Question about car insurance claims

[always quiet]

In all my years of driving, I have never needed to "use" our car insurance....til now. It's nothing big, but I want to know what to expect when I call to report this tomorrow.

Yesterday, late afternoon, DH and I were moving cars around in the driveway. There are 3 vehicles in our house and we wanted to put the Sienna at the end of the drive because we are going out today. Since it was raining, I had suggested that we just wait til morning. Guess we should of listened to my little voice!! DH was backing my dad's car down the drive. He has an older car with a LONG trunk. Both our vehicles are mini vans...no trunk behind the back window. There was a black, late 80's Camarro that was parked on the street...directly across from our drive. DH thought he had cleared the car when the corner of my dad fender hit the back passenger side panel of the camarro. He was barely moving but it did leave a small dent on the car. We exchanged insurance/driver info and the kid (he was 18) wasn't upset over the whole thing. In fact, he took more grief was the neighbor of ours he was visiting ("I told you that you can not park there!!")

Now normally, this would be a cut and dry situation. DH hit a parked car......but here is what makes it a bit different. There is a No Parking sign at the top of our street. We have had problems in the past where kids from the local college would park on the street and it's not a wide enough street for additional cars. In fact, a neighbor of ours hit a parked car that was parked in front of his drive. Secondly, he was parked on the wrong side of the street (facing down the "up" side of the road). Finally, DH was pulling my dad's car out of the drive....we gave the kid our insurance info. This isn't going to be a problem, is it???

Any ideas/suggestions on what to do next? The claim shouldn't be a big one as it is just one dent...no creases or scrapes...they should be able to just 'pop' it out. The kid even said they might just do that. Another neighbor of ours drives a race car and he has a full garage in his backyard.

PS I told DH next time he needs to listen to my little voice.

 

[ducklite]

Call it into your insuracen and let them deal with it as far as any contributaory negligence. In all honesty, because no one was hurt and the damage was so minor, you shouldn't have to do anything except call it in, they will deal with it.

Anne

 

[Dan Murphy]

Depending on how minimal the damage, it may be worth it to deal with it without the insurance company involvement.

 

[swankybeth]

I work for an insurance company in the claims department. If this was being handled in my state, contributory negligence would not apply (you hit a parked car, you are 100% at fault). I don't think they will take into consideration the no parking sign, but it would not hurt to mention it. Again, it's hard for me to give you advice because the laws are different in every state. Because it is such a small claim, my advice is to report it, but don't stress out over it. I'm sure your rates will not be affected because the claim will probably only be a few hundred dollars.

 

[ducklite]

I work for an insurance company in the claims department. If this was being handled in my state, contributory negligence would not apply (you hit a parked car, you are 100% at fault). I don't think they will take into consideration the no parking sign, but it would not hurt to mention it. Again, it's hard for me to give you advice because the laws are different in every state. Because it is such a small claim, my advice is to report it, but don't stress out over it. I'm sure your rates will not be affected because the claim will probably only be a few hundred dollars.

I agree. And most companies have a policy of not holding a single small accident against a good customer.

Anne

 

[Tina]

I agree with Dan, don't involve the insurance companies for something so minor. Even if its not your fault, they can still hold it against you. Case in point:

My DH has had the same insurance company for nearly 20 years. He has always had excellent rates from them as we have had an excellent record. We have 2 fairly new cars and have always had low premiums ($1100 per year for 2 cars). 2 years ago, I was involved in an accident. I was making a left hand turn, when some moron behind me decided I was waiting too long to turn (waiting for traffic to clear) and just as traffic cleared, she passed me on the LEFT. As a result, I turned right into the side of her car, causing more than $5000 worth of damage to my car and who knows how much to hers. She admitted that she passed me on the left in an intersection when she tried make a claim against my insurance. She was found to be at fault and I had to pay nothing. Her insurance company paid for all of my repairs. I didn't even have to pay a deductible.

Fast forward to recent months, DH got a speeding ticket for 45 in a 35. No big deal. He paid the ticket.

Just 2 weeks ago, it was time for our annual renewal and our premium was raised from $1100 to $2109!!!! DH called the agent to find out what was going on. She looked at it and couldn't figure out why it was raised so much. She sent a request to the underwriters to take a look. A few days later we received a revised bill -- for $3464!!!!

DH called again and was told that was the price due to our 'record,' take it or leave it. Well, we left it. It was pretty sad because this was a major company, not one of those discount companies. We had a long history with them with an excellent record. We ended up switching to Geico, who offered us a rate similar to what we were originally paying with the other company.

So, in summary, my advice for small claims like this is to not give the insurance company any ammo! Offer the driver a few hundred bucks or offer to pay for the repairs out of pocket. What the insurance company doesn't know, won't hurt YOU!

 

[RitaZ.]

The cost to repair the small dent may be less than your deductible, in which case I don't think it's worth filing a claim.

 

[kristen821]

The cost to repair the small dent may be less than your deductible, in which case I don't think it's worth filing a claim.

I agree I would get an estimate first then decide what you want to do.