Driver uses insurance company’s own rules against them, saves thousands of dollars after crash dispute: 'Maybe we can find a work around'

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
Oct 4, 2025 5:00 AM EDT

Dealing with insurance companies is like starring in a Kafka novel with worse customer service. This man's wife was making a legal left turn in Toronto when another driver ignored his red light and plowed into her. What should have been an open-and-shut case was not, according to the insurance company, which decided she was equally at fault because she should have anticipated the other driver breaking the law.

Instead of paying higher premiums, the couple skipped filing a claim because the car was banged up but drivable. Months later, they moved provinces and needed proof of a clean driving record. That's when the insurance company pulled out its favorite catchphrase: "rules are rules." According to them, an accident still meant no clean driving history.

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  • But this guy wasn’t about to let bureaucracy win. He read the fine print and realized he had a year to file a claim. He calmly explained that if they stuck to “rules,” he’d file the repair, tack on a rental, and run the bill into the thousands. 

    Suddenly, those rules bent like wet cardboard.

  • Cheezburger Image 10560707328
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.


     

  • "So, insurance company, you won't give me a letter with a clean driving record?"

    I was grumbling about insurance companies in another thread, and led me to this memory.... My wife was driving in Toronto many (many) years ago.
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  • At an intersection, she waited at the red light, and then the advance "green left arrow" lit up and she started turning left.
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  • Other vehicles coming the opposite direction also had the same "green left arrow" for them to turn left.
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  • It's pretty standard stuff, everyone's been through those while driving. Unfortunately, the driver coming straight the other direction wasn't paying attention.
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  • He saw the vehicle next to him start moving (turning left), so he did too (going straight), through the red light, and crashing into my wife.
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  • So I call the insurance company. I'm thinking this is pretty straight forward; my wife was legally turning left, buddy ran a red light and hit her.
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  • Nay, nay, they tell me... my wife was turning left, so regardless of right of way, she's deemed equally at fault.
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  • She should have anticipated someone would run the red light and waited to make sure he was going to obey the law.
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  • I grumbled, but they stood firm. That ruling was horseshit, but it wasn't a fight I was going to win.
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  • The damage was mostly cosmetic to the side of the car; $4k to repair, but the car was perfectly derivable and wasn't unsafe.
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  • It was also an older second vehicle we rarely drove anyways. So, instead of getting it repaired and watching my rates subsequently go up 100% for the next five years, we shrugged and told the insurance company that we wouldn't claim it and take care of it ourselves.
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  • Fast forward nine months, and we're moving somewhat unexpectedly to another province. My insurance company doesn't have jurisdiction in that province, so I need to change companies.
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  • I do, and new company wants a copy of my clean history from old insurance company.
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  • insurance company, When I contact old the female employee at the counter tells me that they can't give me a clean driving record because we \were\ in an at-fault accident, so they will have to tell the new insurance company that.
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  • I give them my best "are you fricking kidding me" look. She refuses to budge. "Rules are rules, and it would be dishonest".
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  • Rules are rules? OK, I go home and look up the company's rules. It seems that I have one year to process a claim.
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  • Cheezburger Image 10560707840
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.


     

  • I come back an hour later, and smile at the nice lady. I tell her that if I'm going to get held liable for the accident on my record, I well might as well fix it.
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  • I'll have it fixed, get a rental car throughout, and basically run the repair bill as high as I legally can..
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  • And then I'll send a notice to the company head office explaining what I did and why I did it, advising them that I admired your integrity (reading her nametag "Ms...
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  • Karen... Smith...") in not providing the letter, even though you cost your company over $5000 in unnecessary expenses.
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  • got a long pause. "Well, maybe we can find a work around". And ten minutes later, she ended up providing me a letter, stating that I had a "claims-free driving history" with the old insurance company.
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  • Not accident free, claims free. That satisfied the new insurance company, and life went on. Man, insurance companies are the devil.
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insurance satisfying car accident clever petty revenge driving driver entitled people karma outsmart company payback
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