Should You Report a Minor Accident to Your Insurance Company

Being involved in an auto accident can be stressful. Especially when you worry about the consequences that might follow: paying for damages out of pocket, seeing your insurance premium increase, and not being able to financially afford any of it! These are some of the reasons why many drivers consider not involving the insurance companies after an accident, especially one that you might consider minor.

Reasons to Report Accidents to Your Insurance Company

There are a few reasons when you want to report even a minor accident to your insurance company. Contrary to the belief that you have more to lose by reporting an accident, the financial expenses that you may be on the hook for will be enough to make you wish that you had reported the accident to the insurance company. Below are a few reasons to report even minor accidents to the insurance company.

Someone Was Injured

One of the most important reasons why you would want to report even a minor accident to your insurance company is if anyone is injured. Even in minor auto accidents, it is still possible to sustain pretty severe injuries. When this happens, even the most seemingly minor injuries can result in expensive medical bills that you do not want to be on the hook for because you didn’t report the accident. When you are in a minor accident, you should contact a personal injury attorney immediately and work with them to negotiate with the insurance companies following an accident.

You Can’t Always Trust the Other Driver

There will inevitably be a time when you are involved in a minor accident and the other driver (who may be at fault) will offer to pay for the repairs as long as you agree to keep the insurance company out of it. When this happens, there is almost always a hidden reason why the other driver would offer to do this. They may not have insurance, they may not have a driver’s license or some other shady reason that they would not want to report the accident. This can come back to bite you though if the other driver is unreliable, hard to get ahold of, or avoids you altogether to avoid paying for the damages.

You Don’t Know What Underlying Damage Was Caused

Much like the injuries that you might have sustained in the auto accident, you can’t always be sure what underlying damage occurred to your vehicle before you’ve had it looked at by a professional. This may be a few days or even weeks after the initial accident and if you did not report the accident to your insurance company, they may try to make things more difficult for your claim when they start to question why you didn’t report the accident immediately.