You may be wondering: Is my accident going to affect my auto insurance rates? The answer to that can vary. Since automobile accidents are classified in a few different ways, your rates may or may not be affected depending on the details.
Accidents are classified based on fault, amount of damage and type of damage or injury. Whether the accident was your fault or not is the biggest factor of all. The majority of auto insurance companies will not increase or charge additional premium for accidents in which you were not at fault.
It only makes sense, why should you be penalized for an accident which you didn’t even cause, and in most cases, could have not avoided. For example if you were stopped at a red light and someone rear ends you, there is little one could do to avoid it.
It is important to save paperwork, including policy reports, in order to show the accident details in the future. If you were to change companies in the future, they are likely to ask for proof that a certain accident was not your fault in order to avoid charging you the additional premium.
Another circumstance is a 50/50 fault accident. This is a situation where both parties had a certain amount of fault and helped cause the accident. Unfortunately, some insurance companies will treat this type of accident the same as 100% at fault accidents which will also affect your rates. Others will treat it as a non-fault accident and will not charge for the incident.
The amount of damages caused in an accident also is taken into consideration. Generally, if the accident damages were insignificant, such as $500 in total property damages with no injuries involved, companies will not charge against them.
If you are considered to be at fault in an accident, whether injury was involved or not will affect how a company rates against it. An at-fault accident with injury will generate a higher premium than one without injury. In order to show proof of non-injury, one can provide copies of police reports or obtain a letter from their insurance company stating that no medical payment was awarded to the other party.
There are some exceptions to accident classifications. If you were an operator at the time of the accident which was on duty as a paid or volunteer member of any Police or Fire Department, First Aid Squad, or any Law Enforcement Agency your accident may be ignored and will not affect you in any way.
In summary, one should take precautions by saving all their paperwork to properly classify their accident. Many consumers allow an accident to be rated against them because they are unaware of the possibility of providing the proper documentation in order to have the insurance company revise the classification of the accident and reduce the premium.
Courtesy of OnlineAutoInsurance.com; where you can compare auto insurance quotes online from multiple companies, all with one simple process.
