8 ms·

Always buy the underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage. My daughter was hit by a car, the main payout was from my insurance, and not from the person who hit h

Always buy the underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage. My daughter was hit by a car, the main payout was from my insurance, and not from the person who hit her. Liability is everything, the cost of the car is nothing. Get the umbrella policy on your house. Buy liability insurance when you rent a car. It's not just the medical bills- it's also the legal damages.

warner25 3y ago
> Always buy the underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage. Agreed. I'm a personal finance nerd, and it felt like an epiphany when I discovered this a few years ago, because it's rarely discussed but seems so important. I max out our UM/UIM coverage now. Side note: My wife is a stay-at-home mom and I've long wished for a disability insurance product that would cover the economic value that she provides, i.e. cover the cost of daycare / after-school care if she couldn't care for the kids. As far as I can tell, there's no such product for people who aren't wage earners. The closest thing I've found is UM/UIM coverage, since the most likely cause of disability is a car crash. Presumably it would pay for at least some of the other things beyond medical bills. > Buy liability insurance when you rent a car. Why do you say this instead of just relying on the liability coverage under your regular auto insurance?
- jhallenworld 3y ago
  Getting the umbrella is good, because during the process they review the rest of your insurance (at least they did for me). >stay at home mom I'm in the same situation, it sure would be nice. We do both have life insurance at least. >Why do you say this instead of just relying on the liability coverage under your regular auto insurance? To be careful. If you don't buy it, make absolutely sure that your own auto insurance covers it. [also people who don't own a car won't have auto insurance..]
- daydream 3y ago
  >Side note: My wife is a stay-at-home mom and I've long wished for a disability insurance product that would cover the economic value that she provides, i.e. cover the cost of daycare / after-school care if she couldn't care for the kids. As far as I can tell, there's no such product for people who aren't wage earners. AD&D (accidental death and disability) is the closest you’ll come. It’s most commonly offered by workplaces I believe, and is not expensive. On the flip side the situations it pays out are pretty narrow. The only other alternative I know of is life insurance but of course that covers death, not disability.
  - warner25 3y ago
    > AD&D... most commonly offered by workplaces Like the employer offers coverage that extends to a non-employee spouse, like family health insurance? I remember finding one product sold to individuals including stay-at-home parents a few years ago by Bright Peak Financial. Now I can't even get their website to load to see any details, so maybe it doesn't even exist anymore, but the coverage limits were pitifully low. Like it would cover only fraction of our childcare costs, and only for a time measured in months. We definitely have term life coverage on her that will run until our youngest kid is a teenager.
    - daydream 3y ago
      >Like the employer offers coverage that extends to a non-employee spouse, like family health insurance? Yes. I believe it’s typically offered for just you, you+spouse, or you+family - like health insurance. Lots of info on Google.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    > AD&D (accidental death and disability) is the closest you’ll come. It’s most commonly offered by workplaces I believe, and is not expensive. On the flip side the situations it pays out are pretty narrow. This is the problem. Those policies usually cover “unable to work at all” which is extremely narrow (some won’t pay out if you can do any job anywhere, even if you were a doctor lawyer 10 programmer CEO before). You can find a policy to cover stay at home spouses, but they’re often somewhat custom, expensive, and only pay out until children are X age. Long-term care can also be added, even more.
- ecommerceguy 3y ago
  >>My wife is a stay-at-home mom and I've long wished for a disability insurance product that would cover the economic value that she provides, i.e. cover the cost of daycare / after-school care if she couldn't care for the kids. There is absolutely disability insurance for homemakers and non income spouses in the USA. I've written that exact policy both individual and for employers / employees.
swozey 3y ago
If you get a loan on a vehicle also get GAP insurance. It's stupid cheap, $10-20/mo. I had a car stolen and totaled that I owed $26k on. USAA, who were absolutely horrible to deal with after 20+ years of using them, was only willing to give me the "Local cash market value" - this means they open up craigslist and look for the cheapest private party car of your model. This is not hyperbole. They gave me $15k. I went from a beautiful 2008 Lexus IS350 to a $2500 2001 Honda CRV because I had no money to buy a car with other than the cash I had left over in my bank through bo fault of mine. It was actually even worse with lot fees after the police found the car and impounded it, etc. But that's another story. GAP covers that, and car thefts are up at a massive scale now. I get GAP on every car and if the dealer has some anti-theft option I get that too. I bought a car last week and I think it was $900 and if the car is ever stolen or wheels stolen over 5 years I get something like $5k cash. I'm also going to put a DroneMobile system in it. Don't get a car stolen. Garage it if you can. I used to have that "USAA will cover me! hehe! no worries if it's stolen!" naivete until it happened. I seriously can't explain how rude they were to me. Had a fraud investigator come to my house and grill me in the most despicably rude way possible. They acted like I tried to get it stolen or something to get out of the car payment. "I've had this car since it was new, never missed a payment, and I I'm still employed making $YZ money. Why would I try to get out of my payment by .. hiding my car? Leaving it open to steal?" I'm not kidding. It got stolen when I walked into a Walgreens to buy a frozen pizza.
