Hi there, I was in a car accident in DC that I believe was not my fault. I was attempting to turn left (had been sitting at a light for awhile). When the light turned yellow, it appeared clear and I began to turn. Out of nowhere, someone sped up and rammed into the driver side front corner of my car, going so fast he drove onto a curb, taking out a park bench, two small trees, and a trash can in the process. No airbags deployed on either car and no one was injured, luckily. Police came and we gave statements, but I got the police report back, which was rather sparse - there was nothing in the statement section, no one named at fault, and only a rudimentary sketch of the impact. Policeman told me he gave the other driver a ticket for running the light and failure to produce evidence of insurance. Since the other driver likely did not have insurance, I started a claim with mine. I have a solid policy through Travelers with uninsured motorist coverage, $500K bodily injury, $100K property damage limits. I just learned that he is now claiming he was injured (despite walking around fine, assuring me he and his passenger were totally fine that day), got a lawyer, and is saying I "T boned" him and am at fault. I did not -- his car was barely side swiped and the damage is due to him running over all of those objects. I also did not accept responsibility then or now, and I gave my statement to my adjuster. I've never been in an accident before, and now it seems it is his word against mine (to my knowledge the intersection did not have cameras). I guess it doesn't matter if it is determined to be my fault partially, or even wholly, because I am well insured either way. I just can't help but suspect he is trying to use my insurance to cover his own recklessness and failure to obtain insurance. Does anyone have experience with Travelers in a situation like this? I know at a certain amount they are likely to settle, but it doesn't sit right with me that this dude is likely to get a payout that I am effectively covering for him (and my premium will also go up).

My father was heading home 5 minutes away from home actually. When I got a call from him saying that he had been in an accident. Since it was five minutes away, I rushed over there. When I arrived, a nice lady approached me while I was recording saying that it wasn’t my fathers fault and that the other two cars involved, a Charger and a Camry were racing, speeding down the street while swerving in and out of lanes. I spoke to another witness who blamed the Charger for going 80 mph in a 40 mile zone and said that the Charger caused the accident because he collided with the other Camry. All I know is that my father got hit, the driver of the Camry was taken to the hospital. Now, my father being the nervous man that he is told the officer that he was already turning left into the resident street. My father speaks very little English. Well the officer automatically blamed my father saying that the speed of the other cars didn’t matter because they had the right of way. Well when my father came home he clarified to me that he meant he was waiting in the yellow lane waiting to turn left into the resident street when suddenly the Camry and Charger were racing down the street. My father explained that the Charger hit the Camry on the side which led the Camry to lose control and hit my father head on. I gave the officer the witnesses numbers. The witnesses indeed said that the other two cars were speeding and yet he didn’t give them tickets so that’s a bummer. Now the Camry got a lawyer against my policy. Essentially everyone got claims against each other. Now, GEICO, the Camrys insurer sent a letter to my father stating that they would not be able to pay for his work truck because their investigation concludes that the Charger was at fault for not having proper lookout. I need advice on what to do. Does this mean that the Charger will be paying my father? Does this mean that since GEICO is saying that the Charger is at fault then the Camry should drop the suit against my insurance company? What do I do!!!! Please help.

I recently took my cat in for a mouth surgery to remove an infected tooth. The bill came out to be almost $600. Since I wasn’t enrolled in the wellness rewards it only covered $108 after a $200 deductible. When I pay $130 a month for both of my cats. When I first got this it was $60 for both of them and it has now doubled over the years to only cover a 1/6th of my cats surgery? I can’t believe it. Any recommendations for any pet insurance for my cats? They are pretty healthy overall indoor cats, I just like to keep this for my peace of mind in case anything happened but with this recent increase year and now this, I can’t justify embrace.

When we adopted our dog (now 6 years old and 44 lbs, a mix of at least 5 different breeds) we took out what I considered to be a “catastrophic plan” to insure her and help us avoid difficult healthcare financial decisions when she grows old, or sooner (though hopefully not). The policy has a $1,000 lifetime deductible per injury/illness and no maximum benefit. When we took out the policy it was $25.03/month. It is now up to $57.15/month. A 128% increase over 6 years feels pretty steep, especially when she’s statistically speaking less than 1/2 of her way through her expected lifespan. Should I be regularly shopping around the same way one does with auto or homeowners insurance, or are the chances that I will find a better value now that she’s 6 low? I remember reading when I took out the policy that with pet insurance it’s better to insure early when the dog’s health risk is very low to “lock in” a low rate and picked Trupanion because at the time they advertised modest premium increases being a feature that differentiated them among their competitors. I don’t feel like 128% over 6 years is modest, and if the increases continue to increase at the accelerated rate they have been doing so, I feel like it may be worth surveying the field to see what else is out there. I like her coverage and feel that it works for our financial situation. (We are fortunate that we can afford regular wellness visits and any unexpected medical items < $1,000). TIA!

