sidemarker

ok folks

just got into a minor accident. my front bumper and hood is pretty much messed up including other various parts. I currently have full coverage insurance on the car and my parents are paying for the insurance. should i go ahead and make a claim or just pay it out of my pocket? the person i hit didnt want to take care of it through the insurance so thats a good thing for me. I was thinking of calling up my insurance and telling them that someone hit my car while it was parked or some type of hit and run situation. my parents dosent want me to report this to the insurance because they feel that their premium might increase. will this be the case for a hit and run situation???? also our current policy is about to expire. WHAT SHOULD WE DO????

sidemarker

sidemarker

^^

TypeSAddict

I would say take care of it through the insurance honestly, or not at all. Don't want to get caught in a lie, which could cause a host of problems. My bud did this and has the hardest time getting insurance.

sidemarker

well my plan was if we went to the insurance was to just say, i was at the grocery store the other day (no cameras of course) and when i got home i noticed my bumper was smashed.

my biggest concern is whether claiming this "hit and run" will increase our premiums in the near future?

sidemarker

NW-CL

my bumper was hit in a parking lot and the person took off. I called my insurance (Progressive at the time) and they took care of it with no problems. My premiums didn't go up a bit.

BC

Do your parents approve of the lying, cheating, stealing part? Just do what's right for crying out loud. Way too much scamming going on, big and small.

Scrib

Please don't do this. It's a complete and flat out lie. And this type of claim is why car insurance premiums are going through the roof. Someone has to eat the costs.

Take care of it yourself or fess up and tell the truth. Making a false claim is pretty dumb, if you ask me.

louisn

False insurance claim = felony = jail time, my young friend.

BC

Yeah kid, I'm running this back to the front page as an example of what's wrong with the world today. "I ain't guilty unless I got busted". Screw this shit. Be a man.

sidemarker

hold up people why all the flaming

i never said i was going to go a rob a bank or kill someone here

Shit happens to people and yeah the right thing to do is tell the truth. but we all know that insurance companies screw people over all the time. my parents pay for insurance and they pay a lot each year. either way if i go to the insurance and tell them the truth that a lady stoped and i hit her and she verbally said that the accident was her fault does not give me any leverage in my situation. from my understanding if you rear end someone it is your fault. but sometimes its not that case like mine. yes i hit her but she admit that it was her fault. morally speaking it was her fault correct? i mean she admit it was her fault. i was not driving crazy or anything and the accident occured less then 5 mph. how much can a 5 mph accident can cause? well enough to give you a heart ache and head ache. she went her way i went my way. fortunately her old ass SUV is in perfect condition but my 02 cl-s not even a year old yet is damaged. i am a person that believes in excepitons. insurance companies do not. its either your fault or theirs and case closed. in my situation of course it would be my fault. ok so i go to the insurance and tell them i rearended someone and i need to make a claim now here comes the 100s of questions. why didnt u call the police why didnt you get her info? blah blah blah. they fix the car and later on our premium increases. so im screwed. why becuase i told the legal truth. but what about the real truth? she said it was her fault.

i have no intention to call my insurance company and tell them i was hit and they ran a way now my back hurts and i want some money for emotional damage, blah blah.

the story i have is simple. my car was hit in a parking lot. i know nothing else. chances are i will not get caught unless one of yall decides to rat on me . but this is only a hypothecial situation. my parents dont want me to go to the insurance because they feel that their premium will go up when we renew our insurance.

you guys need to chill. you are making my situation overblown. insurance scams are stuff like having your friend steal your car or hassling the insurnace company to pay for emotional damage or KILLING A LOVE ONE TO GET INSURANCE MONEY!

hey we all pay insurance its the law. lets say if i do go to the insurance and if i tell them either story my car will be fixed, but one story may help us avoid an increase premium.

i seriously doubt that the insurance company is going to spend more $$ to reasearch whether or not i am telling the truth. come on im not trying to scam im just trying to get car fixed with the insurance my parents pay for.

sidemarker

IWannanS

NOT your fault... please explain.

sidemarker

we are both turning right when the light turns green and she just stops. she thought the light was still red when she was turning.

sidemarker

CO-CL-S

Then you should have reported it to the insurance company. If you don't do that then pay for it yourself! Grow up.. YMMV

mcdanjw

Hey sidemarker...

You know I respect you, but here's my take on this situation.


No matter if the light was green or not, if you hit her from behind, the accident is your fault. You will remember that a green light doesn't give you the right to proceed forward, only to procceed forward if the right of way is clear. In this case, it wasn't because she stopped, so the accident is your fault. She can stop for any reason any time (other than to intentionally cause you to rear end her) and expect the cars behind her to stop as well. Had you been driving attentively and defensively, this accident could have definitely been avoided. I'm not bashing you at all... I've had a very similar experience myself, but my car was totaled.

The reason you're getting flamed is because if you choose to lie about the situation and still file a claim that would remove the blame from you... the money to fix your car has to come from somewhere. This is the type of behavior that leads to premium increases for EVERYONE... not those who are responsible for the damage paying for it.

In this case, the right thing to do is to either tell the truth to the insurance company, or just pay for the repairs out of your pocket if you're afraid of premium increases.