- cityofdelusion 3y ago
  I work in insurance. Local cash value is normal. It’s not a Craigslist lookup, it uses industry standard published tables and is the same across all companies. People are frequently shocked that they are underwater on their cars so much, but it’s worth what it’s worth, car insurance has no reason to cover loans. As you found out, GAP is insurance on the loan itself, most lenders will strongly encourage GAP coverage or even mandate it.
  - mysterydip 3y ago
    where do they get the data to publish in the industry standard tables?
eduction 3y ago
I’m sorry this happened to your daughter and you! As someone with two kids, can I ask, does health insurance not work in this situation? I ask partly because at the moment we own no cars. If health insurance doesn’t cover it I’m wondering how we should insure.
- jhallenworld 3y ago
  So she was a pedestrian when she was hit (she's OK, but messed up two years of her life). This makes me wonder if it's worth owning some crappy car even if you never drive it, just for the privilege of having auto insurance... Anyway, yes health covers it but they are first in the line getting reimbursed, even before the lawyer- which I think sucks, I mean what am I paying them for?
  - balaji1 3y ago
    > but they are first in the line getting reimbursed Sorry about the incident. Do you mean the health-insurance company tries to get reimbursed? From who? the auto-insurance of the other driver?
  - yodon 3y ago
    You can get car insurance without a car. It's inexpensive and available from most (many?) insurance companies.
  - sowbug 3y ago
    > I mean what am I paying them for? The reimbursement right that the insurance company has is called subrogation. The basic idea is that whoever was at fault shouldn't be better off because the injured party had insurance; otherwise it would be rational for individuals to not have insurance as long as most other people do have insurance. Subrogation means someone will still sue you into the ground even if the person you hurt was made whole by insurance. There can be many links in the insurance chain before you get to the person who actually caused the problem, and in your case it sounds like UMC was the final link. At least, this is the stated public policy reason for subrogation. You are right that your health insurer got reimbursed even though they promised to cover your loved ones, and that feels weird.
EvanAnderson 3y ago
Agreement. My wife was in a crash with an uninsured (and, as it turns out, unlicensed and with outstanding warrants) driver. Everyone was uninjured, thankfully. Our car was a total loss. The only monetary payout we got was our uninsured motorist coverage. (Seeing the lady who hit her get arrested at the scene and taken to jail was nice. Our insurance company pursuing her in court was also nice, too, though having not been thru the experience before we were taken aback when my wife unexpectedly received a summons to testify.) I max'ed out our uninsured driver coverage after that.
- fortran77 3y ago
  Why is it so hard to go after the person's assets? In a just world, everything she owns should be sold and the proceeds handed over to her victim.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    These people usually have no assets. They own nothing and are happy. Or in jail. It’s called being judgement proof and basically lets you ignore civil penalties.
    - selimthegrim 3y ago
      Oh my God is this why the city of New Orleans doesn’t pay squat on judgments?
    - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
      A decade ago, I was "judgment proof" after a decade of drug dealing and general degeneracy... the person I was then allowed me to be the phenomenal asshole we are all capable of channeling: fuck you, I got nothing! "Blood from a stone." Life is so much simpler, yet more satisfying, now that I've lived long enough to secure away a few assets. God willing, we'll all live long enough to not be the pieces of shit our youth/ignorance once allowed. ---- I read the other day that 20% of male Millenials are currently uninsured.
cbruns 3y ago
Know your state laws. Uninsured often only applies if you can prove they are uninsured. Uninsured people will hit and run, so if you don't catch their plate, you are out of luck. Make sure you have a dash cam. And if you do catch them, good luck getting any compensation from someone with no insurance. You will likely have to sue them just to collect 10 dollars from them for a couple months before they disappear. Best case scenario, they go to jail.
- pests 3y ago
  Isn't best scenario is you get your money back? Why wish for people to be imprisoned?
  - mynameishere 3y ago
    Why wish for people to be imprisoned? Hit and run can be a grave crime. You might be leaving someone for dead.
  - fortran77 3y ago
    So they don't do it again! He wants to protect _you_ and you're mad about it?
  - advisedwang 3y ago
    So that there's an incentive for people not to hit and run.
    - pests 3y ago
      Seems to be working eh
  - Ferret7446 3y ago
    That scenario doesn't happen; you can't get money from someone who has no money. (Theoretically, you might be able to get money back if it's a rich person who loves the thrill of driving without insurance or something. Theoretically, you could also find a winning lottery ticket on the sidewalk after the crash.)

