Should I report this car accident to insurance?

[Anonymous]

I was rear-ended today at a red light. I was sitting in a line of cars and out of nowhere, the car behind me moved forward and hit me. They weren’t going fast - not sure they even hit the gas - but they did leave a couple of small scratches on the rear bumper. (The car is less than a week old, so I’m sure they weren’t already there.)

I exchanged license/insurance info with the other driver, but I’m wondering if I should report it to insurance. The scratches are annoying since the car is new, but they’re barely visible. However, I’m worried there’s maybe latent damage to the bumper sensors, or something else not immediately visible? OTOH, I don’t want my rates to go up even though it wasn’t my fault. And I honestly, I feel somewhat bad for reporting such a minor thing on the other driver, since, as long as there’s no damage beyond the scratches, I don’t really care.

[Anonymous]

Call the other person’s insurance and leave yours out if it. As long as yours doesn’t get involved your rates will be fine. I would get it fixed on a 1 week old car.

[Anonymous]

Of course don’t report it to your insurance report it to their insurance. I’m surprised they didn’t offer to pay cash.

[Anonymous]

I would bring it into my repair guy, ask the cost, and call the other party and offer them the opportunity to pay cash to repair or go through their insurance

[Anonymous]

OP here. Sorry if this is dumb, but if I contact their insurance, they won’t insist on contacting mine? To be clear, there’s no earthly way I’m at fault and the woman never indicated she thought I might be, but I assumed if I call her insurance, the insurance is going to want to work through my insurance company.

I have her number, but I’m worried if I text and ask if she’d prefer to do this outside of insurance, she’ll think it’s a scam or something. She’s not originally from the US, is older, and her English is not very good.

[Anonymous]

Text them with two or three estimates for repair and ask them if they want to pay or have insurance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call the other person’s insurance and leave yours out if it. As long as yours doesn’t get involved your rates will be fine. I would get it fixed on a 1 week old car.

+1 I have offered people in this situation the chance to pay cash in the past but for a brand spanking new car I would talk to their insurance.

[Anonymous]

As long as the other person admits fault to their own insurance company, yours will not be contacted.

Call/text the person and ask if they’d prefer to handle with or without their insurance company (with their company is generally better for you but worse for the other person so by calling, you are being kind). If at any point you feel like they are scamming you, insist you go through their company.

[Anonymous]

You were rear ended, so you are not at fault. You can call their insurance and file a claim. Their insurance is it going to ask you about your insurance.

[Anonymous]

Their fault but call and notify your insurance. They’ll help you work through process and make other insurance pay. They’ll also protect you in case other insurance tries not to pay. Ask me how I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Their fault but call and notify your insurance. They’ll help you work through process and make other insurance pay. They’ll also protect you in case other insurance tries not to pay. Ask me how I know.

This is unnecessary. Call their insurance first. They will tell you if they accept responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their fault but call and notify your insurance. They’ll help you work through process and make other insurance pay. They’ll also protect you in case other insurance tries not to pay. Ask me how I know.

This is unnecessary. Call their insurance first. They will tell you if they accept responsibility.

Unless of course the other driver changes their story, which is what happened in my case.

Contact your insurance. There is no downside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Their fault but call and notify your insurance. They’ll help you work through process and make other insurance pay. They’ll also protect you in case other insurance tries not to pay. Ask me how I know.

This is the right answer. Everyone seems to assume that your insurance won’t find out if you deal with the other company. But I can’t imagine that’s true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their fault but call and notify your insurance. They’ll help you work through process and make other insurance pay. They’ll also protect you in case other insurance tries not to pay. Ask me how I know.

This is the right answer. Everyone seems to assume that your insurance won’t find out if you deal with the other company. But I can’t imagine that’s true.

Your insurance can theoretically find out about the accident because the other insurance will report it to a centralized database. I don’t think they care about not at fault accidents though.

[Anonymous]

I’d ignore it. If it goes through any insurance it will show on carfax as an accident and hurt the value more than a small scratch. If it bothers you, ask the dealer to have their "mobile paint guy" fix it. It’ll be $100 at most. I bet the other driver would just pay that cash.