Hi
August 2025, GEICO insured hit my car. The accident was 100% their fault GEICO claimed responsibility and paid me $1,500 for the repair plus $2750 for diminished value.
I came to get car insurance today and the insurance agent I speak with says "well, your premium is extremely high unfortunately due to your at-fault accident as reported by GEICO", My premium has gone from $430 per year to $2,800 per year.
I tried getting quotes with 3 other insurers and all three said the same thing - you've been reported as being at fault.
I called GEICO and they confirmed "we took 100% responsibility for this" but we can't assist you with anything else.
What am i supposed to do here? How does this make sense? I have never been involved in an accident before this and never dealt with anything like this before. Should I contact a personal injury attorney?
Am I the only adjuster shocked he Got a 2700 IDV on a fucking 1500 dollar repair.
Doesn't sound right to me. The claims I've seen were much more expensive and both got less than $200.
No, you are not the only adjuster shocked.
His story is BS. The CC put a estimate of 9-13k on his damage but he settled for the 1500 cause his guy banged out the dents. Fucker left 11.5k on the table and didn't pocket it. Then said IDV was calculated through comps. Which is total bullshit since IDV is calculated by a formula.
His story is jacked up and not sitting right with me.
1) I said I've never done this before
2) what you are suggesting is dishonest as fuck
3) i dont know what the process is in your state or city but over here, the process was explained to me by Geico as follows: we give you a check for the initial estimate and your bodyshop gets the rest.
4) that is EXACTLY how the DV calculation went down. Don't believe me? I dont give a shit. It serves me ZERO purpose to make it up.
5) you are an angry toxic fucking wierdo. This is my last response to you.
Industry professional questions your story.
Calls an accepted claims practice dishonest when a FRAUD INVESTIGATOR says it's perfectly ok.
Cites Carvana as one of the comps not realizing no insurance professional on planet earth puts a single micron of care into Carvana since Carvana overpays for cars and over prices them intentionally because Carvana isn't a car company, they are a subprime auto lender under the Bridgecrest Financial flag.
Gets super pissed and defensive because someone says what he is saying doesn't make sense and tantrums like a child being sent to his room without dessert.
But I look forward to not speaking to you again. Lol
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Tinybshit like that the service my company generally uses is 10% of repair value. Large damage tends to be more because there was significant damage.
Personally I think IDV is fucking bullshit and should only be owed at the time of sale. Cars are a naturally depreciating asset but it's value is related to its sale value. For someone to suffer the loss of value they need to be able to show a material loss. They have no loss as they aren't selling their vehicle. Assigning a future value to a possible future sale is dukbfuckistan as it gets.
I also believe that as well.
I personally blame a radio show host called Tom Martino, who has/had a syndicated radio show called "The Troubleshooter" who ALWAYS would blab about diminished value on his radio show.
The other issue I have with Tom Martino is that he has his own version of Angie's list, where Martino states: "Although the Referral List is paid advertising, no members can "buy" their way onto the list nor can they remain members unless they adhere to our strict code of ethics."
The Referral List website also addresses the member fee structure, stating, "Members of the Referral List are charged fees commensurate with the feedback and complaints generated in their fields of endeavor. Since we handle any and all complaints about members, it stands to reason that those categories that generate the most work for us will be charged more than those that hardly ever generate feedback... Current members pay anywhere from $1,200 annually for a tiny business in a single category all the way up to $16,000 annually for a large businesses covering many categories with several locations."
The big change for IDV in my experience was Ed Bolians video about how he at one time had the largest IDV payout in the country for a period of time. After that I remember all our adjuster beginning to hear it pop up more and more.
They suffered a loss in value. It's their choice if they sell now or later.
They suffered no loss until they sell it. It's like the stock market. You don't have any losses until you sell.
Except they are being compensated for the car in the moment it had the crash.
Just like how you don't have to repair the car to be paid what the parts and labor would be to repair the vehicle at that time. It doesn't matter if the current parts marketplace is more expensive than it would be in 10 years with many more suppliers making aftermarket parts or if labor gets cheaper in your area, you are compensated for that loss at the current numbers.
And as for the stock market, you don't officially capture a gain or loss until you sell for tax purposes, but also I "own" stock of companies that went out of business and the stock is no longer on the market. I can't sell it to capture that loss. So, no, it's not just like the stock market.
