32 year old daughter got into a minor accident bumping the car in front of her leaving very small ding on bumper. Car she hit was a rental car but not sure make or model other than it was a compact Dodge I think. Police were called for a report and no tickets were issued.

We have State Farm Insurance and have been with them a couple years and they insure our three cars and home. We have not made any claims on auto insurance in decades and have safe driver discount. Right now I feel our auto insurance rates are very reasonable.

I talked to guy today handling claim for State Farm and he is going to call me with the final total for the damages when ready.

Anyhow if damages are say around $700 or so would it be better to pay out of my pocket to not have to deal with most likely increases in insurance next renewal? I assume rates would go up on all three cars as we all are insured on every auto. I wanted to have daughter insured only on 2004 Accord but State Farm and previous company said anyone living at our address with same last name needs to be insured on all the autos.

If it was a privately owned car I could probably just pay a cash settlement with the owner but don't have that option most likely being a rental who may insist on a whole new bumper but maybe not.

Thanks for any advice or sharing of experiences!

I think most of the insurance companies now have "accident forgiveness", one accident and rates will not rise unless you have another in the specified time.

Thanks, but I don't remember them ever mentioning that or anywhere in the literature.

Be careful settling with a rental car company (or anyone for that matter) without a written agreement up front.
They may claim loss of income for the time the car is out of service for repairs and who knows what else. That's in addition to any actual damages.
I don't know why your 32 year old daughter is on your policy and it's none of my business but, (since you asked) that's the best way to limit your future policy issues. That way she could have liability only since they won't pay much for her car in a collision claim after any deductible.
I had State Farm for years because they were supposed to offer better service than the lesser known companies. When I had a not at fault homeowners issue and needed their help, they weren't there. My coverage is now elsewhere and the premium is much lower.

Thanks. Good point on the rental company and their loss of income on the car.

I don't really think it matters at this point how you handle the monetary aspect of this accident. If a claim has been filed, the accident will make it onto her driving record regardless what you do at this point, which will likely result in premium increases for you. The only way to have gotten around this, which given it was a rental car she hit makes it highly unlikely you could have handled it this way, was to have not reported the accident to the insurance company(s) at all and dealt with it one on one with the other car owner. A few years ago, I bought a POS Honda Civic my son hit from the kid who owned it, rather than to go through either of our insurance companies. Likely worked out better for him anyway given the insurance company would have totalled his car and given him scrap value for it. I gave him enough money to acquire another POS Honda Civic or the like so he wouldn't have to walk and saved myself the insurance company headaches and premium increases.

I'm interested in hearing from the insurance people here.

My thoughts based on my experience, I would expect that your insurance company will already be aware of the accident since she will be listed as the at-fault driver on the report, and they routinely check that stuff. Not sure if they will raise the rates just for that, or for that + a claim.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I'm interested in hearing from the insurance people here.

My thoughts based on my experience, I would expect that your insurance company will already be aware of the accident since she will be listed as the at-fault driver on the report, and they routinely check that stuff. Not sure if they will raise the rates just for that, or for that + a claim.

Yeah that is a concern. If I would even consider reimbursing the insurance company for the claim or do it on my own with the rental company I would need to find that out first. I would call my agent at that point.

quote:

Originally posted by grumpy1:

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I'm interested in hearing from the insurance people here.

My thoughts based on my experience, I would expect that your insurance company will already be aware of the accident since she will be listed as the at-fault driver on the report, and they routinely check that stuff. Not sure if they will raise the rates just for that, or for that + a claim.

Yeah that is a concern. If I would even consider reimbursing the insurance company for the claim or do it on my own with the rental company I would need to find that out first. I would call my agent at that point.

Read my prior post. I went through this with my son. I don't think there's any way you'll escape that accident at this point.

I have asked my State Farm agent these sorts of questions and he has answered them to my satisfaction. I do a lot of business with him and do not get the run around. I generally rely on his expertise. Auto accidents are no big deal compared to major damage from hurricanes. His skill helped me through those messes several times. He has advised me against doing certain things the parent company would like to push.

My 20 YO college student son "hit" the bumper of a new-ish BMW putting two dime-size indentions into the lower part of the middle bumper from the license plate holder. She filed a claim...expletive string! So much for his one accident forgiveness. Hope that does not bite us on the a$$. 2 months later...

He just did about $1500 of damage to right front bumper and quarter panel, taking out the headlight too, when a car in front of him tapped on the brakes suddenly at a highway traffic merge in the rain. He had a choice to hit the car or the wall as he was following too closely. He chose the wall. No other car and no police. He just scuffed the barrier, and drove it home. The $1500 was using my brother's buddy, who does great work and ALMOST got it done in time to take it back to college. And I'm sure it would have been over 2k and 2 weeks elsewhere. But the light assemblies did not show up today, so he continue to borrow my same brother's extra car and will take it to college for a week when we drive "his" car down and swap cars.

Not surprisingly, we did not file a claim as by my calculations the raised rates would be about $1200 year one and almost as much year 2. He's helping to pay for it. When it is wet, drive slower.

I'd run it through State Farm. Rental car company will jack you around big time if you don't. Most of them farm out their claims to Sedgewick and they will come after repairs AND loss of use of the vehicle. On that second part I've had them get just stupid. Something like $600 for that alone.
My situation was BIL dinged my rental in his driveway. Ran that through his SF policy. Sedgewick came back after me for the loss of use after initially settling with SF. Fortunately I also have SF so I just called my agent and gave him the information. They went back to Sedgewick and settled for a second time.

o.o.pocket

I would ask your agent, that is what they are there for.

Thanks for the replies. I will wait to hear back from State Farm about what the total damages are and then contact my agent if need be and go from there. If it is in the thousands, which would not surprise me if bumper replacement is insisted upon, I will let State Farm claim take care of it.

Not meaning to be a hard ass but why is your 32 year old daughter still on your insurance policy?

Our youngest son (26) just got into a minor collision which was his fault by admission, and he’s going to have to deal with the financial consequences as he’s had his own policy since graduation college..

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Not meaning to be a hard ass but why is your 32 year old daughter still on your insurance policy?

Our youngest son (26) just got into a minor collision which was his fault by admission, and he’s going to have to deal with the financial consequences as he’s had his own policy since graduation college..

You beat me to it.

My son (20) is in college and on our policy, but the day he graduates, time to put on the big boy pants.

Then why is a 32 year old still living with the parent...?

quote:

Anyhow if damages are say around $700 or so

I can't believe that your rate would go up by that much, or even that it would go up at all. I think I'd let insurance handle it.

Former claims adjuster here. Since it's a rental car, let your insurance company handle it. Rental car companies are a giant PITA when their vehicles are involved in an accident. Not only do they go to recover for the damages, but also loss of use of the vehicle, diminished value of the vehicle and there was usually something else that's escaping me at the moment.

I could usually tell them to pound sand with anything beyond the physical damage, but it would be incredibly hard for a private person to argue.

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
Former claims adjuster here. Since it's a rental car, let your insurance company handle it. Rental car companies are a giant PITA when their vehicles are involved in an accident. Not only do they go to recover for the damages, but also loss of use of the vehicle, diminished value of the vehicle and there was usually something else that's escaping me at the moment.

I could usually tell them to pound sand with anything beyond the physical damage, but it would be incredibly hard for a private person to argue.

Thanks Ryan81986, very helpful info. I will do as you advise.