Is there any hope for me?
Yes, public transport.
Is this a European joke I’m too American to understand? /s
As an American living abroad I can honestly say I don’t miss being required to drive everywhere. Haven’t owned a car in six years and there’s like 2 times a year I need a car so I just rent one. Way cheaper that way.
Move to a city, it would be cheaper than this absurdity.
You can still take a taxi I’m sure, may just be more expensive than this guy’s insurance premiums.
Yes, there’s hope. Stop driving a car.
The insurance agencies really need a way to recommend the government take someone’s license when they’re a public danger like this.
Well they do give them a strong incentive to stop driving.
They only give them a strong incentive to stop driving legally.
Taking someone’s licence also gives them a strong incentive to stop driving legally
And this is the problem. People who have their license suspended often drive anyway. Sometimes they have to in order to get to work because the U.S. has a shit public transportation system in vast areas of the country.
My state doesn’t require insurance to drive.
Of course sir, you’re new low cost car insurance policy is right through this door over here … 🔒
Give insurance companies the will power to say no im not going to insure you. And then cap insurance rates. and by cap i mean no insurance should be more expensive than the rate new drivers are allowed to be charged.
Where i live insurance rates have a discount for being a good driver. Goes up each year to cap at about 40percent. This is tied to your liscence not insurance.
Increase that discount for good drivers and make sufficiently bad drivers unable to be insured.
Keeping people like this off the road is one of the biggest reasons why every place needs robust public transportation systems.
Bro needs a bus pass
Sounds like my wife’s asshole cousin who has been in so many crashes and totaled so many cars at this point that he’s had his license taken away and has to get around Indianapolis on a scooter. And he’s in his 20s.
I remember the day at a family function when the roads were icy him bragging to us about how he made it down to the function doing 80 on icy roads and sliding around everywhere but didn’t crash. Seriously, he was bragging about it as if it made him Mario Andretti.
His dad is a doctor, so I’m guessing he was paying that high insurance for quite some time, but no longer. His dad also bought him a Cadillac which, obviously, he totaled. I love his dad, he’s my GP, but he has a big blind spot when it comes to his son.
doing 80 on icy roads and sliding around everywhere […] bragging about it as if it made him Mario Andretti.
This, at best, makes him kinda okay at Mario Kart.
But even that game forces you to give up if you crash too many times.
It’s one of many reasons I can’t stand him.
The fact that his voice has two volume levels, secretly mutter something offensive and shout at the top of his lungs no matter how close he is to your ear, makes me hate even going to her family’s functions.
Has he ever considered becoming a park ranger?
Are they in the habit of muttering offensive things and yelling in people’s ears?
It’s a Parks & Rec reference:
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bragging about that is like bragging about negligently discharging a gun in a crowd of people and miraculously, nobody gets hit.
I wouldn’t put that past him either. And I hope he doesn’t have any guns, but I have a feeling he does and I have a feeling he’s pointed them at people as a “joke” before too.
probably didn’t exercise trigger discipline when he did, and who knows whether it was loaded.
Suppose i should probably put up my premature simpsons “vision” and say that he is going to get fucked up some day.
I was actually surprised at how recent the bike infrastructure was in downtown Indianapolis so using a scooter to get around would not be bad in downtown at least.
He’s in Greenwood. Less bike friendly.
So best case for someone like this: don’t drive. Get other people to drive you, use public transportation, get a bike, etc. But this is probably America and that is 100% not possible everywhere. Or even most places.
There is another option: State-Owned High-Risk Auto Insurance. These are insurance plans owned by individual states. Because US states all require auto insurance to drive a car and because driving a car is goddamn necessary in a lot of America, this exists.
It’s VERY expensive. Like when I was looking at getting good coverage for 2 newish cars I was staring down $500/6mo. Our state’s high-risk was $2,000+. But it exists for people like in the post who are just too expensive for ordinary insurance companies to want to insure.
At this rate I bet it’s cheaper for them to Uber everywhere.
No way. Even just commuting assuming $20 each way (cheap for rush hour) that’s $4,800 every 6 months. Probably 2-3 times as expensive as the high risk insurance.
The post said they had been paying $500 a month ($3000 for six months) and it went up with every accident. When you factor in gas and maintenance (let alone deductibles for all their accidents), ride share services might well be cheaper.
$4,800 every 6 months is only $800/month. The OP pays $500/mo on insurance, let’s say $100 on gas a month, that’s only $200/month payment on the loan for an old used car. Car ownership is expensive, but it’s probably more common for the car payment to be $500/month and insurance to be $200/month. This doesn’t even factor maintenance
Where on earth are you getting insurance for 2 cars for $500/6 months? I’m middle aged, drive a 10 year old car, and have a perfect driving record, and mine’s about $100/month. I’ve priced the same level of coverage with other companies and that’s pretty much what all of them offered.
Eta: I’m literally asking. I have no loyalty to my current company, if I can get it cheaper, I’m out.
That was a few years ago. But I have the same coverage and cars for $580/6mo. BTW it’s cheaper to pay all at once usually.
But our cars are compact and subcompact about 9 & 10 years old. We carry 100/300/100. It’s GEICO is MD but it was also about the same with progressive in FL. Only one of us has a perfect record, the other is still minor and rare.
So you may just live in an expensive state for insurance.
Totally possible. CO has gotten pretty expensive for everything. :/ It may still be time to get some other estimates again, though.
I’m in a similar position, middle aged, clear driving history for about 15 years, car’s an '18. I pay ~$450 every 6 months with Progressive. Paying the whole amount up front gives me a good discount. If you can’t do that size payment at once you can pay with PayPal credit and it should be no interest for 6 months so you can get the discount and still pay monthly.
