Major Insurers Offer 5 Year Accident Forgiveness Policy
All-State has been touting their accident forgiveness policy, going so far as to use President David Palmer as their spokesperson (24 rules!), but did you know a lot of companies offer this benefit? In fact, All-State’s accident forgiveness plan is only better than the competition if you have their more expensive levels of insurance (7-15% more expensive). With their standard policy, you get the same level of forgiveness as most other insurers - one forgiveness in the last five years.
Who else offers one free accident every five years? Basically every one else.
Here’s GEICO’s accident forgiveness policy:
Accident forgiveness eligibility — In most states, many customers who haven’t had an at-fault accident in the previous five years of being insured with GEICO may qualify for accident forgiveness. GEICO will not increase your premium as the result of your first at-fault accident after qualifying for this benefit. (source)
You’ll notice the “most states” part (which will appear in every insurer’s mention of accident forgiveness), that’s actually not a restriction made by Geico but one made by the state regulators themselves. Some states have regulations that change the rules regarding accident forgiveness but a lot of other insurers offer accident forgiveness for five years of insurance.
That’s one more reason, outside of potential loyalty discounts, why you might want to stick with one insurer instead of going with the cheapest option every few years.
Does anyone know if accident forgiveness is required by some state laws? I see mention of how the rules for accident forgiveness depend on state law but I couldn’t seem to find anything for Maryland when I searched.
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Tags: Allstate, Auto Insurance, Cars, Geico
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There are 8 comments, add your thoughts now!
In Georgia, there is a required formula for figuring out the depreciated value of a vehicle if it has been involved in an accident that gets paid to the person hit (I don’t know about multiple vehicles, though).
Don’t forget that these insurance agencies are corporations with profit in mind. Sure accident forgiveness sounds good, but they are not giving this away. You are paying extra for it and they are making a profit selling it.
All State charges you more for accident forgiveness before the first five years but all the others don’t. While I do agree insurance companies are corps with profit in mind, this particular policy isn’t so insidious.
It seems that the auto insurance companies are trying to take credit for a certain State’s law. I am an insurance agent and know that thats not the case here in California. If you have an at-fault accident, you’ll be charged for it. I’ve seen the auto insurance commercials that talk about accident forgiveness in California by Allstate.
I work with allstate insurance and can tell you a few things. You would be looking at a very minor premium increase (in fact with our platinum plan would give you a check for 5% of your premium! This means for a very low 2% or your 6 month premium (which if you have EZ-PAY would be discounted) you now have unlimited accident forgivness. Deductible rewards for a collision($100 dollars from sign up and $100 every year you go without an accident), and a refund check!! NOT a BAD deal!
All day long i talk to people with $2-3,000 claims and they say they wish they had our product. My customers who do (89%) will never worry about their rates again!
No trick, scams or anything else just a great protection that is affordable!
31 years with 21st Century Insurance. No tickets. Three accidents in 31 years - only one of which was my fault. Just happened this January - they raised my rate over $300 dollars. Disgusting. Who and how do they determine how much they will raise your rate? Why would anyone remain loyal to a company after that kind of treatment, after paying them thousands of dollars for 31 years???
I have Allstate with the accident forgiveness Platinum Plus policy and my teenage son backed into somebody in a driveway and caused less than $1000 damage. Allstate promptly increased my premium by almost 25% by adding on an accident surcharge to my policy. I have five cars insured on Allstate and they increased the premium on every single one. Doesn’t sound like accidnet forgiveness to me.
Ive heard so many stories like yours, joe, along with comparisons between the percentage allstate charges and the free coverage of others. Laws are still enforced, however, and there has to be some fine print somewhere that you didnt read, otherwise theres no way what they did was legal, and you could take them to court if it wasnt.
Perhaps Im being a little naive about the trust we put in our system to bring us justice though. This is america, after all.
-Stigmata
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