How to deal with a fender bender?

[eblend]

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!

[ExtraSlow]

If it's me, I'd go through insurance for sure for both.
My biggest reason is that it removes any future liability from you towards the other party for thier car, thier body, or any other item. It's actually rare an accident repair would be as cheap as $2600, and if they find further damage, you are liable for that too. There's no upper limit.

You have insurance. Use your insurance.

[max_boost]

^ what he said

[brucebanner]

Your wife and other person will have to do a police report. $2000+ it's required.

I'm guessing other person will have to file a not at fault claim, provide the police report and your wife's insurance. (someone else can chime in here)

You don't actually pay your insurance, you pay your body shop the deductible and your insurance will cover the remaining.

Since it's going through insurance, get it fixed.

[Thaco]

2(a)(b) no, you do not have to and should not bother to get her car fixed



and i would honestly try to settle out of insurance with the other driver, sure the ded is only $1k, but with a claim on record, it's gonna cost you a lot more than the $1600 due to increased premiums until that falls off the record, i think it's like 6 years or something crazy, find some liability release form online for the other driver to sign, it's not worth the paper it's written on, but it's a deterrant for any further pursuit, and a receipt for payment made.

[dj_rice]

I was expecting the typical Beyond answer get a new wife but nobody said it. Disappointed.

[bjstare]

Well, this might be a first, but I’m with Thaco. My wife did a lil one like this a few years back and we paid it all out of pocket. Increased premiums for years adds up, and I’d prefer to stay claims free if it only costs a few grand. Even more so if you don’t plan on fixing your own car.

[eblend]

Thanks everyone for your input.

This was the damage to the other car...the bumper basically got pushed in a bit and popped off the fender, as well as a those two marks under the fog light, which I am sure can be rubbed off. The bumper could be popped back out from the rear and snapped back into the mounting on the fender. Really the damage is pretty minor, that's why I said it's a scam that a shop wants to charge $2600 for this, but that's just my opinion. The crack and damage on the bottom skirt was not a result of my wife's action and was there previously, a fact I am sure the owner of the vehicle didn't mention to the shop. This is also the reason that we didn't bother with a police report as it seemed pretty minor overall.



This was the damage on wife's car. I popped the bumper back into it's mountings on the fender and that gap closed up pretty well.



Wife has accident forgiveness, so there should be no impact on her premiums from this first accident. My dad had the same thing on his vehicle when he was involved in an at-fault accident, and premiums didn't go up (at least not right away....insurance companies will always find a way to fuck you)

So does my wife have to call her insurance company, or give details to the other party and call it a day if she doesn't plan on fixing hers? How does the deductible works if she chooses to only repair the other car and not hers. (EDIT: Guess if wife doesn't claim anything, she doesn't have to pay a deductible, at least that's what the internet tells me!) Her car, although low mileage for a 2009 (just crossed 100k), has been in a few not at fault accidents already (once when I was driving it and got turned into), so it's been a trooper and we plan on keeping it until it completely gives up, so repairing a bumper seems unnecessary given the few other issues around already (mostly rust related). I think I will end up selling it eventually but it already has multiple claims on record, so the price will reflect that when time comes. I would buy her a new one now, but got my house project to finish first, no funds.

[AndyL]

Rule of thumb years ago was 3000$/body panel damaged - so 2600$ is inline. Of course there's ways to do it cheaper - but someone not at fault isn't going to want to take those (unless they're looking to pocket some $ in exchange for sweat equity).

Yeah a bit of boiling water and rubbing compound and some polishing would likely make 99% of that go away in an hour. But the scratches on the foglight surround guarantee it's getting replaced, then it's not going to match the other side (wont be uv faded) so then you're into how far do you have to go to make them not unhappy. Probably stuck replacing the bottom lip too.

Yes you need police report, report to insurance - they deal with it from there. Only have to pay the deductible on your repair not theirs.

[littledan]

If you have accident forgiveness i dont see why you wouldnt go through insurance

[ExtraSlow]

You guys would love this new product called PLPD only. It's very cheap

[Darell_n]

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If you have accident forgiveness i dont see why you wouldnt go through insurance

Because you are then married to your current provider for 5 years, for which other companies won’t want to touch you. They own you after a claim, going through this myself.

[Thaco]

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If you have accident forgiveness i dont see why you wouldnt go through insurance

next time when it's a dinger you'll go through the ringer.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

$2600 is entirely reasonable to repair that damage properly.

[eblend]

Thanks everyone for input. Think we decided to just get the other car repaired by insurance and call it a day. Won't cost anything to us now and hope no more accidents. Yah I figure we will be stuck with this insurance company for a while, but it is what it is. We haven't really been shopping around or anything. With the house build going on we just want this problem gone right now, and deal with fallout later if any. With any luck no more accidents for next 5 years or whatever and problem goes away.

Yah I know basically a scratch is a few grand, but we were kind of hoping the other person wouldn't want an accident on their carfax and would just get it fixed cheap or ask for cash (mostly cuz car already had damage and she didn't seem to care), but they want full service, so she can go through insurance. I mostly posted because I have never deal with being at fault, so wasn't sure how this all works. I my biggest thing was thinking that a deductable applies regardless, but it's only if we file a claim against our own car, and we don't care to do that.