Car insurance claim switch
If I get into an at fault accident with one car insurance company, then after I make my car insurance claim can I switch to a different company in order to avoid getting a more expensive car insurance premium quote?
Meghan
No, that won’t work for you.
Car insurance companies are very savvy about their business, and they share information about your conduct while with their company. Your car insurance claim record and just your car insurance record in general is very similar in many ways to your credit report, and not just because both have scores that determine how much you pay for certain things, such as coverage or credit card interest. The way that they are very similar is that your insurance record is something that contains all of the things that would affect your car insurance rates. This includes things such as past moving violations, past cancellations from other car insurance companies, and, of course, your history of car insurance claims.
If you simply cancel your car insurance policy with the company that you made the claim with and move to another company, it won’t do you any good and might even do you some harm. Many companies offer first accident forgiveness that keeps people from having to suffer from rate increases after they have gotten into their first at fault accident. If your current company has this, then you are going good. If you switch to a new company with it, then you might not qualify since the accident did not happen with their car insurance company. All companies have different polices. Another thing to think of is that some companies that you might be with are targeting only preferred customers, which means that even with an at fault accident you would still be paying lower rates than most regular companies.
Still, sometimes it is better to go ahead and look for new pastures after you have filed your first at fault car insurance claim. Perhaps this is because your company does not offer an accident forgiveness program, so you might not have much to lose when switching companies. Something that you definitely must do, though, is remember that you can’t take the matter lightly. If you are going to go ahead and switch car insurance companies, you have to make sure that the new car insurance company won’t punish you with higher premiums when they find out that you just made a claim and left. Remember that your cancellations and nonrenewals, whether initiated by the car insurance company or by yourself, still follow you around on your insurance company history.
If you really want to save money on your higher rates after a car insurance claim, there are ways that you can do this without leaving your company for a new one. First of all, you can consider raising your deductible to one thousand dollars or so, if that is something you can afford. Also see what discounts you are eligible for. Some companies will continue letting some of their best customers receive good driver discounts even after their first at fault accident. It would be good to find out where your own car insurance company stands on this and other relating issue–although it would have been even better to have done so before you even got your policy with them.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
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