jrzvette

I just have to get this off my chest.

Back in January my wife was pulling her car nto the garage when she skidded on some ice in the driveway and hit into the garage, tearing the passenger's side mirror off and scraping the door. I took the car to the dealer and he gave me an estimate of $1500.00. (The car is a Lincoln LS). He said I might want to contact my insurance company which I did. Their adjuster came and agreed with the estimate and wrote me a check for the amount, less the $500 deductable.

I just got my renewal notice and my annual premium for two cars (not the Vette, which is insured as a collector car) has gone from $2000.00 to $3500.00!!!!

When I called my insurance company I was told that under the new insurance reform legislation passed in New Jersey they were able to change my rating from a Tier 1 to a Tier 4. What's more, this will stay in effect for the NEXT THREE YEARS!!

Now when I see that a**hole of a Governor grinning on the TV ads about how NJ is changing the environment for insurance companies I want to smack him. Allowing insurance companies to recoup $4.50 for every $1 they pay out is not reform, its robbery!!

My advise to anyone in NJ: before you make a cliam against your own insurance company ask the agent what the effect will be on your premiums. Essentially, I'm self-insured.

Fevre

What a crock, they should have to give you a BINDING est as how a claim is going to affect your rates. I moved 1 mile from an apt to a house with a 3 car garage and my rates went up 20% because I changed ZIP codes by 1 digit. WTF!

Gordonm

My wife works for an insurance (crook) company. She sees this all the time and has people coplaining all the time about this. Unless you have a major claim do not even think about claiming anything. You will pay 4 times over in insurance coverage. Homeowners is the same way. I had some siding blow off years ago on a fairly new house. 1500 dollars to have it fixed. They dropped my coverage from a Gold to a Bronze. This was not my fault, it was the contractor and mother nature. Insurance in NJ is a HUGE ripoff. Don't let McGreedy tell you he is doing anything about it because my rates have done nothing but go up in the last 10 yeras and I have not had a claim in 12 years. NJ also has one of the highest fraud rates so someone has to pay for this, so Joe honest citizen gets screwed again. Rant over for now!

ACECO

My wife was sitting at a stop sign when the guy in front of her for whatever reason decided he was going to back up. He hit the front of her car and caused approx $1400 worth of damage. My insurance co had a check in my hand (minus the deductable) within a couple days. However as the other insurance co decided that they were going to fight with mine as to who was at fault (WTF, the police report clearly stated that he backed into her, which the driver also admitted) so when renewal time came my rates went up approx 30% on her car. When I called I was told that it was the law in NJ that if an insurance co had to put out more than $500, then they HAD TO raise the rates. :shocked:

They also said that if/when they got their money back from the other insurance co, then they would adjust my rates back down. The lady I was speaking with was very nice and basically told me that it is standard practice for ins co's to "dispute" the issue so that it will be forced into arbitration and many times the innocent party will be found somewhat at fault thus lowering the guilty parties ins co payout. In my case it took 10 months to get to arbitration but the other party was found 100% at fault so my ins co got their money back and thus I got my deductable back too. Then when the next renewal came around , they not only adjusted my rates back down, they credited the extra amount I had to pay the previous term back toward the renewal.

BTW, the insurance co was AIG and I will continue to use them as long as their service/tatics remain this fair, or at least as fair as NJ's stupid laws allow.

80Xflags

Actually, I thought it was 39 months, not 36. :mad My DD is insured with Liberty Mutual, and every year they send around a "questionaire" to make sure their records are up to date about your driving record, and they ask if you (or anyone in the household, even if they are on a different policy) have been in an accident in the last 39 months.

Insurance in this state is a rip-off.

VTHokie77Vette

I hate NJ insurance too. I had to pay $4000/yr for a used pickup with 43,000 miles on it. Luckily I moved to VA for 5 years and only paid $1000/yr. Unfortunately though I'm now back and the price that was most popular was $3000/yr, but I managed to get Allstate at $2000. If I would have stayed in NJ I would have already paid $16000 in insurance and after this year near $19,000....on a used pickup in south jersey. I've never had any claims or any accidents or tickets (knock on wood). Its robbery!!! I never needed to use any of the money I gave them.... give it back to me!!

vettfixr

The entire system of car insurance in NJ should be flushed down the toilet. Don't even get me started. :mad :mad :mad :mad

jrzvette

I was afraid of that. Tuesday I had the oil company in to clean the boiler. Upon inspection it was found that the boiler was cracked and nneded to be replaced (this just isn't my month ). Anyway, the serviceman told me I could try putting in a claim through my homeowners policy (a different company than my auto insurance). NO F**KIN' WAY

COMMANDER370

I thought just Louisiana had insurance problems. Our legislature(bowing down to political clout) just passed a bill when the insurance companies can go up 10% per year without going to go before the insurance commision and justify the increase.The major companies stated they would only do this when claims warranted it. YEA RIGHT :mad :mad :mad

Chumpzilla

This response may not be very popular, but I like playing devil's advocate sometimes so here goes.

(auto) Insurance wasn't intended to cover things like you running into your own garage and knocking a mirror off and scratching the paint. It was intended for more catastrophic events such as major accidents or events beyond your control like weather. It's people running out and filing claims for every little nick and scratch they incur that causes helps fuel skyrocketting insurance premiums.

Now that said, that doesn't justify much of what the insurance companies do.... like cancelling your insurance after one claim... tripling your premium for a minor claim, etc.... things I've heard before. Some control needs to be implemented to keep these idiotic companies from totally ripping people off.

And just so we're all completely honest, I just filed and claim and had my wife's car repaired. It's a brand new Nissan Altima.... some dip**** hit her car while it was parked in the parking garage and work and just took off... left no info or anything. $1000 in damage.

The world is full of *******s.