Report a not-at-fault car accident to insurance?

[Scroopy Noopers]

I had an at fault accident with no injuries and ‘minimal’ damage to both vehicles and I never once thought “damn my new rates are not sustainable”. Rate increases are an overblown fear.

[zukes]

Insurance adjuster here. I believe that Alberta has no fault, so going through insurance will not change your rates.

However, if you are going to consider letting the other person pay, go to a preferred shop of your insurance company and get a quote. Give the other person the quote and if they are willing to pay in full, let them. If they try to haggle, go through insurance.

Don't make it difficult for yourself, don't let them pick the shop, but if they are willing to pay the bill, then no real need to go through insurance if you are feeling like being a "reasonable person" as you said.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by greyshep

Yes it "should" not be, but it is unfortunately.

I think the insurance company looks at it like a transaction. They engaged us for our services, so we will keep this on our records as it consumed personnel time and systems to track even though no payout was required.

Also I would bet they look at it as a risk indicator for future policy pricing. ex) This guy calls in a lot (even if no fault), so he is either putting himself in risky positions a lot or he is going to make lots of claims for small stuff that costs us time/money.

It all comes down to your contract, as insurance is just a contract matter. However, I would find it very strange that you would still be dinged for an accident that was 100% not your fault that you were able to recover 100% of damages for. Even if you can't recover all damages (Ex other guy has no insurance), if you can prove you were not at fault, there should be no claim.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Because it's a waste of your time and effort that doesn't really benefit anyone?

Put it through insurance, they book you a repair appointment, go get your vehicle repaired, move on with your life.

No going back and forth with the person in question, no finding a place to get a quote, no getting a quote and letting them know the cost, no waiting for them to pay you before you do the repair. And that's just if they're completely cooperative.

It boggles the mind why people pay for insurance and then do not use their insurance for the only purpose that does not cost them even more money to use.

My time and effort is worth something, too. I'm not going to waste that when I pay the insurance company to do it for me, all for a completely minor favour to someone I don't know who hit my car.

To each his own I guess, but I will still give people the opportunity.

I am pretty sure the father of the young driver who damaged my wifes car last year was happy I was flexible enough to work with him rather than putting his kid into an even higher risk category for a minor collision. So to suggest there was no benefit to anyone seems pretty close minded to me.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by zukes

Insurance adjuster here. I believe that Alberta has no fault, so going through insurance will not change your rates.

However, if you are going to consider letting the other person pay, go to a preferred shop of your insurance company and get a quote. Give the other person the quote and if they are willing to pay in full, let them. If they try to haggle, go through insurance.

Don't make it difficult for yourself, don't let them pick the shop, but if they are willing to pay the bill, then no real need to go through insurance if you are feeling like being a "reasonable person" as you said.

I just finished dealing with this situation today. Guy backed into my wife’s vehicle last week and scuffed the paint into the primer, came into her shop and left his info saying that he would pay for it. I went to a body shop near my house that I know is an approved shop of my insurer (they fixed our truck a few years ago), got an estimate, sent it to the guy and received payment in full today. Admittedly I was a bit nervous about the whole thing since my wife is so good natured, she didn’t take down any additional details about the guy or his vehicle. Worked out OK, I guess not everyone is a scum bag.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by greyshep

To each his own I guess, but I will still give people the opportunity.

I am pretty sure the father of the young driver who damaged my wifes car last year was happy I was flexible enough to work with him rather than putting his kid into an even higher risk category for a minor collision. So to suggest there was no benefit to anyone seems pretty close minded to me.

I don't know, considering you're getting fed information by your insurer that says not to make not-at-fault claims because it will impact your insurance (which is either wrong, or you've got an entirely ####ty insurance company) then I have to question your math on the benefits.

How much did they pay? With average at-fault increases and things like accident forgiveness, how much do you really believed you saved them for your own inconvenience?

I've been on both sides, and I can honestly say I would not have benefitted overall by paying out of pocket at-fault, and (personally) think it's an entirely classless thing to do to ask the person you hit to do you "favour."

[Swift]

Originally Posted by greyshep

I have spoken to my insurance agent regarding this type of situation previously. Essentially her answer to me was that if I was to call in and report an accident that clearly was not my fault (like OP example), it would still be filed as a me making a claim to my insurance company so if I can avoid that it would probably be best for my future insurance coverage pricing.

