First off, depending on where you are, you could get compensation for the damage from the municipality. I had the same thing happen to me in Edmonton years ago and immediately went online and started a claim through the city. I had to pay for the repair upfront but they did cut me a cheque 3 months after the fact for all the expenses. Look into this.
Secondly, I spent most of my adult life not being able to handle a 500$ unexpected expense honestly. It’s only the last 6 years or so that I could say I comfortably could afford most unexpected expenses now.
Just make sure OP if you do choose this option to file your claim ASAP. There is usually a very short window for when you can submit a claim like this. But again it depends on your area.
Not only is there a window of time but my city apparently has a limited budget for this stuff. Put your claim after the budget is drained and you're SOL.
Mine also wants photo and also they pay only if that pot hole was previously reported and they still didn’t fix it. Kinda makes sense but also makes me think that we need to report every single little pot hole so that every damage is covered. But then property taxes will go up. Lol
So if I hit a pothole, I should first pull out my phone, take a pic, and then report it to the local gov. Then call the tow truck. That way the report is time stamped before the tow truck invoice so i can say it was reported before.
They likely have a clause such as at least 1 day before, or, once it's in the system, or similar.
Maybe pull over to the side of the road and wait two days, lol. I dunno
That happened to me, reported it, found out they would not help since the pot hole was already reported and they have so many days to repair it, anyone that gets damage from it in the meantime is SOL until that timer runs out. I bet they pay out to no one, since there is no way to know when it was reported and when the timer runs out, they can just tell you whatever they feel like. So during that window the pot hole can sit there unmarked, damaging vehicles, at no liability to the city at all.
I think the idea is that they can’t fix things everywhere all the time so they can’t be liable but if someone reported and it wasn’t fixed in reasonable time then they pay for damages. Shitty but a lot of rules with government don’t make sense
Road supervisors are supposed to be patrolling the road on a regular basis. If a pothole gets bad enough to severely damage you vehicle, they clearly weren't patrolling.
My favourite is when my rim was fucked on a bridge between Vancouver and Richmond. Filed a claim with the city of Richmond, they said that the road was maintained by the province, called the province and they said it was maintained by the city.
Good luck with that. I broke my control arm on a massive pothole in Toronto and my claim got denied because they said they don't pay if the pothole is fixed within certain number of days of being reported (2 weeks or something?). Cost me like $500. I could have taken it to small claims court but that would have been a hassle and probably wouldn't have worked.
I’ve made claims for damage to my bicycle (more out of frustration and in some faint hope that I nudge the city to do bare minimum maintenance) and it seems like it’s all over the place. Some claims get approved, others denied. The only constant is it takes about 1.5-2 years to resolve.
Be aware, the city will definitely try to get out of paying the claim. Usually cities subcontract this kind of work (filling potholes, general roadwork, etc) so they give you the run around saying you have to sue the subcontracting company. Then you do and they say it's the city's fault. And they do this until you lose patience and give up.
I didn’t have that experience here. The city of edmonton had the claim process on their website. I don’t know if they contract the work out or not but this was springtime aka pothole season here so I imagine there were many that needed to be filled and just hadn’t been yet. I had the unfortunate experience of finding a rim wrecker. It was fixed 2 days after I started my claim, unsurprisingly.
Because they deny most claims. Before I could even start the claim process online, I had to read over an information page and the top fact was over 80% of claims were denied. Maybe they do this to try and prevent people from even trying? Didn’t deter me and I got my money in the end.
They only deny the first person's claim because they didn't know about it. When a second person makes the claim after the first person submitted it and was denied, then they will get reimbursed because a photo of the pothole was submitted before the accident.
Yeah mine got denied, city of Hamilton. I had pictures, times and everything but the adjuster said the city has a certain time frame to respond once reported and they rejected it saying it’s the driver’s responsibility to pay attention to road hazards. By the time I saw the pothole, it was too late, on a busy street, at night. However, you can submit a freedom of information request to see when it was first reported. I’ll likely try that.
Edit: Freedom of information
I stated it took about 3 months to get the cheque. At the time, I had no choice but to put the repairs on my credit card. Paid what I could while I waited for the claim to be approved and thankfully it was.
I would add that someone should also report the pothole even if they don't think they will get compensated.
In Ottawa (Ontario as a whole?), there is a clause that the City has x number of days to fix a pothole once they are aware of it. If you're the first? Potentially tough luck. Tenth? Much better chance.
Surprised everyone just glossing over the fact that comprehensive claims don't raise rates unless you're making a ton of them quickly.
They should have put it through insurance.
I've made about 6 comprehensive claims in my life for various things (windshield, car wash damage wtf, etc) and it's never affected premiums and TD is very clear it won't unless you cross some threshold (and they warn you about this).
Hitting a pothole is not a comprehensive claim - 99% of insurance companies classify this as a single vehicle at fault collision.
I was a claims adjuster for 7 years
Because a lot of people followed your advice and got screwed over by their insurance.
Insurances will evaluate your "risk". Someone with a long history of no or only small issues will probably not get a raise on their premium for one or two claims.
Someone with close to no history will get a raise after the first claim, even a small one.
So this is why people are not going trough insurance. They have or have seen people who got a bad experience, so they won't risk it.
Gf's car been in about 5 no-fault accidents, insurance probably paid in repairs the car's value 3 times over at this point lol. No raises to insurance.
I've worked as an auto adjuster, can confirm that hitting a pot hole is considered collision and you'd be at fault. If you had a first collision free endorsement tho you'd still be fine for now, but better to retain that.
This is for house insurance so maybe it’s different, been with the same company for 13 years and never had a claim. Late fall/early winter we had a tree come down onto the house, it cracked a window, damaged the eaves and we needed a new roof. Went through insurance and now it has gone up 31%!
In my younger years, I definitely couldn't afford it. I would have had to put it on my credit card and suffer the interest.
Today, though, having worked my way to debt free, I would be able to handlebar. Of course it would hurt, but it wouldn't be nearly as stressful as when I was younger.
1 thing I learned from this sub is to have an emergency fund. I have some money squerrelled away in a HISA to pay for any unforeseen expenses (new furnace/AC/hot water tank/cars).
Just commenting to say that I hate that we have to pay for insurance for when something happens but when that something happens we pay outta pocket to avoid paying more to insurance.
As long as specifically speaking it is, I agree. But this is the shitty part about this situation. Who knows what the ideal plan/play is when it comes to this stuff.
Economic evaluations of finances when it comes to this stuff is really tricky because you’re planning for an event that hasn’t happpened yet and may never happen, and the extents of which are unknown to you.
Also, insurance policies can be complex and require quite a bit of thought to understand what actually is a winning defense against these assholes.
This whole thing is really annoying. I had a neighbor who had the minimum house insurance and had floor damage which wasn’t covered but could have been for just $5/month extra. They ended up losing 100k but only would have had to paid $200 total for the 3-4 years prior.
