Car Accident Settlement Claims: How to Get Money From an Insurance Policy
To get more money from your auto accident insurance claims, you first want to find out which insurance policy will cover your car damages. There are two main insurance policies that pay for your vehicle repair bills. The first place to check is the.
1. Liability Insurance If you want money from your auto accident insurance claims, you’ll need to file a Third Party Claim against the other driver’s Property Damage Liability insurance. A Third Party claim is anytime you want to initiate a car accident claim against another driver’s insurance provider. The driver and the insurance company are the first two parties; you’re the third party.
Typically, the liability insurance is sufficient to pay for the cost of an typical auto accident. Even if the other vehicle owner purchased your state’s minimum liability insurance requirement, you’ll see it’s enough to cover your vehicle repair bills. For example, New York’s state minimum property damage liability insurance is for $10,000. Other states minimum requirements fall between $5,000- $25,000.
The very first thing you have to do is get a copy of the other driver’s insurance policy. In this way you can figure out the amount of money you can likely get from his/her liability insurance. The liability insurance will be listed as three numbers where the first 2 numbers are for bodily injury limits while the third number is for the property damages limits.
As an example, a New York State Liability insurance policy may read 25/50/10. This in essence means that there’s “$25,000 for each wounded person with a $50,000 limit per vehicle accident and $10,000 for property damages.” Looking at the insurance policy, you now know the most you can get from your auto accident property damage insurance claims is $10,000. You can then assess if this will be enough to pay for your car repairs.
However, merely because the insurance company can afford to pay for your damages, doesn’t mean to say it will. You’ve still got to clearly show the other vehicle owner was the cause of your auto accident.
Therefore it’s necessary that you gather evidence say like , photographs, car accident reports, statements from witnesses etc. The auto accident insurance claims process can also take a few months to complete mainly because the insurance companies aren’t really in a hurry to pay for your damages.
This makes dealing with another insurance company really difficult and time consuming. To get around this you can file a auto accident insurance claim under your.
2. Collision Coverage
Collision insurance coverage is a policy with your own provider that pays for your car repair costs no matter who was responsible for the car accident. The benefits of filing under your collision coverage are that:
*You are going to get money for your car damages.
*It will save you time since you don’t have to gather evidence against another vehicle owner.
*The accident insurance claims process is better, simply because you are going through your own insurance company instead of another insurance provider.
*The entire process is generally carried out quickly and you can receive a car accident settlement check in a few short weeks.
However, the downside of filing under your own collision coverage is you would have to pay a deductible. The deductible is usually a few hundred dollars that you must pay out of your own pocket. Once you have paid the deductible, the insurance company will pay for your repair costs.
So you need to make the decision whether it is worth paying the deductible to get your car repaired in a short time or not pay the deductible and prepare to convince another auto insurance company to pay for your car damages.
There is no correct or incorrect decision here. Just be knowledgeable of of the various choices you have and how much each could cost you both in terms of time and money.
Find out more tips to increase your car accident insurance claims and personal injury settlements