Paying it forward

I have been in about five or six accidents in my life. Two of them were my fault. Fortunately, in both of those the significant property damage occurred to my car. In the first accident, the car did not belong to me, but in the second accident it did. I also remember that both drivers were so kind and forgave me on the spot.

I was worried, however, that I’d see a big jump in the premium of my auto insurance but it never came. Perhaps the total repair cost was small enough that it didn’t put me in the more at risk population of insured drivers. Since I don’t know their algorithms I can only guess about why the insurance company didn’t raise my rates. I will admit to being very pleasantly surprised when my new premium came and it was within a dollar of the cost before the accident.

I can attest that I am a fan of insurance and the peace of mind it brings by knowing that if a collission occurs, there is a source of funding to compensate for the expenses that are sure to follow. While nobody likes to pay insurance, I willingly pay those premiums in exchange for that greater sense of comfort and peace.

Because insurers have a pretty good thing going, I am shocked at their willingness to totally rip off some of their customers in the guise of being kind. Over the past few years I have noticed a particular insurance commercial campaign that promotes the benefits of accident protection. The ads begin with people talking about the fact that no one is perfect and insurance companies should know that. They then ask why the insurance company jacks up their rates when they use the product that they bought.

Then they shift to the goodness of the company for which they are pitching this fantastic offer. It’s called accident forgiveness. You see, if you purchase this accident forgiveness policy then when you get in an accident and make a claim they won’t increase your rate.

Sound fantastic?

It never has for me. The very first time I saw this commercial I thought, “Great! Why wait for the customer to have an accident? Start charging them an increased rate before they have an accident.” I have to classify that action in the category of unmitigated gall and pretention. It takes a lot of nerve to be able to tell someone you are doing them a favor by promising to not raise their rates if they’ll only pay a higher rate in the first place. It apparently just requires greed to call that servivce forgiveness.

Everyone talks about paying it forward, but this takes that concept to a new and entirely wrong level. If we had truth in advertising, I’m pretty sure the word forgiveness would not have been able to work its way into this scheme. I’ll forgive you for $100 dollars isn’t forgiveness; it’s a financial transaction.

It’s just wrong.