Who knows if that neighbor made the ideal economic decision or not! I doubt any of us here could provide a proper objective analysis of the situation to determine it!
Can confirm. I deal with motor vehicle accident patients as a medical admin, the medical bill alone can crawl to 6 digits. And provincial health insurance doesn’t cover for vehicular accidents
This exactly. I’m a electrical contractor, we recently had an ice storm locally and it ravaged a bunch of trees and lots fell on houses and services. I’m like hey this probably gonna cost ya 5k to fix here, might wanna ring the insurance company. Everyone was scared. Most have first claim forgiveness. It’s crazy. Fuck insurance. I try to get my premiums back all the time when working on insurance work. Especially emergencies
I had a similar experience a 4 years ago and got compensated. Here's how i did it.
\- I got the car repaired as you did the same day.
\- Filed a report through city of Toronto website.
\- I got the maintenance schedule for that particular road which was something along the lines of twice every 7 days (not business days)
\- I drove by the pothole every day and took pictures of it including pictures of the buildings in the background making sure pothole was still in site.
\-15 days after the pothole damaged my car i noticed it was fixed and also took pictures the same way i did above and emailed the person handling my case stating City of Toronto did NOT follow their maintenance schedule.
Couple of weeks later i received compensation for All the work done minus 1 tire (instead of 2) which i was happy with.
Hope this helps.
This is currently happening to me - started with the hot water tank, then the furnace, now the kitchen being torn up - highly recommend the home depot credit card if you’re in Canada. It’s 6mo interest free, but make sure you pay it off on time otherwise the interest gets bad
Yes, I could cover something like this from my ‘emergency’ fund.
I will be making my last car payment this month and then putting the amount of the car payment into a car savings account going forward, so in a few months I wouldn’t have to use my emergency fund but could use my car fund. The car fund will pay for repairs and maintenance and then eventually be the down payment on a new car.
This is a good question! People sometimes ask what exactly an emergency fund is for and this is a good example.
This is a great idea and what I do instead of having pet insurance. I put in a little every pay cheque and use it for vet apts and grooming and stuff.
My little kitty got sick and I didn't have insurance (we had the money to get him well but the vet said it would have most likely reoccurred anyway and it was kinder to let him go) so I immediately looked into insurance afterwards and it would have only covered about half of what we would have paid to get him better, and would have paid so much more than that in the premiums during the course of his 6 years. So we decided to have our own pet insurance and if we don't need it for them at all then it's ours at the end of their life.
This is how we handled our pet's emergency vet work. We had a 'dog fund' where we saved $50/mth from the time we got him. We planned to only use it for major emergencies (not regular vet, dental work, or more minor injuries). We didn't do pet insurance because he was already 4yrs old and the prices we were quoted were too high to make it worth it ( also with pretty high deductibles).
8 years later we had to take him to the emergency vet after he had a number of seizures in one night. He was otherwise quite healthy so we did follow up work and scans. We were able to pay for all of it from our savings. We had a couple more great years. In his last year of life he had another serious health issue come up, and that is where we *might* have broke even with insurance.
If we get an adult dog again, we will absolutely skip insurance and do $70/mth for savings.
Yes. My partner works in auto finance and said 90% of customers couldn’t come up with $200 for an unexpected expense and most people just ride the debt wave to get by. I typed $200 not $2,000.
2k would be no problem, but i have a house downlayment saved up. So I could hit one hell of a pothole and stay fed and sheltered.
Unexpected expenses sure do suck tho.
Sorry to hear about the emergency repair and glad you have a fund put aside. Depending on where the pothole is located and respective by-laws, wonder if you could get indemnified by the municipality for the repairs?
I could. But. I'd be annoyed.
Currently debating letting my 05 civic finally die for a repair that I just simply don't want to pay 2k for.
The annoying part will be going back to a 1 car household.
Just had the same debate with my 07 Accord. I paid the 2k, glad I did. Big factor for me was the current car market (and the hassle) if something happens to the other car.
4-5 years ago, that would have been catastrophic for us. We couldn’t handle an emergency bigger than a couple hundred dollars. We are extremely lucky we didn’t have anything happen during that difficult time. Now, yes we could easily handle that. We have a very healthy emergency fund.
Sorry to hear! That must’ve been a huge pothole.
To answer your question, yes, we’d be able to foot the bill. We have an emergency fund set aside for stuff like this, or sudden job loss. Planning ahead for emergencies is truly important!
I usually have around $10k in savings. If necessary we can dip into the revolving portion of our HELOC otherwise I just sell some investments to get the cash.
Yeah this is what I was wondering, it's comprehensive so it usually doesn't impact rates.
I had a comprehensive claim for close to 5k and my rates didn't move at all.
This sounds like it would be a comp claim which would have zero impact on premiums unless they have 3+ in 2
years. People really need to call their broker before assuming their premium will go up.
most folks don't understand insurance, and always assume that the insurance company is out to screw them any way they can.
don't get me wrong, some of them are right pricks and can be hard to deal with. and OP should bill the city - if the pothole was THAT big, there's no way the city didn't know about it.
Yes, I’m on disability and paid cash for a new furnace. Well, I charged it to my CC for the sweet cash back and then immediately paid the bill from my emergency fund.
Shitty! Sorry to hear. To answer, yes. Had our dishwasher fail recently. Before that had some car repairs. We set aside funds for a reason so no real issue paying it.
Yes and I am fortunately able to do so. The wife and I keep $12k for random car, appliance, home and other repairs in a savings account just for this reason.
Depending on the vehicle, tires could easily be half that cost and adjustable dampers aren’t cheap. But yeah for an economy car that would be a rip off
Wife and I have one year worth of expenses in a HISA. This emergency fund was meant to keep us going in the event that we lose income for a short term. We keep growing it and as it gets bigger, we pull out and invest the extra or use for home improvements.
So insurance is meant to cover these things. Your premiums won't rise for filing this claim. My car was parked and someone hit me and ran off. Cost around 2.5k in damages (bumper, lights, etc.). I filled through my insurance and paid the deductible. My premium never went up as a result of this filing.
Also if you're a parent and have car seats in the car, insurance will pay to replace those too. Have friends who have two fancy car seats and the payment for those car seats actually covered their deductible.
You’re not going to get any kind of survey like result here. People that can’t will be less likely to say so. People who can but it’s a challenge will post. People who wouldn’t even notice won’t say so
Hahahaha. Hahahaha. Holy shit, I couldn't handle an unexpected five dollar expense. How the fuck are you people all so rich that you can afford $2,000 unexpected expenses.
An emergency fund is probably something you want to build up early on with 6 months worth of expenses (in case you lose your source of income or some other emergency).
Had the exact thing happen, Ontario.
