So if involved in a single vehicle accident which totaled a vehicle with no injuries is there any reason to involve your insurance or just cancel the policy and move on?

Well you could receive a check for the totalled value of the vehicle to apply to a new purchase to replace it.

Sorry, liability only on this rig.

What was that cause of the accident? How much is the car worth? There's no legal requirement to notify your insurance company of an accident but if you've been paying a premium for x number of years you might want to recoup some of your money

Might as well collect if you can. The Insurance company will find out anyway.
Dealers, repair shops, etc. sell such information, so it is readily available to them.

No, you don't have to report it.
Since you carry liability coverage only I would sell what's left of it to the scrap yards and just move on. Reporting an accident, even when the company pays nothing, is considered an 'incident' and can be used to raise your rates.

No reason to tell them. without full coverage and if there is no other vehicle at fault involved, there is no need for them to know.

Only if you have medical PI coverage for anything that might happen post accident that you'd need coverage for the medical care, other than that, no, you don't have to report accidents to them especially if you're not claiming anything.

Now if you think the property owner might have a claim back against the vehicles owner for damages to the property it might be different.

No reason to report it if there's no other party involved.

I did that back in college. Slid off the road into a ditch and did ~$4k damage to a car worth ~$2.5k. Once I got the repair estimate and confirmed it wasn't worth fixing, I sold it to a junkyard for $1400, bought a new car, and swapped my insurance coverage to the new car. I didn't need to tell my insurance what happened to the old car, just that it no longer needed to be on the policy.

Great, thanks guys for the info and advice. Really appreciate it.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Well you could receive a check for the totalled value of the vehicle to apply to a new purchase to replace it.

Which is why you buy comprehensive coverage, so why wouldn't anyone do this?

I fail to understand why people buy insurance and then decide not to use it. If you won't make the claim, then just buy the liability coverage. If the car is so low value as to not be worth insuring, then don't insure it. I have done that.

Baffling.

Maybe I’m reading this wrong but he doesn’t have comprehensive. He carries liability only so there won’t be a payment.

Maybe I read it wrong, anvil head and all. Lol

I only have liability on a 17yr old Jeep Liberty. Can't imagine the Jeep is worth more than 3-4 thousand. Worth more than that to me but sentimental feelings don't add to value LOL.

Were I in the same situation as the OP (just liability and one vehicle accident), no way I'd tell the insurance company anything at all. Only if I were actually liable for something and needed to cover my butt would the insurance company know anything about it.

Now if there was a police report filed following the accident, the insurance company may find out about it anyway, sooner or later. Or if you switch to a different insurance company within 5yrs or so, maybe the accident on the police report and/or your driver's license, might make a difference.

Regardless, with only liability coverage and no reason to file a claim resulting from the accident, I wouldn't tell the insurance company anything. Wouldn't lie to them either if they somehow found out about it down the road. I'd just tell them I saw no reason to report the accident to them since I didn't intend on filing any claims.

EDIT: Whether or not there are any stipulations in the policy to report all accidents is a whole 'nother thing I guess.

quote:

Which is why you buy comprehensive coverage, so why wouldn't anyone do this?

I fail to understand why people buy insurance and then decide not to use it. If you won't make the claim, then just buy the liability coverage. If the car is so low value as to not be worth insuring, then don't insure it. I have done that.

Baffling.

^^^^^^^^
I agree. Sounds like the insurance company has a good thing going.

Why have comprehensive and collision on a vehicle that may only be worth 3-4 thousand and the deductible may be up to $1000 to keep premiums down? And speaking of premiums, it would only take a couple of years to pay premiums equal to or greater than the value of the vehicle, if carrying full coverage. At some point in the age of a vehicle it just makes sense to only carry liability.

Here is my story.

I had a nearly new Mazda pickup, still had a loan balance so it had comprehensive coverage.

A stone flew off a dump truck and put a divot in my windshield. I called Progressive insurance to ask if the comprehensive policy would cover the cost of a new windshield. They said yes but since I had a $500 deductible, and the windshield only cost $460 to replace, I wouldn't be getting a check.

Fine.

When I told the auto glass company that the insurance company would not be involved, the cost of the new windshield dropped from $460 to $250.

When the policy came up for renewal in six months, the cost of comprehensive coverage went up 35%. On all my cars. I called Progressive to ask them why, and they said it was because I had filed a claim. I thought I had just asked a question. The increase would remain in place for three years.

So I went to State Farm and got a quote from them. It cost about the same as Progressive, because they knew I had filed a "claim" with Progressive.

I paid off the truck, and cancelled the collision coverage.

Never file a claim with your auto or homeowners insurance. By even talking to them you are filing a claim.

If theres no 1st party coverage on the vehicle, dont file a claim. No reason for them to know.

Everyone should have Comprehensive (can be called: other than collision) on their vehicles. Its a silly cheap coverage compared to Collision and protects against animal hits, hail, flood, theft etc.

Not sure you can get Comprehensive without Collision. Used to be that was a no-no. Maybe times have changed that.

Each state varies somewhat but in Mass you can carry comp without collison.

Also what did you hit to cause the vehicle to be totalled? If you struck anything other than dirt (and in some cases even dirt, there is usually someone that will come looking for payment.