Absolutely you do good. Like any profession/business/person, there are both good people and bad people on both sides of the fence. The tough part for the customer, is trying to find the good person rather than the bad person. Frankly, that’s why I like blogging because it gives my customers/clients an opportunity to learn something about what I believe in and how I hope to be able to help them. Keep up the good work you do and I will try to do the same!

Jim

I know that you may find that statement incredulous but remember – the only time you hear from people is when there is a real problem. My viewpoint is this: I insure about 2000 households who make claims of one sort or another almost 5 times a week. If I don’t call them for follow up, I would never hear from them. I only need to advocate and intervene about half a dozen times a year – hopefully so that they don’t have to call you Point being – there’s a LOT more claim activity than we imagine and most of it seems to be OK. Also figure that this is just MY experience and there are a jillion more insurance agents out here than just me.

As an attorney once said to me – you know, people tend to think lowly of our professions but WE are the first people they come to when they are in trouble.

We ‘do good’ sometimes don’t we?

Dynamite info as it’s always great to get the “inside information” from someone who has worked in the insurance business for many years.

You raise a good point about how every insurance company is different and that has always been one of my greatest frustrations as a practicing attorney trying to give solid advice– how the heck are you supposed to give a black or white answer to an insurance company when every company is different? Most often, I tell my clients we have to carefully read THEIR policy from THEIR company to see what it says. However, even reading the policy doesn’t always give you a definitive answer because often there are additional company policies and procedures that are not defined in the policy. That’s when I have to get on the phone and argue with claims people on behalf of my clients. As one client said to me: “that’s why you get the big bucks”. I sure don’t mind doing my job but it sure doesn’t seem that it should be so complicated but as you said that’s “how it works in the real world”!

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Jim
_________________________________
James B. Reed
Elmira Car Accident Lawyer
Ziff Law Firm, LLP
Mailto: jreed@zifflaw.com
Office: (607)733-8866
Toll-Free: 800-ZIFFLAW (943-3529)
Web: http://www.zifflaw.com
Blogs: NYInjuryLawBlog.com and
NYBikeAccidentBlog.com

If, when and how much is surcharged can vary widely depending on the company you are with and THEIR rules, how long you have been with that company, and the frequency of “activity”.

You are increasingly forgiven with tenure and number of policies with one company.

Most companies will “act” if you have more than two accidents in three years or three “incidents” in five years. An incident is generally defined as any moving violation.

Some companies like Allstate will allow you to “buy” accident forgiveness that will eliminate any surcharge for one or more accidents.

Most companies don’t CARE if you are at fault or not if they pay over $1000 – it still may be chargeable. The only non-chargeable is a non-occupied, hit-while-parked incident.

The worst case scenario is not the threat of being surcharged – it is being dropped. Automatic drops can occur from DWI’s, vehicular manslaughter, or driving on a suspended license regardless of the reason for the suspension, including not paying child support or not keeping insurance in force (imagine that). Once you are dropped by one company it can take 3 to 5 years of spotless driving (and excellent credit) to get back to reasonable insurance rates.

I hope this is informative for your readers. Actual reasons for surcharges should be discussed with their agency.