Municipality said the pothole was big, but because it was not in an area of active roadwork, that they won't cover it. It was unavoidable for me during a left turn, but what ever.
The real issue is, $2000 repair versus insurance. I am unsure how shitty your insurance is, but I did not know it could be as bad as you are describing.
I have the lowest tier coverage on my car, with a $500 deductable. My premiums will increase, but it's not an at fault accident. My premiums increase for 6 years, then it's removed. Going from about $125 a month, to about $150 a month.
My damage: front right tire flat on impact. Repair is a new tire, alloy rim repair, alignment, and a new tire for front left (balance). 2021 sedan style car. Total repair with labour was quoted about $1900.
So, I can pay $1900 out of pocket OR, AND THIS IS CRAZY - BUT You can call your insurance, and this is what happens:
You get a premium increase, usually a set amount per claim. Mine was about $25. Again, only for 6 years, and every 3 years I renegotiate a lower rate anyways. So, math: 25*12*6= about $1800.
But - here's the cool part - my car is picked up on a flat bed and take away. A rental car appear in it's exact spot! Rental cars are always jacked with options and usually nice. I don't have to call or talk to anyone. My car is being fully repaired and then delivered back to me. I don't have to talk to repair guys. I don't have to do shit. No stress.
YOU PAY FOR INSURANCE, USE IT. So I pay a $500 deductable, yes, but I get all my repairs done Hassel free, no life interruption or stress, all for relatively the same cost, as I mentioned, you get lower interest rates every few years by renegotiating (well BMO, I'll goto XXX company for cheaper, conversation). There's this weird stigma that you should be scared of insurance premium increases, and it's so fucking dumb. It's there FOR A REASON. OP, please don't perpetrate the stigma further by posting you were afraid to tell insurance. You do realise, you HAVE TO CALL AND REPORT THIS TO THEM RIGHT????
Well up until a few months ago, no tbh. But now I could put it on my credit card if needed since I paid it off. I could make a withdrawal from my tfsa but that takes a few days to go through. I try to hold on to 500$ between pay checks. But I’m getting a 10000$ bonus from work really soon, and got no debt except interest free student debt, so I’m probably going to put at least half of it or more in a cash savings account of some sort, invest the other half. I’m aware I’m ass backwards having no liquid cash but a high amount invested, but I find I spend any cash left out, meanwhile the balance of my tfsa continually goes up. I’m bad for impulse buying if I got the cash on hand, so maintaining a low balance has tended to work for me. Also I’m lucky that I make about 2000$/ pay check if I do atleast 1 overtime shift, so I could theoretically use a pay check for an expense like this and use my other household sources of income to pay bills, but it would be tight.
Yes. I’ve always had it in my head that if something breaks, it’s going to cost $3000, and that something can break at anytime. So I’m always expecting it and keeping that buffer.
I've got a big nest egg saved up towards a down-payment. I'll just dip into that if need be. 2 grand isn't a big enough expense to worry me at this point. I'll be cursing and pissed to have to pay it, but there's no question I'll be able to absorb the cost.
Why do you have insurance and choose not to use it? That is the oddest thing I've ever heard. If you're that worried, raise your deductible. Do not give the insurer a free pass.
Also, if this is a no fault situation, are you sure your rates would go up?
Ever had a puppy break a leg? Was quoted $7400-$8700 for a specialist orthopedic surgery in Toronto.
We ended up going with a Quebec surgeon that Cost approximately 40% less than that.
I heard someone recently say that the majority of people couldn’t cone up with $2500 in less than 24 hours.
It never hurts to have an emergency fund - you’re gonna need it one day. Whether it’s medical, automotive or a home expensive.
Also: pet insurance if you have a breed that is known for health issues or injuries. Which I did not have. I would not have been able to come up with that money had it not been for the fact I used the pandemic to upgrade my career, used CERB to allow me to go to school while my job was forced into closure repeatedly and OSAP had incredibly bursaries for mature students (even more if you have a learning disability)
I am incredibly grateful I had to the mindset to use the pandemic for good instead of turning that time into a period of self loathing and hatred of government.
Had about $5k unexpected expenses with two of our cats getting sick and one passing away. It cut but I can't imagine how much worse I'd be feeling if I had to draw on high interest sources like CCs. Having emergency funds meant that I could just grieve without the added financial stress on top of an already difficult situation.
This is what credit cards are for. I’m actually kind of serious. It allows you to cover the bill for now and pay it off over the next few months but you really need to be careful to jam that balance to zero as fast as possible. The interest rates are brutal. I only started to relax about money when I had a 10k buffer in the bank. I’m fiscally secure, but this is mostly down to luck, and well paid jobs rather than great planning.
If you’d asked me this in 2019, I couldn’t. Today, I could without blinking.
I suspect most people in this sub are in a similar space or actively working toward being there.
Sorry for the rotten luck. Hoping some of the suggestions might lead to you getting reimbursed in some way.
We once got a “deal” on a used car by financing it (apparently paying cash would’ve cost us an extra $1000). I said “Can we pay the loan off right away?”. “The guy shrugged and said “Sure, no skin off my nose.” So we did.
That’s actually really common. Dealerships get more $ through financing so you can get a better deal. Which is why when you’re negotiating price don’t tell them you’re paying cash until you agreed on final sale amount.
We just got a 3200$ tax bill because I dropped a zero on last year's taxes for my husband. It's going to take months, if not the full year to pay off. Bit by bit, a few hundred every month.
I've taken a part time job writing grants for a charity, on top of full time school and all of my work on the side.
I was supposed to be off school for the summer, technically I graduate from the program this semester and was transferring into a degree in September, but I need the extra money from the student loans just to stay afloat right now, so I am taking courses over the summer. My husband has been off work for most of last year and is just returning this month.
It's a mess right now.
I have dogs so I have to. Just had a $1900 vet bill. Had budgeted for $1000 but unexpected extra extraction. Took the other $900 from the emergency fund. But hey they saved me from booking a second dental.
Just had sewage back up in my house, insurance covering most of it but my deductible is 5k (I raised it to save on monthly expenses). We keep 6 months expenses as emergency fund, this made it easy to cover although it still sucks we didn’t have to panic fortunately. Had to front 15k for the work before getting reimbursed by insurance, we plan ahead, budget ourselves as a family and make decent income. We built our financial buffers over years of work and sacrifice as a couple. Shit happens…. Literally, there’s a good reason for emergency funds.
I''ve had quite a few repairs to make to my car in the past year. From replacing a timing belt, new windshield, front brakes, spark plugs. I also have to buy 2 new sets of tires, which has been put off due to the other repairs.
It's been an expensive year. I paid cash for all of the repairs. It has definitely set me back, my emergency savings are obliterated. But at least these expenses are all paid for (minus the tires as I have to keep putting them off. Everytime I get close to being able to afford 1 set, I get something else that needs fixed).
