Robin Schiele recently took a quick trip to Hilton Head, S.C., to pick up her mother and bring her back to Ohio.
Since the Randolph Township woman’s flight was early in the morning, Schiele left her car at the Akron-Canton Airport parking lot and asked her son to come pick it up.
When her son arrived later that day, he was met with a surprise and Schiele has literally gotten a crash lesson in car insurance. What she and I have learned in the interim is definitely worth sharing.
Schiele’s son found his mother’s 2010 Toyota RAV4 being hooked up to a tow truck. Her SUV had been pushed back with such force that it was in the aisle and the front end was severely damaged.
A woman trying to park her daughter’s handicap-accessible van, equipped with hand controls instead of normal foot pedals, crashed into the front of Schiele’s parked car.
Believing that insurance coverage usually follows the vehicle, Schiele phoned the van owner’s insurance to get her vehicle fixed. However, the daughter’s insurer, State Farm, informed Schiele that their policy had a provision with the insurance to be claimed on the driver, not the vehicle’s owner, if the driver is not the owner.
When Schiele called the driver’s insurance, they balked and said it should be the problem of the vehicle owner’s insurance.
That left Schiele in the middle with $2,500 in damages.
I phoned Mitch Wilson, spokesman for the Ohio Insurance Institute, which represents the state’s property and casualty insurance companies, to get some clarification.
Wilson said that all policies vary, but that generally speaking, auto insurance follows the vehicle. So if I borrow my friend’s car and I get into an accident, the claim will be against my friend’s insurance and not mine. But Wilson said exclusions are possible.
So it’s important to know what your insurance covers — for your protection if you are the vehicle owner and for anyone you let borrow your car.
And when you borrow a car, you should similarly make sure you understand what your insurance and the vehicle owner’s insurance covers.
Schiele spent a few stressful days going back and forth between the insurance companies before finally contacting her own insurance company to file a claim. She didn’t want to file a claim on her own insurance since the accident wasn’t her fault and because she didn’t want the claim to count against her and her $500 deductible. Additionally, Schiele’s insurance company offers an incentive on future deductibles if no claims are filed.
But Schiele felt like she was in a Catch-22 situation. She didn’t have the expertise to fight with the other insurance companies and needed a rental vehicle and her car to be fixed.
Eventually, State Farm told Schiele they would fix her vehicle and work it out with the other company, called “subrogating.” That relieved Schiele. Her agent said since the claim wasn’t filed with her own insurance, it would be canceled as if it were never filed.
When I asked Wilson his advice on contacting your own insurance when you are involved in an accident that is not your fault and you don’t intend on filing a claim, Wilson said you can call for clarification. But be clear you’re not filing a claim. Wilson said the call could go like this: “I’m not turning in a claim. I’m asking a coverage question. I’d like to know how this coverage would apply in my situation. How would we go about filing a claim and would this be something you would subrogate? If so, would this be a claim recorded against me.”
If you do end up filing a claim on your own insurance, whether it counts against you depends on the insurer and your claim history, said Wilson. The insurance company will usually subrogate against the other party to get their money back and sometimes if they are successful, they will give you your deductible back, too.
As for State Farm, spokeswoman Angie Rinock confirmed that many of the insurer’s Ohio policies have the provision where an accident would follow the driver’s insurance coverage and not the owner’s coverage. However, there is also another provision that takes into account why the driver was borrowing the car. If the driver was borrowing the car for the owner’s benefit, then State Farm would take that into consideration and may file the claim under the owner’s insurance instead of the driver.
So, for instance, if I was driving my friend’s car because the friend had a broken leg and I was taking the friend somewhere and got into an accident, that might end up being claimed by State Farm under my friend’s insurance. But if I was borrowing the car because my car was broken, then it would follow my insurance.
Credit freeze update
Last Sunday, I offered advice on protecting your credit to ward off potential identity thieves. One of the things you can do is to place credit freezes on your credit reports.
According to Ohio state law, credit freezes cost $5 per person to place and $5 to lift temporarily or permanently. Victims of ID theft can get the freeze for free, with a police report. Keep in mind that while a freeze wards off ID thieves, it also means you will not be able to access your credit unless you temporarily or permanently lift the freeze for $5.
The full column with advice is available online at www.ohio.com/betty
My apologies for only including the Internet links last week. For those who would like to place the freeze by phone or mail, here’s the information:
Equifax: 800-685-1111 (Option 3), Equifax Security Freeze, P.O. Box 105788, Atlanta, GA 30348 or www.equifax.com
Experian: 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742), Experian Security Freeze, P.O. Box 9554, Allen TX 75013 or www.experian.com
TransUnion: 888-909-8872, TransUnion, Fraud Victim Assistance Department, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834 or www.transunion.com
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty