Most drivers think a perfect repair restores their car's resale value. NAIC research says they're losing 10% to 20% on resale anyway, and most never file the claim that gets it back.
The Insurance Information Institute defines diminished value as the difference between what your car was worth before the crash and what it's worth after repairs. The wreck shows up on a CARFAX report, and buyers price it accordingly. On a $10,000 repair, that gap typically runs $1,000 to $2,000.
Three things worth knowing about how the claim actually works.
1. The claim usually goes against the at-fault driver's insurer, not your own. The Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner puts it plainly: "Typically you'll file a diminished value claim against the insurer of the at-fault party."
2. Insurers default to a formula called 17c that NAIC researchers flag as flawed. It double-counts mileage and originated as a settlement methodology from a single 2001 Georgia case, not an industry standard. The numbers it produces sit well below the realistic 10% to 20% range.
3. In every state except Michigan, you can pursue diminished value when another driver is at fault. State deadlines start at two years and run from the date of the accident, not the date repairs finish.
The blog walks through who pays, the 17c math, state-by-state filing windows, and the documentation that holds up when the first offer comes in low. Linked in the first comment ↓
#autoinsurance #consumerprotection #insuranceclaims #personalfinance #carinsurance
12 states require no-fault auto insurance and personal injury protection (III).
If you move into one without adding PIP, your old policy is no longer compliant. Your next claim could be denied because your coverage doesn't meet the new state's requirements.
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Switching auto insurance saves a median of $461/year (Consumer Reports).
That's a car payment most drivers never collect, because they accept the renewal and don't compare rates. Even drivers with clean records and stable profiles leave money on the table.
Full breakdown ↓
California raised its auto insurance minimums for the first time since 1967.
Senate Bill 1107, the Protect California Drivers Act, took effect January 1, 2025. The new floor is 30/60/15: $30,000 in bodily-injury coverage per person, $60,000 per accident, and $15,000 in property damage. That doubles the prior bodily-injury limits and triples the property-damage limit, both unchanged for 58 years.
Drivers renewing in 2025 saw their coverage automatically lifted to the new floor. For most households, that meant a premium increase, with the size depending on the carrier.
California is also one of four states (with Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Michigan) that ban credit-based insurance scoring under Proposition 103. Three factors carry the most weight on every California rate by law: driving safety record, annual mileage, and years of experience. Optional factors can adjust the rate but cannot outweigh those three.
Two more rules worth knowing:
- A 20% good-driver discount is mandatory for any driver with 3 years of experience, no more than 1 violation point, and no at-fault fatality or major-damage accidents on record
- The Department of Insurance publishes a free premium comparison tool covering 90%+ of the California market, mandated by Insurance Code Section 12959
If a renewal jumped after the SB 1107 change, the automatic coverage uplift explains part of it. Comparing carriers is still the only way to see which one prices the new floor most efficiently.
Full breakdown in the first comment ↓
#autoinsurance #california #carinsurance #personalfinance #insurancenews
Tableau and Looker feel so outdated now with Claude. I've just been building custom internal dashboards using plain text.
Best part is claude helped me build all the data pipelines as well. Easy integration with all data sources done for me.
Text to dashboard alive and well.
Claude code is so powerful for Google Ads management
Have a daily script set up to pull conversions by gclid and push back to Google for the conversion feedback
A skill that I run each morning to check performance for the prior day across multiple dimensions