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Remove an Accident Surcharge

Are You Being Charged for an Accident? Get Rid of the Surcharge Early. Here’s how!

If you have a chargeable accident on your insurance, you might be able to get the surcharge removed before your insurance company normally would.

Here is the truth about surcharges. I am going to give you a real world example of an accident surcharge on a policy.

Let’s say it is April of 2009 and your wife hits an elderly driver in the Target parking lot (hypothetically speaking, of course). Let’s also say that your insurance policy renewal is in May (semi-annual renewal on this 6 month policy would be in November). If the accident resulted in enough damage to be considered a chargeable accident ($1,000 in this case), there would be a not-so-nice accident surcharge beginning on the May 2009 renewal. That accident surcharge is not insignificant and will last for 39 months from the date of the incident.

If you do the math, 39 months ends in July of 2012. Guess what, the policy renewal is in May and November. Because the 39 month period falls during the policy period, the surcharge will remain on the policy until the following renewal. So the insured will be paying a surcharge until November of 2012. This is technically 4 months longer than the 39 month chargeable period.

Here is How to get rid of your Surcharge

Your current company is charging through November, but to any other company, your surcharge is past 39 months and is now outside of the period of chargeability. To remove this surcharge in July 2012, you simply need to change companies. I know, not always so simple, but in this electronic age 95% of the work can be done with a phone call or a few e-mails. In fact, head over to our auto insurance quote form to compare your rates among multiple agents who are competing for your business.

The Insurance Industry and the Digital Future

Before you get upset that it is the industry norm to overcharge for a number of months, understand that this is also the case for discounts (with most insurance companies). If your discount is mid-term, you will reap the benefit of that until your following renewal. This is a practice that is changing, and not in the policy holder favor, I might add.

Because we are in the electronic age, it is completely feasible for an insurance company to remove surcharges and discounts mid-stream. It might not be the norm now, but it only takes one major carrier who begins this practice to get the entire insurance industry to shift.