So the story goes: My friend in Texas totaled his car by hitting a mailbox. He has Gap insurance from the dealership, and auto insurance from progressive. Auto insurance agent told him they're going to pay the dealership instead of him. Can friend demand direct payment to himself, as the policyholder? Can his insurance just send the check somewhere else like that? The gap insurance should handle everything on the dealership side, so I don't know why his insurance company would be giving the dealership anything.

Hello everyone, I have a question. I was recently involved in a not-at-fault accident with an Allstate-insured driver. Unfortunately, my own insurance canceled the night before the accident, so I did not have PIP coverage. Allstate has informed me that I’m responsible for a $7,400 medical bill, despite them reserving $5,500 for future medical expenses related to the accident. If they have funds set aside for medical expenses, why can’t those be applied to the existing bills? I do not feel they are actuinh in good faith. Would it be advisable to seek legal assistance at this point? Thank you for any insights.

Hey everyone, This is a follow-up to my earlier post about trying to cancel my Wawanesa auto insurance (I’m the guy paying $750/month for a commercial plan meant for Uber Eats, which I barely do anymore). My regular broker had gone silent for a while, but I finally got in touch. Here’s the update:- My broker confirmed I can cancel the policy early. However, he says I’ll have to pay two months' worth of premium upfront as a penalty — that’s around $1,500. The new policy I’m eyeing (with TD Bank) is non-commercial and about $450/month, but they also require 2 months paid upfront to start coverage — that’s another $900. So basically, to switch policies, I’d need to cough up $2,400–$2,500 upfront, just to get out of this $750/month cycle. Now I’m stuck asking myself: Is it even worth switching, or should I just suck it up and keep paying monthly till my current policy ends in November? Will I even save enough in the long run to justify the upfront hit? Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation — switching from commercial to personal auto insurance mid-term? Any creative options or negotiation tips I could try with either Wawanesa or TD? I’m still trying to be financially smart here — just don’t want to end up spending more just to spend less later. Appreciate all your input!