I find this quite frustrating and tend to avoid insurance claims if at all possible as a result.

I can only speak for the insurance company I work for, but this isn't true at all. People seem to think that their policies are looked over each renewal by an actual living individual looking to screw them over. There isn't. It's all automated these days.

So, firstly a Not At Fault claim won't increase your rates whatsoever. The accident wasn't your fault, the company didn't lose money by paying out (the other insurer did), so the company has no reason to increase your rates to regain that money.

Secondly, calling in a potential claim but not pursuing it doesn't affect your premiums either. Like I said, this is all automated, so if no paid out claim is entered into the claims program, then there is no mechanism for it to feed over to the rating side of the program.

[mrkajz44]

I know this is getting a little macro, but another good reason for reporting it to insurance is to make sure the other person does get dinged on their record. I know this sound cruel, but insurance is basically a large pool of funds that everyone pays into in order to pay out for the small number of people who cause damage. The people who cause damage more should pay more and you need to report it in order for that to apply.

I feel this way only because you are required to have auto insurance and you cannot make a "self-insurance" decision. Since I'm being forced to pay for insurance that I could likely self insurance myself for a lot less cost, I want to make sure I pay as little as possible and the people causing accidents pay as much as possible.

[guzzy]

Have them do the work for you. My wife got hit a few years ago. Minor damage to bumper and no injuries. The women was trying to get my wife to use her "family" autobody shop to avoid her insurance, as the other party was at fault. There was also a language barrier and my wife called our insurance and said deal with it. They did. Doesn't show on wife's record.. Other party was angry and lashed out at my wife so she blocked her. They still had option to pay cash on their end. We got our truck fixed without using her shady autobody shop.

[Erick Estrada]

The morale of the story is if you are really worried about your insurance rates going up, be a better driver and don't hit other people. If not, expect consequences. I had a guy that hit me (plenty of witnesses) beg me almost in tears not to go through insurance but his jackass move to go around a slow semi-truck in the turning lane and make a blind left turn into traffic was telling that this guy was not going to learn to be a better driver by being let off the hook. Not only that I'm not willing to let someone else's problem become mine and that's what can happen if you let them try to pay out of pocket to fix it.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The morale of the story is if you are really worried about your insurance rates going up, be a better driver and don't hit other people. If not, expect consequences. I had a guy that hit me (plenty of witnesses) beg me almost in tears not to go through insurance but his jackass move to go around a slow semi-truck in the turning lane and make a blind left turn into traffic was telling that this guy was not going to learn to be a better driver by being let off the hook. Not only that I'm not willing to let someone else's problem become mine and that's what can happen if you let them try to pay out of pocket to fix it.

Fine, I am not saying you give this option to every doorknob driver out there, but to flat out say you are going to treat this robotically and call your insurance company on every little thing to me seems a bit callous.

Everyone is welcome to do what they feel is right based on the situation. My hope is people approach these things with a bit of humanity but maybe thats expecting too much.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by Swift

I can only speak for the insurance company I work for, but this isn't true at all. People seem to think that their policies are looked over each renewal by an actual living individual looking to screw them over. There isn't. It's all automated these days.

So, firstly a Not At Fault claim won't increase your rates whatsoever. The accident wasn't your fault, the company didn't lose money by paying out (the other insurer did), so the company has no reason to increase your rates to regain that money.

Secondly, calling in a potential claim but not pursuing it doesn't affect your premiums either. Like I said, this is all automated, so if no paid out claim is entered into the claims program, then there is no mechanism for it to feed over to the rating side of the program.

I will have to call them and ask again, this was almost 2 years ago that I asked this question of them. (Desjardins Insurance) Regardless if its a human doing the review or an automated program I can still see the possibility that number of claims is weighed in the calculation somehow whether paid out or not.

Anecdotally, my father was dropped from his insurance when I was younger due to "excessive claims" and only one was an at fault one. But it was a large claim. He had let his son in law borrow his car and he wrote it off in an at fault accident. But this was 20 years ago now, maybe the no fault thing has changed.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by greyshep

Fine, I am not saying you give this option to every doorknob driver out there, but to flat out say you are going to treat this robotically and call your insurance company on every little thing to me seems a bit callous.

Everyone is welcome to do what they feel is right based on the situation. My hope is people approach these things with a bit of humanity but maybe thats expecting too much.

