I caught my front fender on the garage door frame last night. I would probably not think twice about putting a claim in for it except two years ago I hit the same fender in the same spot while parallel parking (hit a large hitch on a truck in front of me). I have Hagerty. I don't mind paying a higher premium because of it (my rate didn't rise after the first claim) but I don't want to get canceled either. It's probably a $2k repair and I have a $500 deductible. Should I pay cash or claim it?

 

Call them and ask what will happen to you. Years ago I had a claim, on a regular car, and when I talked to them, they told me how much my insurance may go up, and I had high deductable, so was better for me to pay. Because if I had another claim within a certain time I could see a big increase, and possible being dropped. So I would pay the low damage, in case you have a large claim down the road.

 

You'll probably find that if you spread the cost of the repair over a few year period that the rise in insurance vs your out right paying for it is approximately the same. It's a pay me now or later scenario.

 

I don't recall exactly as its been a while since i've claimed anything- but I believe its 3 years between incidents for it to "drop" off your record... So if the last one was on;y 2 years ago, this will then aggregate on that so that first one won't drop off until the latest one has been 3 years.
In my experience they usually don't raise your rates for 1... they may raise it for the 2nd, but 3 could be a big increase or complete drop of coverage, so i think you are right to be wary of claiming a 2nd incident within 3 years of the last one.

as others have suggested, call and ask them what the impacts may be (both today, and in the future if you have another claim within the next 3 years) before taking any action.

 

I am not sure how specialty insurance like Hagerty's work, but I had a relative that worked for one of the major insurance companies (his name was not Jake if you get what I mean.)

He told me that if you even contact an agent or a claims office to inquire about a possible claim without actually filing the claim, the company marks it as a claim in their system. In effect, you let them know you had an incident, so they only care that you had an incident, not the claim. Too many of these, and your rate go up.

Moral of the story, if you contact your insurance company, do not tell them anything unless you really want to make a claim. You can ask about the policy as if you are shopping around comparing policies across companies, etc., but any indication that something happened can be used against you.

 

I agree. There is no such thing as telling an insurance company about an accident off the record.

 

^^^THIS^^^

Insurance companies aren't on your side. They're in the game to make money. I would just pay the repair out of pocket and hope you don't have a major claim in the future.

 

Be ready for them to stick it in, no lube.

Insurance agents are slime, one step above attorneys, one step below reporters.

 

Thanks everyone.. Yeah, I'm just going to pay for this one. I haven't called Hagerty and I don't plan to...