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Question about car insurance claims
shmokes:
While I was driving across the country, moving from Utah to Florida, last June I was on a busy freeway when an enormous chunk of tire flew over the car in front of me and smashed into my bumper, and then sounded like it disintegrated under my car. It hit hard enough that I figured it would leave a mark. I was pretty pissed.
When I stopped next, maybe 100 miles later, I realized that it busted my bumper in half and put an enormous dent in it.
Ever since then my bumper has been holding up with a bungee cord, cos I couldn't afford to pay the deductible of my insurance ($250). I want to get it fixed now, but I'm worried that making a claim so long after the incident could be problematic. I'll take a look at my policy to see if it says anything specifically about it, but does anyone here know whether this is likely to pose a problem? Should I tell the insurance company when it happened, or claim that the damage occurred more recently?
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: shmokes on February 22, 2008, 02:06:44 pm ---Should I tell the insurance company when it happened, or claim that the damage occurred more recently?
--- End quote ---
That's a bad law student. If I had a newspaper I'd roll it up and hit you with it.
Realistically, your insurance company is going to tell you to get stuffed, because you didn't report the incident within a reasonable timeframe. You're supposed to report it, they inspect the damage, and they cut you a check for the loss of value minus your deductible. You can choose to not fix the car. If you do not fix the car they simply subtract that amount from the stated value of your car in your policy. Waiting so long means you're going to be treated like it is complete fraud.
whammoed:
I'd go with the truth, insurance fraud could prove embarrassing.
shardian:
Have you looked into replacing it yourself? What is the car?
shmokes:
Hmm . . . I see. I just figured it worked like the deductible on my parent's insurance growing up. We just paid out of pocket for stuff until the deductible was met, then the insurance would kick in. If I'd known that they'd just cut a check minus the deductible I'd have reported it right away.
Oh well, I'll just tell them it happened more recently. It's no skin off their nose. They're in no worse position today than they would have been last summer.
It's an '06 Honda Civic. Replacing it myself would be prohibitively expensive.
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