Got into a minor accident. Should I contact my insurance company or just let them find out?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last night I backed into someone in a parking lot, denting their fender. Rainy night, black truck, and I mistakenly thought they had moved a sufficient distance away when they hadn’t. Looked like they were starting to pull into an intersection, but then they didn’t. Whatever the complicating factors were, it was my fault.

I’m in my 40s with a clean driving record until last night. I’m concerned about the effect this will have on my insurance. Is it better to contact my insurance company and preemptively let them know, explain that it was a very low speed minor accident, etc., express my concerns? Would that help in any way? Or is my insurance going to go up a set amount regardless of what I do or don’t do?

2

Yes, notify them. It’s your obligation under your contract with them.

3

The insurance company will find out when the other driver makes a claim. They won’t like it if you hide this from them.

The hit on the insurance probably won’t be as bad as you think, especially since you have a clean record.

Notify them.

4

The GQ answer is to tell them. It’s very unlikely that your rate will go up based on a single incident.

5

My gf had a long accident free record with All State Insurance. They sent her a letter congratulating her on her clean record, and told her they would never raise her rates (or something to that effect).

A few days after receiving the letter she totaled her car. Maybe six months later she had a fender-bender.

6

There’s a saying in health care: “If it wasn’t documented, it didn’t happen.” The same thing is true for auto insurance issues.

Tell them.

7

Moderator Action

While some of this is factual, a lot of this can only be answered by expressing opinions. So let’s move this to IMHO (from GQ) so that the OP can get a better range of answers.

8

Just called the insurance company and told them I had an accident. The guy I spoke to said that if I wasn’t filing a claim, there was no reason to talk to them; that they would contact me if the other party filed a claim.

9

Better to do it than not.