Alright, the other day I am driving down semi-country road going to my work. The speed limit is 50 and I was not speeding, comming up over a hill that i could not see, a car is stopped. It had been raining all day, I slammed on my breaks and no thanks to my ABS, locked them up and slid into the car in front of me. Couldn't do anything about it, but technically it's still my fault.

I think it was no big deal, I mean I was only going like 10 miles per hour when I actually hit them. So I didn't really bother telling my parents about it, and I was just going to pay cash for it. I exchanged info and everything and get a call the next day saying that estiments for fixing it are $1500 and $2500.. OH MY GOD! What?! Yeah, I freaked out and told my parents.

He thinks it would be a better deal to just pay cash for it, because it would probably sky rocket my insurance because I am a 18 year old male driver. I don't know - would I loose more money in the long run by paying insurance?

I won't even get into my rant about how 10 mph caused all of this damage, I hardly have a scratch on my grill guard.

 

Wow man, I am in the EXACT same situation as you are right now. Read "Need to vent" thread right below this one. Barely put a scuff on my brushguard but the estimates for his car are about $2500. He wants to go cash as not to skyrocket my insurance. Same thing that happened to you, didnt think it was that big of deal so I didnt tell my parents till I found out about the estimates yesterday. Im starting to think about just going insurance. Pay the deductable and go on my way. One thing my mom said could happen, if you go cash, is that he can screw you over. Say you go the cash way (not in a legally binding contract or whatever) and you get an estimate for $2500. Well then he comes to you and is like well they found something else wrong and its gonna be another $500. You are pretty much at his mercy. If you do go cash, have your parents (or you) type up a contract saying what you are going to pay, how much a month, and for how long, and then you both sign it. Im still trying to decide which way to go also though.

 

I got in an accident when I was 17 and my insurance for just liability went from $1600/year to $3000/year and didn't go down for 2 years. Long story short, Unless it is going to be over about $4000, at your age if you can get the cash, pay it.

 

That's what the 18 year that hit me in April 203 thought.

I got 2 estimate' & one apprasial.
They were all around $2300.

The car valued at $2500.
The Kid's father thought he could by-pass the system & pay me off.
I didn't know what the damage was at that point but when I got back to him a couple days later said he sin't interested in a payout now that he found out some additional info. The Kid told his dad that I cut him off.
Well considering the police told him he was at fault, the witnesses told him it was his fault,plus, I told him the only part of my car sticking out on the roadway was 36",the rest was on private property..

To make a short story long....he thougt he could out smart the insurance company and get off clean. Well it went through insurance & his policy expired just 3 weeks after the collision.My agent was always talking to the other person's writer,apparently he got the boot up the ramp, with a 75% increase in policy and a notice of trying to avoid the insurance claim system.

I haven't looked into that in great detail by apparenty they added another rule of engagement

 

This is a complicated situation. As an insurance agent I can give you some "general advice". Since I am not licensed in your state, I do not know what laws or standard practices may exist which would help or hurt your predicament.

My scientific wild guess would be that IF YOU HAVE NO OTHER ACCIDENTS IN THE NEXT COUPLE YEARS WHICH ARE TOO BIG TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, you probably would be better off in the long run to pay for this yourself and consider it a lesson learned. The current industry trends would penalize you heavily in premium for the next 3 years and the incident would be used for underwriting criteria for 5 years. That means you will pay heavily now and if you want or need to get your own policy within 5 years, it may negatively affect your ablility to get a better rate at that time.

HOWEVER, there is a potential bad part to paying your own claim. In PA (may or may not be an issue for you in other states), once you assume liability for part of a claim (paying for damage to car), you accept all liability for that claim. So, if you pay for the damage to the car now, and six, twelve, or eighteen months down the road, the sheriff shows up at your door to deliver the papers written up by some legal office claiming that the people were "injured" as a result of your negligence, now your insurance company does NOT have to defend you in court. That law suit has become your own financial responsibility. THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!!
You have a tough decision to make and it goes down hard to spend hard earned money like that. If you're positive that they won't suddenly decide that they were injured and be entitled to some easy, free money, then I suggest to go ahead and pay this yourself and save your insurance for the big one that we hope will never happen....

Good Luck

 

If you pay cash, your insurance adjuster never gets to look at the other car to inspect the for actual damages.

 

Wezol - we are in the EXACT same situation, thats crazy. Heck my (now) ex-grilfriend was incredibily shallow too, haha!

Well, I talked to the guy on the phone for a while and we finally came to an agreement, I'm going to pay him 1500 which is the low estimate of the car out of my pocket, this also is about the value of the car. Although, I think one of the reasons he is pushing for not using insurance is he dosen't want his car to be totalled.

