Recap: Personal Finance and You
Roughly one year ago I posted about how we were going to get out of debt and stay out of debt. Some may ask where we are at in the process. The first few months were a dream. My wife and I had various liquid accounts that were sitting around idle. I was able to pay off nearly $7000 in credit card debt very quickly by just restructuring my accounts and following the Dave Ramsey baby steps. The remaining 9 months have been slow and mentally painful. After the first few big payments and closing a few accounts, my brain told me that this was going to be a cake walk, that without even trying I had eliminated two of the plastic cards that were causing some of my financial stress. After the liquid accounts ran dry and all we had left was our $1000 starter emergency fund, paying off debt slowed to a crawl.
We’ve been able to put between $500-$900 a month on the final remaining credit card. We haven’t had any real emergencies to speak of until the last 30 days. About two months ago our bank account began lagging due to the idea that we have a little too much in our checking account at the end of the month and that is the reason that it was taking so long to make progress. We began to get very close to the over draw point. We had to put baby step two on hold and save a little money. With a low revolving balance in the checking account and plates/registration renewals coming up in June, we should hold off and start to pile a little bit of money to recover. That is when the fun began.
On May 22nd 2010 I was driving to work for some after hours Saturday maintenance. I was driving my wife’s 2008 Honda Fit as I always do when I can. Driving my 2007 GMC Sierra 2500HD gets a little expensive. As I was driving along, a drunk driver ran a stop sign and t-boned the Honda. The driver of the truck came to passenger window, which was shattered, and said that he had locked up the brakes. He left the window and went to the door of his truck. By the time I had gotten out of the car a small crowd had gathered. They were all discussing the incident. I noticed the driver of the truck was now standing in front of his truck with a cell phone to his ear. This didn’t seem out of the ordinary to me as I normally leave a crowd when I’m on the phone, especially if I had made a bone head move. When I looked to check on him again, he was gone. The idiot had fled the scene on foot and left his truck on the side of the road.
About 20 minutes later the cops show up, thank God for their exceptional response time. The officer that responded to the call drove around for a few minutes hoping the guy was just ducking behind a house but no such luck. He took all the information and statements from anyone that saw the accident and I was on my way. I went ahead and attended the maintenance that night and then drove home. Insurance was called and I got started on my claim. This was gonna be a big one. I received notice that it was very likely the insurance on the truck had expired. I was thinking SCORE cause now this will be covered under uninsured motorist and I will only have to pay $250. After I called the insurance company, my excitement was gone pretty quick.
Insurance began working their angle stating that I may be on the hook for the full deductible under my collision policy since they cannot confirm the identity of the other driver. Obviously I didn’t get any information form him cause he was drunk and fled the scene. About a week later I got a call from the officer in charge of my case and he said that he has been unable to make contact with the vehicle owner. Great! The accident is classified as a hit and run and by definition, uninsured motorist coverage won’t kick in unless both drivers involved give statements and verify that anyone has insurance. So now, in addition to the plates/registration and low revolving balances, we need to come up with $1000. But what about your starter emergency fund you ask?! I was a naughty person and started skimming it to pay off a little bit here and there to speed up the debt repayment process. The starter emergency fund only had around $450 in it. Luckily we wouldn’t have to pay the $1000 until we pick up the car and it is gonna take them at least a month to fix it.
For two months we scrounged and ate Ramen Noodles. Somehow we have saved the money and we’ll have more than enough to pay all the bills coming in this month. I’m almost amazed that we were able to do it while also upping our revolving balance by about $1500. All the while I have been pushing every angle that I can to try and get this accident to be covered under uninsured motorist. Uninsured Motorist has a deductible of only $250 instead of $1000, a great savings. Over the course of the few weeks following the accident the officer in charge of the case was able to talk to the owner of the truck and he claims that his son was driving. The son claims he was not driving and also tried to pull the stolen vehicle argument a few hours after the wreck. This game that the other party is playing is still leaving me up a creek. I have the money but that’s not the point. I shouldn’t have to pay a full deductible because some junkie drunk blew a stop sign and hammered my vehicle. To make the whole situation even more joyful, the cops aren’t even going to make an arrest on suspicion. The officer claims that the driver wouldn’t get jail time either even though neither the owner nor the son have a drivers license, insurance, and were suspected of drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident. Give me a break. Where’s the justice in that? Does this douchebag have to kill a car full of babies before someone cares? It’s grotesque but the truth.
Earlier this week I escalated my claim to a supervisor since I wasn’t gaining any ground with my argument. The supervisor started off with the same old about the uninsured motorist coverage only applying if the other driver was available for a statement and insurance check, otherwise I would be out of luck. After about 10-15 minutes of negotiating I dropped the bomb, “What this really boils down to is $750 to maintain a customer of 7 years. You’re already paying out $10k, what’s another $750 to keep my business?”. I didn’t want to use this line because I hate to threaten people but the bottom line, I want to use and endorse services and companies that are not going to screw me over at every chance they get. I don’t feel like I was being treated fairly. He said that he needed a little bit of time to review the case and that he would call me back. A few hours later, he called to let me know that they would be covering it under uninsured motorist and that they would cut me a check for the difference. I received the check yesterday. He thanked me for my continued patronage and we ended the call. Needless to say I will be sticking with my current insurance company. They have done me a solid and I will reward them by sending them a couple thousand a year for insurance on various cars and motorcycles that I own.
At the end of the day, I only had a few minor cuts from the glass so I am OK. We should be getting the car back middle of next week all repaired and sorted out. We only have to pay the $250 to pick up the car. Overall this has been a good learning experience. I have not had a previous incident that someone didn’t stick around so this is a first for me. Next time I’ll be a little more watchful. Otherwise, we should be able to pay off the final credit card later this month after we have the car back. We still have two cars to pay off. The good news is that the cars are on schedule to pay off without putting more money into the mix. It takes a little longer but the payment plan is designed to pay it off eventually. This will help once we’re making 3-5 payments a month on one car until it is finished. We will make some visual progress on those starting next month and I can’t wait. The advice I have for anyone else working on getting out of debt, stick with it. It is going to be a long and difficult journey, but once you get to the finish, you’ll be living the life that many can only dream of.