When you are someone who is crazy about your car, you would no doubt have gotten the best possible insurance policy on it to ensure that it stays that way. When you have an unfortunate accident, every thought leaves your head and you are completely shaken up and wondering how bad your car looks like at the moment, sometimes that’s what you think about even before checking how badly hurt you are. When things are calmer however, you realize that you have to gather all the information you need to file for an insurance claim. Many drivers end up jeopardizing this process even before they get started on it.
The first mistake most drivers make is not collecting insurance information from the other driver. You may have found the other person to be totally apologetic and he or she may have volunteered to pay for damages in cash. Irrespective of the promises extracted, make sure you have the pertinent insurance information to contact immediately after. Waiting it out will tend to blur the details and make the claim more difficult. You are paying a premium every month on your insurance, get things started immediately if you want to get the claim.
Another common mistake drivers make when it comes to auto insurance claims is not calling up their company to ask about what needs to be done. Most people have refrained from ever calling their company back to raise any questions about claims after all the horror stories about how rates have changed overnight for many folks reach their ears. When you hear such tales, you must understand that this is not the case for every company and for the good ones, they do answer your queries without any complications. There are even laws in place to protect consumer interests in such cases.
Giving an honest statement is an important part of your insurance claims. Some people make a horrible mistake by exaggerating details and trying to get more of a payout. Your insurance claims investigator will talk to the other party, witnesses and will also examine the statement issued by the police. An attempt at dishonesty will only end up with you having to pay for it. Don’t try to change, distort or add to the facts. Just give them an honest feedback and accounting of what happened and things will work out smoothly for you. Report quickly and give a clear picture of what happened, nothing more, nothing less.