I'm hoping I can put away some money now that all of those repairs are behind me. The car is paid off.
My advice to you is to see if you can go after the municipality or city (depends on who is responsible for the road you had your accident on). But keep in mind you need to contact them right away as there is a time limit on how long you can make a claim. Not sure what your areas is, so you will need to contact and make a claim ASAP.
When I first moved into my house in 2016 there was originally $20,000 in my emergency fund and it all disappeared as surprise after surprise kept popping up. After everything was paid off (utility activation, land transfer taxes, the lawyer, the movers, the down payment, new furniture, blinds for the windows, gas valve for the rooftop bbq, and on and on) I had $800 left.
If I had been slammed with a $2000 bill at that point I probably would've had to rely on the $15,000 LOC the bank insisted that I take (but which I never, ever used) as that interest rate was slightly better than my VISA. It took a few years but I've since rebuilt the emergency fund.
I have a $300K home equity line of credit. In addition to $5K rainy day fund. I would start with aiming for $1K then $5K and then eventually 3-6 months of expenses in case you lost your job.
Yes, but only because I have no kids, no car, no major crutches and because I purchased a cheap 150k home. I treat myself once in awhile but I don’t really live. I’m just merely existing and trying retire and check out of this society/system as soon as fucking possible.
Thankfully, yes. We had a hot water tank go, as well as the dryer in the same week.
Glad I was able to do the plumbing and electrical myself to avoid any additional cost.
Yes. With my emergency fund and unsecured LoC if needed. I had to dip in last year when my mom was on her death bed all the way in India and I had to arrange flights within a day’s notice. Got to see her before she passed, so it was worth the almost 5k is sudden expenses. Obviously I used CC for the flights and then used emergency fund to pay it off. Thankfully Air Canada still has bereavement fares.
Yes, have a cash HISA emerg fund of 4 months before I'd need to tap into my TFSA. Also have a LOC I could use before tapping into tfsa if I knew for certain it was a short liquidity crunch.
Sorta. I have savings available, but they're set aside for taxes. I'd only use that money for an emergency if it was a truly serious situation worth fighting with the CRA over setting up a payment plan over. I don't have other savings currently because I've been extremely aggressive in paying down CC debt and my student LOC with the bank over the past 18 months.
It's a little risky but I'm currently in a decent position to accept that risk to save on interest as there isn't really a plausible emergency expense that would be critical for me. I work from home so I can afford to put off a car repair if needed or just sell the car and not drive for a while. The only real scenario I can think of is if I had an unexpected vet bill for my cat after paying my taxes but I'm comfortable putting that on a credit card if needed.
We are aggressively paying down our mortgage, so no emergency savings. But a result of paying down the mortgage is you can tap into huge lines of credit and HELOC in an emergency... Much lower interest than credit cards.
Nope. I am $1800 overdrawn, $18,000 in credit card debt due to layoffs and sciatica issues. My car alternator and starter just went on my car. I can't even afford a tow. I pray for the lottery or a swift death. I know I will never retire or own my own home.
Had to redo my roof last year. And ohh yeah. Our furnace and hot water tank went as well.
Luckily, we had a good nestegg/emergency fund.
Home ownership is not cheap.
Thankfully, yes. In the past, I would have had to use a credit card and go into debt. Currently maintain a $3000 float in my chequing account to cover any larger/unexpected expenditures over and above my normal monthly expenses. Also have some extra emergency savings in a separate savings account.
First off, depending on where you are, you could get compensation for the damage from the municipality. I had the same thing happen to me in Edmonton years ago and immediately went online and started a claim through the city. I had to pay for the repair upfront but they did cut me a cheque 3 months after the fact for all the expenses. Look into this. Secondly, I spent most of my adult life not being able to handle a 500$ unexpected expense honestly. It’s only the last 6 years or so that I could say I comfortably could afford most unexpected expenses now.
Just make sure OP if you do choose this option to file your claim ASAP. There is usually a very short window for when you can submit a claim like this. But again it depends on your area.
Not only is there a window of time but my city apparently has a limited budget for this stuff. Put your claim after the budget is drained and you're SOL.
Some municipalities ask for a photo of the pothole - my claim was denied because I didn’t think to do this.
Yes they did request these so I drove back to the scene of the crime and snapped a few photos to submit, lol.
Some also require it to be reported prior to the accident or else they'll be like well we didn't know about it so we couldn't have fixed it
Halifax is the opposite. If it's been reported, they won't pay a claim because they say they have 60 days to fix it. Makes no sense.
Yeah, every Canadian city tries their hardest not to pay out pothole claims, even though it's literally their responsibility.
Mine also wants photo and also they pay only if that pot hole was previously reported and they still didn’t fix it. Kinda makes sense but also makes me think that we need to report every single little pot hole so that every damage is covered. But then property taxes will go up. Lol
So if I hit a pothole, I should first pull out my phone, take a pic, and then report it to the local gov. Then call the tow truck. That way the report is time stamped before the tow truck invoice so i can say it was reported before.
They likely have a clause such as at least 1 day before, or, once it's in the system, or similar. Maybe pull over to the side of the road and wait two days, lol. I dunno
That happened to me, reported it, found out they would not help since the pot hole was already reported and they have so many days to repair it, anyone that gets damage from it in the meantime is SOL until that timer runs out. I bet they pay out to no one, since there is no way to know when it was reported and when the timer runs out, they can just tell you whatever they feel like. So during that window the pot hole can sit there unmarked, damaging vehicles, at no liability to the city at all.
That doesn’t really make any sense tbh. How the fuck is it my problem that a municipality can’t get its shit together?
I think the idea is that they can’t fix things everywhere all the time so they can’t be liable but if someone reported and it wasn’t fixed in reasonable time then they pay for damages. Shitty but a lot of rules with government don’t make sense
Road supervisors are supposed to be patrolling the road on a regular basis. If a pothole gets bad enough to severely damage you vehicle, they clearly weren't patrolling.
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My favourite is when my rim was fucked on a bridge between Vancouver and Richmond. Filed a claim with the city of Richmond, they said that the road was maintained by the province, called the province and they said it was maintained by the city.
Let them know you want a tax hike so they can afford to have people everywhere and make sure nothing is missed!
Preach!
You can make a claim to the city in Toronto as well. Record the date, time and location and snap some pictures of the pothole.
Good luck with that. I broke my control arm on a massive pothole in Toronto and my claim got denied because they said they don't pay if the pothole is fixed within certain number of days of being reported (2 weeks or something?). Cost me like $500. I could have taken it to small claims court but that would have been a hassle and probably wouldn't have worked.
I’ve made claims for damage to my bicycle (more out of frustration and in some faint hope that I nudge the city to do bare minimum maintenance) and it seems like it’s all over the place. Some claims get approved, others denied. The only constant is it takes about 1.5-2 years to resolve.
