An accident can often be an inconvenient as well as scary event. For this reason, it is always important that in case you own a car, you take an accident insurance policy so that you can get compensated in case your car is engaged in an accident. Be aware that accident resulting from natural catastrophic events such as an earth quake or lighting cannot be compensated as insurance firms believe that such occurrence are as a result of an act of God. However, since driving in our roads is not normally that safe, it is always important that you take a policy that will protect your car in case it’ s involved in an accident. This write- up will give you 8 tips on how to claim accident insurance that you should know.
8 Tips on How to Claim Accident Insurance: What you Need to Know
Tip# 1: Calling the Police or any Relevant Body to Investigate the Accident:-
First and foremost, it is ideal that you in case of an occurrence of an accident, you engage immediately any relevant third party that will help you in investigating the accident. This is important since the other party involved in the accident can decide to tamper with the evidence and this may make you have hard time when claiming accident insurance.
Tip #2: Getting insurance Information of the Other Driver’s involved in the Accident:-
It is also important that you get any insurance information that the other driver’s involved in the accident have. Basically, this is very essential if the accident occurrence happens to be as a result of fault of the other party, since it’ll keep you from paying a deductible. It will assist you also avoid in the future higher insurance costs if the insurance firm pays for their accident claim, rather than your claim.
Tip #3: Taking Photos of Any Damage:-
Representatives from the insurance company will obviously take photos also; but they may fail to arrive at the accident scene immediately. For this reason, it’ s always important that you have set of photos which show the position of all cars involved in the accident, and also how the surrounding environment is immediately the accident has occurred. Note that this will boost your confidence when you will be narrating about how the accident occurred.
Tip #4: Calling a Claim Representative:-
It is also recommended that once an accident occurs, you make sure you call a claim representative as soon as possible. Basically, even if both parties involved in the accident are willing to wait, the claim representative will first fill the claims form, take photos, get the story about the accident from both parties as well as possibly interview any person who witnessed the accident.
Tip #5: Hiring an Accident Attorney:-
If you find it hectic to follow the accident claim, it is ideal that you hire an accident attorney who will help you in tacking all the processes involved when a person is claiming an accident insurance. Give your accident attorney any tangible or intangible evidence you might be having so that you can simplify his or her work when he or she will be investigating the matter.
Tip #6: Ensuring that all Processes or Papers you’ re using to Claim an Accident insurance are Correct:-
It is ideal that you research online about the different must have necessities required when a person is claiming an accident insurance. You can also seek for the assistance of relatives or even friends who might have filed an accident insurance claim recently. Ask such people what processes or papers you should have in hand when claiming an accident policy. Kindly ignore any information that is misleading as it may make you end up contradicting yourself when chasing the claim.
Tip# 7: Following up with the Insurance Company:-
Follow up with the insurance company to make sure that your case is being followed up. In case you realize something fishy with the insurance company, it is important that you inform your accident attorney immediately.
Tip #8: Waiting for your Compensation Check:-
Once all the paper work is correct, wait for your compensation check to arrive. Basically, since this might take several months, it is ideal that you get repairs done to your damaged car before hand if you’ve got the means. Let us now have a look at how a car accident insurance works.
How Does a Car Insurance Work in case of an Accident?
*Restoring a Person Back to a Pre- accident State:-
Car insurance is meant to restore a person back to a pre- accident state he/ she was after an auto accident through the claims’ process/ procedure. The process starts by a person involved in an accident calling the car insurance firm that he or she is insured in.
After an insurance representative has collected the initial data about the accident, you should be assigned with a claim number before the date of the claim is set up. Generally, this claim number is simply a record of the actual accident which is normally linked to a particular auto policy.
Afterwards, once this is done, the claim is often assigned to claim adjusters who are supposed to process the claim via a series of tasks.
*Verifying any Necessary Details that will make it Easy to Investigate the Claim:-
It is the responsibility of the claim adjusters sent by the insurance company to verify accident details, review the details of the accident, review determination of fault as well as pay out. Any claim adjuster sent by the insurance firm must ensure that these tasks are completed via phone, police reports, face- to- face interviews, policy reviews and scene investigations. Once such tasks are completed, in case the claims adjusters deem that coverage exists and a claim payment is in order, he/she will notify the insurance company to pay you basing on policy limits, damagers and deductibles.
As you’ve seen, it is always essential that you take an accident insurance coverage since it can help you restore your vehicle to the position it was before the occurrence of the accident.
Last, but not least, you must ensure that anything you engage yourself in with the insurance company is in writing when taking an accident insurance policy so that you can produce it as evidence should the need of it arise in the future. Thank you.