Just Liability or Comp and Collision?

[John B.]

My one-data-point experience with dropping collision is that, if you are involved in a crash, your insurance company will turn you over to the other driver's insurance company for direct negotiations, and the other insurance company will know or interpret that you do not have collision, and will lowball their settlement offer. So if it is truly a "disposable" vehicle, then maybe dropping collision makes sense, but an older but still maintained/fully functional vehicle will get screwed in the process. YMMV.

[C(-)ris]

John B. wrote:
My one-data-point experience with dropping collision is that, if you are involved in a crash, your insurance company will turn you over to the other driver's insurance company for direct negotiations, and the other insurance company will know or interpret that you do not have collision, and will lowball their settlement offer. So if it is truly a "disposable" vehicle, then maybe dropping collision makes sense, but an older but still maintained/fully functional vehicle will get screwed in the process. YMMV.

Never had a problem with that. I’ve had 2 accidents, one a drunk hit me and the other a drunk hit my parked car. Both times I only had liability. In those cases, since I was dealing with someone else’s insurance company directly instead of mine I was able to squeeze them more without worrying about getting dropped. Amazing how quick they want to settle when you tell them their client is in jail and my next call is my lawyer if this isn’t settled immediately.

[John B.]

Like I said, YMMV, but having the police involved and the at-fault driver in jail isn't something you can always count on. And before someone says "always call the police"...in my incident I did and the local police department declines to respond to non-injury crashes.