How Your Car Theft Can Impact Your Insurance

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Waking up to find your car not in its usual spot is a real blow. Thousands of WNY drivers have felt it over the past year. Jeffrey Hinton is one of them.

“They just wanted to go for a ride and cause me all this financial and emotional burden. It’s not fair,” Hinton said.

Within minutes, thieves broke into his 2020 Kia Sportage and drove away, he caught it all on his Nest doorbell camera.

Jeffrey Hinton

“I didn’t do anything wrong, they picked the lock, my doors were locked and now I’ve lost all this money,” Hinton said.

But even though he did nothing wrong, the traces of the car theft will remain etched in his memory for years to come.

“When we look at someone’s vehicle history, we look at about five years of history to see if they’ve had any tickets, if they’ve had any accidents,” said Douglas Benz, president of New Buffalo Insurance Agency.

He says it’s already hard to get car insurance these days, so now companies may charge you more or not insure you at all.

Taylor Epps

“Some might accept certain activities a little more readily than others who say, ‘Look, we really just want a certain type of individual who has no activities and maybe a high credit score,'” Benz said.

Even if you ditch the Kia and go for a new make and model.

“Because that story follows you everywhere,” Benz said. “A carrier could look at it and say, ‘We know it wasn’t really your fault, we know you weren’t really at fault, but we still spent all this money,’ so there has to be some fairness in the system somewhere.”

So what can you do? Benz recommends that you compare different insurance policies and stop making claims if you can avoid it.