Auto Insurance Claims: My fault accident, vintage car, insurance info

Question
I was involved in an accident which was my fault.  A car was stopped ahead of me at a light and I was coming up on the car.  Something fell off the passenger seat and as I looked down to see what it was and came back up I was on top of the other car.  I jammed my breaks and ended up tapping the car in front of me.  Today the person called me and said I left an indentation of my license plate in the bumper and it needs to be replaced. The person told me that the car is a "vintage" car and the bumper might be hard to replace.  Yet I do remember the bumper having those sensors on it that warns you when you are about to backup into something.

In this case do I simply give my insurance info to the other person and let them file a claim.  What will happen to my insurance now?  I'm a little concerned as this is the first accident I ever had where it was my fault

Thanks!


Answer
Hi Scott,

If you make a claim it will be considered an at-fault event and will likely cause your rates to increase for the next 3 years. You may want to wait until he presents you with a repair estimate. Then, based on the amount of the repairs you can decide if you want to just pay it out of pocket or if you want to file the claim.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh