car insurance question

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Boeingflyer

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#447048 9-Mar-2011 18:32

I brought a car for $12,000 and it was worth more but the insurance company would only agree value it for $12,000. That is fair enough as i know when in the future that it will not drop in agreed value and if so all i need to do is go to some dealers and get some quotes.

Did you know that insurance companies have paid a crap load of cash to scientist to come up with a system that can work out how much alcohol was in your system when you crash even thou you may not have been tested for hours after the crash. So even if the police can't prove it, they can.
They can also access all your personal records like bank accounts etc, to find out how much you spent at a bar and can also get the video footage of you buying the drinks etc off the bar.

In the end you play by their rules as they have a bigger budget than you for court cost.

Insurance is another form of gambling. I'll give you so much $$ a month to say that i will crash my car this month. You don't crash, you lose!!! you crash you win!!!!

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richms

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#447092 9-Mar-2011 21:45

jbard:

This has happened to two people i know. It's actually pretty common and people think they are being really clever fooling the system when all you are actually doing is throwing away money.

They have some very clever techniques to check if you where the owner or not - things like checking who paid for wof/rego's - whos card has paid for petrol and other things as well.

If you are the owner and say your not i can guarantee they will find out if you crash.

And yet people call me paranoid for not using eftpos when cash is available.

Richard rich.ms

martyyn

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#447273 10-Mar-2011 13:38

It has to be said, there are some rather naive comments in this thread.

To think you can claim to be the secondary driver when in fact youre the primary driver is just daft. Insurance companies are like sharks. There is no way you will get anything from them which they dont want to give. But its the kiwi way isnt it, to try and pull a fast one over the big nasty corporation.

Whats the first thing to pop into your head (thinking as an insurer who's job it is to think the worst of any claim) when you see someone who says they are the secondary driver but have the same name as their father ? I can guarantee it will be 'I bet this one thinks he can fool us' !

Im not sure including your excess in the amount is a good idea either. Youre just increasing your premiums and I seriously doubt any insurance company is going to pay you out the full amount if you claim. Any insurance agent who tells you otherwise is just looking to increase their commission.

The ONLY solution to insurance is to insure the item for its current market value regardless of what you paid. If an insurance company says otherwise go somewhere else because its entirely unrealistic for them to value an item based on a single transaction.

If you have something rare get yourself an agreed value policy with the value confirmed by an appropriate independant authority and in writing from the insurance company themselves and dont forget to re-evaluate the item on a regular basis and change your insurance value accordingly. The $4500 LCD you bought three years ago is now worth $1000 and $1000 is all you will get when you make a claim. So if youre still paying a premium based on $4500 you are paying way too much.

Finally, dont ever make the mistake of thinking an insurance company doesnt know the value of an item. The CSR on the end of the phone may not, but you can bet your house someone who does know will make the necessary valuations if you do make a claim.

One of my best friends is in the insurance business, as are two people Ive known for over 20 years, and I wouldnt trust them as far as I could kick them. So much so I wont insure anything through my friend because I know Ill be the one to lose should I need to claim and I dont want to end up blaming him thinking he was looking after me.

bazzer

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#447323 10-Mar-2011 15:08

martyyn: It has to be said, there are some rather naive comments in this thread.

To think you can claim to be the secondary driver when in fact youre the primary driver is just daft. Insurance companies are like sharks. There is no way you will get anything from them which they dont want to give. But its the kiwi way isnt it, to try and pull a fast one over the big nasty corporation.

Whats the first thing to pop into your head (thinking as an insurer who's job it is to think the worst of any claim) when you see someone who says they are the secondary driver but have the same name as their father ? I can guarantee it will be 'I bet this one thinks he can fool us' !

Im not sure including your excess in the amount is a good idea either. Youre just increasing your premiums and I seriously doubt any insurance company is going to pay you out the full amount if you claim. Any insurance agent who tells you otherwise is just looking to increase their commission.

The ONLY solution to insurance is to insure the item for its current market value regardless of what you paid. If an insurance company says otherwise go somewhere else because its entirely unrealistic for them to value an item based on a single transaction.

If you have something rare get yourself an agreed value policy with the value confirmed by an appropriate independant authority and in writing from the insurance company themselves and dont forget to re-evaluate the item on a regular basis and change your insurance value accordingly. The $4500 LCD you bought three years ago is now worth $1000 and $1000 is all you will get when you make a claim. So if youre still paying a premium based on $4500 you are paying way too much.

Finally, dont ever make the mistake of thinking an insurance company doesnt know the value of an item. The CSR on the end of the phone may not, but you can bet your house someone who does know will make the necessary valuations if you do make a claim.

One of my best friends is in the insurance business, as are two people Ive known for over 20 years, and I wouldnt trust them as far as I could kick them. So much so I wont insure anything through my friend because I know Ill be the one to lose should I need to claim and I dont want to end up blaming him thinking he was looking after me.

