So You Had An Auto Accident – How Should You File a Claim?

Most people will get into a auto accident at least once in their lives, and many people will get into an accident several times. Practice makes perfect for the CA auto insurance accident veterans, but for those who are on the first go around, how many will know what they need to do in the event of an accident or have any type of detailed idea about what they need to do to start their claims process? Not many, which is why many people in the U.S. end up getting far less in claims payments than they are actually entitled to. If you follow the correct procedures, though, then you will be able to get the most out of your auto insurance claim.

• First step.

Once the accident has happened, you need to come to a stop and exchange information with the other driver. If either are injured, you need to call 911. If necessary, then you might also need to call the police so that they can come and file a report. The report will include a lot of necessary information for your  auto insurance claim, and you should get the information as well and, if possible, a copy of the police report so that you can use it in your claim.

The police report will have info such as the kind of car driven by each person, their names and contact information, but it will also have details about the crash itself and anything that might have contributed to it, such as the weather or the conditions of the road.

• Then…

Your insurance policy will give you a period of time in which you are able to file your  insurance claim. Try to get the claim filed as soon as possible, but you absolutely most file it in the time period provided. Make sure that you wait to have someone repair your car until an adjuster comes out, looks at the car, and approves the repairs. It might still be a good idea to leave the car at a body shop (of your own choice or the one required in your  auto insurance policy) so that they can’t say that any damages have occurred since the crash happened.

• Also:

This is actually going back before the insurance claim itself, but it certainly affects it. Many people every day are denied their auto insurance claims because they did not provide the auto insurance company the right information when they signed up for their policy. It is perfectly legal to do this. In order to avoid problems, you need to give the best information, and then double and triple check it.

Filiing anAuto Insurance Claim in California?

Making a claim for auto insurance in California often involves the big fish in claims terms of injuries related to the car accident. When you receive an injury as the result of an auto accident, it is in your best interest to contact a car accident lawyer. Injury claims are very high stakes and complicated, and while I can give you an idea of them so that you don’t go into your claim for auto insurance in California completely ignorant, you would do better if you had an attorney to help you on the issue.

These attorneys are good for a variety of things. Not only are they able to aid you in getting the health care that you deserve and need after your accident, but they can also make sure that you have the right documentation for all of your bills and other damages. Doing this, they are better able to prove to the company for auto insurance in California that you indeed do have the right to money for your injuries.

You cannot simply choose any lawyer for auto insurance in California, though. First of all, you need an attorney who is experienced on the matters. Hiring a general attorney at law who also dabbles in car accident claims will not cut it. It is best to either get an attorney who only works for victims of car accidents, or one who has does significant work in the area. When choosing a lawyer to help you with your claim for auto insurance in California, consider also what percentage of his cases he has one and how high the damages paid were for each of those cases.

Whenever you get into a car accident, it is possible that your company for auto insurance in California owes you money for several things, from lost wages to any kind of permanent physical therapy that you might need as a result, to something as unquantifiable as pain and suffering. To make sure that you get this, hire a car insurance accident lawyer.

Should You File an Insurance Claim In California?

The California car insurance claims process is a difficult one to wade through, at least when you’re the at fault driver. Unlike the more easy filing for when you are not at fault, you are required to do more and deal with the same problems. It’s a good idea to read your car insurance policy ahead of time so that you know what the steps recommended by your CA car insurance company are, and here are a few steps that you can follow as well.

• Should you, or shouldn’t you?

The first thing to do is determine whether or not to file a car insurance claim at all. Anytime you decide to file a claim on your insurance policy, it will become part of your CLUE report. In the future, other companies who you buy insurance with will see this report, and you will have to pay more for your insurance with them, so you have to be careful.

If the damages are fewer than your deductible and no one else is involved, then there’s obviously no point in calling the  insurance company. If you only get into a fender bender and feel you can take care of it alone, then there is no need.

• Follow the steps.

Make sure you take the correct steps after your car insurance accident to make sure that you have the events properly documented. This way, should there be any controversy down the line as to who is at fault for the collision, you will be able to show real proof supporting your position.

• Get it done.

