[Screwloose]

No question, insurance is a joke.  If I ever become a millionare that is the first thing I'm kicking.

[delta_echo]

You at least know about the insurance and can "prepare" for it. Thieves come at the most inopportune time . . .

[Paco]

Insurance, by definition is for the disasters and economic losses <b>that you are unable to recover from by yourself</b>.  Those who make frivilous claims on insurance will hurt themselves in the long run...  for example, a claim on a TV in your home, or a refrigerator in your home on your homeowner's policy will hurt your chances of being able to get another policy down the road and really jack up your premiums.  An insurance policy - for cars, homes, etc - is for the disasterous losses.  NEVER make small claims - you will live to regret it.  Deductables try to discourage small claims.  Suck this one up, buy a new stereo (they aren't that expensive), and perhaps use the money you will save on higher insurance premiums to get an anti-theft device (or a better one).

[Bucket]

Insurance is the best scam ever invented.
Think about it....

When you buy insurance you are betting that somrthing will happen, the insurance company is betting that nothing will happen and they know you are going to do everything you can to be sure something doesn't happen.

Then if something does happen they screw you by raising the premiums to get 3 to 4 times what they paid out back.

and it's all legal. But if you try to do the same thing without a liscense the law steps in and calls it organized crime or extorsion.

[Mr. Joseph]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Paco</i>
<br />Insurance, by definition is for the disasters and economic losses <b>that you are unable to recover from by yourself</b>.  Those who make frivilous claims on insurance will hurt themselves in the long run...  for example, a claim on a TV in your home, or a refrigerator in your home on your homeowner's policy will hurt your chances of being able to get another policy down the road and really jack up your premiums.  An insurance policy - for cars, homes, etc - is for the disasterous losses.  NEVER make small claims - you will live to regret it.  Deductables try to discourage small claims.  Suck this one up, buy a new stereo (they aren't that expensive), and perhaps use the money you will save on higher insurance premiums to get an anti-theft device (or a better one).
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Beat me to it.  The above says it all.  Its not for your stereo, its for your everything else you own in the event of a major life-altering/taking collision.  Its also for your car if stolen.

[KenCasper]

Sadly both Paco and Bucket are correct.

What is agravating is when a vehicle is "vandalized" most policies do not cover a thing. And that deffinition often includes being stolen, joy rode all over hell and creation, trashed, stripped, burnt, but recovered. NOW that is robbery.[V]

[Farslayer]

Well, I got rear ended by a drunk, driving on a suspended lisence, no insurance in an unregisterd vehicle.  The crash did 5,000 worth of damage to my car and i went to the chiropractor for a month.  I had uninsured motorist coverage, luckily, they settled for the doctor's bill and an additional 750.00.  if she had her own insurance , i'd of sued for a lot more.  not worth my time....

[Paco]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Bucket</i>
<br />Insurance is the best scam ever invented.
Think about it....

When you buy insurance you are betting that somrthing will happen, the insurance company is betting that nothing will happen and they know you are going to do everything you can to be sure something doesn't happen.

Then if something does happen they screw you by raising the premiums to get 3 to 4 times what they paid out back.

and it's all legal. But if you try to do the same thing without a liscense the law steps in and calls it organized crime or extorsion.

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I completely disagree (no, I don't work for an insurance company).  The premise of insurance is to SPREAD THE RISK.

I'm an IT manager, but I did some work for USAA and I use them as my insurance company, as do a lot of people here (current and former military).  USAA started as a group of military officers in WWII.  At that time, it was tough for the military personnel to get insurance because of how they moved so often, etc.  So these officers pooled a few thousand each into a group to insure each other.  If one had a devistating accident, the pooled money would cover them and make them whole again.  It's called risk management.  You don't KNOW that you will be in an accident tomorrow, or if your call will be stolen tonight - but if it were, wouldn't you want insurance on it?  If you took out a policy 5 years ago and pay $1,000 every 6 months on it, you've paid a total of $10K up until now.  What if your insured $45K BMW is stolen?  Where does the $35K difference come from?  It comes from the pockets of others who are members of your insurance group.  Should THEIR premiums go up (or *everyone's* across the board) because YOUR car was stolen?  Nope.  Thus, if it's the first time you've had a claim, the insurance company may have enough to "eat it" without raising premiums (remembering that it's not just your car that was stolen, but it happens to thousands on a daily basis).  If it was a HUGE loss (like a Ferrari), they may choose to raise your premiums a bit to make it fair for the other members, or they may even choose to drop you if they think you present too great a risk for the rest of the members of the insurance company (like if you have too many claims within a certain period).  At the end of the year, if there is a surplus of funds, some companies like USAA even pay back dividends on the unused (not needed for claims) portion of the premiums.  I usually get a $100-200 check every year from USAA paying back unused premiums.  Some companies choose to keep it in reserves "just in case".

Why is insurance necessary?  For YOU, it's not.  Legally, you don't need any insurance to cover you at all.  You have to have liability insurance on your car (for example) - but technically, that's not covering you, it's covering the person who you may hurt/kill or the property you may damage.  Insurance to cover YOU is completely voluntary in ALL circumstances for your private posessions.  If you own your car, you can get away without any collision or comprehensive coverage, however, if the BANK owns your car, it's THEIRS and they have the right (and duty) to protect their property which means they can (and do) require you to have comprehensive and collision coverage.

[yellowmonkey]

Regardless of how good having insurance is when someone jacks your $45K BMW... they sure do enough bad stuff to you beforehand to really make up for it. Grrr, I hate dealing with those people.

I never intended to make a claim once I found out that they would jack up my premium, but it still burns me up that they would not honor thier part of the bargain. The thing is, insurance claim money for my stereo wouldn't be coming from the pockets of other people in the plan, it would end up coming out of my own pocket 3 times. That's just evil.