I need to check on whether I get a discount for paying all at once. I’m finally at a point where I could manage it but I have no idea what it would save.
Ooh, just checked looked and nope, USAA gives me $16/month off for autopay but no pay in full discount. Lots of pretend discounts for other stuff but that just puts them around what other insurers would charge anyway. What a rip off.
I live in the Netherlands and now pay €188 a year. It’s just a “wa” insurance meaning if I hit something they pay the damage of the other’s, but not mine damage.
I drive a car from 2009 and have 10 years of no damages. So if your willing to move to the Netherlands wait 10 years you can lower your payment. (Not really a option I guess)
Farmers
2003 Subaru WRX and 2001 Toyota MR2
250 bodily injury per person
500 bodily injury per accident
100 property
Comprehensive and collision on the MR2.
Total is 494.50/6mo
I actually believe this is a real story
I believe it. A childhood friend of mine had totaled like 7 (very cheap) cars by the time he turned 25.
After a particularly brutal crash, he was diagnosed with epilepsy after having an absence seizure in the presence of an ER nurse.
Hasn’t wrecked since.
Are you saying he drives better with epilepsy or that he hasn’t driven since?
He got medicated
I still don’t have an answer to either of my questions though!
Medication meaning the epilepsy is now effectively treated and he hasn’t had a seizure since.
If it isn’t a real story, there are plenty of real stories like it. There are just a disgusting number of people who are reckless drivers.
Almost no one in the town I live in uses their turn signals. It’s infuriating. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve almost rear-ended someone who suddenly slam on their breaks in the middle of an intersection and turn off. I also live in a subdivision with no sidewalks and a speed limit of 25 mph. People are regularly walking their dogs and kids are everywhere. I see people flying down the curvy subdivision roads doing at least 50.
I’m amazed I haven’t heard about anyone getting killed.
A lot of it is also people who know they shouldn’t drive but have no other choice. In the vast, vast, vast majority of the US, if you don’t have a car you can’t even go to the store or get a job.
This is my partner. Has epilepsy, but no family, money, or insurance.
Ironically since they can only get part time work with flexible hours, they’re stuck in customer service, meaning when their hours get cut they have to doordash to make rent.
Worst part is if you did rear end them in that situation, you’re the guilty party for insurance etc.
Exactly. It both pisses me off and terrifies me every single time. And it happens at least once almost every time I drive. I honestly don’t understand it. I’ve never been in a place where so many people refuse to use turn signals.
Many people need a near death experience to teach them respect for the mass and energy involved in driving.
I had a bad crash over a decade ago where somebody ran into me at low-ish speeds. It was head on though, and it was more than enough for me to remember for life. I wasn’t a bad driver or anything before that though.
the best way to teach people how mass and inertia works in a car, is to put them in the passenger seat, get up to highway speeds, and then send the brake pedal to the floor.
They won’t be able to breathe.
There are the “Worst driver” TV shows. There are some real head cases in there.
I can believe this is not sarcasm
Where can I find more humor like this?
Hopefully not on any road near you.
Never thought I’d take the side of an insurance company.
My suggestion would be to:
- Move to a place where not driving is a viable way of getting about. If you already live there, great!
- Get a lifetime transit pass and consider getting a bicycle
- Ditch your car and never look back
From the amount of accidents they have had. Maybe start with walking and see how that goes first before getting anything with wheels.
Yeah, I was about to suggest an e-bike or e-scooter. But probably better to just walk or take a bus/tram/metro.
at least with a bike the likelihood that they get into a fatal accident is incredibly more apparent.
And hopefully they realize it.
https://www.marketwatch.com/guides/moving-services/cost-to-move-out-of-state/
Average cost of moving out of state - $4000-$12000
https://fortune.com/2024/02/01/emergency-1000-expense-most-americans-broke-debt-bankrate/
Less than half of Americans can currently incur a $1000 expense right now
Lifetime transit what now?
Easy, just move to Luxembourg.
deleted by creator
Have you tried reducing your alcohol consumption?
Hey, that was a water bottle!
It was water bottle, but it was filled not with water
I got quoted $840 a month for insurance. Clean accident history. Insurance is bullshit levels of expensive.
How old? What kind of car?
At the time it was a 3 year old Scion IQ.
That does seem very high o.O
Just a tad.
Damn. I managed to get basic insurance for like $75/mo but it’s one where they require you to install a tracking app on your phone for the first month that gives you a higher rate if you accelerate or brake hard. I just drove like a grandma for a month and uninstalled it after.
Yeah I pay ~1k now for all the cars in the house for a year. No tracking app. 3 cars.
I’ve noticed that some insurers give insane “fuck you” quotes for no reason. I had Progressive under my parents since I started driving, and when I got my own insurance, it was around $500/6 months through them. I wanted to get other quotes from some other insurers and the rates were absolutely insane by comparison. Like, $500-800 PER MONTH. I have no idea why they were so much more. I know there are loyalty discounts and such, but I don’t think they’re going to be ~85%.
Car insurance generally hates young adults. I paid through the nose for 6 months of crap insurance through progressive than immediately jumped to a broker who got me a lower rate on better coverage (and actually knew what the right amount of coverage was) and they’ve consistently got me more coverage for a lower rate ever since. Granted some of that probably comes from my aging out of that high risk 18-25 bracket but still
I totally get that, but what I don’t understand is why Progressive was so reasonable compared to literally everyone else for literally identical coverage. It’s like for whatever reason they were the only ones who didn’t care I was in that <25 age bracket.
That’s a pretty typical rate except for comprehensive for an entire year
This was a month.
As your attorney I advise you to buy a bus pass.
Sounds like someone should have their license revoked.
This guy is the reason all of our rates go up.
