So they had the dumpsters moved out into the parking lot for some landscaping. I forgot and backed right into one. It damaged the tailgate, bed side and plastic trim on my 2007 avalanche. Will they even cover it being my own stupid fault? This will probably be 2 grand to fix.
Yes they will cover it, less your deductible, if you have collision. The last time I did something stupid like that, I paid it out of pocket, but the parts and paint were less than a grand.
I think our deductible is 500. We have full coverage on it. I think I am just going to let them handle it all if they will. I don't want to even look at it or think about it at this point.
They'll gladly pay it but it can't do anything good for your insurance costs in the future. I'd say it's generally better to pay out of pocket whenever you can afford it.
Edit: Especially since you can then choose who does the repair - insurance companies sometimes like to save themselves money by having bargain-basement hack fixes done. The biggest difference to you is whether you pay with cash, credit, or a loan that you never stop paying until you stop driving - that is, increased car insurance costs. The latter scares the E36 M3 out of me, for sure.
Luckily, insurance does not specifically exclude stupidity!
Your choice. My recommendation would be to go to a shop and get an estimate. If it's higher than you feel comfortable paying, turn it into insurance. If it's not, then do it out of pocket. Just be sure to do it in the near future.
You can ALWAYS chose the repair shop, insurance company or not. Insurance companies do not have the right to tell you where to fix your car. They can offer and recommend shops (which may well be the same shop you chose to go to on your own), but you always have the final say. If you do chose to go through insurance, I would get a list of the shops they recommend. Many of them are extremely good shops, and typically when you go that route you get a lifetime guarantee on the repairs.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm not sure which route I am going to take. I will get some pictures of the damage up later so you can all point and laugh at me.
You guys have insurance on your dumpsters? Weird.
Keith Tanner wrote: You guys have insurance on your dumpsters? Weird.
Just cover it yourself. When you replace the parts, cover them completely with rhinoliner. Now you can run into all the dumpsters you want.
Ewww. I hate rhino liner.
Klayfish has the right idea. Especially if you do the math.
Last time I made a claim again the collision coverage was when my wife caught the end of a pickup bumper on the side of the van pulling into a parking space.
The estimate was almost $4k to replace the door and quarter panel. The parts came from Kia for the 2010 Sedona.
Even with the surcharges and increased premium, I came out ahead going with the insurance. Because of the insurance companies forgiveness policy the total cost for the insurance increase was probably 1/2 of the cost of the repair.
So going with the insurance cost me less than $2000 over the course of three years for the $500 deductible plus approx $1200-1500 in increase premiums.
That saved me $1500-$2000 vs the $3500-$4000 for the repair and I got something for all the money paid over the years for insurance.
If the damage had been under $3k the insurance increase would have been less as well. I believe that is the cutoff between major and minor accidents.
I honestly gave up on comp and collision, but that is because all of my cars are either too worthless, or easy to fix myself. The last time I used my insurance for something like this, it was a $500 deductible on an $1800 repair. I added up all of my premiums I had paid for a year and then calculated how much I would be paying with the higher premiums and it was pretty much a wash. I would rather do the work myself (or find a friend who does it well) and keep my insurance record cleaner. It sure has paid off looking at my current premiums.
But, truth be told, I have never had an at-fault claim in my life. (knock on wood).
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