Not Using Car Insurance After an Accident

[Los Feliz Slim]

My wife got rear-ended (heyooo!) yesterday. The woman who hit her was driving a small car that got pretty [censored] up, my wife's SUV's bumper is just basically scratched. The woman BEGGED my wife to not report this to insurance and just let her pay for it. The estimate is only $517 which is shockingly low to me, so I'm assuming the woman would still prefer to pay for it out-of-pocket rather than go through insurance.

Is there a downside to this/will it come back to haunt me? The woman who hit my wife is crazy and left five messages on our home VM yesterday, so take that into account.

[Quicksilvre]

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Is there a downside to this/will it come back to haunt me? The woman who hit my wife is crazy and left five messages on our home VM yesterday, so take that into account.

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Damn.

I'd say you should go with the way that's more likely to make the crazy go away.

[4_2_it]

Is there any chance that she will turn around and sue your wife for causing the accident? If so, just let insurance handle it. If not, get an estimate from a couple of places and work out a settlement with her. Be sure to include enough to cover a rental car for your wife for the time her car is being fixed.

[daryn]

take the money, cash only obv

[MrWookie]

I think that if you avoid going to her insurance company at first, you'll probably get paid, but you might have extra hassle if she balks at something. You might want to get a signed and written statement from the woman saying that she hit you and what happened since you don't have a police report. With that, then you should be able to go to her insurance company in case she doesn't pay up.

[FocusedOne]

I want to tell you that you can trust her and to just try and safeguard yourself like Wookie said, but you have to consider what could happen. There is always the potential that this turns into a huge headache for yourself and your wife. Why is she so insistent on not getting the insurance involved? The phone calls make it seem like there is more to the story than her just wanting to avoid a rate hike.

My advice: Screw her - cover your own ass. It's not your problem. You work hard to pay for your insurance and make sure that you are responsible. She should do the same or not get behind the wheel. Let her insurance company (if she is even insured) do it's job.

[Aloysius]

LF Slim - what's your deductible? That would factor into it for me.

-Al

[Los Feliz Slim]

Not sure what my deductible is, but I'm guessing $500. It's certainly more than $0, which is what it'll cost me if this woman follows through.

Other info: the body shop we took it to isn't going to replace the whole bumper, which would probably be like $2000.

Also: woman mentioned to my wife several times that she is afraid of her husband. On one of the messages on our VM she sounds like she's crying.

[emon87]

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LF Slim - what's your deductible? That would factor into it for me.

-Al

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your own deductible won't matter in this case unless the woman is uninsured. Her insurance will pay all of it.

[cbloom]

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My advice: Screw her - cover your own ass. It's not your problem. You work hard to pay for your insurance and make sure that you are responsible. She should do the same or not get behind the wheel. Let her insurance company (if she is even insured) do it's job.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are the scum of the earth and contribute to the massive scam that is car insurance.

I touched some guy's car once, gave him all my info and told him I'd just pay him cash, he agrees and he's all nice to me and everything. A few days later I get a call from my insurance company saying the accident was reported to them. I never took down his info, I wish I had so I could find him and beat the [censored] out of him.