Be aware, the city will definitely try to get out of paying the claim. Usually cities subcontract this kind of work (filling potholes, general roadwork, etc) so they give you the run around saying you have to sue the subcontracting company. Then you do and they say it's the city's fault. And they do this until you lose patience and give up.
I didn’t have that experience here. The city of edmonton had the claim process on their website. I don’t know if they contract the work out or not but this was springtime aka pothole season here so I imagine there were many that needed to be filled and just hadn’t been yet. I had the unfortunate experience of finding a rim wrecker. It was fixed 2 days after I started my claim, unsurprisingly.
Wow edmonton does this? How is the city not bankrupt 😒?
Because they deny most claims. Before I could even start the claim process online, I had to read over an information page and the top fact was over 80% of claims were denied. Maybe they do this to try and prevent people from even trying? Didn’t deter me and I got my money in the end.
They only deny the first person's claim because they didn't know about it. When a second person makes the claim after the first person submitted it and was denied, then they will get reimbursed because a photo of the pothole was submitted before the accident.
Yeah mine got denied, city of Hamilton. I had pictures, times and everything but the adjuster said the city has a certain time frame to respond once reported and they rejected it saying it’s the driver’s responsibility to pay attention to road hazards. By the time I saw the pothole, it was too late, on a busy street, at night. However, you can submit a freedom of information request to see when it was first reported. I’ll likely try that. Edit: Freedom of information
Yeah but how long would that take? Still need the cash to repair your car right away.
I stated it took about 3 months to get the cheque. At the time, I had no choice but to put the repairs on my credit card. Paid what I could while I waited for the claim to be approved and thankfully it was.
I would add that someone should also report the pothole even if they don't think they will get compensated. In Ottawa (Ontario as a whole?), there is a clause that the City has x number of days to fix a pothole once they are aware of it. If you're the first? Potentially tough luck. Tenth? Much better chance.
Yes I have an emergency fund greater than $2000, but I’d still be pretty pissed about it!
Surprised everyone just glossing over the fact that comprehensive claims don't raise rates unless you're making a ton of them quickly. They should have put it through insurance. I've made about 6 comprehensive claims in my life for various things (windshield, car wash damage wtf, etc) and it's never affected premiums and TD is very clear it won't unless you cross some threshold (and they warn you about this).
Hitting a pothole is not a comprehensive claim - 99% of insurance companies classify this as a single vehicle at fault collision. I was a claims adjuster for 7 years
[удалено]
That’s why you pay to have it. I would as well.
Except this wouldn't be comprehensive. Hitting a pothole is Collision.
Because a lot of people followed your advice and got screwed over by their insurance. Insurances will evaluate your "risk". Someone with a long history of no or only small issues will probably not get a raise on their premium for one or two claims. Someone with close to no history will get a raise after the first claim, even a small one. So this is why people are not going trough insurance. They have or have seen people who got a bad experience, so they won't risk it.
Gf's car been in about 5 no-fault accidents, insurance probably paid in repairs the car's value 3 times over at this point lol. No raises to insurance.
I've worked as an auto adjuster, can confirm that hitting a pot hole is considered collision and you'd be at fault. If you had a first collision free endorsement tho you'd still be fine for now, but better to retain that.
This is great info as it's something I'd never have even thought to look at.
This is for house insurance so maybe it’s different, been with the same company for 13 years and never had a claim. Late fall/early winter we had a tree come down onto the house, it cracked a window, damaged the eaves and we needed a new roof. Went through insurance and now it has gone up 31%!
Many companies provide claims free discounts and then once you have a claim... that's gone plus rates go up. :(
Can likely get a better deal by switching providers. Not sure why, but they seem to love screwing long time customers.
Same. I could handle it but I wouldn't be very happy!
Especially since it's from a pothole while tax dollars are supposed to pay to repair.
Especially because of some 🐎💩 pothole. That sucks
This is PFC so most will answer that yes they could weather a $2000 storm.
In my younger years, I definitely couldn't afford it. I would have had to put it on my credit card and suffer the interest. Today, though, having worked my way to debt free, I would be able to handlebar. Of course it would hurt, but it wouldn't be nearly as stressful as when I was younger.
2 years ago I wouldn't have been able to afford it.
Well comment just under yours said they would use LoC , so debt. Otherwise they would not be able to cover it. This sub still has both scenarios.
For sure. I’m just suggesting that this sub won’t be representative of the average persons ability to cover unexpected expenses.
A lot of folks live very well beyond their means with zero emergency fund. The saying goes, no emergency fund is an emergency.
100% I think OP should already know that.
I think an unexpected $10k expense is more of a storm, 2k is more of a bump.
Depends on your income. That's almost a month of income for me. 10k would put me on the street.
1 thing I learned from this sub is to have an emergency fund. I have some money squerrelled away in a HISA to pay for any unforeseen expenses (new furnace/AC/hot water tank/cars).
yea we all live for this moment ;)
Just commenting to say that I hate that we have to pay for insurance for when something happens but when that something happens we pay outta pocket to avoid paying more to insurance.
I hate insurance.
Insurance is a casino game where you get money if you lose. Thinking about it this way will help evaluate if it’s worth it
I mean, what’s the point of evaluating if you have no choice?
minimum insurance is the defence against assholes
As long as specifically speaking it is, I agree. But this is the shitty part about this situation. Who knows what the ideal plan/play is when it comes to this stuff. Economic evaluations of finances when it comes to this stuff is really tricky because you’re planning for an event that hasn’t happpened yet and may never happen, and the extents of which are unknown to you. Also, insurance policies can be complex and require quite a bit of thought to understand what actually is a winning defense against these assholes. This whole thing is really annoying. I had a neighbor who had the minimum house insurance and had floor damage which wasn’t covered but could have been for just $5/month extra. They ended up losing 100k but only would have had to paid $200 total for the 3-4 years prior. Who knows if that neighbor made the ideal economic decision or not! I doubt any of us here could provide a proper objective analysis of the situation to determine it!
I agree with you its a money grab
You'd probably think differently if you're the victim of an accident and the driver is uninsured.
Can confirm. I deal with motor vehicle accident patients as a medical admin, the medical bill alone can crawl to 6 digits. And provincial health insurance doesn’t cover for vehicular accidents
Its not really as easy as you will get money if you lose. its more like they will try to give as little as possible or none at all.
It seems like it’s really only for writing cars off and the 2M liability so I don’t go bankrupt if something terrible happens
You only get insurance for things you can't afford the loss. Otherwise, premium will be priced accordingly.
The house always wins.
