It’s good to have insurance. I just learned that recently.

For the most part, I have been a pretty good driver, but I had to file my first accident claim a couple days ago and it was a learning experience.

My dad is an insurance agent, which is good since I tend to have questions that need answered. He was definitely helpful over this past week.

Nobody in my family likes to tell the insurance man we’ve had an accident, but he always says “that’s why you have insurance”.

There was a 24-hour period of stress where I had to file the claim, talk to the adjuster, contact the body shop, make contact with the adjuster, set up the rental car, and get AAA to tow my car to the body shop. In the process, I went to the wrong rental car location and the tow truck was late due to a mistake by the dispatch. In the end, everything got taken care of.

Through the whole process, I learned why it’s necessary to have some type of car insurance. Without it, I would be cleaned out to get the car repaired and pay for a rental for nearly two weeks. Can you say “deductible”?

The incident was also a good reminder to go back and read the details of my policy. Let’s face it, sometimes we treat it like the iTunes Terms and Agreements: there’s probably something important in the fine print to know and we don’t bother to look at it.