How An Accident Affects Insurance Rates

How do accident affects insurance rates? While quite simply put the more accidents you are in the higher risk of a driver you are considered. Plus it will depend on the details of that accident too on how it will affect you insurance rates. You may not experience an increase in your rates, but when it comes to renew that policy they may not do so.

The following is a list of how accidents are classified by those insurance companies out there. Whether or not the accident was due to your fault. If it wasn't proven to be your fault, no increase will be seen by you. But when you are considered to be at fault it will most likely be a rate increase in your future.

Plus you may also lose that good driver discount you had been earning, and that could be up to 20% that is lost. In many cases if you only have your vehicle that was in the accident it will be considered chargeable. But if you had something else involved, like debris, or an animal it may not be.

At fault will be determined by a police report, or by the insurance company talking to witnesses and what the drivers say about it. Another consideration they will take into consideration is whether any injuries occurred due to the accident. If you are determined to be at fault, but no injuries happened, there shouldn't be too much impact on your policy.

While if someone was injured you should receive a letter from you insurance carrier that will let you know if you will need to pay bodily injury payments. Sometimes if the accident is with an emergency vehicle, you will be not at fault. Since many times those types of vehicles disobey some of the traffic rules to get to where they are heading quicker.

Drinking and driving is never a good thing, and if you were under the influence when you were in an accident you will be in big trouble. That will be marked as a major violation on your files and you can see a huge increase in what you will need to pay out.

Normally if the amount of damage caused by the accident is under $750 you will not see any increase. Plus if you had an accident that happened three or more years ago, they will normally charge you nothing extra. If you received a citation at the accident it can earn you an increase. Because that will normally only be given to the person who is considered to be at fault.

Finally the number of accidents that you've had in the last three years can bring up your rates too. If you've had a rate increase due to an accident you can always look for other insurance company.