[Paco]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by yellowmonkey</i>
<br />Regardless of how good having insurance is when someone jacks your $45K BMW... they sure do enough bad stuff to you beforehand to really make up for it. Grrr, I hate dealing with those people.
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You can thank the frauds for that.  Fraud is VERY prevalent in the insurance business, so they are naturally very interrogative and cautious when dealing with high-value claims.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
I never intended to make a claim once I found out that they would jack up my premium, but it still burns me up that they would not honor thier part of the bargain. The thing is, insurance claim money for my stereo wouldn't be coming from the pockets of other people in the plan, it would end up coming out of my own pocket 3 times. That's just evil.
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What isn't the insurance company "honoring"?

I understand your frustration, but you're still not getting it.  You aren't paying your money into a bank account and you shouldn't expect to get it all back.  If that were the case, DROP YOUR COLLISION/COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE and put that $$ into a savings account instead.  Then you don't have to complain about the insurance company "ripping you off".  However, after 5 years when you have $5-10K in there and your $20K Honda Accord gets stolen and you're out the remainder because you didn't have comprehensive coverage, don't complain to me!  [:p]

[yellowmonkey]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Paco</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by yellowmonkey</i>
<br />Regardless of how good having insurance is when someone jacks your $45K BMW... they sure do enough bad stuff to you beforehand to really make up for it. Grrr, I hate dealing with those people.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

You can thank the frauds for that.  Fraud is VERY prevalent in the insurance business, so they are naturally very interrogative and cautious when dealing with high-value claims.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
I never intended to make a claim once I found out that they would jack up my premium, but it still burns me up that they would not honor thier part of the bargain. The thing is, insurance claim money for my stereo wouldn't be coming from the pockets of other people in the plan, it would end up coming out of my own pocket 3 times. That's just evil.
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What isn't the insurance company "honoring"?

I understand your frustration, but you're still not getting it.  You aren't paying your money into a bank account and you shouldn't expect to get it all back.  If that were the case, DROP YOUR COLLISION/COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE and put that $$ into a savings account instead.  Then you don't have to complain about the insurance company "ripping you off".  However, after 5 years when you have $5-10K in there and your $20K Honda Accord gets stolen and you're out the remainder because you didn't have comprehensive coverage, don't complain to me!  [:p]
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Somebody who sticks up for insurance companies... astounding! You don't make friends quick with an attitude like that! [}:)]
I don't think I have ever met someone who has any support for insurance companies at all.

I get what you're saying, but I still don't like the way insurance does thier business.

[KenCasper]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">At the end of the year, if there is a surplus of funds, some companies like USAA even pay back dividends on the unused (not needed for claims) portion of the premiums. I usually get a $100-200 check every year from USAA paying back unused premiums. Some companies choose to keep it in reserves "just in case".
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Sadly Paco I do believe USAA is the only or one of the only (prolly don't need one hand to count them all) companies that do this.[V]

Yes insurance is intended to "spread the risk" but since it was made manditory the rates have sky rocketed, exceptions for coverage have gone from understandable to stupidly crooked, and the only ones making it rich is the insurance companies.  If we all had the money we would be better off putting a good chunk of change in a nice high yeild savings acount and insuring ourselves, at least that way we would be paying ourselves the intrest, not paying someone else interest on our money.

[Paco]

It's not that I am sticking up for them, there is just a lot (a LOT) of mis-information and half-truths about insurance that so many don't understand (as demonstrated by this thread).

Again guys, insurance is NOT (I repeat NOT) mandatory for you!  You don't HAVE to have it for your car, you don't have to have it for your house, for your life, health or anything else.  It's optional for YOUR stuff.  If the bank owns it, it's not yours (it's theirs) and the bank can require whatever stipulations they want since it is theirs.  Liability insurance is necessary if you want to drive a car, but again, that's NOT insuring you - it's paying for any damages that you may cause and not be able to pay for - which primarily protects the person/property you damage and as an aside, protects your assets.  Comprehensive/collision is completely optional in all cases for your car.

If you feel that insurance premiums are too high, that's not the company that's to blame - it's the members of that insurance company who don't understand the role of "insurance" and use it - like you were originally complaining about - to claim every little nitpick that happens - evey dent in the car, every stereo stolen, every appliance that breaks, etc, with the mentality that the premiums that they pay each month are somehow going into some "insurance savings" account for them and that they have the "right" to get at least as much out of it as they put in!  That's absolutely ridiculous thinking and makes no sense at all.

KenCasper, you can do that.  It's called "self-insurance".  For example, for autos, all you have to do is demonstrate that you have enough liquid funds to meet the minimum liability limits to protect others in case you get in an accident.  If you have that, you don't need auto liability insurance - you're "self-insuring".

[yellowmonkey]

Premise: While shopping at the local Wally-World I returned to my vehicle to find that it had been unlocked (probably using a slimjim) and the stereo stolen (a clean job if I do say so myself, but still thievery).

I go home, file a police report, and prepare to file an insurance claim. "Stop" warns my mother. As it happens, making any kind of damage, theft, or other common claim will cause my insurance premiums to go up.

So here I am between a rock and a hard place. I can be reimbursed $100 by my insurance and get a new cheap stereo; subsequently, however, I will end up paying like $300 in extra premiums over the next 6 months or whatever.
Conversely I can negate filing an insurance claim and replace my own stereo for somewhere around $100. What is insurance for?

I ask you, who is the worse thief?

P.S. Knowing that the police could do nothing, I drove around the parking lot looking for someone to beat into the ground (alas I could find no one). If only I had the opportunity to meet my bandit friend. I think I would have first asked him for the stereo back though, just for kicks.
It suxorz to be me today.