This Vehicle Expense Cost Me Over $500, and My Auto Insurance Didn't Cover a Dime

Sometimes, you can land in a situation where you're on the hook for a costly car repair bill -- even if your car isn't old and you didn't do anything reckless to cause it to get damaged. Such was something I experienced not so long ago.

My car ended up needing a repair that cost over $500. And even though I had auto insurance at the time (and of course still have it now), my insurer didn't pick up so much as a dollar of the tab. But there's a big reason why.

When the cost of your repair is less than your deductible

The repair my car wound up needing was a windshield replacement. An errant rock flew into my windshield during a routine drive on the highway, and it must've hit at just the right angle to crack my windshield beyond repair.

Now if you have a newer vehicle, you should know that the cost of replacing your windshield could be more expensive than expected. Kelley Blue Book says that thanks to advanced technology in newer vehicles, a new windshield can cost upward of $1,000. However, if you have an older car, you can expect to pay something in the range of $300 to $600 for a typical vehicle windshield.

My repair fell into the top end of that range, costing over $500 but not quite $600. But it didn't really matter -- either way, my auto insurance company wasn't paying the bill. And the reason is that I didn't ask it to.

You may be thinking "Um, what's wrong with you? Why wouldn't you file a claim?" But the reason boils down to the fact that my auto insurance policy comes with a $750 deductible. Since that was more than the cost of my repair, filing a claim wouldn't have helped me financially at all.

Since that incident, I've thought about trying to lower my deductible. But going that route would mean paying a higher insurance premium.

Since your premium is something you pay off the bat and your deductible only comes into play when you have to file a claim, I prefer to take the chance on a higher deductible. But in this situation, it cost me to some degree.

That said, I don't even know if I would've filed a claim against my insurance had my deductible been, say, $500. I didn't spend that much more to replace my windshield, and filing a claim to get reimbursed $50 or so might've sent my premium rates rising the following year.

Always have savings on hand

Auto insurance can serve as a means of financial protection when you own a vehicle. But don't just fall back on your insurance. Rather, always make a point to keep some money in your savings account in case you end up having to shell out money to meet a car insurance deductible -- or in case you're looking at a repair that's less costly than what your deductible entails.

Of course, I'm grateful that my car didn't sustain more damage than a cracked windshield. The process of getting that fixed couldn't have been easier -- a company pulled into my driveway and repaired my car right there so I didn't even have to leave my street. I'm also grateful that I had money in my emergency fund I could dip into -- because really, nobody wants to go into debt over an errant rock.