Police Report Filed. Do I Tell Insurance? Driving Me Crazy

[rushtickt0ck]

Should I call or not.. This is driving me crazy... I really don't want to mess up my perfect driving/insurance record and don't want higher rates. This is in Nj, and I have liability only.

An older relative who doesn't live with me and does not have a car/insurance of his own, borrowed my car, got into a minor accident with another driver. He hit the forward moving car as he was pulling out from a street parking space. There's now a bit of a dent/scratches on the driver's side door of my car and squeaks if I try to open it too wide. But it's an old car, don't care about it too much. On the other hand, there's "not a single scratch" on the other car according to relative. But I'd like to pay out of pocket if he IS seeking money.



-Will my insurance definitely find out from the DMV? Will this go on my driving/MVR record even if someone else drove my car and got into an accident?

-As I understand, insurance follows the car. If my insurance finds out, will i have a record in C.L.U.E even though I wasn't in the accident? If so, will other insurance companies see that I was not the driver OR does that not matter?

 

[djs]

You are mixing things up, sometimes a little knowledge can be a bit dangerous.

You don't have to worry about this in the way you are. Insurance follows the car, yes, but accidents get rated to drivers, not cars. The fact your insurance may pay the claim will not have ANY impact on your rates. It will on your relatives rates, maybe.

Your insurance will find out about the accident, whether you report it to them or not. The police report will put the accident on your dmv record, in turn the policy renew and if the insurance pulls your record, they will rate YOU for the accident until you get it cleared up. Take care of it now.

A claim filed that never has a payout is effectively no claim, but filing it protects you. Do it now.

Dan

 

[rushtickt0ck]

The fact your insurance may pay the claim will not have ANY impact on your rates. It will on your relatives rates, maybe.

Again, my relative doesn't have insurance of his own. He's not listed on my policy, is not a frequently driver of my car. ..Still won't impact my rates?

 

[Guest]

this is how its like in Cali.

if your relative does not live with you and is not listed on the policy he can most likely be covered under your policy's permissive use terms (if they have any). if your insurance company covers this and pays the claim your rate will go up. however, you can leave everything alone and the other drivers insurance company will go after your relative. either way you have control of if you want to help your relative pay for costs through your insurance, at the expense of your rates going up, or just let him take care of it and nothing happens to your rates.

 

[djs]

this is how its like in Cali.

if your relative does not live with you and is not listed on the policy he can most likely be covered under your policy's permissive use terms (if they have any). if your insurance company covers this and pays the claim your rate will go up. however, you can leave everything alone and the other drivers insurance company will go after your relative. either way you have control of if you want to help your relative pay for costs through your insurance, at the expense of your rates going up, or just let him take care of it and nothing happens to your rates.

Sorry, not correct. Need to be blunt here because I don't like incorrect information being distributed.

If a permissive user accident causes YOUR rates to go up, its time to get a new insurance company. I have NEVER seen this happen if it is dealt with correctly and you are dealing with licensed, valid drivers. Accidents are rated to the driver, not the policy, unless the driver happens to be on the policy.

The only thing that usually comes of this is if you have a second permissive user driver accident within a short period of time. You might have some explaining to do.

Dan

 

[Guest]

yes, insurance is rated by driver but when you run the clue reports the accident WILL show up. some companies allow you to assign fault however, it doesn't guarantee that the rates wont change. ive also seen instances where even though the client is not at fault, the accident is assigned to the driver based on the fact that the insureds policy paid out.

 

[joshb]

I'll throw in my 2 cents, the rate can go up, depending on the carrier. I see it all the time. It could be a Florida thing, I'm not really sure. I was dealing with a similar situation today. let his friend drive his car, wrecked, had no coverage on his own, and the vehicles owner's rates went up the next renewal. It could've been a coincidental rate increase, but I hadn't seen anyone with Progressive have that much of an increase. I switched him to another carrier either Foremost or Infinity, but either way, they surcharged him an at fault, only way to remove it, is to get a letter from prior carrier saying he wasn't at fault. Progressive never faxed anything over so he just bought the new policy anyway for the savings.

 

[rushtickt0ck]

It could've been a coincidental rate increase, but I hadn't seen anyone with Progressive have that much of an increase.

How much of an increase are we talking? I, too have Progressive btw. Did he have a perfect record like me? Is your friend in FL?

I switched him to another carrier either Foremost or Infinity, but either way, they surcharged him an at fault

Is it possible I too would be "surcharged an at fault" by other insurers even though...... I wasn't even at the accident scene?

 

[djs]

The way you get surcharged is by it being your car, reported to the dmv, based on license plate, going on your dmv report.

The way you prevent from being surcharged is keeping a copy of the police report (for 3 years) to show that the accident did not involve you.

Dan

 

[Guest]

But even by keeping the records its a hassle to have it removed once it shows up on any report