Using your comprehensive insurance policy.

[670cc]

I've read that the way insurance companies make money is by taking your money and then giving it back to you after it's worked for them.

Sure there is some bit of some people getting more money back than others, but the goal for the insurance companies is to take your money, invest it, and then give you the principle back (you being some collection of people paying for insurance).

Float is where insurance companies make their money.

Insurance companies may make some money that way, but they have huge expenses to pay before the policy holder collective gets their small cut back. State Farm alone has 65,000 employees to pay, 18,000 agents, plus probably thousands more contract employees and outsourced services. All those fairly well paid people go to an office and write software, do emails, have meetings, and talk on the phone. No product comes out of their building; they just move money from one pocket to another.

 

[Beemerphile]

I've read that the way insurance companies make money is by taking your money and then giving it back to you after it's worked for them.

Sure there is some bit of some people getting more money back than others, but the goal for the insurance companies is to take your money, invest it, and then give you the principle back (you being some collection of people paying for insurance).

Float is where insurance companies make their money.

They make a lot more money than float. I was a partner in a company with just over 500 employees. We paid $2.3 million per year in health insurance premiums (employee plus company contributions). We went self-insured and hired an insurance company just to process claims. The first year we paid $500,000 in claims and put the other $1.8 million into reserves. The second year, we had a cancer case that cost over $300,000 and a motorcycle accident (not me) that cost $50,000. We still put $1.4 million into reserves. We invested the reserves and made what you might call "float", but that was a small part of the gains.

Life insurance companies might make a large part of their income on float. I don't think it is so with other types of insurance.

For each person who reports here how they "made out" by having comprehensive insurance, we need to hear from the 20 or 30 who paid premiums with no claims and made it possible.

 

[TN Thunder]

I have collision, comprehensive and uninsured motorist along with a $5,000 medical and roadside assistance. With all of the expensive plastic how can you ride without it. And believe me, you never intend on having an accident. Someone else hits you and they do not have insurance (lawful or not) you will feel the pain of the wreck and the full cost of replacement or repair. Here's a for instance: Sept.1, 2011 I'm sitting on my bike behind a family van that's behind a sedan waiting to turn. Lady comes barrelling my way with a cell phone stuck in her ear and wham, she rammed the rear of my cruiser causing me to leave the ground and slam the van in the middle of the back door, rolled over and flipped me off. I landed on my left shoulder and leg. Bike did a flip flop and landed about one foot from my face. She had minimal insurance coverage ($25K). My bike was totalled. I wound up with a $50K operated on shoulder. Bike alone was worth over $7500. Ambulance, hospital and then hospital and surgery. If I had not had the coverage I had, I would be out a bike and a great percentage of the hospital bill. Believe me again, my wrecked bike was metal. There's little metal on a NC other than motor, trans and frame. And if you've price it, that plastic is not cheap to purchase. Buy the insurance. And I'm leaving tomorrow morning to pick up a 2014 NC in AR. And it's insured when I sign the papers. Wouldn't ride without it.

 

[670cc]

I have collision, comprehensive and uninsured motorist along with a $5,000 medical and roadside assistance. With all of the expensive plastic how can you ride without it. And believe me, you never intend on having an accident. Someone else hits you and they do not have insurance (lawful or not) you will feel the pain of the wreck and the full cost of replacement or repair. Here's a for instance: Sept.1, 2011 I'm sitting on my bike behind a family van that's behind a sedan waiting to turn. Lady comes barrelling my way with a cell phone stuck in her ear and wham, she rammed the rear of my cruiser causing me to leave the ground and slam the van in the middle of the back door, rolled over and flipped me off. I landed on my left shoulder and leg. Bike did a flip flop and landed about one foot from my face. She had minimal insurance coverage ($25K). My bike was totalled. I wound up with a $50K operated on shoulder. Bike alone was worth over $7500. Ambulance, hospital and then hospital and surgery. If I had not had the coverage I had, I would be out a bike and a great percentage of the hospital bill. Believe me again, my wrecked bike was metal. There's little metal on a NC other than motor, trans and frame. And if you've price it, that plastic is not cheap to purchase. Buy the insurance. And I'm leaving tomorrow morning to pick up a 2014 NC in AR. And it's insured when I sign the papers. Wouldn't ride without it.

But, the comprehensive coverage we are discussing in this thread would have played no role in the payout, right? The loss of the bike would have been covered by her property damage liability, or your underinsured motorist coverage. I'd guess the only really important coverage in this incident was uninsured/underinsured motorist paying your medical bill, which was mentioned earlier in the thread as an important coverage for a motorcyclist to buy.

 

[kebrider]

My TN Progressive Motorcycle insurance is 3 times more expensive than my Florida Progressive Motorcycle Insurance. I insure 4 bikes with them and the household has 2 drivers/riders. I used to only do comprehensive/liability but after a year on the roads around Knoxville I calculated the odds and upped all my bikes to collision as well. In nearly 60 years I had never had a vehicle insurance claim until last summer when both of us low sided on a well-oiled and wet off-ramp.

I can't stress enough how poorly maintained the roads are round where TN Thunder and I ride. There is no vehicle inspection and the leaky rigs that run the roads are almost criminal. The road glistens with oil/coolant/diesel/transmission fluid spots with every fresh rain and tar snakes and thousands of variations of road debris make things interesting to say the least. Great place to own an ST.

I low sided my ST1300 this past Saturday on 16 in VA and it will be totaled as soon as the Progressive field adjuster sees it. I have well over 200K miles of experience and I never had a street accident until I was 48 and that was a car turning left in front of me. The decision to up my insurance to include collision surely paid off last summer and will pay off this week but I am sure my rate will probably increase somewhat. Being several months short of 60 I have little issue with increased insurance rates, within reason of course. I have always been covered and I was one of the guys that spent a lifetime
"contributing" to Insurance Company's bottom lines.

I certainly don't regret upping my insurance to include collision. I don't regret purchasing the NC to better enjoy the sketchy roads in the area either.

 

[670cc]

My TN Progressive Motorcycle insurance is 3 times more expensive than my Florida Progressive Motorcycle Insurance. I insure 4 bikes with them and the household has 2 drivers/riders. I used to only do comprehensive/liability but after a year on the roads around Knoxville I calculated the odds and upped all my bikes to collision as well. In nearly 60 years I had never had a vehicle insurance claim until last summer when both of us low sided on a well-oiled and wet off-ramp.

I can't stress enough how poorly maintained the roads are round where TN Thunder and I ride. There is no vehicle inspection and the leaky rigs that run the roads are almost criminal. The road glistens with oil/coolant/diesel/transmission fluid spots with every fresh rain and tar snakes and thousands of variations of road debris make things interesting to say the least. Great place to own an ST.

I low sided my ST1300 this past Saturday on 16 in VA and it will be totaled as soon as the Progressive field adjuster sees it. I have well over 200K miles of experience and I never had a street accident until I was 48 and that was a car turning left in front of me. The decision to up my insurance to include collision surely paid off last summer and will pay off this week but I am sure my rate will probably increase somewhat. Being several months short of 60 I have little issue with increased insurance rates, within reason of course. I have always been covered and I was one of the guys that spent a lifetime
"contributing" to Insurance Company's bottom lines.

I certainly don't regret upping my insurance to include collision. I don't regret purchasing the NC to better enjoy the sketchy roads in the area either.

Don't take this personal. I'm just looking at this as an outsider might. A collision claim basically means you crashed your bike. For 60 years you never had a claim, i.e. never crashed your bike. Now, in one year's time, you and the other rider in your household have crashed 3 times? It would seem like the trend towards more crashes should be addressed in some other way that just buying more insurance. And maybe it has; don't get me wrong.

I, again an outsider looking in, need to evaluate the risk pool that I would be buying into. When buying insurance, ideally I would want to be higher than average in terms of accident/claim frequency, therefore having a better chance to "win." If I considered myself at below average risk of crashing/filing a claim, I would probably not want to pool my money with the group.

On a second topic, I think we could have a contest for worst roads. I can assure you Illinois is a strong contender. If fact, I have curtailed my riding significantly over the past few weeks. When it's sunny and the temperature hits 90*F, the road commisioners here come out and sprinkle pea gravel all over the oil and chip roads to keep them from melting. So what we have now is little ball bearings all over the road and covering every corner. Basically spring is over and it's summer now, so it's time to put the bike away until fall, the second riding season of the year.

I think the roads in Tennessee are fantastic and I truly am considering moving there just to have those roads to ride on.

 

[TN Thunder]

KebRider, you need to move to Sevier County (I live in Seymour). The roads are great here and if you think your roads are bad, try several other states like OK, NM, PA.

My point about comprehensive insurance deals with insurance value. Check to see what your comprehensive insurance costs and consider getting caught in a hail storm, or a rock breaks your windscreen or front headlight. Comp. would cover that, not collision. Even your riding gear.