The suggestion that using the service you pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for each year in exactly the way it is designed (which the people you're dealing with also pay for) is somehow inhumane, is kind of insane.

That's what it's there for, that's how the system works. I believe in most contracts you make with insurance companies you are obligated to call them on "every little thing" (accident).

Callous? There are consequences for actions. If you take on an emotional burden for everyone else's actions, good for you, but the difference between paying a deductible + a small rate increase and paying for the entire thing out of pocket is hardly the difference between humane and inhumane.

Want to approach these situations with actual humanity? Forgive them completely and pay for it yourself. Otherwise, you're just doing the same as everyone else, just wasting a lot more time and thought, paying for something and willingly getting even less out of it, all for a perceived benefit you can't even quantify.

I'm glad going outside insurance works out for people. It doesn't make you compassionate.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

The suggestion that using the service you pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for each year in exactly the way it is designed (which the people you're dealing with also pay for) is somehow inhumane, is kind of insane.

That's what it's there for, that's how the system works. I believe in most contracts you make with insurance companies you are obligated to call them on "every little thing" (accident).

Callous? There are consequences for actions. If you take on an emotional burden for everyone else's actions, good for you, but the difference between paying a deductible + a small rate increase and paying for the entire thing out of pocket is hardly the difference between humane and inhumane.

Want to approach these situations with actual humanity? Forgive them completely and pay for it yourself. Otherwise, you're just doing the same as everyone else, just wasting a lot more time and thought, paying for something and willingly getting even less out of it, all for a perceived benefit you can't even quantify.

I'm glad going outside insurance works out for people. It doesn't make you compassionate.

You do you man!

[boogerz]

Originally Posted by blankall

[snip]

The only risk in calling the insurance company is that the other driver now lies and tries to claim you were at fault. You should be somewhat warry of this, as if they state your wife was also backing up, they'll call it 50/50. If you have evidence or statements from them to the contrary, that should end that risk.

This is why everyone should have a dashcam

Someone backed into my car and claimed that I was the one that I was in motion and hit them. Granted, insurance didn't bite at their statement and found them at fault, but the fact the person had the balls to lie to the insurance company happens more often than people think.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by blankall

This should not be true. If it's not your fault, then your insurance policy does not pay at all. And no claim against your policy.

This may be true in theory. But if you have a lot of not at fault claims your rates will go up eventually. Probably at renewal. Or they will just drop you.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by boogerz

This is why everyone should have a dashcam

Someone backed into my car and claimed that I was the one that I was in motion and hit them. Granted, insurance didn't bite at their statement and found them at fault, but the fact the person had the balls to lie to the insurance company happens more often than people think.

People do this all the time. For some reason they think if it's 50/50 it will somehow benefit them. The insurance company doesn't care how big a claim is, just whether you have claimed or not. So instead of just biting the bullet, they end up screwing over two people's insurance instead of one.

[chubeyr1]

Go through your insurance company. 19/20 times doing this privately ends in disaster. Speaking from experience.

You did nothing wrong the other person did. You pay for your insurance company to back you up on this too. Time for them to work for the money you pay them. It is their job, do you think you can do their job better?

Save the headache and go through insurance.

If you feel bad for the people get your vehicle fixed first then get them a gift card for Superstore etc.

Look after yourself first.

[troutman]

Just went through this. My car was dented while parked on a residential street. The other driver was cooperative and left his phone number. He wanted me to consider dealing with it privately, but I have decided to go through insurance.

You have to get a police sticker if damages will be more than $2000.

The assessment for repairs was approved. As they were still investigating liability, there was a $500 deductible. Then they determined I had 0% liability, and the deductible is now waived.

It has been difficult to get my agent to reply to messages. I think the other downside is that there is now a public record my vehicle was damaged if I go to resell it.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by troutman

Just went through this. My car was dented while parked on a residential street. The other driver was cooperative and left his phone number. He wanted me to consider dealing with it privately, but I have decided to go through insurance.

You have to get a police sticker if damages will be more than $2000.

The assessment for repairs was approved. As they were still investigating liability, there was a $500 deductible. Then they determined I had 0% liability, and the deductible is now waived.

It has been difficult to get my agent to reply to messages. I think the other downside is that there is now a public record my vehicle was damaged if I go to resell it.

rates always go up.