[QUOTE]Originally posted by Alz2002
[B]Insurance companies have armies of lawyers who would happily track down a perpetrator of what amounts to insurance fraud.

 

no one ever speaks of "effective" costs when discussing costs/prices...

people complain about rising costs/prices all the time - yet it's never in the context of "effective costs"

 

My economics teacher did in college and I'm just trying to make the cost of that class worth it...

 

If the accident was the other person's fault, file it. File it fast, in fact. Here's why:

Filing claims doesn't cause your premiums to go up!

What DOES CAUSE your premiums to go up are things that say you are a HIGHER RISK then the insurance company thought.

Tickets and accidents you cause make you a higher risk. Where you live can make you a higher risk.

If someone hit and runs your parked car, or causes an accident and didn't have coverage, you aren't at fault. And nothing new was uncovered by this -- You still represent the same risk you were before the accident. Your premium will not go up. In fact, this isn't even covered by liability insurance. It's covered by UNINSURED MOTORIST insurance!

Unisured Motorist applies the SAME risk for everyone in your neighborhood with your same car. Events that cause UM claims could happen to you, me, or someone else. The insurance company already knows it would happen to one of us, and charged us all appropriately. They care little to whom the check has to be made to. The insurance company will not say, "Damn you are unlucky" and raise your rate. If you got unlucky, it's because I got lucky and avoided it somehow. It still can happen to me, just as it could happen to you, so we pay the same.

The worst case scenario is that they can't find this person, or find that she has no insurance and you'll have to pay your uninsured motorist's coverage deductible (Mine's $250).

The best case scenario is your insurance company FINDS HER (they don't want to pay this out of their pockets if they don't have to) and HER liability coverage pays for it instead (and it would be for the whole thing -- no deductible), then HER insurance will go up.

File it now. My insurance company REQUIRES a police report # for these, but do it.

 

See, this is what sucks.....the police station said the WILL NOT take a police report since it was private property, and it's going on 2 weeks now since this happened. My deductables are $500 (I'm not made of money, so I needed to save some how to even afford the car) so it would be stupid for me to have insurance pay for it when I would just have to pay them back. I think if anything, I will just have to file a lawsuit in small claims, unless my insurance company will help me locate the person without actually paying out on the claim.

 

It sounds like small claims court is your best bet. Do you have the name of who you talked to at the police that said they won't file a report because it was on private property? Maybe if you explain the situation you can get them to serve the court papers to her without them having to divulge any of her personal information to you...?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JeffsS2k
[B]See, this is what sucks.....the police station said the WILL NOT take a police report since it was private property, and it's going on 2 weeks now since this happened.

 

Originally posted by xviper
.................
Where I live, it is frowned upon to give false information at the scene of a car mishap (it may even be illegal). I took the plate # of the offending car to the zone police office. The officer immediately punched in the # into the computer and discovered that the phone # was incorrect. He then did a cross reference and got the right #. After he located the perp, he phoned me with all the info for the other person's name, phone #, insurance company and policy #. It is my right to know. Surely, if you did that, your police would give you the same info.

...........
Trouble is, XViper, that you live in Canada, and this accident happened in Oklahoma, in the U S of A. Rules on traffic accidents and reporting can vary widely by State, county and town. You also would not believe the vast differences in rules and regulations for registration, insurance and inspection of motor vehicles between individual States. In my former state of residence, Massachusetts, inspections were mandatory and extremely strict. Down here in South Carolina, there are no inspections whatever- you gotta watch out for those Bubbas in their beat up old pickup trucks, especially when driving a tiny vehicle like an S2000.

 

Well, I just talked with an officer from the Sheriff's Dept (neighbor of mine) and he ran the plate for me, got her address, and called her personally for me. She was saying now that she never hit me, right to a police officer. She's also saying that her insurance will not pay out because a report was never filed with the police, well, the police won't take a report because it's private property. Well, at least I have her address, and now I can file a civil suit against her if need be. I have more insurance information on her now also, so I will be calling them personally on Monday. I really hope this all works out. I appreciate all the help people, this it a great site!

 

She's being very stupid.

She's presumably got a damaged car, and you've got her MATCHING Vin# and License Plate #. You probably also have HER handwriting claiming she is someone else. She clearly lied to you, and that could be construed as a DELIBERATE attempt to defraud, which if you file civilly might get you triple damages. IANAL.

Anyway, Like I said before, FILE THE CLAIM. You won't have to "pay them back" via any sort of rate increase. This is the insurance company PAYING you back for the premiums you've already paid. Your premium WILL NOT go up because of an uninsured motorist insurance claim. Ask your agent about this if you don't believe me.

Your insurance company WILL FIND her insurance company. The only question for you is how long will you wait for your $500.

Now, the worst case scenario is that it won't be worth the insurance company's time to pursue it, and then you can file the civil claim to recover the money youre out. The threat of 3x damages could make her pony up right there.

Please tell us what happens....