Insurance Claim Paid. Replacement Time.
Apr. 28th, 2022 01:47 pmYesterday we finished settling our insurance claim for the stuff stolen from our car on vacation in Hawaii. It's been over 2 weeks since the theft; nearly all the delay is on us. We didn't start the claim process until we got home from vacation (though we did file a report with the local police the day of the theft). We then took a week to fill out the spreadsheet of items stolen because we were too busy with work last week to want to deal with it.
The total replacement cost of the items stolen was $2,100, excluding sales tax. We detailed out a spreadsheet (using a template provided by the insurance company) of the items and their ages. They subtracted our $500 deductible then about $400 for depreciation, and sent us a deposit of $1,200. They transferred the payment through one of my debit cards so it was available pretty much right away. No more waiting for paper checks sent via snailmail. Yay, 21st century technology!
It's interesting how the depreciation thing works. We paid for an insurance policy with replacement value. After our loss they give us an upfront settlement with depreciated value. We can take that money and do whatever we want with it— including not replace things that were lost. If we do replace items we then can file for reimbursement up to the full replacement value. We need to provide proof, e.g. via sales receipts, that we bought a comparable item.
Hawk has already started buying replacement items. We did a quick shopping trip at REI last Saturday. (Recall the thief stole her hiking day-pack & the gear inside it.) I'm delaying a bit on replacing my gear. I'm considering replacing some of it with different items, particularly that "brick" lens for my camera. I may well used the depreciated settlement value to buy a lighter, less expensive, more versatile lens.
The total replacement cost of the items stolen was $2,100, excluding sales tax. We detailed out a spreadsheet (using a template provided by the insurance company) of the items and their ages. They subtracted our $500 deductible then about $400 for depreciation, and sent us a deposit of $1,200. They transferred the payment through one of my debit cards so it was available pretty much right away. No more waiting for paper checks sent via snailmail. Yay, 21st century technology!
It's interesting how the depreciation thing works. We paid for an insurance policy with replacement value. After our loss they give us an upfront settlement with depreciated value. We can take that money and do whatever we want with it— including not replace things that were lost. If we do replace items we then can file for reimbursement up to the full replacement value. We need to provide proof, e.g. via sales receipts, that we bought a comparable item.
Hawk has already started buying replacement items. We did a quick shopping trip at REI last Saturday. (Recall the thief stole her hiking day-pack & the gear inside it.) I'm delaying a bit on replacing my gear. I'm considering replacing some of it with different items, particularly that "brick" lens for my camera. I may well used the depreciated settlement value to buy a lighter, less expensive, more versatile lens.