Fixer-Upper

I just switched from Geico to Progressive for my car insurance this summer because Geico's policy wasn't getting any cheaper even though we had no tickets or incidents on record. Progressive's quote was significantly cheaper for better coverage. It could just be a "new customer" quote, so i guess we'll see soon because it'll be time to renew my policy in a week or so.

Anyway, after my car accident the other day I had my first experience with actually having to *use* my insurance. And it was great! After i reported the accident (which you can do online, how nifty is that?) they called me the next morning, got my story and immediately started working on the claim. The adjuster would call me with updates. She got the info about the at-fault person's insurance. (That may be because one of the other cars involved was also a Progressive insured and so that driver may have supplied them with the police report because i never picked it up.) Anyway, so the adjuster called me and set up an appointment at a collision center to get my car inspected. I was expecting to have to leave my car there all day or something, but I just showed up, the Progressive guy came out and took some pictures and inspected the damage. He went inside and wrote it up....and within 15 minutes of my arrival he handed over the estimate and a check to get it repaired! I was floored. I thought insurances were supposed to be difficult. The only thing i didn't really understand is that even though i'm *not* at-fault, Progressive paid the claim through my policy. The check they wrote me was less my $250 deductible. But now the adjuster is going to subrogate against the at-fault insurance to get repaid and when they get repaid they will then give me back my $250 deductible. All i know is that i didn't have to do a damn thing and that's really nice! I don't know yet if i'll get my bumper repaired because the paint already has some scratches and things on it. A shiny new bumper would look out of place!