Damages may be caused by others to your automobile in many
circumstances. They may cause an accident involving you and others, hit your car
where it is parked or someone may rear-end you. Things become even more
complicated when they hit and run or they are uninsured. Depending on your own
coverage you may have several options to deal with the damages suffered.
Motorists see the benefits of arranging good car insurance coverage at times like this. Whichever way the things turn
to they could sit comfortably knowing they have it covered. You can only make a
claim if you have coverage for it. Otherwise, you may be left to the mercy of
others and hope that they will come through to pay for your losses.
Get Paid by Third Parties or Their Insurers
If they accept their fault and agree to pay your losses out
of pocket, your problems will be over. In any case you should get their
insurance details. If you feel they are at fault you can make a claim on their
policies. Remember to ask for reimbursement of all the payments you have made
in relation to the accident including towing and rental car costs.
Contact the third-party insurers as early as possible and
find out what they are going to do about repairs. If the damages are small you
may need to get several quotes and get the job done paying out of your pocket
and sending the bill with the estimates and claim form. Otherwise, they may
want to inspect the car before the repairs are carried out. The earlier they do
this the better.
Uninsured Drivers
If the responsible drivers are uninsured or it is a hit and
run hopefully you would have Uninsured Driver Coverage to fall back onto. Many
states require this coverage to be added automatically. Otherwise, you can add
them to your coverage. This cover is exactly for the cases where a responsible
driver is uninsured, underinsured or ran away without being caught.
Claiming on Your Own Policy
Sometimes the accidents may not be straightforward. The
fault may not be accepted by the third parties or they may be unresponsive. In
such cases, owners may want to apply to their insurers instead of waiting for
the third parties to respond, which can take a long time. Following an
accident, it can be stressful to sit around and wait for others to deal with
the damages. Plus, what are you going to do in the meantime? Getting the
repairs done using your own policy and getting back to normal may be a good
option.
You will need to have collision coverage to be able to make
a claim on your own policy. Your carrier can pay for the damages and subrogate
their costs from third parties. Initially you will have to pay the deductible
on your policy. If the carrier can manage to recoup the losses from responsible
parties they can pay the deductible back to you.
This will go down as a claim on your policy. However, your
rates may not go up much or at all since the collision was not your fault.
Fully subrogation by your company may help your case further.
Pay the Damages Out of Pocket
Depending on the size of damages this can be an option. For
small losses like bumper damage, it may not be worth making a big deal out of
it. You can get them done so that your life is not distracted much and ask the
third party driver to pay for it. In most cases they will oblige your request
because they wouldn't like to have a claim on their records as well. Sometimes,
they may even suggest this themselves.