My wife just called and said some dip sh*t hit her car in the parking lot where she works. The back corner of the fender and bumper have scratching damage [no dents]. We carry very good insurance USAA [15 plus years with them] and we have an impeccable record with them, but of course we do not want our premium to go up.
Would this be considered by an insurance company “no fault”? I wonder because the assh*le who hit her wasn’t culpable for his/her actions so we will never know who it was. Will the insurance company look at this like a moving violation? Or accident?
My basic question is this: If we call the insurance company and have them pay for the damage, will our premium go up? And will they call it her fault in the paper work?
Was your wife driving the car when the accident happened? Did she see the other car hit hers?
In any event, she should report the accident to the police, and file a police report.
If her car was parked at the time of the accident, it will definitely be a no-fault claim. If your wife was driving at the time, and you have a police report that supports her claim of a hit-and-run, it will almost certainly be no-fault as well.
BTW, we have USAA as well. They are indeed excellent. Other no-fault claims that we have filed in the last couple of years include a deer running into my wife’s car, and a guy who jumped the curb in a parking lot and plowed into the front of my car.
An at-fault claim that I filed was when I slid off the road in a snow storm. Since it was a one-car accident, I was deemed to be at fault.
I don’t know, but get a estimate, it may be less then or just slightly more then the deductible which means you will have to pay most/all of it anyway and there is no need to notify the insurance company.
No my wife was not driving the car. She was parked in a parking spot. She was asked by a coworker " hey what happened to the back of your car…" :eek: my wife responded, " huh…what do you mean???" then the rest unfolded. I placed a few things in her trunk this morning, and the scratches were not there. So this definitely happened at work this morning.
Since there was no moving violation on your wive’s part (if the insurance company wants to check her driving record) they really have no way of knowing if she backed into something or if someone hit her parked car so these two occurances are treated the same way regardless of what really happened.
It will be treated as a “claim” and may or may not effect your premium.
Even if they did have video evidence that someone hit-and-run her, or had video evidence that she backed into a pole, it would be treated the same way.
That shouldn’t have any bearing, unless you take it to a Mercedes body shop (“we’re Mercedes; of course we charge more!” Or, if you take it to a body shop and they say to themselves, “Mercedes! Let’s sucker 'em for all we can get.”
You did say it was just a scratch, so it’s paint work.
I can’t tell you what will happen to you exactly but I have had three similar situations and my insurance never went up a penny. In fact, one of them was my fault (backed into another car) and my rates went down shortly after (for unrealted reasons I assume).
Another thing to be aware of… Even if you are not considered at fault, some insurance companies give a discount not just for your driving record, but for not having ever made a claim. My car was totalled when I was hit from behind by an uninsured motorist. My driving record was perfect and it was not my fault. Although my rates did not go up, they would have gone down the next year due to not having made a claim in 7 years.
It’s scratches that run from back fender, onto back bumper. They are dug in quite substancially. We would not take it to the dealer where we got it. It will be brought to a local body shop we have dealt with before, they won’t sucker us…
This is another concern, USAA has a program where our deductible goes down after 5 years with no claims. We have a low deductible now…but this will blow our record.
I got hit in a parking lot a little while ago. I didn’t even think about reporting it to my insurance. I’m not going to let my rates go up over something like that. I went to the local Saturn dealer, got some touch-up paint, and covered the scratches as best I could. The results aren’t bad; you’d never mistake it for a professional paint job, but the color match is dead-on perfect, so it doesn’t have that horrible “camouflage” look that cars get when you try to cover scratches with old spray paint or something.
This happened to me. I had it repaired under my insurance & they paid out more than $2000. My insurance rates went up because I had not reported it to the police (I did not find out about this requirement until the next year). You must report it within 48 hours. I investigated this and was told that this is SOP for insurance companies ( I live in New Jersey). In retrospect, the increased premiums cost me more than I got from them.
Basically they assume that if you don’t report it to the police, you’re probably lying.
ANYONE WHO IS OFFERING ADVICE WITHOUT KNOWING THE JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE ACCIDENT TOOK PLACE IS COMMITTING A GREVIOUS AND UNPARDONABLE SIN!!!
The answer to the questions in the OP cannot be answered without knowing the state in which the accident took place, and the state in which the poster resides. No-fault states handle these things differently from fault-based states, and even among fault-based states, there is no agreement.
To the OP: you need to find out what the policy says about coverage; pull yours out of the musty filing system to which you have consigned it and read it. THEN, ask someone knowledgeable about the law in your state; I do not recommend asking your agent until you know what you want to do; some insurance companies require traking of inquiries, even if no claim is eventually made, and can base rate decisions on those inquiries. :eek:
I don’t work for USAA, but they also don’t suck (sure, I got my parachute packed…). Barring explicit knowledge I’m gonna say you don’t need to wory about your rates in this case. 99% sure of that. I’d say you’re absolutely sure of no problem if you were insured with…the folks that insure my cars.
Good luck, people who do stuff like that should be taken out and maimed.
Seems odd you can’t find copies of different car insurance policies on the web.
I AM NOT YOUR LAWYER AND THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE: Be sure to read the provisions re uninsured motorist coverage and the reporting requirements for a hit and run accident. If you miss the notice window, the company could deny coverage.
THEN, ask someone knowledgeable about the law in your state; I do not recommend asking your agent until you know what you want to do; some insurance companies require traking of inquiries, even if no claim is eventually made, and can base rate decisions on those inquiries. :eek:
My wife and I are going to talk about when she get’s home.