AUto Insurance Claim

[DigiSLR]

Is anyone here an insurance agent that might be able to assist me my current dilemna...


Friday afternoon I am walking out of my office to find that my car had been damaged. The passenger side quarter panel in dented in and scraped. It appears as though someone got to close while parking next to me. I know this happened while at work because I bought gasoline the previous day and would have noticed the damage. My car is parked in the garage at home, and the only time it was unattended was in the parking lot at work.

Anyway, I call my insurance agent on Friday and let them know what happened. Saturday a claims agent calls me and tells me I have two options. I can file this under my comprehensive / collision (which I have a $500 deductable) OR I can file under uninsured motorist. If I file under uninsured motorist I will have a $250 deductable and can also claim loss of vaule if somehow I can prove the cars worth has declined.

The agent assured me that in both cases this would NOT be an at fault claim, but she was not able to tell me if my rates would increase simply due to filing a claim. She also couldn't tell me if either of the two chioce had a greater chance of raising my rates.

Anyone have any experience with this? It's also my assumption that the resale value of my car WILL decline IF when I go to sell it, someone pulls up a carfax report and sees a fender was replaced. What must I do to prove loss of value, and how the heck do I know how much?

Currently I am calling the local Police to file a hit and run as the insurance company wants that IF I file under uninsured motorist.

Thanks for any input!

[Roadrnr]

Your best bet would to just file it under your uninsured motorist coverage. It has less of a deductible and would also get you coverage for a rent car while your vehicle is in the shop being repaired.

I haven't heard about claiming "loss of value", so I'm not sure what that is. I've never heard of it, in my 10years in the business actually.

As far as your rates. Every insurance company is different about what they surcharge for. Most companies make exceptions to the rules. In *most* cases your rates should not increase due to a UM loss if your vehicle was parked and unattended.

Yes, call the police and file a report. Tell them you need to file one for your insurance company. They will more than likely give you a blue form. Just fill that out and get a copy to your adjuster and then send the form in to the address listed on the back.

Hope that helps.

[123canon]

i don't think you will see much loss of value usually minor claims don't even show up on auto checks. i recently found out the way insurnance companies get you on the no fault thing. your company can't penalize you for the claim however it shows up when you try to shop around for better rates and the other companies still tag you for the claim. if it was less than a $1,000 repair, i would look at just paying to fix it and move on.....

[Roadrnr]

well, it all depends on the insurance company. Most don't charge for a UM loss like this...

i recently found out the way insurnance companies get you on the no fault thing. your company can't penalize you for the claim however it shows up when you try to shop around for better rates and the other companies still tag you for the claim

Again, it depends on each companies underwriting guidelines. If your company (XYZ) doesn't surcharge for it, but you go to switch to ABC company, they might.

Remember, insurance companies are not the devil, they aren't out to "get" you, nor do they work with each other to just raise your rates.

[carrbowl]

From previous experience ...I would weight the cost of the repair. I had a similar incident and then within 6 months had another accident. I claimed both and then my insurance went up for 3 years...so don't just look at this repair, but weight the risks of what happens in the future (like you really know what's gonna happen, but hopefully you get the point!!)

[kamari]

I've been thru the exact situation you're talking about. I initially didn't report it, put it in the shop, and went to pay cash for it and ended up calling the ins company after I found out how much the damages totaled. An insurance agent actually called me the day after the report and notified me that I could cut my deductible in half by filing uninsured since the person who hit me never "stopped." It surprised me that the ins company (geico) would call me to say that there's a way I could save money on my claim. I filed uninsured motorist...my insurance actually went down several weeks later.

[toverman]

My wife had two similar accidents, nine days apart (the second was in the rental car). Our rates will go up. That's a much different situation than yours, and we had to get my wife's car fixed because it was undriveable (airbag deployed, big crunch on the front). Most claims will affect you somehow, either with higher rates or haunting you if you try to find a new agent ("He's claim-happy! Lock the door and pretend we're not here!"). If it's a fix at or less than your deductible, fix it out of pocket.

If the damage bothers you, you should probably get it fixed. It also depends on the car. If you're driving around a fairly new BMW, the value will take a hit. If you're driving around an older Kia, it's not worth much to begin with and you can sell it to a private buyer (with disclosure) that it's been damaged; you might not even have to fix it in that case.

I've found that the key to selling to a private buyer is offering a fair price and an immaculately clean vehicle. My last car had some dings and a nice dent in the back, but my honesty and willingness to deep-clean the thing paid off.

[Roadrnr]

Originally Posted by toverman

Most claims will affect you somehow, either with higher rates or haunting you if you try to find a new agent ("He's claim-happy! Lock the door and pretend we're not here!").

Again, this is simply not true. Negligent (your fault) accidents will have adverse actions to your rates. true. Comprehensive losses, or not at fault losses will not cause your rates to go up.

Sure, if you have 5 claims in one year, all non weather related, negligent or not, an insurance company will probably not give you the best rate possible. Do you really expect to get the best rate though? If you have a high number of claims, it's time to re-evaluate your A)driving habits or B)reasons for the claims.

Again, insurance companies aren't out to "get" you. I can tell you that I've never had a customer complain about their rates after totaling out a car or their house burning down. They were glad they had insurance in place to pay for something that they could not.

[DigiSLR]

Well, thanks for all the replies. FWIW, I have State Farm insurance, and have had them for over 10 years without a claim.

I went to a body shop they recommended and the repairs come out to just a little over $1000. I don't feel like dropping $1000 on repairs that weren't my fault, and I could put to better use. I called the local Police and they gave me a little run around. Told me that they couldn't file a hit and run case since I had no witness or proof of the accident. The officer would happily make out an incident report though. OK fine with me.

On my way back from the body shop I stop by to pick up the "incident report" and am told that it might take 7 - 10 days to get the report. Apparently the officer needs to create the report, get it approved by his supervisor, enter it in the system, then they can mail it to me. The officer never asked me for any info other than my name, when, and where. He doesn't even know what kind of car I drive or my Plate number so how thorough of a report is this going to be?

Finally, I call my insurance claims processor back and tell them I Want to file this with uninsured motorist, but the police weren't all that helpful. The gentleman tells me, that's ok, all we need to know is that you called them. I ask if he wanted the case number and was told, No, that's ok, as long as state you called them it's ok.

so far State Farm has been great with most of the process. The repair shop is busy until Feb 19th though so it'll be a bit until I get the repairs completed. If anyone is wondering, I drive a 2003 Nissan 350Z, and yes, the damage bothers me.

I'm set up with a rental car, and booked for the repairs. Now I sit and wait...

[kamari]

I was instructed by the ins company to just go to a police station and "ask for a green sheet...they'll know what you're talkin about." The officer was VERY informative, stating that there's two forms. It went somethin like:

there's one to fill out and mail back to us, and by law...I said by law because I'm supposed to tell you this that the other gets mailed to the state. Now when you mail this off to the state, regardless of whether it was your fault or not, you're gonna have it on your driving record. Now what happens when you put the stamp on that envolope and drop it in the mail box is out of your hands...you know, cuz sometimes mail don't always make it to where its gotta go. So once you drop this into the mailbox with that stamp on it just hope that it can make its way to where its gotta go...that's to the State...so they can put it on your record.