warner25 3y ago

> Always buy the underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage. Agreed. I'm a personal finance nerd, and it felt like an epiphany when I discovered this a few years ago, because it's rarely discussed but seems so important. I max out our UM/UIM coverage now. Side note: My wife is a stay-at-home mom and I've long wished for a disability insurance product that would cover the economic value that she provides, i.e. cover the cost of daycare / after-school care if she couldn't care for the kids. As far as I can tell, there's no such product for people who aren't wage earners. The closest thing I've found is UM/UIM coverage, since the most likely cause of disability is a car crash. Presumably it would pay for at least some of the other things beyond medical bills. > Buy liability insurance when you rent a car. Why do you say this instead of just relying on the liability coverage under your regular auto insurance?

jhallenworld 3y ago
Getting the umbrella is good, because during the process they review the rest of your insurance (at least they did for me). >stay at home mom I'm in the same situation, it sure would be nice. We do both have life insurance at least. >Why do you say this instead of just relying on the liability coverage under your regular auto insurance? To be careful. If you don't buy it, make absolutely sure that your own auto insurance covers it. [also people who don't own a car won't have auto insurance..]
daydream 3y ago
>Side note: My wife is a stay-at-home mom and I've long wished for a disability insurance product that would cover the economic value that she provides, i.e. cover the cost of daycare / after-school care if she couldn't care for the kids. As far as I can tell, there's no such product for people who aren't wage earners. AD&D (accidental death and disability) is the closest you’ll come. It’s most commonly offered by workplaces I believe, and is not expensive. On the flip side the situations it pays out are pretty narrow. The only other alternative I know of is life insurance but of course that covers death, not disability.
- warner25 3y ago
  > AD&D... most commonly offered by workplaces Like the employer offers coverage that extends to a non-employee spouse, like family health insurance? I remember finding one product sold to individuals including stay-at-home parents a few years ago by Bright Peak Financial. Now I can't even get their website to load to see any details, so maybe it doesn't even exist anymore, but the coverage limits were pitifully low. Like it would cover only fraction of our childcare costs, and only for a time measured in months. We definitely have term life coverage on her that will run until our youngest kid is a teenager.
  - daydream 3y ago
    >Like the employer offers coverage that extends to a non-employee spouse, like family health insurance? Yes. I believe it’s typically offered for just you, you+spouse, or you+family - like health insurance. Lots of info on Google.
- bombcar 3y ago
  > AD&D (accidental death and disability) is the closest you’ll come. It’s most commonly offered by workplaces I believe, and is not expensive. On the flip side the situations it pays out are pretty narrow. This is the problem. Those policies usually cover “unable to work at all” which is extremely narrow (some won’t pay out if you can do any job anywhere, even if you were a doctor lawyer 10 programmer CEO before). You can find a policy to cover stay at home spouses, but they’re often somewhat custom, expensive, and only pay out until children are X age. Long-term care can also be added, even more.
ecommerceguy 3y ago
>>My wife is a stay-at-home mom and I've long wished for a disability insurance product that would cover the economic value that she provides, i.e. cover the cost of daycare / after-school care if she couldn't care for the kids. There is absolutely disability insurance for homemakers and non income spouses in the USA. I've written that exact policy both individual and for employers / employees.

swozey 3y ago

If you get a loan on a vehicle also get GAP insurance. It's stupid cheap, $10-20/mo. I had a car stolen and totaled that I owed $26k on. USAA, who were absolutely horrible to deal with after 20+ years of using them, was only willing to give me the "Local cash market value" - this means they open up craigslist and look for the cheapest private party car of your model. This is not hyperbole. They gave me $15k. I went from a beautiful 2008 Lexus IS350 to a $2500 2001 Honda CRV because I had no money to buy a car with other than the cash I had left over in my bank through bo fault of mine. It was actually even worse with lot fees after the police found the car and impounded it, etc. But that's another story. GAP covers that, and car thefts are up at a massive scale now. I get GAP on every car and if the dealer has some anti-theft option I get that too. I bought a car last week and I think it was $900 and if the car is ever stolen or wheels stolen over 5 years I get something like $5k cash. I'm also going to put a DroneMobile system in it. Don't get a car stolen. Garage it if you can. I used to have that "USAA will cover me! hehe! no worries if it's stolen!" naivete until it happened. I seriously can't explain how rude they were to me. Had a fraud investigator come to my house and grill me in the most despicably rude way possible. They acted like I tried to get it stolen or something to get out of the car payment. "I've had this car since it was new, never missed a payment, and I I'm still employed making $YZ money. Why would I try to get out of my payment by .. hiding my car? Leaving it open to steal?" I'm not kidding. It got stolen when I walked into a Walgreens to buy a frozen pizza.

