“Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”  That’s the slogan, but I don’t think any of my actual good neighbors would write me a check just because my backpack was stolen in Chile.  That’s more of a crazy neighbor, I think.  This past Thursday, I filed a claim online with State Farm and I received money the next day.  Awesome.  Like a crazy-good neighbor, State Farm was there^*.

^{* I know, I know, I’ve been paying State Farm for years, so they’re just doing their job by covering the claim.}

Filing a claim

My go-everywhere backpack was stolen a week ago in Santiago Chile.  I got back to the United States on Thursday and made an inventory of everything that was lost.  This task was made considerably easier by the fact that I published a nearly complete list of everything in my backpack less than a year ago: What’s in Greg’s go-everywhere backpack?  I then called my homeowner’s insurance agent at State Farm and found out that I was indeed covered for theft and that I could file a claim myself online.  This was super-easy to do.  And I was able to upload the images from the aforementioned post to show what I had lost.

Processing the claim

The next day (Friday), I got a text saying that a State Farm agent would call me soon, and he did.  He asked me to upload my list of items lost and a copy of the police report that was filed in Santiago.  The only reason I hadn’t already done so was that I wasn’t sure what format they wanted for these things.  It turns out that PDF files and image files are fine.  He reviewed the documents while we were still on the call and he entered each missing item into a form after asking me how old each item was.  By the end of the call (which took a total of 37 minutes), the agent told me how much money I’d receive and that I should get an email within an hour for accepting the funds electronically.

Accepting the funds

Approximately half an hour after the phone call, I received an email saying that the payment had been issued.  Wow!  I was given the choice to accept the money either via PayPal right away or to my bank account in 1 to 3 days.  Since I didn’t need the money right away, I chose the latter.

Details

The claims agent came up with a total replacement cost for my items (which was higher than my own estimates) and then State Farm applied a depreciation amount to each item.  They then subtracted my deductible.  The result was the amount paid to me.  Interestingly, I can get even more money back if I spend up to the estimated replacement cost.  I’ll walk through an example to explain this (at least, this is how I understand it):

• The estimated replacement cost for my laptop was $1,535.
• The amount already paid to me (not counting the deductible) was $1,331.
• Now, let’s say that I buy a replacement laptop and it costs $1,600.  In that case, I’ll upload the receipt and State Farm should then pay me the difference between the estimated replacement cost ($1,535) and the amount paid ($1,331) = $204.
• If I instead buy a laptop for $1,350, for example, I’ll only get $19 more back ($1350 – $1331).

Bottom Line

Overall, I’m thrilled with how quick and easy it was to file a claim and receive funds!  I’ve already received enough money to replace most of what was lost, but as explained above I might be able to get back a bit more depending upon what I buy.  Additionally, since we have several Business Platinum cards in our family and since each of these cards offer $400 per year in Dell credits, I’ll be looking to replace as many items as possible through Dell (or indirectly through Dell by buying Microsoft Xbox gift cards when available and then buying stuff from the Microsoft store).

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