Is car insurance a con?

This is seriously fucking shit. I need to rant first before I get to the heart of the question.

So I was driving along a main road a few months ago and this girl pulls out in front of me and I braked but it was too close and I smashed in to her.

She admitted it was her fault. I claimed the insurance and everything and then I take my car off to the place where the insurance company told me to go because they have some deal with that place or whatever.

So they have my car for a week or something, then they ring up and say that there is damage under the car (which I already fucking told them because my mechanic checked it just the day before I took it in and he saw it) so they really didn't need to take that long to tell me that. Then they say that I have to claim that separately because "it wasn't caused by the crash and the new panels etc to replace the ones that got damaged in the crash won't fit on". Seriously, in what universe does that even make sense?

If the damage under the car causes the panels to not fit on, the ones that were already on there would have fallen off! Unless the under car damage was caused by the crash.

So anyway, now that second claim lies on me because they "couldn't" *cough* bullshit *cough* put the new panels etc. on without fixing the bottom of the car, which is also fucked because if I didn't have this crash, I wouldn't have had to worry about the bottom of the car.

So now I have to pay the excess of $550 when I've probably paid the entire cars worth in insurance over the years.

So my question.

It is quite obvious that the insurance companies are going to rip you off every chance they get. It is also obvious that the chances are that you'r going to pay off the worth of your car, plus more, before you have any major crash. Otherwise the insurance companies would lose money if that wasn't the case.

On top of this you have to pay some of the money it costs to fix your car.

So do you think it's better to just save the money yourself?
Or even save the money for your car, but then also get 3rd party insurance, because you never know if you're gonna end up crashing in to a Saab or something lol

It just seems logical to me that insurance is a rip off. I'm a rating one driver btw, and still all this bullshit.

What do you think?

I have been driving for years with only the minimum amount of insurance required by law, and it only covers if I hit someone else. If I get hit by someone and they drive off, or if I hit someone, then I get nothing. I am pretty comfortable with that though, since I have a used car and I probably have saved more money not paying for the extra coverage, than it would cost to replace the car.

What do I really have to lose? Worse case is my old used car, I wont get sued because my insurance covers anything I hit.

Bicycle insurance is zero dollars my friend.

I think that instead of having seat belts they should put a big damned spike on your steering wheel, pointing right at your chest. I guarantee there will be less accidents if people know that a collision is going to impale them. Then we wouldn't really need insurance would we?
"I got rear ended by some... Poor bastard."

Anyway, I think a lot of the factors here must come from which insurance company you use.
After Katrina there were many signs about different insurance companies that helped, or fxxxed people. I saw a lot of negative signs, but I saw one positive: "Allstate took care of us."
I have never used them, so I don't know.

One of the insurance companies I signed up for (to pay for MONTHLY insurance) has threatened to make a claim with their collection agency if I don't pay the whole year's worth at once. Their reasoning is that I owe them for the latest month of coverage. Get this though: I'm supposed to pay for each month just prior to the new month's worth of coverage. So if I didn't pay them, and they claim that they "covered" me anyways (which already doesn't mean anything because I haven't been in any accidents and haven't done anything to effect their company for the month in question) it sounds like someone's messing up or that this whole scheme is completely intentional.

Also, this happened a few months ago and I haven't heard from them or their collection agency since, nor has my credit been affected in spite of their threats. Shady much?

Of course if you didn't pay them and you don't get in an accident, then you were covered the entire time. If you didn't pay them and you get into an accident, then you weren't really covered because you hadn't paid.

I recently had an accident where another car crossed two lanes and ran into me on the highway (didn't check blind spots). Estimate was 928$, insurance company called recently to say that they received the police report which confirmed that the other driver was at fault and that they were trying to seek the totality of my damages from him. Lets see how this ends...

My general experience is that insurance companies work quite well. Then again, I don't live in Americoh.

Not really, car insurance protects you if you put someone in the hospital. In the USA putting someone in a hospital bed will cost you $50000 without insurance. The cost of health care is what dictates car insurance. Of course the USA is one of the only country where it is normal for people to make money off of the dying / sick / and injured.

Invader - Yep, sounds shady as hell lol

Stormcrow - If I'm not going far I'd ride a bike. Cars are handy though.

Spartiate - Please post your outcome, should be interesting.

Marvo - Neither do I.

ninja - That's very interesting. But here, as wherever Alric lives, we have a minimum amount of insurance required by law. That is 3rd party, which covers the other person. I'm probably going to stick to 3rd party but I'll have to find out if that covers their property too.