If you’re going to file a insurance claim, then you need to file it now. While claims are open and you are able to file it a couple of weeks down the line, the longer you wait, the more likely you are of having your claim denied. It is also possible that if you the at fault driver and there is another person involved, they will call the car insurance company first, and you will be in trouble.

• Be prepared.

It’s possible that if another driver is involved in the accident, their own insurance company will give you a call. They will do this to get your side of the story. When they call, be sure to keep track of what goes on in the conversation and to write down the name of the person you’re speaking to.

• Repairs.

Once your claim has been given the go ahead, you will be able to have an adjuster look at your car and the damages. Then you will be able to have your car repaired, and the end of your insurance claim is in sight.

Auto Insurance Claim Filing in California – What To Do Next?

If you’ve gone and decided to make a claim for auto insurance in California, then you should be ready for the consequences. The second you call to report a car insurance accident, even if you do not end up filing a claim for it, that information goes straight to your file, and from your file it will go onto your CLUE report. This report, or something like it, is ordered by any company for auto insurance in California that you are considering getting a policy with, and the information will be used to determine whether or not they want to insure you, and how much they will charge if they decide that they will.

According to State Farm, all the companies for auto insurance in California are doing is trying to fulfill their obligation to you. You pay them every month, or every six months, or every year, or whatever it is, and so they are obligated to pay for your damages if you get into an accident. With their company, getting into an accident, even an at fault one, does not guarantee you an instant raise in your premium for auto insurance premium. Some people will have an accident forgiveness waiver, and others are looked at individually before a premium raise is given for the circumstances.

If you’ve been a good, long time customer, you might not see your rates raise even if you don’t have an accident forgiveness waiver, which are usually only for the first accident. Some things that State Farm and other companies for auto insurance in California consider are whether or not anyone was hurt, or if the damages were significant enough to warrant a huge payout.

Low Cost California Collision Auto Insurance Coverage

Reader question:

What is low cost California auto insurance collision coverage?

Mandy

Thanks for your question, Mandy.

Many people only buy the minimal low cost California auto insurance coverage for their vehicle, because they think that they are fairly good drivers and would never get into a car insurance accident, at least not one that is their fault. Any accident, they assume, that they would get into would be covered by the other driver’s liability coverage. However, there are many cases where, despite how you feel about your own driving skills, you are required to add collision coverage to your low cost California auto insurance policy.

The main reason for which you would do this is when you are buying a brand new car. Most loan providers would require that you have collision coverage on your car until you have finished paying them for it, so you will have to add it to your low cost California auto insurance policy.

In some cases, they may not require it, but it is still a good idea to get it. If you are buying a new car, usually while you are paying it off you will at some point owe more for your car than it is actually worth. In these cases, should you total your car and you only have collision coverage, you will only get paid for the worth of your car, leaving you with several thousand dollars of loans to pay off. In order to avoid this, you must get gap insurance. But in order to get gap insurance, you have to have collision on your low cost California auto insurance policy.

Collision covers damage in an accident in which you are at fault, be it with another driver or just you backing into your second car in your driveway. Unlike liability coverage, collision comes with a deductible from your low cost California auto insurance policy. If you get into a car accident, then before you can get the check from your insurance company, you have to pay the deductible. I suggest that you make that deductible at least five hundred dollars in order to get low cost California auto insurance rates.

But how do you know if you need collision coverage, if it isn’t required? I would say that if your vehicle is worth less than one grand, don’t even think about it. It would just be a waste of money, even if you totaled your car. However, if you have a relatively new vehicle and you don’t have a stellar driving history, then I would seriously think about adding collision to my low cost California auto insurance coverage.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

California Car Insurance Fraud – Crappy Auto Repairs Cost You Money

I think that, after reading a report that says that over fifty percent of auto repairs performed in the state of California are overpriced, the necessity of the California auto repair bill of rights comes to seem even more important. These statistics are mostly the result of fraud, which sends California car insurance rate rising. If you are more aware of your abilities to report fraud and are more aware of the repair process so that you can spot it, then you can help this rate of fraud drop, and along with it your California car insurance rate.

According to the organization that performed the study, of around five hundred cars that were checked after they had been fixed, almost half of the repairs that were done on them were not even requested–they were, essentially, repairing things that weren’t even broken. Now, it may not seem like too big of a deal, but consider the fact that of those, the normal price paid for these unnecessary repairs is almost five hundred dollars.

