Claims Question

[jmarkk1]

I have a friend that had an accident and they were not at fault. Car hit theirs and totaled car. They did not have full/comprehensive coverage. Current agent says he can't call other insured ' s company because they don't have full/comprehensive and they told my friend that he has to call other company, etc.
Does this seem right?

 

[BlockO]

I have a friend that had an accident and they were not at fault. Car hit theirs and totaled car. They did not have full/comprehensive coverage. Current agent says he can't call other insured ' s company because they don't have full/comprehensive and they told my friend that he has to call other company, etc.
Does this seem right?

I think your friend misunderstood the agent because that doesn't make sense. by "full/comprehensive" (no such thing), I assume you mean comprehensive/collision coverage.

it doesn't matter if the other guy had comprehensive & collision coverage or not because the other guy's liability coverage is what will pay for your friend's car. collision coverage only applies to the other guy's car if he wants it fixed.

your friend's agent could have called the other company just to get the claim started but there's really no good reason for the agent to do so. they're going to ask specific details about the accident that the agent won't be familiar with. that's why the agent suggested your friend make the call.

just have your friend call the other company and start a claim. having his agent call is just an extra unnecessary step.

 

[jmarkk1]

They said their agent would've called if they had comprehensive collision on their own policy. Since they dropped...agent said it was up to them to call.

 

[djs]

They don't want their agent to call, they want to call the other carrier directly.

It is up to them to call. Easy thing to do.

 

[VolAgent]

They said their agent would've called if they had comprehensive collision on their own policy. Since they dropped...agent said it was up to them to call.

Without comprehensive coverage, there is no claim with their carrier. Thus, nothing for the agent to do.

Ultimately, the other carrier wants to hear from your friend, not your friend's agent. And even if your friend had comp and was going to fill a claim with his carrier, the company would still want to speak with him at some point instead of just the agent.

So the long and the short of it is, your friend is going to talk to a carrier at some point, might as well get it out of the way.

 

[Milkman1265]

Its easy to call the other company just have your current agent find out the number from the insurance code on the report.

They will have to talk to your friend anyways to get details. It's a waste of time to open the claim because it will be be I don't know call the insured to comfirm.

With that said, its not normal practice even for liability? I review all police report and help my liability only clients start the claim and have them call the insured to go over what happen. I thought it was part of the service.

 

[VolAgent]

Its easy to call the other company just have your current agent find out the number from the insurance code on the report.

They will have to talk to your friend anyways to get details. It's a waste of time to open the claim because it will be be I don't know call the insured to comfirm.

With that said, its not normal practice even for liability? I review all police report and help my liability only clients start the claim and have them call the insured to go over what happen. I thought it was part of the service.

In my experience, even if you have comp and collision, most agents try to get you to call the other company versus filing a claim. If you have liability only, forget about it. At best you will get told this is why you need comp and collision. At worst you get blown off.