Big Boys 1 : Little ol' Me 0

4 1/2 weeks ago I was in a car accident. Plain and simply, the other guy ran the yield sign. He is an insurance agent with State Farm. He couldn't have been nicer. My car was undriveable, and I had to climb out of the passenger's side door.

The roads were snowy, but he was going way too fast. I had my two boys with me and my side air bag went off. Seemed like an easy, peasy kind of thing. His fault, not mine. He pays, not me.

I called my insurance company. They said, "Would you like us to turn this in with your policy?" I said (like duh!) "No, because it was his fault."

The other guys insurance company isn't State Farm for some super odd reason. It's Ameriprise Insurance. They called, took my info, as well as a recorded statement (NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT EVER EVER FREAKING EVER GIVE A RECORDED STATEMENT TO ANYONE WITHOUT CONSULTING A LAWYER)

A week later they call to tell me they will take the blame and pay 80%. Okay, I said, I'll let you know. I called my insurance agent, they were mad that they weren't taking 100% blame. Phone calls ensued. A lawyer was hired. Guess what? Ameriprise is rear ending me in a different, even more unpleasant way by still not paying the other 20%.

The other guy is at fault, so why am I losing out on this deal?

The interesting part is that the other insurance company would've totalled my car, saying the damages were $8,700. However, my insurance company said it was nicely repairable at just over $7,000. Nice indeed. I get either 80% of the value of my car, plus 80% of the car seats that apparently can only handle one car crash, car rental for 4 days, medical expenses blah blah blah, or I get 100% of a broken car. Not loving my options.

But, at this point, I'm done with the hassle. Done. You win, Big Fancy Insurance Company. You get to keep your lousy $2000 (which is seriously the difference it would've made), and I get to keep my nicely repairable, but probably never sellable car.

Thanks. Hope you enjoy the new gold flooring in the lobby.