Filing a Claim with Your Insurer vs. Other Party's Insurer

Because of the way many states set up their auto insurance system these days, more and more drivers are often dealing with their own insurer when filing a claim. Successfully negotiating a car insurance claim with any insurer depends on a driver understanding auto insurance rules and common practices. Have knowledge on your side when you end up with your own insurer on the other end of the line.

Dealing with Your Own Insurer: Scenarios

One common scenario for filing a claim against your insurer is when you need to make use of your comprehensive or collision coverage. Any specific policies you've taken out on the value of your vehicle are only as good as the agreements that you made with your insurer about what they will cover in the case of an accident. Providing your insurance company with up-to-date information and photos, as well as prompt filing, gives you a better chance of successfully getting compensated.

Another common scenario these days is when a driver has to file a claim with their insurer for an accident where another driver was at fault. This might seem strange to a lot of drivers, but the rise in "uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage" means that victims of collisions are increasingly calling on their own insurers to pay the bill. With uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM), a driver takes out a policy where their own insurer will fill in for a driver with no auto insurance at all or insufficient liability coverage. Then, when the driver is a victim of an accident, they skip going to the at fault driver and make the claim directly to their own insurance company.

Dealing with Your Own Insurer: Internal Affairs

Some insurers are notoriously reluctant to pay out claims to their policyholders. When an insurer gets a call from a collision victim who is not on the rolls, they may be more inclined to pay quickly on behalf of their policyholder who caused the accident. But when a driver is calling his or her own insurance company to make a claim on an auto value regarding an accident, they may find the company dragging its heels, losing claims or refusing to pay. This maddening practice often comes out of a familiarity with uninformed drivers and consumers, where the company feels it can get away with issuing ambiguous policies and avoiding payment on claims.

Dealing with Your Own Insurer: How to Win on Claims

Basically, your familiarity with your insurance company only helps you when you have set up your policy in detail, and identified claim payment eventualities from the beginning. Talk to insurers about the value of your vehicle and exactly what is covered in your policy before you sign on the dotted line.

Many drivers have also found that it helps to know the people you will be talking with in the event of a claim situation. With smaller insurance offices, it may be possible to establish a working relationship with the representative or a team of representatives to make claim payments go far more smoothly when they are necessary.

Take advantage of the above when you are dealing with your insurer forgetting any kind of compensation after a collision or accident.