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Got in a car accident today
noir_blood
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Basically, I was on the farthest right lane, and started to move to the fartherst left lane. I had noticed a car on that particular lane, so I moved one lane over, and when I glanced at my rearview mirror, the car was gone, so I figured it had taken the exit. Instead it ended up being on my blindspot, so when I tried to merge over to the left lane, our cars grazed.
Little damage on either car, a few scratches on mine, and a small, perhaps fist size bump on hers along with car scratches. I tried not to get our insurance involved, but she wasn't having any of it, so we traded info. When I got home, I called my insurance and gave them all the info. I did call the cops, but they just advised us to exchange info, so no report or tickets were issue.
This is my first accident, so my question is, what should I expect next? The thing I worried about the most is if my insurance is going to go up. To make matters more confusing, my insurance is up on march 15th and I had already spoken to my agent about dropping it, as they were going to already raise my rates(maybe they can see the future), and I already gave a deposit for another insurance that was going to end up being cheaper. I imagine this throws a wrench into things.
Also, does it matter if I choose to get my car fixed or not? They gave me an repair shop to take my car to, but since my deductible is 500, and that's probably what it's going to take to fix my car, I'm thinking of not bothering to fix it till I have some extra cash. Can that help/hurt my chances of insurance going up?
I know insurance is subjective at the end of the day, but I'm one of those people that can't stop worrying, so I'm hoping some other stories or advice might help me put me at ease somewhat. I'm 25, in Texas, and full coverage if that matters.
Basically, I was on the farthest right lane, and started to move to the fartherst left lane. I had noticed a car on that particular lane, so I moved one lane over, and when I glanced at my rearview mirror, the car was gone, so I figured it had taken the exit. Instead it ended up being on my blindspot, so when I tried to merge over to the left lane, our cars grazed.
Little damage on either car, a few scratches on mine, and a small, perhaps fist size bump on hers along with car scratches. I tried not to get our insurance involved, but she wasn't having any of it, so we traded info. When I got home, I called my insurance and gave them all the info. I did call the cops, but they just advised us to exchange info, so no report or tickets were issue.
This is my first accident, so my question is, what should I expect next? The thing I worried about the most is if my insurance is going to go up. To make matters more confusing, my insurance is up on march 15th and I had already spoken to my agent about dropping it, as they were going to already raise my rates(maybe they can see the future), and I already gave a deposit for another insurance that was going to end up being cheaper. I imagine this throws a wrench into things.
Also, does it matter if I choose to get my car fixed or not? They gave me an repair shop to take my car to, but since my deductible is 500, and that's probably what it's going to take to fix my car, I'm thinking of not bothering to fix it till I have some extra cash. Can that help/hurt my chances of insurance going up?
I know insurance is subjective at the end of the day, but I'm one of those people that can't stop worrying, so I'm hoping some other stories or advice might help me put me at ease somewhat. I'm 25, in Texas, and full coverage if that matters.
noir_blood on
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From the sounds of it, you were likely at fault. However, some states don't consider fault. Either way, your rates are likely to go up. Not astronomically, though. People get into small fender benders all the time.
Bothering to fix your car or not generally does not affect your insurance rates, however I may be wrong for some states.
Generally, they won't raise your rates until it's time to renew. That means if you're dropping this plan, and you've already signed up for another plan, you've probably secured the rate for the new plan... until the plan is renewed, at which point your rates will go up. So you have a few months of breathing room. Again, this may vary by state.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Trust me with 20 some odd tickets and 3 accidents in 10 years or so. When you make a claim it is almost immediately assessed and possibly retroactively (Next payment the extra from the claim on will be assessed) tickets and such are the ones that tend to not appear till after your renewal period.
This may differ from state to state or from policy to policy, because I've never had a claim or ticket applied immediately to my premium, let alone retroactively. I'm in California, on Geico, on their six-month policy, and the only time my rates ever change is on the renewal date.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Especially if it is different State to State
I had the sole accident of my driving career back in September of 2007, and they waited to raise my rates (non-retroactively, about $70/year) until the renewal happened - with Geico, live in Virginia, had the accident in NY. Was technically my fault thanks to what the cops said, but was able to send a "please pity me" letter to the county DA afterwards and get the ticket changed to something lesser.
As said, anyway, it varies by state, so you really should be talking with the adjuster handling your claim for reassurance.