I'm a pretty good judge of character, it was his daughters car and they've been really honest about everything, and they seem like pretty good people. I know if someone really wanted to they could screw me over completely, but I don't believe thats going to happen.

I talked to a couple of my buddies that got in wrecks not too long ago and they went through insurance, the increase in their rates have by far cost them more than if they payed for it in cash, so I think I'll just save myself money in the long run.

The one thing that I do need now is a contract saying that I have payed x amount for damages period, and that I am not liable for anything else. If anyone knows of any pre-made forms like that, which would serve as legal documents that would be wonderful.

Thanks for the advice guys.

 

YES YES YES, YOU MUST have them sign a settlement and release of liability for all damage and injury when money changes hands.

They have at least a year after the accident in CA to file for injury and probably as long on damage.

DO NOT do this verbally.

 

Yes, have it all on paper. When you tell someone you'll pay them cash, of course it's going to be a large amount of money. Do you think their actually going to FIX the car w/ that 2,500 bucks? By the way... did they have a clear reason why they were stopped in the middle of the road, especially over a hill on a rainy day no doubt? Bad break man, those are never fun to deal with.

 

Claims adjuster here with 14 year exp. Pay cash and have them sign a release form.

Go to this site.

http://www.claimspages.com/documents...ory=Automotive

Click on the Release and Authorization of payment form. Print the form and or paste it to your word progam and modify the form to fit your needs. Eliminate all the insurance BS and put in your name, address, etc.

HAVE THE FORM SIGNED AND NOTORIZED

 

Regardless of why they were stopped, if you are driving faster than you can see, its your fault. If you pay them cash, have a legally binding release of all future claim relating to this accident, and get a receipt for the money.

 

Can't argue with that.

 

I thought if both parties drove away from the scene without notifying the police, both parties were SOL in regards to any sort of claims, as well as liability. This was only negated if, naturally, one party insisted on bringing the police into it and the other ran. I believe in Iowa here it is a misdemeanor or something of the like to not notify the police of an accident.

That said, I had something similar. Dipped down underneath of a guy to take a turn to the right, and the old guy turns right in front of me without a blinker ever to say he was. I didn't want the police to get involved because I had actually ducked down into parking spaces not occupied at that time of morning - didn't know how friendly the cop would be, and I had to be to work. I don't believe I was at fault, but I didn't want to risk being stuck with a 500 dollar deductible in addition to the sky-high premium increase for me for having his vehicle fixed as well. I'm 18 and already pay 2400 dollars a year for my full coverage on my truck. I still haven't had it fixed, I will hopefully be doing that soon though. 750 dollars damage..never would have guessed. Somehow I broke the header panel..which my manual doesnt' even tell me how to replace.

Godspeed. I had a bad feeling that morning that I should have driven my beater, too. Ah...hindsight is 20/20.

 

Chris, something to think about.

Even if you have the other people sign a full release, that can be set aside by a competent (notice the word there) attorney (unilateral is the key term). I have seen this done more than once. Been in insurance claims 13+ years.

Even though you are a good judge of people, money and percieved liability does strange things.

It is possible that the $1,500 will take care of it and you will never hear from them again. Good luck if you take this route and I really hope it works out for the best. If you think that will happen stop reading now. Otherwise.......



One thing to consider. Why is the father so willing to take your money without talking to your insurance company? If the car is totaled, he can always cash out and owner retain the vehicle. He would probably get more money for the car that way and preserve a liability claim. Most, I repeat, most people who want to settle on the offended side without having insurance involved usually have another agenda, just like the people who don't want to call the cops to a scene of an accident "because you will get a ticket and I don't want you to get one" then later on it is your word against theirs and the "facts" have changed (just experience speaking, and yes, I am jaded). I would bet you this is not the end of the incident. Honestly, if it were you, would you sign a full and final release? What if the insurance company presented the full and final relase? Would you sign it then?

If they do sign the FULL AND FINAL release, run as fast as you can and don't look back on what is catching up to you. This is what you pay your insurance for. So you do not stay awake at night thinking of theses things. IF, big IF, you report it to them in a timely manner.

If this goes south, hold on for the ride. Your possible exposure is additional money for the vehicle, medical bills, loss of income, loss of consortium and the always popular "pain and suffering". Premium vs exposure. The value of insurance and future premiums.

 

If the cops were involved at all paying cash isn't even an option. You will take the hit on your insurance anyway. If your insurance company finds out in ANY way about it, they can and will raise your rates, even if they did not pay a dime on the claim.