The problem is these things only become a problem at claim time and inevitably people take the opinion that the insurance company doesn't want to pay the claim. "They took our details and our premiums, why shouldn't they pay out? It's not my fault!". It's probably at least inadvertant failure to disclose, and potentially fraudulent.

LennonNZ

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#447328 10-Mar-2011 15:16

"Did you know that insurance companies have paid a crap load of cash to scientist to come up with a system that can work out how much alcohol was in your system when you crash even thou you may not have been tested for hours after the crash. So even if the police can't prove it, they can.
They can also access all your personal records like bank accounts etc, to find out how much you spent at a bar and can also get the video footage of you buying the drinks etc off the bar.
"

Have you been watching too much X-Files?? Seriously.. think about what you just said. Did a friend of a friend or a mate tell you all this? Or do you know all this a 100% fact? Proof?

LennonNZ

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#447329 10-Mar-2011 15:16

Boeingflyer

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#447340 10-Mar-2011 16:06

The manager at Henderson AMI told me this while i had a meeting with her about another insurance matter.

LennonNZ

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#447344 10-Mar-2011 16:17

I think they where trying to scare you with lies...

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#447346 10-Mar-2011 16:23

Theyd need some paperwork via the courts to get that info on you.

Pure scare tactics.

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richms

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#447360 10-Mar-2011 17:42

Insurance companies have a widely known record of denying payments for very dodgy reasons on the first go, and just hope that the people they avoid paying out are too stupid to take it any further.

I feel sorry for all those people in Chch with their cars etc stuck in buildings, inaccessible because of the soviet era style blockades preventing people accessing their property, no insurance cover till there is confirmation that the cars are unrecoverable which could be months away while the slow wheels of govt do their things. No rental car cover for that period either for the people I know, as the car is not missing or known to be damaged either.

I can see that they will be using every excuse possible to get out of paying, and they expect you to keep paying for your cover on the car while its not accessible etc.

Richard rich.ms

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#447386 10-Mar-2011 19:20

Fabian: The manager at Henderson AMI told me this while i had a meeting with her about another insurance matter.

that's not entirely wrong, but you were fooled big time!

a) the first bit is called statistics - they know exactly how much they stand to lose on a 24 year old male driving a toyota corolla 4 cylinder 1.0L with modifications to suspension tyres and sound system who has driven for 3 weeks in his entire life living in the suburb of new brighton christchurch.

that's because they have decades worth of data that have been analysed by all kinds of people who knows many formulae for predicting patterns of behaviour and environmental mishaps.

will it happen to this joe blogg? most probably not, but you'll have to pay those guys they hired and in the end it evens out the company's risk and gives them an extra to pay their bosses and investors.

b) the second bit is called private investigators - they do NOT have access to street closed circuit cameras!!!

BUT if you make a claim that exceeds the cost of an investigator (for example $2000) they will hire an investigator to try not to pay you. so they will dig up your past present and future - eg something you posted on facebook about your rendezvous, and it will really look like they had access to KGB files.

c) insurance companies are not dumb fools they are just very smart business people who are betting on your misfortune:

$867/year says you won't crash your car. if you crash they'll pay you a fortune. if you don't crash you stand to lose $867. on their terms.

scuwp

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#447401 10-Mar-2011 20:24

LennonNZ: "Did you know that insurance companies have paid a crap load of cash to scientist to come up with a system that can work out how much alcohol was in your system when you crash even thou you may not have been tested for hours after the crash. So even if the police can't prove it, they can.
They can also access all your personal records like bank accounts etc, to find out how much you spent at a bar and can also get the video footage of you buying the drinks etc off the bar.
"

Have you been watching too much X-Files?? Seriously.. think about what you just said. Did a friend of a friend or a mate tell you all this? Or do you know all this a 100% fact? Proof?

The alcohol back-calculation is actually true and has been used for ages, although I doubt the insurance companies dreamt it up. Used to use it all the time when I was in the 'force', for example to find blood alcohol levels for drivers who took off from crash scenes and weren't found for hours later etc.

As for the personal bank records...yep thats fairy tail stuff, they would need a search warrant or permission from you (maybe thats in your insurance agreement?)

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richms

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#447415 10-Mar-2011 21:30

Remember a lot of what insurance companies use to avoid payout is inconsistancies when people answer leading questions. Same thing that police use when questioning people which is why its best in both cases to just shut up and consult with someone else before answering.

Richard rich.ms

NonprayingMantis

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#447658 11-Mar-2011 18:52

why anybody would want to overinsure is beyond me. it just seems like the most stupid thing to do.

All it means is that you are paying a higher premium, and might not even get paid out the higher amount in the event of a claim.

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