If there is any visable damage or even just a minor injury, always exchange insurance info, and if someone gives you grief, get their license info and plates ASAP. In a number of areas, it is also the law to exchange the info. As for how this affects your policy rates, it depends on a number of factors including how much they have to pay out, how long you've been driving, etc. Also, while hopefully there will not be a next time, take photos of the damage, a wider shot of the cars involved, and make sure at least one shows some of the sky is shown in at least one to show current conditions(rain, snow, clear day, night, etc). A camera phone with a half decent lens will work.
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
EDIT: Dunno if anyone mentioned it but, isnt there something you can do, where you pay the insurance company a fee after a crash, and your insurace wont go up?
Certainly over here the hike in insurance WILL relate to whether a claim in made - i.e. if it costs your insurers money. If you pay the other persons costs instead of getting your insurance to (assuming it is decided to be your fault) then you will simply have a small incident, no claim on your record as opposed to a claim (they are not treated the same).
Never admit fault. Ever. That is up to the insurance/police to decide in every case.
If you are fortunate, each insurance company will talk to each other and decide to 'tit for tat'. You can then manage to get away with paying nothing and claiming nothing - resulting in a smaller premium hike. As for the premium hikes - well with us they cannot possibly do that except at renewal time.
One additional point to this though, check with your state law regarding apologies. In some states/provinces apologizing becomes a defacto admission of fault, while other states/provinces have laws which say that apologizing is not an admission of fault.
The other persons' car would be covered by the fact that my insurance rates would raise to the point where I am actually paying 3 times the cost of the accident over 3 years, or I could pay that cost myself.
I definately didn't apologize, because I figured that was indeed an admission of guilt. I wasn't thinking of even going to get an estimate for my car, but I guess I will now.
This thread can be locked now.
A very good point - though one assumes you could deny ever apologising?
Ofc this is why my Grandfather lectured me, demanding I carry a disposable camera, dictophone in glove box. Can be terribly useful for evidencing scenes of this stuff.
Also - people have been known to damage their own cars more post accident so it will be written off/they get more moeny. Again having photos of the damage....
Good luck with it all.
In the case of an older car, it's definitely worth more to you than the small handful of cash the insurance agency will give you.. which won't buy you a better car.
In the case of a newer car, they give you the depreciated value.
If you're older car is on it's last legs, and you need a new car, getting it written off results in cash for a down payment on a new car that is a lot easier to get compared to getting your old car fixed to pass inspection and then selling it.
I guess I see it differently. My current car is a 98 Protege, but it only has about 155km on it, so it's got plenty of "life" left. I don't see any huge repairs in the foreseeable future. If I totaled it, I would probably get no more than 2000 for the car, and it's worth much much more than that to me.
Anyway, I did not mean to derail the thread, but it looked over anyway.
I guess that could be right. Michigan is a no fault state. Which really means that insurance companies treat both parties as at fault. Its sucks because if you have PLPD and your stopped at a light and someone hits you the most you can get from the other guy for is about $500 to cover the theoretical deductible.
Second, if your side mirrors and rear-view mirror are properly positioned, you should not have a blind-spot. Rear-view setup is pretty straightforward, but for side mirrors, they should be adjusted so far outward that you would have to lean to see the side of your car in either mirror.
Essentially, if a car is coming up behind me a lane over, I see it in the rear-view. As it's leaving the rear view mirror, it's entering a side mirror, and as it's leaving the side mirror, it's entering my peripheral vision.
This depends a lot on the car.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
In general, cars do have a blind spot. I have no idea what DHS is talking about.
I'm scheduled to go and get my estimate on Friday. Now, a few weeks before this, I got out of a walmart parking lot and was surprised to find that my driver side mirror was broken. Best I can guess, someone got awfully close to my car and snapped the mirror. Thankfully, they didn't snap it all the way, and it still manages to stay on with a bit of duct tape. It also looks like none of the electrical wires came off, as I'm still able to adjust it with the knob
Since it's right in the same area of where my car got hit, how bad would it be for me to claim that as part of the accident?
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
Is it illegal?
Yes.
Will you probably get away with it?
Yes.
Will you get into more trouble than the $130 mirror is worth if they find out?
Yes.
I have no idea what I'm talking about either, I guess I'm just lucky with my car.
The Problem with how most people use mirrors is they have the left and right mirrors slanted in to be used to see behind them. If you have a rear view mirror this is pointless. If you have the mirror's aligned so that it is almost completely straight instead of titled you should be able to see everything next to your car that isn't already in your peripheral's.
As for the insurance claim from the OP. Two actions that are not illegal, don't imply its part of the accident and just not mention it, or two tell them it was from a different accident. Under no circumstances lie about a claim. Heck I had a an incident where I told them to ignore like 3 things and they ended up fixing two of those. I got so worried that I had committed fraud even though I told them not to fix those.