cityofdelusion 3y ago
I work in insurance. Local cash value is normal. It’s not a Craigslist lookup, it uses industry standard published tables and is the same across all companies. People are frequently shocked that they are underwater on their cars so much, but it’s worth what it’s worth, car insurance has no reason to cover loans. As you found out, GAP is insurance on the loan itself, most lenders will strongly encourage GAP coverage or even mandate it.
- mysterydip 3y ago
  where do they get the data to publish in the industry standard tables?

eduction 3y ago

I’m sorry this happened to your daughter and you! As someone with two kids, can I ask, does health insurance not work in this situation? I ask partly because at the moment we own no cars. If health insurance doesn’t cover it I’m wondering how we should insure.

jhallenworld 3y ago
So she was a pedestrian when she was hit (she's OK, but messed up two years of her life). This makes me wonder if it's worth owning some crappy car even if you never drive it, just for the privilege of having auto insurance... Anyway, yes health covers it but they are first in the line getting reimbursed, even before the lawyer- which I think sucks, I mean what am I paying them for?
- balaji1 3y ago
  > but they are first in the line getting reimbursed Sorry about the incident. Do you mean the health-insurance company tries to get reimbursed? From who? the auto-insurance of the other driver?
- yodon 3y ago
  You can get car insurance without a car. It's inexpensive and available from most (many?) insurance companies.
- sowbug 3y ago
  > I mean what am I paying them for? The reimbursement right that the insurance company has is called subrogation. The basic idea is that whoever was at fault shouldn't be better off because the injured party had insurance; otherwise it would be rational for individuals to not have insurance as long as most other people do have insurance. Subrogation means someone will still sue you into the ground even if the person you hurt was made whole by insurance. There can be many links in the insurance chain before you get to the person who actually caused the problem, and in your case it sounds like UMC was the final link. At least, this is the stated public policy reason for subrogation. You are right that your health insurer got reimbursed even though they promised to cover your loved ones, and that feels weird.

EvanAnderson 3y ago

Agreement. My wife was in a crash with an uninsured (and, as it turns out, unlicensed and with outstanding warrants) driver. Everyone was uninjured, thankfully. Our car was a total loss. The only monetary payout we got was our uninsured motorist coverage. (Seeing the lady who hit her get arrested at the scene and taken to jail was nice. Our insurance company pursuing her in court was also nice, too, though having not been thru the experience before we were taken aback when my wife unexpectedly received a summons to testify.) I max'ed out our uninsured driver coverage after that.

fortran77 3y ago
Why is it so hard to go after the person's assets? In a just world, everything she owns should be sold and the proceeds handed over to her victim.
- bombcar 3y ago
  These people usually have no assets. They own nothing and are happy. Or in jail. It’s called being judgement proof and basically lets you ignore civil penalties.
  - selimthegrim 3y ago
    Oh my God is this why the city of New Orleans doesn’t pay squat on judgments?
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    A decade ago, I was "judgment proof" after a decade of drug dealing and general degeneracy... the person I was then allowed me to be the phenomenal asshole we are all capable of channeling: fuck you, I got nothing! "Blood from a stone." Life is so much simpler, yet more satisfying, now that I've lived long enough to secure away a few assets. God willing, we'll all live long enough to not be the pieces of shit our youth/ignorance once allowed. ---- I read the other day that 20% of male Millenials are currently uninsured.

cbruns 3y ago

Know your state laws. Uninsured often only applies if you can prove they are uninsured. Uninsured people will hit and run, so if you don't catch their plate, you are out of luck. Make sure you have a dash cam. And if you do catch them, good luck getting any compensation from someone with no insurance. You will likely have to sue them just to collect 10 dollars from them for a couple months before they disappear. Best case scenario, they go to jail.

pests 3y ago
Isn't best scenario is you get your money back? Why wish for people to be imprisoned?
- mynameishere 3y ago
  Why wish for people to be imprisoned? Hit and run can be a grave crime. You might be leaving someone for dead.
- fortran77 3y ago
  So they don't do it again! He wants to protect _you_ and you're mad about it?
- advisedwang 3y ago
  So that there's an incentive for people not to hit and run.
  - pests 3y ago
    Seems to be working eh
- Ferret7446 3y ago
  That scenario doesn't happen; you can't get money from someone who has no money. (Theoretically, you might be able to get money back if it's a rich person who loves the thrill of driving without insurance or something. Theoretically, you could also find a winning lottery ticket on the sidewalk after the crash.)