Hi, I just wanted to share my experience with Lemonade after having gone through cancer with my recently passed kitty, Tortilla, who was 6 years old both when we bought her plan and at the time of her passing. She had large cell GI lymphoma that suddenly appeared in early May. I got her plan (premium preventative care package, 100k spending limit, 90% reimbursement with $250 deductible, end of life coverage, dental disease coverage, vet visit fees). We had over 7K in vet bills, but lemonade actually covered around at least 6K I believe. I actually only got her a plan because one I somehow had a horrible feeling something terrible would happen to her (I hate and am grateful that I planned for that but I wish I had for no reason) and two because we had adopted a dog (her name is Lexie) who we bought insurance for too late and she had a million pre-existing conditions that basically rendered nothing covered for her. We wound up going the palliative care route, and unfortunately we didnt get much time I believe not even a month passed before she left us after her diagnosis. But, the bright side of this horrible experience was we were not saddled with thousands in debt since my family and I are not doing so well financially this year. They covered 6K of the treatment and diagnosis bills, and completely covered end of life fees and memorial items. I am so grateful I decided to buy her plan. Now, the negatives. Tortilla worked out great since she didn’t have a history of illness till the cancer and only had preventative vet visits in that history with no illnesses popping up. I will say, though, the approval waiting period was insanely long. Took like more than 2 weeks for reimbursement, but they did approve us for a crazy amount (at least to me). So if that’s important to anyone, keep in mind the bigger value claims take a longer time to get approved. With my dog Lexie, however, this did not work out as well… As a first time dog owner, I did not realize how many health issues a dog could have. My cat Tortilla came first, I’d had her for nearly 4 years (adopted her in Sept. 2020) at the time of getting my dog (April 2024). Tortilla was always healthy and vibrant, and while I wish I would have been more proactive with vet visits, I can’t change anything now. So, my mom and I decided to hold off on getting pet insurance for the first few months. Horrible mistake. My dog happened to have basically a weak weak stomach and everlasting GI issues causing behavioral issues (from pain) that are still unresolved to this day. She’s been in and out of 6 vets with over 13 visits since last year. I was only 19 during this and had no idea what to do and neither the idea to get pet insurance since I was so overwhelmed, and most of it fell on me since my family wanted to keep Lexie and I also didn’t have the heart to give her back to her rescue. So, I fought hard to get her diagnosed and treated, which I’m still fighting to today. But, now my mom and I have spent probably over 5K on her vet bills too (on top of Tortilla’s). I might as well have lit the money on fire that’s how helpful everything has been. So finally we got her insurance in early September, only after having her behavioral issues diagnosed. This was a horrible mistake on my end because now nothing was covered. So, long story short Lexie saw a million different vets (including a vet behaviorist) and absolutely everything I filed for was pre-existing and none of that 5K is covered. I don’t think this is all Lemonade’s fault or anything of the sort, it’s just an unfortunate situation because I was misguided and overwhelmed back then by both Lexie being a young puppy with behavioral issues and GI issues. Overall, I honestly would recommend Lemonade for anyone signing up a new, young pet or even an older pet with no pre-existing conditions. I’m not sure if I would recommend it over others, like PetsBest or Trupanion (although I have been seeing some pretty insane price spikes for others from Trupanion). I’m still weary but since they were so helpful with Tortilla (even if it took a bit) I decided to stick with them and signed up my two new kittens we adopted before she passed and made sure to sign them up early (3 weeks after adoption). I also would say a positive was how easy it was to file claims and speak with your claim rep. I don’t really like talking over the phone, so it was nice just talking via email, text, and the support center. It was also a very smooth process to file the claims, since everything is just in the app and you can customize the types of procedures and costs you’re inputting (there’s options to put general diseases already in their database while filing a claim but you can add custom text which I found helpful). So yeah. I honestly don’t know if the grass is greener for other companies, but I feel like most insurance companies are not exactly looking out for the pet or even human as their priority, and I feel Lemonade isn’t too too much like that. Hope this was helpful for anyone that read through all of it, thank you!! TLDR: Lemonade was very helpful for my cat with no illness history that contracted sudden cancer (reimbursed over 5K-6K). Not so helpful for my dog as she had pre-existing conditions so nothing was covered, but if anything new pops up it should be OK (she’s still a young dog). App is very navigable and easy to use, claim support staff is helpful and friendly, larger bill claims can take awhile to process though (took 2-3 weeks for Tortilla’s bills). Can’t really do phone calls, but I did prefer the email and text system (personally).

Hi everyone, I’m hoping to get some advice on a situation that’s gotten pretty stressful. I live in San Diego, California. About two months ago, I was driving around 2 a.m. when a pedestrian ran into my car. He was running across the street diagonally, apparently intoxicated, and hit my car right as the traffic light turned green. I called emergency services, and he briefly lost consciousness but regained it and was taken to the hospital. I also have a witness who saw the whole thing and gave me their phone number and statement confirming that the pedestrian caused the accident. At the time, the police report clearly said the pedestrian was at fault. My insurance company (Geico) told me they would handle everything and assured me they had collected the report and all the relevant information. Fast forward to now: the pedestrian hired a lawyer and is suing me for bodily injuries. I just received a letter from Geico informing me about the lawsuit and requesting my statement again (even though I already provided it right after the accident). It seems like only now they are actually trying to gather the police report and contact witnesses. I feel that Geico hasn’t been proactive at all and may not be acting fully in my best interests. In the letter, they also mentioned that I have the right to hire my own attorney, and if I do, they will communicate directly with that attorney instead of me. My main questions: Should I hire my own lawyer in this situation, or is it better to just let Geico handle it? What are my chances of recovering my insurance deductible from the pedestrian, given that the police report and witness both confirm he was responsible? Is it true that a police report can be easily dismissed in these cases? Could hiring my own lawyer make this situation worse or “bigger” than it already is? Any guidance, suggestions, or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your help.

When I turned 18 I too out a universal life insurance policy with State Farm. I took a “loan” out on my policy to pay for school loans when I was about 24. Since then I fell behind in paying back the money and the policy itself. I was unaware and uneducated on the whole process when I borrowed the money. Does anyone know if the policy is canceled, do I still owe what I borrowed? Or not considering it was money I had already paid towards my own policy. It’s crazy that we have to pay back what in reality is out money.