Every year in the state of California, over three billion dollars are paid out for repairs from car insurance accident claims. Of that amount, over six million dollars are from unnecessary repairs. The average amount of the unnecessary repair in most vehicles is one fifth of the total claim amount. Eliminating this extra spending on fraudulent repairs could cause a sharp decrease in the average California car insurance rate for policy holders.

If you want to have your own car that has recently been repaired under a car insurance claim, you can call the Bureau of Auto Repair and have it inspected. In order to qualify, the claim amount must be $2,500 or above, and the repairs have to have been done recently, within the last four months since the repairs.

Commercial Car Insurance – What You Should Know

Also concerning commercial car insurance is the use of rental cars on business trips, and this is another question that comes up often on this subject. When you are using a rental car on a business trip, are you covered by your company’s car insurance policy, or do you need to get a separate travel insurance policy, or (finally) does your own car insurance policy cover the trip?

All good questions. Starting with your visit to the rental car company, you should make sure that they are aware that you are traveling for business purposes, and when you fill out your information you need to include the name of your company. If you do this then, should anything happen to your or you get into a car insurance accident, then the rental car company will know that it needs to call your company’s insurance provider.

Normally when you go on a business trip to a new place, you also spend some time enjoying yourself as well. Nobody is going to stop by Las Vegas for a conference and not step onto the Strip one time. If it happens that this is the case for you, then it will depend what you are doing at the time of the accident. If you run into another vehicle in a casino parking lot, you will have to depend on your own car insurance policy. However, if you crash on the way to your conference, then your company should cover it for you.

Depending on where you go, your coverage amounts will change. If you are covered in California, but you go to a state where the limits of coverage are higher, then you will automatically have at least those limits. Most insurance policies will also take care of damages on travels to Canada, and in Mexico near the border.

Cheap California Car Insurance – Will The Government Help Pay For It?

Reader question:

I know there is a program for cheap California car insurance, but how do I know if I’m eligible?

Marty

Excellent question, Marty.

In my last blog post, I introduced the program for cheap California car insurance that is helping decimate the population of California that is driving uninsured on Californian roads–a total of three million people currently, but the number is shrinking. The cheap California car insurance program was designed to help good drivers who have a low income be able to afford car insurance in this state where the prices are getting increasingly higher and higher.

There are several requirements that you must meet to be able to get your car insured through the cheap California car insurance program, and the first involves your age and the number of years you have been driving. You have to have had your license for at least three years, and you have to be at least nineteen at the time of application.

Next we have the obvious, which is the low income requirement. In order to get the cheap California car insurance program, you have to meet the low income eligibilities. In terms of whether or not your income is low enough, here are the numbers:

• Just you, you have to make $25,525 or less
• You + one more, combined income of $34,225 or less
• Three people, $42,995 or less
• Four, $51,625
• Five, $60,325
• Six, $69,025
• Seven, $77,725
• Eight, $86,425

These numbers are for incomes that are 250% of the national poverty level or less. In order to count someone as part of the number of people in your household, they have to be related to you. That means adopted kids, biological kids, grandparents, spouses, foster kids even, are okay, but your roomie is not.

The next requirement is that you be a good driver. In order to be considered a good driver, you can only have gotten into one car insurance accident involving property damage that was your fault, no more. Injuries? You’re out. You also can’t have more than one point in California’s moving violation point system for the last three years, nor can you have had any vehicle related felonies or misdemeanors on your record.

There are a couple more requirements, one being that you can’t have a car that values at more than twenty thousand dollars. A new car is okay, so long as it values less than that. Also, if you’re in college, you can’t be claimed as a dependent by your parents still. And if you want to get the cheap California car insurance for a car in your household, you have to use it for all vehicles in your household. You can’t have one on the cheap California car insurance program and another with Allstate.

Hopefully this information will help you get insured and get out on the road. Remember that whenever you find that you can’t afford your car insurance, you should try every path possible for you before admitting defeat. Car insurance accidents involving people without insurance are a big cause in the raising of car insurance rates, and if you got into an accident without insurance the costs of the lawsuit could set you back financially for years to come. Stay safe, and stay insured with the cheap California car insurance program.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.