Insurance (I learned the hard way)

About a year ago I was leaving a clients condo complex and backed into a short yellow concrete pole. This is extra dumb because I have a back up camera. I would like to note that I have an excellent driving record with no accidents. Although, I have donated to the city for speeding on occasion and those school cameras!! I swear there are no children anywhere when those things nab me.

Anyways, I took it to the dealer and the cost to fix it was $2800 because I had managed to hit an area where several different car parts come together. Fortunately I have insurance…right? Also, I never use my insurance and thought that’s what it is for. Do you know how much I pay each year to insurance companies between my cars and houses? Enough to put a kid through state college. It was concluded that my rates would probably go up for my whole family, so I didn’t use it. What I did do is raise all my deductibles, cars and houses, to $1500. If it’s not worth it to make a claim, unless it’s a major incident, there is no reason to have low deductibles. By changing the deductibles on my policies, I saved several hundred dollars per year, which I now scoop into my own savings account for rare yellow pole incidents. Lesson learned!