Personal Finance Tips

A traffic accident is never a think to be happy about. Having even the smallest car accident will surely give you a lot of stress and headache. Not to say that things will be a lot worse if there’s someone injured or the damage to vehicles or property is serious. The best thing to do in such a case is to remain calm and not panic. You will need your cool head for evaluating the extent of damage and injuries before you even contact your insurance company to report the accident. And here are some things to keep in mind if you want to do that right.

Remain cool-headed

The first thing you should do is to calm down. It will certainly be hard especially if you never had accidents before. But this is very important for properly analyzing the situation and helping other people involved if they need help. You have to keep focus on all of the details so you can report them to your insurance agent or the police officer when you will be asked questions.

Call for help first

Prior to evaluating the damage and injuries there’s another thing you have to do. Call 911 and report if there’s anyone injured at the scene. If the accident took place in a location where it is dangerous to remain (heavy traffic, high risk of collision) it is better to move the vehicles to a safer place rather than waiting for the police officer to document the accident. This will save you from additional risk of damage or injury. When you have all of these things done you can take your camera and notepad for documenting the crash.

Gather evidence

Try to get as many pictures and notes from the scene while it is still as-is before the police start moving the vehicles. Then write down how the accident happened step by step as you remember it. If there’s someone who saw it happen around the scene, get their names and contacts, and ask for their version of the accident. It’s not wise to start arguing with them if you don’t agree with them. Just document as many evidences as you can to have plenty of information that can be presented to your auto insurance company or the police.

Help the authorities

When the police arrive to the scene you should cooperate and do everything they say. Report everything you are asked about and ask for an additional copy of the report when it’s compiled. It can be a bit stressful to deal with so much documents but it will make it easier for your auto insurance claim to be processed faster.

Here are some things you have to pay utmost attention when documenting the aftermath of the crash:

1. Compile a list of any personal items that are missing after the accident.

2. Document the physical condition of all the people involved in the crash, even if it’s a light headache. Sometimes a light pain in the arm can turn out to be a fracture a few days later.

3. Take pictures of all the damage resulted from the accident. Take close up pictures of the damaged car parts and any infrastructure that has been affected by the crash.

4. Don’t sign any documents or agreements if you aren’t aware of their content. Contact your lawyer or your cheap auto insurance company to learn what you should do in such a situation.

This is the word you see most often when insurance companies talk about the best way to get a reduction in your premium rates. All you have to do, the smooth voice says, is increase the deductible and we’ll give you a 10% discount. And, it’s a fact. It sounds like a good deal. So why are insurance companies so keen for you to increase the deductible? The answer could not be more simple. Whatever deductible you sign up for is the amount you pay if you are involved in a traffic accident or incur a liability of some kind connected with your ownership of a vehicle. That means you pay and not the insurance company. For insurer this is a cool idea. You insure yourself. All the premium pays for is cover in case your losses amount to more than the deductible. This is really great. The insurer collects a premium and you pay the first however many dollars of the claim. Since the majority of claims are for small amounts – fender benders rarely cost that much to repair – the insurer is on a winner. In fact, the bigger the deductible you sign up to accept, the better off the insurance company is. OK, the company does give you a discount, but it’s rarely an adequate amount.

Let’s see how it works out. Suppose you opt to pay the first $1,000 of every claim and the insurer gives you a 10% discount, are your savings $83 a month? If they are and you are unlucky enough to have an accident at the end of the year, you will have broken even. Your $1,000 in savings just got paid out as a lump sum at the end of the year. Except, of course, there’s a Parkinson’s Law of money in operation – spending wipes out money available. In other words, we usually spend what we have. This leaves you without savings and so that cash sum has to go on your credit card with interest until you can pay it off. In reality, most people end up out of pocket if they have to pay the deductible on one accident. Now imagine the case if your luck is really bad and you have two accidents in the same year. Do you really have $2,000 lying around on the off chance of two insurance claims?

Now before we get all depressed, there are a range of other ways in which you can save money on your premiums without increasing the deductible. Use the online search engine on this site to get auto insurance quotes from as many companies as possible. Explore the different options. If you have the cash or can borrow, think about changing to a make and model of car that’s cheaper to insure. If there’s no chance of trading to a less expensive vehicle, look at the options of driving less, building up a driving record with no moving traffic violations and no claims, bundling your home insurance with the same company, and so on. All the companies offer different discounts and savings. By getting multiple auto insurance quotes, you can judge which discounts will give you the best overall savings. You should only increase the deductible if you can genuinely afford to pay out that initial sum and you are feeling lucky. If there are no other discounts or savings, and you are desperate, then playing with the deductible will reduce your premium. Once committed, it’s all down to the power of prayer to keep you financially safe.

