Car insurance and hail damage

[tar heel]

Does anyone know whether hail damage is covered under comprehensive? Is there generally a deductible or is it like glass breakage with no deductible?

My son's and his girlfriend's cars were pummeled last night. He says they look like they've been hit all over with baseballs. Her car is new and nice, so she will definitely need it fixed. I told them I thought insurance would totally cover it.

My son, on the other hand, drives a beat-up older car. The insurance company would probably total it, but I'm not sure that would be helpful for him if they also took the car. Now, he has a car that is beat-up but runs okay. It would be really hard to replace the car with something better for the small amount he would get.

 

[Shmily1]

We had a lot of hail damage to a car about 2 years ago and we didn't pay a deductible and it looked great when they got done.

 

[niclodn]

Howdy neighbor! Yes, hail damage is covered under comprehensive -- you'll have to pay whatever your comprehensive deductible is (mine is zero). Sorry you guys got hit last night -- the storms sounded awful but luckily we didn't have any damage in south Charlotte. We did, however, get hit last month -- my car is actually at Wilburn Auto Body getting the damage from that storm repaired as we speak! Oh, and plan on it taking MUCH longer than they tell you to get it repaired! I was told 4-5 days, but they've already had it a week and say it will be at least 2-3 more weeks...

 

[tar heel]

My son and his girlfriend's cars were near UNC Charlotte. We're maybe 10 miles north and we got really hard rain but no outlandish hail. Sorry you got hit, niclodn.

 

[Sarahlovy]

I had a car totaled out by hail a few years ago (probably 150/175 insured cars in the lot I was parked in were totaled ) and had to pay the deductible. It worked out well for me financially (after deductible, I got $100 more than I had paid for the used car!), but I know there were several people who took the pay off, bought the car back from the insurance company, replaced the glass, and drove a swiss cheese car for a while.

 

[MSSANDRA]

WE are a little bit more north of Charlotte than you are and DS is going to UNCC in the fall! Storms are in the forcast all week!

 

[rbbs]

Yep you typically have to pay your deductible under comprehensive for your auto insurance and if you have 2-3 hail claims your insurance company will likely want to increase your deductible. These are however viewed as not at fault losses so they won't impact your rates aside from losing any possible claims free discount that you may have? Usually this discount is between 5-20% depending on the carrier.

For home insurance the company will sometimes waive the deductible if the loss is over a certain threshold. Typically if you have over $20,000 damage to your home from hail you likely won't have to pay your deductible. Times like these are when you are glad you had insurance!

 

[auralia]

she should claim it he shouldn't it would total it i'm guessing the bad hail damage on my car 2 years ago and not as bad as you are talking was 3800$ insurance claim so if his car is worth any less than 3000 i wouldnt chance it.

 

[disneyandme]

When I saw this posting, I knew you had to be in the Chrlotte area. That was some storm- had both the kids up for over and hours and we lost power for about 4 hours. We were a bit late for school this morning.

 

[jenrose66]

Hail damage falls under your Comp Deductible. If you have a 0 dollar deductible for Comp it will cost you nothing. If you have a $500 deductible it will cost you $500.

 

[Pipperdoodle]

I was wondering the same thing about insurance. We're by UNCC and my DH's sunroof is smashed. I'm just happy the car isn't filled with water!

 

[sbtrfly74]

I'm not sure what coverage he had but my dad got $2000 for hail dmg on his older toyota camry. Didn't get it fixed and gave me the car

 

[galen.craft]

Comprehensive will cover it but the deductible just depends on what they signed up for when they bought auto insurance coverage.

Source:***********/AARP.

 

[dawson5]

I'm not sure what coverage he had but my dad got $2000 for hail dmg on his older toyota camry. Didn't get it fixed and gave me the car

With some insurance companies, you can't do this. Safe auto is the one that first comes to mind. They won't release the money until the work is done.

OP my car was hit (and our house too--new roof, siding on one side and windows on one side.) two years ago. They did the paintless dent repair. We actually had ours fixed while we were on vacation, so no worries about how long it took. You can't tell that it happened, except for some dings around the window seals. Hubby didn't want to replace those.

It's all going to come down to who you have and the coverage you have. Have him talk with the insurance company, he can then weigh his options.