Does my car insurance keep on file unclaimed accidents? Even if i reported it but decided to repair outside?

Question

hi

i am with elephant insurance.

i had a minor accident on my car. the first thing i did was call my insurance to report it. they said they would get their associated garage to contact me for repair.

however i found that i could deal with it cheaper with a private garage who did bodywork. i cancelled the claim with my insurance.

will it still affect my insurance in the future? will my premium go up? i figured if i didnt go through them that they didnt care. someone suggested that maybe they still registered that i had an accident and that it may be shared and affect future insurance?

is this true?

Answer 1

Whenever you register a claim with an insurer, whether you proceed with the claim or not, the insurer is obliged to add your claim details to the Central Underwriting Exchange Database which is a database that is shared by all insurers to prevent non-disclosures and fraudulent claims. It stays on the database for five years from the date of the accident, so it will still be on record.

As you have not proceeded with the claim, your insurer should be able to give you proof of no claim discount which will show that although you registered a claim, it did not affect your no claim discount as you did not proceed with it.

A new insurer should not penalise you for a claim which you did not proceed with, but you do need to let them know about it. If you don't, and they see on the database that you did register a claim, they could choose to invalidate your policy for non-disclosure of material facts.

Answer 2

You should let the insurance company do it.

That is what you pay your premiums for!

In a couple of years when the work the cheaper shop did has problems, and the shop disappears, you're outta luck. If the ins co covers it, they will pay for the fix to be fixed!

Again, you paid for insurance. Even if you found another shop that'd do the repair for less than your deductible (they're probably doing a lousy job), you're shortchanging yourself.

You paid for insurance. Use it!

Yes, it will affect your future rates, they might go up. If the claim is small, the rates might not go up, but not more than what they paid or even near that. Most ins cos won't raise rates till claims hit a threshold amount, maybe $1500. You can call them and ask what their policy is. They will tell you.

Good luck.

Answer 3

If no other vehicle was involved then you shouldn't have informed them.

If you were the insurer and someone had a string of accidents, even if they didn't claim, wouldn't you think "Eventually, they'll hit someone else who *will* claim..."

Answer 4

I would like to recommend you grab as much as resource as you can before making decision,here is a good place for that purpose.http://carinsurance.expertsupport.info/a...

Answer 5

Some insurance companies share information about an insured regardless of whether claims were paid or not.  That's why as an insurance broker, I always advise my clients to be very careful about what their predicament is.