There’s a terrible temptation when you are looking to buy your first vehicle or replace what you currently drive. So many different factors come into play. A young man’s dream car may be a babe magnet, others may have to move a family around town. No matter what your needs, the hard cold reality is the cost of insuring your choice. Never commit to buying a vehicle before you have used the online search engine on this or any comparable site to get multiple quotes for each make and model you have on your shortlist. It’s free to use these engines and the information you get back can save you a small fortune. How does an insurance company set the rates for each type of vehicle?

The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) is funded by the insurance industry and it collects information about every traffic accident in the US, breaking it down to every potentially relevant variable from the make and model, the driver, and the cost of repairing the damage both to the humans involved and the vehicles. To support this data collection function, it also has “fun” by running crash tests, looking at how best to survive through seat belts and airbags, to design issues, to the influence of road conditions. Its purpose is not only to assist the insurance industry, but also to help the consumer by improving the design of vehicles and of the roads, thereby reducing injuries, deaths and property damage. To help you make good decisions, the Institute publishes safety ratings for all major vehicles on the roads – see http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx. It also collects data on the other ways in which you might experience loss. The most common is theft, both from the vehicle and of the vehicle. Here we come to fascinating details. Did you know you are twice at risk of theft if you drive a two-door as against a four-door vehicle? Convertibles have the highest theft risks. Check out the National Insurance Crime Bureau for a top 10 list of most stolen vehicles: https://www.nicb.org/newsroom/news_archive/2007_hot_wheels

So here comes the crunch. You get to see the top layer of summarised data at both sites. This is very useful and it will help you make good choices about what to buy. The insurers get to see all the data and base their premium rates on the probability and cost of loss. They also know about you as a driver. Put you in a car with a bad safety record or a strong probability of theft, and you may find the cheapest car insurance unaffordable. But if you buy a vehicle with a top ranking for crashworthiness and take basic precautions on theft, your premiums just became affordable. What should you look for in a new vehicle? Buy a vehicle with good locks and remember not only to lock it but take the keys away with you. Then instal an alarm or immobilizing device to cut off the fuel. Tracking devices are increasingly standard and help the police find your vehicle. Put all this together with good seat belts, airbags, antilock brakes and the other features and your dream cheapest car insurance became real.

The first and most important piece of advice is: if you are involved in a traffic accident, stay calm. The NRA is proud of the fact it’s lawful for people to carry guns in their vehicles in the majority if US states. No matter how shocked and angry you are, do not automatically reach for your gun. Wait cautiously for a minute. If there is no gunfire from the other vehicles involved, it should be safe to leave your own vehicle. Now is the time to put your careful preparations into operation. Check everyone is OK. If anyone is even slightly injured, call an ambulance. Without treatment, many minor injuries grow more serious. Now exchange information with the other driver. You want their name, address, contact details, insurance company and its telephone number. Remember, everyone is supposed to carry proof of insurance when driving. The information you need is on that card. You should carry a preprinted card with all your information to speed this process.

Now comes the important part. We all forget the detail of what happened. Worse, because we prefer to remember ourselves in the right, we tend to forget any details that might show us in the wrong. So record as much as possible. If you have a camera in your handphone, take pictures of the scene, of the damage to the vehicles, of any obvious injuries, and of any other feature that might show how and why the accident happened, e.g. a stop sign that has fallen at a junction, broken glass on the road causing a tire blow-out, etc. If you do not have a camera, take detailed notes, draw a plan of the scene showing where the vehicles started off and where they ended up, and sketch an outline of the vehicles and mark where there is obvious damage. Should there be witnesses, get their names and contact details. Should it come to a dispute about who was at fault, this could be vital evidence in your favor from an independent source. If an ambulance or police officers attend the scene, take their names. Once you have collected all the information, always file a report at a convenient police department, sheriff’s office, etc. In many US states, this is a legal requirement. It’s often a precondition of being able to claim from your insurer.

Report to your insurer as soon as possible and file a claim. A claims adjuster will contact you to review the facts, discuss who was at fault and decide where to have your vehicle repaired. If there are questions about medical treatment and its cost, this will also be agreed. Never agree to a quick settlement unless you are absolutely sure there are no claims likely to come for personal injuries and losses flowing from those injuries. If you follow these simple steps, the hopes you had when you received those car insurance quotes, will be turned into reality as the insurer pays up quickly and without hassle. If you cannot reach agreement with your insurer, say because there’s a dispute over the value of your vehicle, remember your state’s Department of Insurance operates a complaints process to resolve all these problems. Before acting on cheap car insurance quotes, always check the records of complaints published by the local Department. It can save you pain when making a claim.