Hi All,
So wife hit another car coming out of a parking spot at her new work a few days ago. The damage is minor to her car (a crack in the bumper), and minor on the other car as well. My wife went back into the building to find the owner and it ended up being an employee there. They had a chat and the owner of that car went and got a quote for a repair. They were quoted ~$2600 for the fix, which is a pure scam, but whatever. My wife's deductible is $1000 so we know she has to pay this at a minimum, but not sure what to do next. I have been in a few accidents myself but it was never my fault, so I usually contacted insurance and they dealt with everything. They both exchanged phone numbers and that was it. No police report was filed. So with that said, I have a few questions.
1. Does my wife need to contact our insurance company and open a claim, or does she just provide the pink card to the other driver and they open the case and deal with everything?
2. I presume since my wife's car has damage as well, she probably has to open a claim herself to get her car fixed? Her car is pretty old and we don't really care about the damage, so that spins up two more sub-questions.
a) Does she actually have to get her car fixed? I think I recall from my dad's accident back in the day that you may have to, even if you don't want to? The number of hailed out cars on the road makes me think you don't need to fix anything, or perhaps those people didn't open a claim..
b) Should we bother getting it fixed? I mean she will be paying $1000 deductible anyways, sounds like we should get as much out of it as possible right? It's her first accident in 12 years and she has accident forgiveness on her policy. I feel like to maximize the "Benefit" or paying into it for many years and claiming nothing, it would make sense for her to get her car fixed as well?
c) If we do decide to file a claim for her own vehicle....can we just take the money and run? My guess to replace the bumper would be a couple of grand at a shop (scam!!)....so could we get a quote....and then just take that money from the insurance company? With any luck, actually come out on top after the deductible?
Thanks in advance!