The consequences of filing a claim when the accident was your fault

To get back on task of filing an insurance claim or not, you should also be aware that filing a claim that is your fault will almost always have a negative impact on your insurance premium.

When the accident is your fault – in today’s world – the insurance company is going to raise your car insurance premium 95 percent of the time.

Fifteen or 20 years ago this wasn’t the case. You might be able to dodge this bullet if you have been with your insurance company for a very long time and haven’t had any claims, but in my experience it is rarely the case.

Any accident that is your fault will increase your payment. I would like to take a moment to reinforce where we started, which is the scene of the accident. You can now see why it is so important to ALWAYS call the police when you have an accident, especially if the accident wasn’t your fault.

This scenery gets worse every time you have an accident. To give you an example, with the insurance company that I currently have if I have the first accident my insurance premium with go up 10 percent for three years.

If I have a second accident in that same three-year period, my insurance premium with go up another 30 percent!

Now can you guess how much it will go up if I were to have a third accident in that same three-year period?

The answer is they would drop me from their company!

Next week: What choice do you have, if your insurance company drops you?

And be sure to check out my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/louiesharp.sharpautomotive