You will find that you will feel much better about yourself if you do the right thing.

sidemarker

the thing is this. can anyone prove that my $2500 of damage would lead to other people premium increase when my parents have payed about $6000 of coverage? well if its true that people are getting screwed by people making false claims then wouldnt my parents be screwed for paying the high premium already? so if i go to the insurance company tell the truth get this taken care of, then would our premium not only increased because of the claim but also incurred the cost of other people making false claims? so my parents have to bite the bullet twice?

i bet 99% of the people on this board would not go to best buy and put a copy of windows xp into their pocket and leave the store(stealing).

but i bet at least half of the people on this board have engaged in some type of software pirating(stealing).

and im pretty sure that everyone has broken the law at least once.

so i guess i cant get my car fixed with the insurance that my parents pay for because i told a small lie?

also. i have not said that i was going to the insurance about this. i am just asking a question. will my insurance premium increase in the long run if i claim for a "hit and run"?

sidemarker

sidemarker

well now that i think about all this

the lady stopped i hit her and she drove away.

so what is that considered as? how would i report this to the insurance?

sidemarker

runis

Ok...here is my thought. If you are under 25 and on your parent's insurance, if you report this as everyone suggested your premiums will definitely go up. If you say that it was a hit and run in a parking lot, that will be covered under collision and remember the collision deductable is usually pretty high. Even then your premiums CAN go up. The fact that she took off will work in your favor. If this was me I would probably come clean and explain the situation and hope for a forgiving agent. BUT not for morality reasons. I do agree with you that insurance companies screw people over every chance they get so I feel no sympathy for them. I do think it will be hard to prove it was a hit and run with the amount of damage you say you have...usually hit and runs in a parking lot are like a dent or scratch. When I was 16 I had a beater and with rain and gravel on the road in a construction area I simply was not able to stop quickly enough after the two cars in front of me got into an accident. Legally it was my fault since I should have been following at a distance that was sufficient for me to stop my vehical under the conditions but I explained the whole thing to my agent (State Farm) and my premiums went up but only slightly (like $100 a year) Why don't you post pictures? Either way good luck. All you other people need to chill...what goes around comes around...let the man make his own decisions and keep your morality to yourselves. He was asking for a insurance question not a lecture in what is right or wrong!

Zootking

damn man...your insurance is $6000/year....mine is up there, but not that bad. I would have to agree with everyone else, I wouldnt make a false claim b/c of the consequences of getting caught. Other than that, pay it out of your pocket. Anyways, good luck with your situation...

shaHn78

hey eric - really sorry about the accident.. i've gone through my share of them so i know how big of a headache they cause

But about ur problem: i totally understand why ur contemplating about not telling the insurance companies the truth. We all know they screw us over time after time and the ppl who complain about the premiums going up dont understand that we are paying the insurance companies EVERY MONTH, month after month to cover us for damages...... yet when they occur, they raise our premium????? So what the hell are we paying them every month for?? Its like if u DONT get in accidents and such then all the money we pay them, they get to keep.... yet when accidents DO occur then they wanna raise the price! :angry:

Insurance is a ripoff to me so i have no sympathy for the companies. Yet u should try to do whats RIGHT. I know its not clear-cut but sometimes u gotta bite it and do something u dont want to cos u could end up in even bigger trouble. And all the insurance companies act and react differently so there's no way to tell exactly what one can do.

So with whatever u do, guess u'll find out through experience what REALLY happens if u report the facts or a made-up story. Good luck with it tho man

sidemarker

well with my situation right now is that my parents DO NOT WANT TO GO TO THE INSURANCE. i really dont want to pay for this out of my pocket but it looks as if it will come down to that

the damage is not bad but it is defintely ugly. my bumper is cut up and the hood is bent up a little. i would have no problem with driving it the way it is but the hood does not lock all the way. the hood latches but does not lock soooooo my hood is always ready to open which= possiblity of someone stealing my intake or hids or if they want to be ballzy my headers if they can get it done pretty quick.

i would like to fix the car asap but if i go out of my own pocket then i cant get this started until december where if i was to go to the insurance then i would get a rental...

but since a lot of people dont like my idea of lieing to the insurance company i probably wont do this because of the consequences.

but i am sticking to my new TRUE vague story. SHE ABRUPTLY STOPPED, I HIT HER AND SHE DROVE AWAY!

sidemarker

sidemarker

shahn thanks for understanding

also

everyone else thanks for the input, yall have given me a new insight of the situation...

sidemarker

civic4982

your isnruance won't go up sidemarker... mine didn't and remember the hit and run I had? luckily mine was actually a hit and run, or I think he hit me... iono it happene really fast, you remember that night... ANYWAYS

be careful with this insurance fraud stuff... it's a heap of trouble and you've got a lot going for you man... i'd hate to see you get tangled up in it... it's just a car... and it's ONLY money... no reason to get fined and jailed for doing something illegal... if it's too much for you to pay for then just have it repaired.. if it's your first accident then you shouldn't have too much to worry... your premium won't go up that much... it'll be like paying for it yourself over the next year or two or until you turn 25... don't sweat the small stuff man it's just a car... you're gonna graduate in a year, don't let some scam screw that up...

scl23

I say fess up too. But if you are gonna lie, at least come up with a good one. Don't say grocery store. They'll want time, place, etc. They'll probably look at the tapes and find that you lied and fine your ass. At least say you were parked in the street somewhere near a bar.