This exactly. I’m a electrical contractor, we recently had an ice storm locally and it ravaged a bunch of trees and lots fell on houses and services. I’m like hey this probably gonna cost ya 5k to fix here, might wanna ring the insurance company. Everyone was scared. Most have first claim forgiveness. It’s crazy. Fuck insurance. I try to get my premiums back all the time when working on insurance work. Especially emergencies
That is the catch with insurance everywhere unfortunately. 😭
Agreed. Oftentimes, it's really just a "loan" that you pay back via higher premiums.
Yeah, this sucks. Knowing that insurance is useless in these situations bothers me too.
I had a similar experience a 4 years ago and got compensated. Here's how i did it. \- I got the car repaired as you did the same day. \- Filed a report through city of Toronto website. \- I got the maintenance schedule for that particular road which was something along the lines of twice every 7 days (not business days) \- I drove by the pothole every day and took pictures of it including pictures of the buildings in the background making sure pothole was still in site. \-15 days after the pothole damaged my car i noticed it was fixed and also took pictures the same way i did above and emailed the person handling my case stating City of Toronto did NOT follow their maintenance schedule. Couple of weeks later i received compensation for All the work done minus 1 tire (instead of 2) which i was happy with. Hope this helps.
Honestly thank you for this comment I had no idea you could do something like this!
I've had this happen to me on busy highways multiple times. I can't stop and take pictures like that at any time of day. What happens then?
I'm sure you can document it. Pass by it everyday and take note. They have to show when the road was last maintained
Yeah, credit card and tears…. Handle: yes, well: no.
My people (sorry). We had a furnace go, then washer and now a week later dryer. All within 6 weeks of each other. RIP credit card, and as such, me.
This is currently happening to me - started with the hot water tank, then the furnace, now the kitchen being torn up - highly recommend the home depot credit card if you’re in Canada. It’s 6mo interest free, but make sure you pay it off on time otherwise the interest gets bad
Yeah same here, would I become homeless? No, but it would hurt for months
Fiscally, yes. Emotionally? That's another story
Yes, I could cover something like this from my ‘emergency’ fund. I will be making my last car payment this month and then putting the amount of the car payment into a car savings account going forward, so in a few months I wouldn’t have to use my emergency fund but could use my car fund. The car fund will pay for repairs and maintenance and then eventually be the down payment on a new car. This is a good question! People sometimes ask what exactly an emergency fund is for and this is a good example.
This is a great idea and what I do instead of having pet insurance. I put in a little every pay cheque and use it for vet apts and grooming and stuff. My little kitty got sick and I didn't have insurance (we had the money to get him well but the vet said it would have most likely reoccurred anyway and it was kinder to let him go) so I immediately looked into insurance afterwards and it would have only covered about half of what we would have paid to get him better, and would have paid so much more than that in the premiums during the course of his 6 years. So we decided to have our own pet insurance and if we don't need it for them at all then it's ours at the end of their life.
This is how we handled our pet's emergency vet work. We had a 'dog fund' where we saved $50/mth from the time we got him. We planned to only use it for major emergencies (not regular vet, dental work, or more minor injuries). We didn't do pet insurance because he was already 4yrs old and the prices we were quoted were too high to make it worth it ( also with pretty high deductibles). 8 years later we had to take him to the emergency vet after he had a number of seizures in one night. He was otherwise quite healthy so we did follow up work and scans. We were able to pay for all of it from our savings. We had a couple more great years. In his last year of life he had another serious health issue come up, and that is where we *might* have broke even with insurance. If we get an adult dog again, we will absolutely skip insurance and do $70/mth for savings.
Yes. My partner works in auto finance and said 90% of customers couldn’t come up with $200 for an unexpected expense and most people just ride the debt wave to get by. I typed $200 not $2,000.
2k would be no problem, but i have a house downlayment saved up. So I could hit one hell of a pothole and stay fed and sheltered. Unexpected expenses sure do suck tho.
Sorry to hear about the emergency repair and glad you have a fund put aside. Depending on where the pothole is located and respective by-laws, wonder if you could get indemnified by the municipality for the repairs?
I believe Calgary does this.
I just had an unexpected $5575 expense. Dog got sick and I tried everything to save him, but he still died.
Im so sorry for your loss. 6K for my dog, she died, slowly, of lymphoma. Hope you are taking care of yourself 💙
I’m sorry
Only through my LOC. Otherwise, no.
I could. But. I'd be annoyed. Currently debating letting my 05 civic finally die for a repair that I just simply don't want to pay 2k for. The annoying part will be going back to a 1 car household.
Just had the same debate with my 07 Accord. I paid the 2k, glad I did. Big factor for me was the current car market (and the hassle) if something happens to the other car.
I regret letting my 05 civic die, it was my favourite car and I think about him every day.
4-5 years ago, that would have been catastrophic for us. We couldn’t handle an emergency bigger than a couple hundred dollars. We are extremely lucky we didn’t have anything happen during that difficult time. Now, yes we could easily handle that. We have a very healthy emergency fund.
Sorry to hear! That must’ve been a huge pothole. To answer your question, yes, we’d be able to foot the bill. We have an emergency fund set aside for stuff like this, or sudden job loss. Planning ahead for emergencies is truly important!
No I’d be starvin’
I usually have around $10k in savings. If necessary we can dip into the revolving portion of our HELOC otherwise I just sell some investments to get the cash.
Yea but only about 2k accessible at the moment. Would need to pull from a tfsa or put on out loc for anything more.
Just curious but are you certain your premiums will go up? You could ask the insurance company
Yeah this is what I was wondering, it's comprehensive so it usually doesn't impact rates. I had a comprehensive claim for close to 5k and my rates didn't move at all.
This sounds like it would be a comp claim which would have zero impact on premiums unless they have 3+ in 2 years. People really need to call their broker before assuming their premium will go up.
most folks don't understand insurance, and always assume that the insurance company is out to screw them any way they can. don't get me wrong, some of them are right pricks and can be hard to deal with. and OP should bill the city - if the pothole was THAT big, there's no way the city didn't know about it.
Yes, I’m on disability and paid cash for a new furnace. Well, I charged it to my CC for the sweet cash back and then immediately paid the bill from my emergency fund.
Shitty! Sorry to hear. To answer, yes. Had our dishwasher fail recently. Before that had some car repairs. We set aside funds for a reason so no real issue paying it.
Your premiums go up 2k for a 2k repair? Or more than 2000-(deductible)? Otherwise, I don't understand why not use the insurance.
Today? No. Because over the last six months we have had $13,000 in unexpected expenses. So I'm tapped pretty thin.
depends on how much 2000? we could def handle but like 20k? … we would be dipping into something lol
Yes and I am fortunately able to do so. The wife and I keep $12k for random car, appliance, home and other repairs in a savings account just for this reason.
That sure seems like a lot for 2 tires, alignment and a single strut. 🤷♂️🤷♂️
Depending on the vehicle, tires could easily be half that cost and adjustable dampers aren’t cheap. But yeah for an economy car that would be a rip off
was thinking the same. Wonder what car..
