the other day one of my best friends calls me and he's really upset because he's pretty much just lost his job. he works as a delivery driver at a local restaurant nearly full time to pay his way through college. what happened was that his employer had some private company look into his driving record to try and dig up dirt on him. i hear its pretty common for employers to do this... they came back saying that he had an "at fault accident" on a certain day in March, 2006. the restaurant said that he was no longer insurable and that he could either take a lower-paying job as a host or hit the road. the thing was that he had been involved in an accident on that same day in March, but he had gotten rear ended, and in no way/shape/form had he been at fault. he told his employer this, but they pretty much told him there was nothing they could do about it. he went to the DMV and of course they jerked him around for a few days and made him work for it... but eventually, they faxed the info to his employer proving that he had not been at fault.

this past week i realized that my insurance policy is about to expire and it's about time to renew or try to find cheaper insurance. i got a few quotes and Geico was the cheapest. $198/mo. versus the $250 I'm paying with my current company. i told them that i'd had 2 traffic violations in the past 3 years, a speeding and a "failure to obey a traffic control device" (don't even get me started on that one... whole new thread )... but other than that i have no at fault accidents. so i pay for everything and get it all squared away....

yesterday i get an e-mail pretty much saying that upon further review of my driving record my new monthly premium will no longer be $198/mo., but $378 (!) per month. apparently, i have an "at fault accident" on my record from July 8, 2006. the same exact day one of my friend's REAR-ENDED me.... an accident in which i was in no way/shape/form liable for. so NOW this shit it happening to me too. i told Geico this and they told me that they could not rely on my information and that there was pretty much nothing i could do. i told them to eat a dick and just renewed my policy with my original insurance company. i do plan to go to the DMV to attempt to get it straightened out, just to insure that i don't run into this problem in the future. but it PISSES ME OFF!

these companies are just getting together to screw people out of their hard-earned money. who are these people?! i want to know who exactly it is thats telling my friend's employer and my prospective insurance company this bullshit? anyone else had this experience?

 

that sucks sorry to hear

try all state though

 

Same thing happened to me when i need to get new insurance, I was gonna go throught Geico and I had been qouted one price and then a few days later they said that it was going to be more than the original qoute. Its funny cuase if you are a day late they want to cancle your contract even if you have been on top of payments for years but you miss it by one day and they are on your a$$. If its sumthing they have to pay for itll be the end of days before they get the money to you.

 

I like Statefarm and Progressive, have been with both and am still with one now but they have been really great whenever i need them and rates are reasonable

 

state farm and geico both suck @$$... i like my progressive or metlife

 

 

you can't get mad at the insurance companies for this. they charge you a rate based on your dmv and past insurance claim records. if either of those are wrong for whatever reasons, they can't just take your word for it, you have to officially clear it up yourself.

 

she'll tell you to eat dick too......

 

I'll never go back to Geico.

I was with Geico for a while and a buddy has a relative who is an agent for American Family and she quoted me at $100 a month less than Geico for the same coverage.

It pays to shop around.

 

Choicepoint is the name of the company that compiles pretty much all claims info on any given person, and provides that info to any insurance company that asks. It's called a C.L.U.E. report. That report will contain the date of the accident, the coverages that paid out, the ammount, the name of the policyholder at the time, and the driver involved. Depending on the insurance company that reported this info to Choicepoint at the time, they may or may not indicate whether or not you were "at fault". Usually if fault is not displayed on the report, your current company will assume you were "at fault" unless you can provide proof otherwise, which requires either an accident report or a letter from your insurance company's claims department that you were insured by at that time. It can be a hassle but ultimately they have to go by whatever evidence you can provide.

This whole process seems stupid but is necessary to weed out the liars from the good insurance customers. Good luck!!