Auto Insurance Claims: 16yr old driver, accident occured, hypothetical questions

Question
My 16 year old son had his drivers license for exactly two and a half weeks when he rear ended an SUV and caused damage only on my husband's vehicle. The accident occured from a stopped position, waiting to turn at an intersection. As he proceeded to turn the SUV quickly stopped and he was unable stop before hitting the backend of the SUV with a large trailer hitch. The trailer hitch damaged the grill and bumper. While a police officer showed-up there was no report and my son was not given a citation. The driver of the SUV did not even take the insurance information and indicated there would be no claim as there was no damage to the SUV. Unfortuanately, that is not the case with our car. Based on 3 estimates, the lowest is $2,600. The question is should we file a claim to make the repairs at a $500 deductibe or pay for the repair out of pocket? How might such a claim affect our insurance rate or that of our son? In general, in 20 yrs with our car insurance we have had maybe 2 small claims and good driving records. It is maddening to think we pay insurance all these years and fear filing a claim that could significantly impact our insurance rate.

Answer
Hi Maria,

This is a tough question. If you put in the claim your insurance rates will likely go up significantly and could be as much as 40% or more for the vehicle that your son is assigned to and those rates would stay that way for 3 years. However each insurance company has it's own guidelines on how they handle this.

The best thing to do is to call your insurance agent and ask a "hypothetical question" such as:

"Hi Mr. Agent, we're trying to figure out what would be best as far as insurance for our 16 year old son. Whould it be better for him to have his own policy or to be on our policy in the even he was involved in an accident? If he was involved in an accident, how much would our premium go up as a result if he was at fault?"

The answers you get to these hypothetical questions should help you make the right choice for you.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh