Q: What if my insurance company wrongly assigned fault to me & then reversed its decision upon investigation by the insurance commission? They also used my uninsured motorist coverage to settle medical claims when I had medical payments coverage. Their subrogation division then sent me a letter saying they were unable to recover from the responsible party insurance company.

A: First, you need to see if you can’t get a hold of a claims manager to get an explanation for all of this. Tell them that you wanted to talk to them first to get it sorted out before going to the insurance commissioner again about the same claim.

If your insurance company refuses to help you and things just don’t seem right still, it’s time to call the commissioner again.

Can you get an insurance refund from a  down payment you already paid?

Q:  I renewed my insurance with U.S. agencies and I put a down payment of 152.00 down on Jan. 7…. Now on Jan 12 I got another policy with state farm for a cheaper price and more coverage….Am I entitled to get my 152.00 back from Us Agencies????

A: It all depends on your renewal date.

If your renewal date is after January 12th, then yes you are entitled to the full insurance refund of $152.00 back (minus any fees the old company charges). If your renewal date was before January 12th, then you won’t get the full $152.00 back, your old company will instead pro-rate your insurance refund for the days you were not covered by them.

Who finds out about a hit-and-run accident?

Q: My coworker hit a bicyclist and nothing has been reported. His car is damaged. Will his insurance company know that he did a hit and run? What happens next?

A: Well my question would be why is this a hit-and-run accident? Did your friend hit the bicyclist and then take off without making sure that person was okay and without giving them his insurance information?

His insurance company will not find out if there was no police report filed and the other person doesn’t file a claim. His insurance company will also not find out if he doesn’t put in a claim for the damages to his vehicle.

While this may be good news, if he did indeed flee from the scene of an accident the damages to his vehicle can link him to the accident and then he can expect a whole lot of legal trouble in the future.  In other words, his insurance company finding out about the accident will be the least of his worries.

Talking to a live person is best to solve a de-insured mystery.

Question: After I am ready to put insurance back on after being de-insured, what do I need to do? Also I put the de-insure on and the website said the car is already de-insured even though I have been driving it for months, does not really make sense. As the website does not give me any dates showing when the car is de-insured and in this case no reference number either.

Answer: This is definitely something you need to contact the Motor Vehicle Division about immediately. Talk to a live person and have them look through your records to figure out what is going on before you get in trouble for driving around a vehicle that is supposed to be showing as insured and not de-insured.

Hitting a car at 17 doesn’t mean an automatic insurance rate increase.

Question: I was in a little fender bender in October of this year. I was in bumper to bumper traffic and I accidently bumped the car in front of me. There were minor scratches and I placed my finger across them and it was almost as if they smeared off but there were about 3 minor scratches. We didn’t make a police report the women just called her insurance company and claimed. I’m 17 years old and I’ve only had my license since June of this year. Btw I have no tickets and I’ve never been in an accident. What will happen to my insurance? Will it increase rapidly?

Answer: Okay, this is a great question to get right now because it is pretty similar to the last question we answered. HOWEVER, the difference here is the amount of damage that was caused and the fact that a police report was NOT filed.  One, there will be no record on your DMV report, so that will not affect your insurance rates. Two, the damage is so minor that even if it does come up on a C.L.U.E report for you, the amount of damage puts it under the threshold that insurance companies usually use to decide whether or not it will affect your rates.

So most likely you will not see your insurance rates go up, but each insurance company is different so you won’t know for sure until your next renewal.