I had accidentally rear ended someone the other day in slow moving traffic (completely my fault and I am definitely learning from my mistakes). There was no damage and the lady was incredibly understanding, I got really lucky.
I just got left a Voicemail an hour ago by my insurance company as they detected a crash and to contact them for further assistance . I do have a black box because insurance is cheaper which is how they detected it.
My overall question here is do I ring them back and tell them? I don’t need any assistance but I fear not ringing them back after they detected a crash would raise my insurance more. Has anyone else had this issue and knows what to do in this case?
Apologies for the long explanation I am a nervous wreck. I’ve only had my license for under a year and this is my first hit
Insurance called me after crash detection, no dmg, do I tell them?
byu/Irish_melon inInsurance
Posted by Irish_melon
8 Comments
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Yes, you should tell them. They clearly already know about it so trying to hide the truth won’t help anyone.
Without knowing where you live and the particular laws and what carriers do there, I can only offer up usually what this would mean.
Your carrier cares about claims and accidents that resulted in claims or moving violations. Since it doesn’t sound like police were called so you weren’t ticketed, and it doesn’t sound like there’s a claim that’s going to happen, I just wouldn’t call them back. This isn’t a sign of you trying to hide something. People don’t call people back all the time and it’s completely fine.
Again, not knowing exactly what you mean by “black box” but assuming we’re talking traditional telematics with an app on your phone and sometimes a dongle either plugged into the ODB port on the vehicle or just hanging out in the vehicle, the metrics for low impact stuff aren’t perfect. The call was a curtesy call, asking if you needed help in the claim process, and not a “we caught you!” call.
Without a claim, they simply won’t care. Now, if the woman changes her mind, and next week notices some damage and contacts your insurance (if you gave her that information) then just call them up and explain what happened.
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I wouldn’t ever call them and confirm you hit someone. Insurance has one job, to make money. If they can raise your rates they will.
Lying to or omitting the truth from your insurance provider is never the move. You’re more likely (almost guaranteed) to be dropped than if you just explain the situation. Especially since it seems they’re already aware and just need more info.
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