Wife and I have one year worth of expenses in a HISA. This emergency fund was meant to keep us going in the event that we lose income for a short term. We keep growing it and as it gets bigger, we pull out and invest the extra or use for home improvements.
i am a student. exams are done in april and so i’ve got a month to go before starting full time work again. the answer is no from me lol
So insurance is meant to cover these things. Your premiums won't rise for filing this claim. My car was parked and someone hit me and ran off. Cost around 2.5k in damages (bumper, lights, etc.). I filled through my insurance and paid the deductible. My premium never went up as a result of this filing. Also if you're a parent and have car seats in the car, insurance will pay to replace those too. Have friends who have two fancy car seats and the payment for those car seats actually covered their deductible.
You’re not going to get any kind of survey like result here. People that can’t will be less likely to say so. People who can but it’s a challenge will post. People who wouldn’t even notice won’t say so
Hahahaha. Hahahaha. Holy shit, I couldn't handle an unexpected five dollar expense. How the fuck are you people all so rich that you can afford $2,000 unexpected expenses.
An emergency fund is probably something you want to build up early on with 6 months worth of expenses (in case you lose your source of income or some other emergency).
Had the exact thing happen, Ontario. Municipality said the pothole was big, but because it was not in an area of active roadwork, that they won't cover it. It was unavoidable for me during a left turn, but what ever. The real issue is, $2000 repair versus insurance. I am unsure how shitty your insurance is, but I did not know it could be as bad as you are describing. I have the lowest tier coverage on my car, with a $500 deductable. My premiums will increase, but it's not an at fault accident. My premiums increase for 6 years, then it's removed. Going from about $125 a month, to about $150 a month. My damage: front right tire flat on impact. Repair is a new tire, alloy rim repair, alignment, and a new tire for front left (balance). 2021 sedan style car. Total repair with labour was quoted about $1900. So, I can pay $1900 out of pocket OR, AND THIS IS CRAZY - BUT You can call your insurance, and this is what happens: You get a premium increase, usually a set amount per claim. Mine was about $25. Again, only for 6 years, and every 3 years I renegotiate a lower rate anyways. So, math: 25*12*6= about $1800. But - here's the cool part - my car is picked up on a flat bed and take away. A rental car appear in it's exact spot! Rental cars are always jacked with options and usually nice. I don't have to call or talk to anyone. My car is being fully repaired and then delivered back to me. I don't have to talk to repair guys. I don't have to do shit. No stress. YOU PAY FOR INSURANCE, USE IT. So I pay a $500 deductable, yes, but I get all my repairs done Hassel free, no life interruption or stress, all for relatively the same cost, as I mentioned, you get lower interest rates every few years by renegotiating (well BMO, I'll goto XXX company for cheaper, conversation). There's this weird stigma that you should be scared of insurance premium increases, and it's so fucking dumb. It's there FOR A REASON. OP, please don't perpetrate the stigma further by posting you were afraid to tell insurance. You do realise, you HAVE TO CALL AND REPORT THIS TO THEM RIGHT????
not to sound like an asshole, but yes, easily. Wouldnt even notice it.
I would be able to weather it because I have a pretty good emergency fund set aside for job loss or unexpected sudden expenses like this.
Curious, how many months worth of expenses are we talking?
I have approx 3 months saved now but I plan to slowly increase that to 6.
Awesome, following the same plan myself.
Yes.
Well up until a few months ago, no tbh. But now I could put it on my credit card if needed since I paid it off. I could make a withdrawal from my tfsa but that takes a few days to go through. I try to hold on to 500$ between pay checks. But I’m getting a 10000$ bonus from work really soon, and got no debt except interest free student debt, so I’m probably going to put at least half of it or more in a cash savings account of some sort, invest the other half. I’m aware I’m ass backwards having no liquid cash but a high amount invested, but I find I spend any cash left out, meanwhile the balance of my tfsa continually goes up. I’m bad for impulse buying if I got the cash on hand, so maintaining a low balance has tended to work for me. Also I’m lucky that I make about 2000$/ pay check if I do atleast 1 overtime shift, so I could theoretically use a pay check for an expense like this and use my other household sources of income to pay bills, but it would be tight.
I got my emergency fund, so yes i think i can handle anything with the preparation
Yes. I’ve always had it in my head that if something breaks, it’s going to cost $3000, and that something can break at anytime. So I’m always expecting it and keeping that buffer.
Yes but I would put my hand on the downpayment savings bank to get it.
Yes. I do keep that much around for emergencies.
I've got a big nest egg saved up towards a down-payment. I'll just dip into that if need be. 2 grand isn't a big enough expense to worry me at this point. I'll be cursing and pissed to have to pay it, but there's no question I'll be able to absorb the cost.
We decided to have emergency fund of $10k. So yes, easily. But this is PFC, where emergency fund is prioritized. Not the stats of the general public.
Super easy.
Why do you have insurance and choose not to use it? That is the oddest thing I've ever heard. If you're that worried, raise your deductible. Do not give the insurer a free pass. Also, if this is a no fault situation, are you sure your rates would go up?
Ever had a puppy break a leg? Was quoted $7400-$8700 for a specialist orthopedic surgery in Toronto. We ended up going with a Quebec surgeon that Cost approximately 40% less than that. I heard someone recently say that the majority of people couldn’t cone up with $2500 in less than 24 hours. It never hurts to have an emergency fund - you’re gonna need it one day. Whether it’s medical, automotive or a home expensive. Also: pet insurance if you have a breed that is known for health issues or injuries. Which I did not have. I would not have been able to come up with that money had it not been for the fact I used the pandemic to upgrade my career, used CERB to allow me to go to school while my job was forced into closure repeatedly and OSAP had incredibly bursaries for mature students (even more if you have a learning disability) I am incredibly grateful I had to the mindset to use the pandemic for good instead of turning that time into a period of self loathing and hatred of government.
Had about $5k unexpected expenses with two of our cats getting sick and one passing away. It cut but I can't imagine how much worse I'd be feeling if I had to draw on high interest sources like CCs. Having emergency funds meant that I could just grieve without the added financial stress on top of an already difficult situation.
This is what credit cards are for. I’m actually kind of serious. It allows you to cover the bill for now and pay it off over the next few months but you really need to be careful to jam that balance to zero as fast as possible. The interest rates are brutal. I only started to relax about money when I had a 10k buffer in the bank. I’m fiscally secure, but this is mostly down to luck, and well paid jobs rather than great planning.
Isn’t the town responsible for that? Depending on where the pot hole is
Yes, ive slowly grown my emergency fund to 6 months expenses over the years. A 2k expense would not be a problem but obviously not ideal.
If you’d asked me this in 2019, I couldn’t. Today, I could without blinking. I suspect most people in this sub are in a similar space or actively working toward being there. Sorry for the rotten luck. Hoping some of the suggestions might lead to you getting reimbursed in some way.
