Can i pay the other car damage myself after been reported to the insurance comp.?

Question

I would like to pay for the damage myself since the damage is $700 and my deductable is $500,in order to avoid premium increase,or will it go up anyway?The insurance appraiser will see the car monday.What can i do now? thank you

Answer 1

OK, first of all, you don't have a deductible for what your policy pays the other guy.

Second of all, most states have a dollar threshhold, where the accident is NOT surchargable, if the payout is under XYZ dollars. Usually it's around $1500, but you can call your agent to ask them if there's a surcharge threshhold in your state.

So, if the damage is really only $700, this accident is likely under the surcharge threshhold, and it probably won't raise your rates.

If you pay out of pocket, well, the accident is still on record as an at-fault. So I don't think it would benefit you at this time. Now, if you could have done it BEFORE it went into your insurance company, that would have been a good thing. But it's water under the bridge now.

Answer 2

Since the Insurance company already knows about it the claim is already in the system.

If the accident was your fault and the claim is being handled under the Collision Coverage of your policy you can expect some rate adjustments come renewal time.

If the damage to your car is from another person who is at fault (regardless of whether they have insurance or enough insurance themselves) the accident won't be counted against you (thusly named a Not At Fault accident).

If however the claim is being handled under the Comprehensive coverage of your policy then you shouldn't expect to see any rate changes come renewal time. Comprehensive claims are almost universally not counted against you for rating purposes.

Insurance companies base the rates on Incident rates and then by severity (with some companies an At Fault accident of $20,000 is equal to an At Fault accident of $1,000, others may have varying thresholds of severity before counting things against you).

The unfortunate thing is it's already in the Insurance companies records, which more than likely means its been reported to a claims database which most Insurance companies now participate in. And that means if you try to switch companies the other companies will probably find out about it and rate accordingly to their rate setup.

Answer 3

Almost all Auto insurance comapanies (unless it's a really bizzare one) give you the choice to either pay the deductible and the company will cover all other expenses and increase your discount level/premium OR have you pay out the whole claim cost and leave your premium the way it used to be. It really depend on the discount level that you have and all depend on what companies your dealing. The premium increase might not effect you all that much... Best suggestion for you is to phone your Auto Broker and they can assist and calculate to see how both options might effect you.

Answer 4

You sure can. That may avoid a claim payout by your insurer, but now that the accident has been reported...it may still count against you.

You need to call your agent right away and ask him or her if your insurer will consider 'hypothetical claims' in its rating decisions (which are used to determine how much your premiums are).

In some cases, just calling to ask about a potential or hypothetical claim is enough to trigger a bad outcome on your premiums.

So you may already be too late and it may be time to try to shop the market and get a different insurer that won't rate you on such ghost claims.

Answer 5

Your insurance company knows so your rates are gonna go up anyways. Save yourself the original $200 and pay your deductable.

Answer 6

it really is exactly why you opt for to call the police and report a declare w/ your coverage provider, the police record will tutor who's at fault and element out damage and coverage agencies are sensible to people attempting to "pad" a declare in case you're at fault your coverage will bypass up no matter if you report the declare or no longer, prices are in accordance with utilising record and in spite of in case you do not record it, maximum agencies run your MVR in line with annum so that they're going to understand your historic previous finally

Answer 7

in most areas yes.. make sure to have estimates. if you can pay to the ins company and get a realease