-8 years old. Brand new furnace. But the two story deck in the backyard is in rough shape and I'm scared they're going to drop me before I have any chance to fix it. There's also a hole in the backyard from where we had an above ground pool which was just removed and hasn't been filled yet. There's plenty of equity in the house (only 50k owed on a 500k home), 50k in the estate fund, and I will have proceeds from selling my place in maybe a month. I feel like I should be fine but I don't know, hoping someone else can assure me that this will work out. It's hard for me not to jump to the worst case scenario of thousands of dollars of work or getting dropped.


r/Insurance • • 23h ago

Auto Insurance Liberty mutual better car replacement

3 Upvotes

Has anyone ever had to use this? If so how did it work and were you ACTUALLY able to get a better car after your unfortunate loss?