by babar » Fri Oct 10, 2008 04:03 pm
I filed home insurance claim after hurricane hit. I soon realised damages are only little more than deductible. I want to withdraw claim however I was informed it can only be closed. I am not sure why claim cannot be cancelled or be withdrawn.
Please advise what is the best approach to follow in such a case.
Please advise what is the best approach to follow in such a case.
Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 05:24 pm Post Subject:
Might be semantics. You can withdraw the claim and the insurance company will close the file with no further action. They won't "delete" the information in their system as if it was never reported though. They are required by law to keep this information but I'm sure they also keep it as it could come up later on.
Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 07:11 pm Post Subject:
It will show as a "Zero-Pay" claim. Not that it helps in this case, but in the future, call your agent first. If he/she is any good, he/she will have a contractor that can look at the damage and give an estimate. Then go over the numbers with you to see if you want to file a claim.
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 05:18 am Post Subject:
Yup, I'm sure that a call is all that necessary to withdraw the claim and as the other posters have mentioned it'll appear as a zero pay claim against your report.
A claim once reported may stay on your CLUE report for around 5 years, but I'm sure that a zero pay claim will cause the minimum damage to it. It may not even affect your future rates.
~Jeremy
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 10:18 am Post Subject:
They will just CWP (close without payment) the claim...most carriers you cannot 'withdraw' a claim as though it never happened....there are many good reasons why, but you can certainly request it be closed.
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 07:22 pm Post Subject:
What some of the insured's would do for the company I worked for is put in a claim "for record only." This would avoid there being a claim and an adjuster would make contact and can go over your policy with you so that you know what type of coverage ou have. They would not send a field adjuster out to access damages, but you could always call someone to give you a free one and then you have all the pieces you need to make an educated decision on how to proceed. As someone else stated earlier, you can always call your agent and have the agent go over coverage with you as well, unfortunately what I am finding is that more and more agents are telling the insured to call the insurance company to report it. That's bad for business. If they can take the time to get your business, they can take the time to help you go over your coverage.
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 07:25 pm Post Subject:
I am thinking that they keep it on file so that if anything else happens the insured can'r claim these things from the past. Right ?
Okay Jeremy I don't have a clue what a CLUE report is but it sounds interesting.
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:37 am Post Subject:
If they can take the time to get your business, they can take the time to help you go over your coverage.
Only problem is more and more agents don't understand it themselves...they sell it but don't know the way claims are handled....am thinking that they keep it on file so that if anything else happens the insured can'r claim these things from the past. Right ?
Well that's one reason, another is say the insured claims bad faith, (ie) ''I reported a claim, and no one took care of it for me...'' if there were not a record, and the insured said totally withdraw the claim so that there is no record...then the claims dept would have a hard time proving they did their job....Okay Jeremy I don't have a clue what a CLUE report is but it sounds interesting
I can't remember what it stands for Claims Loss, something, something (the 'u' might be underwriting i just can't remember)...most carriers are members and any claim is fed into this data bank, so that any carrier can run a 'clue report' and see if you have had any accidents.Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 01:54 pm Post Subject:
How do people get their license if they don't even understand insurance? To me that would be like letting a dentist drill on your teeth that doesn't have aany dental schooling under their belt.
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 08:57 pm Post Subject:
Firey - insurance companies have their own computer systems that take a lot of the hands on equations out of it. To be honest, when I write a homeowner's policy, I input data about the customer, the house, etc. The program tells me how much to insure the house for and what the premium is.
The days of some agents knowing all the abbreviations (etc) are pretty much gone. A good agent will "learn" his profession - I read up on everything I can. I can talk with the "old guys" about different coverages, etc - but I do that because insurance is my profession and I want to know about it.
There are too many people out there that will write whatever they can (throw enough sh** on the wall and something will stick) just to get the policy (and commission).
I tell my customers that I want to be able to leave my office at the end of the day knowing I did what is best for my customers.
I like to sleep at night with a clear conscience.
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 01:22 am Post Subject:
Sounds like you are the kind of agent I would want. The insurance company I deal with is pretty old school and handles things in this matter.
I guess in ways it would be good for the agent to throw stuff into a computer and WALA! a new policy is born but what do they do when someone calls them wanting different types of answers if they didn't study or keep up to date in the field?
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