Morality of car insurance claims

[emilyb1325]

I was running late, and so I was driving too fast in a parking lot looking for a space. I saw one that seemed on the small side but I have a small car and I didn’t have time to look for another one, so I whipped in anyways. I scratched the car next to me and dented the wheel well slightly. I left a note with my name and number, and the lady called and said that we could work it out between us, without the insurance. This is awesome because I am eighteen, I’ve only had my car for about two weeks, and my dad worked really hard to get my insurance premium low enough to be affordable.
However, Google seems to say that I am obliged to report any and all accidents to my insurance company, regardless of whether or not I’m asking them to pay. Is this true? Am I obliged under pain of sin to tell my insurance about the incident? If I have to I have to, but I would much rather not because I know my insurance will skyrocket and my parents will be furious and disappointed. I would rather just pay for it myself and leave my parents and my insurance out of it. Is this immoral/dishonest?

 

[UbiCaritas]

Disclaimer: though I don’t now, I did at one time work for an insurance company.

You are legally required by the contract you signed with the insurance company to report any accidents you’ve had. There are a lot of reasons for this, one of which is for your protection: if you report it and a claims adjuster assesses and photographs the damage on both of your cars, this woman cannot come back and claim that you caused more damage than you actually did or that the accident was more severe than it was.

Now, you do have the option of paying out of pocket for the claim itself. You would really want to check with your insurance company on that, and see if it would mitigate the situation. If you do so, they may not raise your premium by much, and perhaps even not at all. If this woman decides to go to the insurance company later on, though, and you didn’t report it…let’s just say that insurance companies do not like seeing that someone hasn’t reported an accident, and your future premiums *will * reflect that accordingly.

I do understand that you don’t want to explain the situation to your parents, and I can imagine how difficult that will be. Put it into perspective, though: if she goes to the insurance company in a couple of months and claims that you hit the car while she was in it and caused her some sort of medical injury and then you have to explain that to your parents, it will be a lot worse! Of course, a competent adjuster will be able to look at the cars and determine that the accident was nowhere near severe enough to have caused her a bad injury, but they’ll still have to do an investigation. And if you don’t think that’s common, you’ve never worked for an insurance company.

Now, of course it might turn out perfectly fine, and it may be that this person is someone of good will who genuinely wants to help you fix the situation. That’s great! The problem is that a) you signed a contract saying that you would report this sort of thing and b) you don’t know that she is that sort of person.

 

[white_sheep]

No.

 

[grasscutter]

You are taking responsibility and the owner of the other car will be compensated by you. Two people are working out the problem. This keeps insurance rates from rising for everyone else. That’s just my opinion… follow your conscience.

 

[cshoremom]

You are taking responsibility and the owner of the other car will be compensated by you. Two people are working out the problem. This keeps insurance rates from rising for everyone else. That’s just my opinion… follow your conscience.

agreeing with this.

As long as you pay for the damages, and the woman gets reasonable quotes from auto body shops to have it fixed, I do not think you are doing anything morally wrong.

 

[CatholicRaven]

I agree with UbiCaritas. You signed a contract, making a promise to inform the insurance company (for your own protection as well as theirs), and you should not break that promise just because it seems easier to work it out “under the table.”

Contact your insurance company and speak with your parents, letting them know that you are willing to pay out of pocket for the repairs. That’s the responsible thing to do.

 

[doglover2]

It shows that you are an honest person to think about this and I am sorry to hear you dented that car. Driving is tricky! I’ve been in more accidents than my father has in his 25 years of driving, and I don’t even own a car!

It might turn out for the better. When I stabbed my ex boyfriend, I insisted on telling the truth despite my parents’ opinion that I should claim self defence, although the police kept asking me if it was self defence. It turns out I just got a caution.

 

[Cricket2]

You are taking responsibility and the owner of the other car will be compensated by you. Two people are working out the problem. This keeps insurance rates from rising for everyone else. That’s just my opinion… follow your conscience.

I agree with this. The OP should simply keep any documentation the other person is willing to share, that indicates this was an agreeable arrangement. The insurance companies, I am afraid, don’t need anymore money from any of us than necessary. They are among the biggest rip-off entities on the planet.

 

[trevorhall]

I have represented policyholders for years in coverage disputes with insurers. Failure to comply with a notice provision in a policy gives the insurer a defense to not paying on a claim. This is a nuanced area of law, but morality has nothing to do with it. These are simply contracts. If you do ABC, then Insurer does XYZ. That’s it.