If your house burns down you are compensated for it's value/replacement cost today, not what it would be at some point in the future, this is no different. Diminished Value is an explainable and statistically measurable loss in value of individual property value.
I actually did them a huge favour. Their "preferred" bodyshops were quoting estimates of $9000-$13000 for a dented fender. I took it to a local bodyshop I've been using for years, he knocked it out for $1517 and turned it around in 2 days while the "preferred" shops wanted 4 weeks. I also showed them that my carvana, carmax and local dealers all offered $2500-3500 less for pre/post accident valuation and that's why we settled on $2750 for DV.
You did yourself a disservice. Their estimates at preferred shops are the companies position on your cost of repairs and are valid. You could settle for those dollars yourself and said "ok I'll take a check for that amount and I'll find a shop and use your estimate". Repair with your guy, pocket the 11.5k and get the wack DV (also I now question you a little because DV isn't from comps, it's a formula). So either this didn't happen and you are making up a story for reddit. Oooooor you cost yourself 11.5 k. Either way. Sucks to be you
What happened in the accident?
In detail.
their insured took a left turn from the center lane. Went into me.
Edit: wait who were insured with? Did you contact your own insurance?
You should contact Geico and ask for their reasoning for taking liability. I feel state law mandates you’d have gotten something in the mail with liability? Or at the very least there’s some information in your portal. This story doesn’t move anywhere without you doing this. No matter how much we all talk about it on Reddit.
Personal injury attorney is not going to do anything idk where you got that idea from. Unless you wanna pay them $500/h to send a message to Geico for you lol.
There’s a huge misunderstanding somewhere. Either you have a very different perception of the accident (which I hope isn’t the situation for you), or somehow liability was mis-entered. I find that the former is more likely - for companies like Geico I feel like that would be a huge mistake that passed a lot of eyes. Idk, like I said you need to talk to Geico to understand
this is the only thing GEICO will send.
Dear X
Our obligation as an insurer is to pay all losses for which our policyholder is legally liable. In our desire to be fair in our decision, we are guided by all the information available to us. Based on the information we have obtained, we agree to handle the damages to your [vehicle model]
Yes I've contacted my insurer, they also told me "geico claimed 100% responsibility for this and we assigned you 0% responsibility for it so so dont know what is going on with this. This should not have impacted you at all"
Get the police report and see what it says
You need a letter from Geico accepting liability for that claim, then contact LexisNexis to correct your CLUE report. These things happen. The fault indicators set incorrect or left undetermined/open and carriers read that as at fault. An attorney won’t do a thing here.
Ask Geico for a letter of experience explaining their decision. It sounds like the lexisnexis repot might be incorrect, I would also make sure geico corrects that.
I don't know if GEICO would prepare a letter of experience for this, as the OP was not a GEICO insured (but was hit by one).
I suppose. I personally have written them for claimants in the past who were having issues with things showing up incorrectly. It literally takes like 2 minutes.
Thanks for the clarification!
I have been speaking to GEICO about this for hours. I keep going around in circles. All they will do is send out the letter that says they took responsibility. nothing else. This is maddening
Sometimes insurance companies can make a mistake when submitting the accident to LexisNexis, but also could be once reviewed more facts of the claim they changed liability decisions and you will get something about being at fault. Contact the company that filed the claim information get a letter of experience showing you are not at fault, then contact LexisNexis, to correct the information on your clue report. You have to get the letter of experience showing you are not at fault first or no one will correct anything….
I was on a conference with an insured and a LexisNexis rep, the rep said the insured calls and disputes, then they send a request to the insurance company who responds, and that the process takes about 30 days.
Every time I had a customer do that, LexisNexis has required them to have paperwork first, they don’t do the work for the insured…
Ask the company you quoted with for the clue report, they should provide it, usually takes 24-48 hours to generate an official one.
You were paying $430 a year, huh? Sure.
This isn’t no fault and what would a PI attorney do for you regarding this? This is a “not at fault” issue & Injury is in the name.
Your insurance score and reports are just like a credit report when it comes to making a dispute. Get the report, then dispute via certified mail and then shop for insurance again.
Order your nexis Lexi’s report. It will have all your info in it . Then take it to GEICO. This should help. The report is free. Good luck.
You need to get your CLUE report and dispute it. Google has step by step instructions on how to do this.