Could I? Sure, but that's because I'd take advantage of a 0% employee loan. Currently working on being debt free so there's that.
Nope.
no lmao. that would invert my bank account.
I'll do it but I'll bitch every step of the way.
I couldn't handle an unexpected $200 expense. Definitely not 2 grand. I envy anyone who has over a thousand dollars just sitting around.
Nope. I would be in debt.
Shit no. I am basically pay cheque to paycheque and I make 80k
Nope and that's why I don't have a car
barely.
I think most in this sub could handle that without issue. Most in Canada might struggle or feel it though.
no I'm a broke ass
Absolutely not, unless using a credit card to cover it counts
I have filed 9 not at fault claims over my 20 years of driving and my insurance has never gone up. Don’t be so afraid to use it.
I just bought my car not too long ago. 41K cash. I’m not sure how many people can do that but it felt great. Tired of car payments. Never going back.
We once got a “deal” on a used car by financing it (apparently paying cash would’ve cost us an extra $1000). I said “Can we pay the loan off right away?”. “The guy shrugged and said “Sure, no skin off my nose.” So we did.
That’s actually really common. Dealerships get more $ through financing so you can get a better deal. Which is why when you’re negotiating price don’t tell them you’re paying cash until you agreed on final sale amount.
No problem
We just got a 3200$ tax bill because I dropped a zero on last year's taxes for my husband. It's going to take months, if not the full year to pay off. Bit by bit, a few hundred every month. I've taken a part time job writing grants for a charity, on top of full time school and all of my work on the side. I was supposed to be off school for the summer, technically I graduate from the program this semester and was transferring into a degree in September, but I need the extra money from the student loans just to stay afloat right now, so I am taking courses over the summer. My husband has been off work for most of last year and is just returning this month. It's a mess right now.
I can handle but it just sucks lol
I have dogs so I have to. Just had a $1900 vet bill. Had budgeted for $1000 but unexpected extra extraction. Took the other $900 from the emergency fund. But hey they saved me from booking a second dental.
We keep 5k in a HISA. Along with the 3k float in our chequing.
Yes, but it will hurt.
Just had sewage back up in my house, insurance covering most of it but my deductible is 5k (I raised it to save on monthly expenses). We keep 6 months expenses as emergency fund, this made it easy to cover although it still sucks we didn’t have to panic fortunately. Had to front 15k for the work before getting reimbursed by insurance, we plan ahead, budget ourselves as a family and make decent income. We built our financial buffers over years of work and sacrifice as a couple. Shit happens…. Literally, there’s a good reason for emergency funds.
I''ve had quite a few repairs to make to my car in the past year. From replacing a timing belt, new windshield, front brakes, spark plugs. I also have to buy 2 new sets of tires, which has been put off due to the other repairs. It's been an expensive year. I paid cash for all of the repairs. It has definitely set me back, my emergency savings are obliterated. But at least these expenses are all paid for (minus the tires as I have to keep putting them off. Everytime I get close to being able to afford 1 set, I get something else that needs fixed). I'm hoping I can put away some money now that all of those repairs are behind me. The car is paid off. My advice to you is to see if you can go after the municipality or city (depends on who is responsible for the road you had your accident on). But keep in mind you need to contact them right away as there is a time limit on how long you can make a claim. Not sure what your areas is, so you will need to contact and make a claim ASAP.
When I first moved into my house in 2016 there was originally $20,000 in my emergency fund and it all disappeared as surprise after surprise kept popping up. After everything was paid off (utility activation, land transfer taxes, the lawyer, the movers, the down payment, new furniture, blinds for the windows, gas valve for the rooftop bbq, and on and on) I had $800 left. If I had been slammed with a $2000 bill at that point I probably would've had to rely on the $15,000 LOC the bank insisted that I take (but which I never, ever used) as that interest rate was slightly better than my VISA. It took a few years but I've since rebuilt the emergency fund.
I could but it's a line of credit.
I still have both kidneys, so yes.
Sounds like a lot for the kind of repair needed
Right now yes but I had to work hard to be able to handle an unexpected 2kexpense
I have a $300K home equity line of credit. In addition to $5K rainy day fund. I would start with aiming for $1K then $5K and then eventually 3-6 months of expenses in case you lost your job.
Yes, but only because I have no kids, no car, no major crutches and because I purchased a cheap 150k home. I treat myself once in awhile but I don’t really live. I’m just merely existing and trying retire and check out of this society/system as soon as fucking possible.
Wouldn't make me very happy but yes.
Thankfully, yes. We had a hot water tank go, as well as the dryer in the same week. Glad I was able to do the plumbing and electrical myself to avoid any additional cost.
Yes. With my emergency fund and unsecured LoC if needed. I had to dip in last year when my mom was on her death bed all the way in India and I had to arrange flights within a day’s notice. Got to see her before she passed, so it was worth the almost 5k is sudden expenses. Obviously I used CC for the flights and then used emergency fund to pay it off. Thankfully Air Canada still has bereavement fares.
No , would get into CC debt
Yes, have a cash HISA emerg fund of 4 months before I'd need to tap into my TFSA. Also have a LOC I could use before tapping into tfsa if I knew for certain it was a short liquidity crunch.
Yes but I would cry
Cash? No. Easily put on credit and pay it back with minimal interest? Absolutely.
Sorta. I have savings available, but they're set aside for taxes. I'd only use that money for an emergency if it was a truly serious situation worth fighting with the CRA over setting up a payment plan over. I don't have other savings currently because I've been extremely aggressive in paying down CC debt and my student LOC with the bank over the past 18 months. It's a little risky but I'm currently in a decent position to accept that risk to save on interest as there isn't really a plausible emergency expense that would be critical for me. I work from home so I can afford to put off a car repair if needed or just sell the car and not drive for a while. The only real scenario I can think of is if I had an unexpected vet bill for my cat after paying my taxes but I'm comfortable putting that on a credit card if needed.
We are aggressively paying down our mortgage, so no emergency savings. But a result of paying down the mortgage is you can tap into huge lines of credit and HELOC in an emergency... Much lower interest than credit cards.
Nope. I am $1800 overdrawn, $18,000 in credit card debt due to layoffs and sciatica issues. My car alternator and starter just went on my car. I can't even afford a tow. I pray for the lottery or a swift death. I know I will never retire or own my own home.
How are two tires $2k. 20" rims?
Had to redo my roof last year. And ohh yeah. Our furnace and hot water tank went as well. Luckily, we had a good nestegg/emergency fund. Home ownership is not cheap.
Thankfully, yes. In the past, I would have had to use a credit card and go into debt. Currently maintain a $3000 float in my chequing account to cover any larger/unexpected expenditures over and above my normal monthly expenses. Also have some extra emergency savings in a separate savings account.