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The average person spends about $1,300 on car insurance every year. That’s a decent amount of money for most people, especially when you consider that it’s just one of the many costs associated with owning a car.
With this in mind, people will usually try to do whatever it takes to keep their car insurance costs as low as they can get them. They’ll also worry about whether or not getting into a car accident claim might result in their auto insurance premium going up.
Are you currently concerned about the possibility of a recent accident causing an insurance rate increase for you? If so, you should know that a single accident isn’t always going to result in an auto insurance premium increase.
If you’ve been asking yourself the question, “Does auto insurance go up after a claim?”, we’re going to do our best to break it down for you. Here is everything you need to know about an auto insurance claim potentially increasing your premium.
Your Auto Insurance Premium Won’t Always Go Up After a Claim
Many people automatically assume that their auto insurance premium is going to go up almost right after they file a claim. But you’ll be happy to know that this is not always the case.
Every auto insurance claim is a little bit different. Some of them are going to cost your car insurance company a lot of money. Others will get picked up by another car insurance company.
For this reason, you might find that your auto insurance premium won’t increase at all in the aftermath of an accident. This is a best-case scenario for those who have been involved in accidents in recent history.
But It Might Go Up in Some Cases
You might be able to avoid seeing an increase in your auto insurance premium following a claim. But you also might see your auto insurance premium shoot to the moon after you put a claim in.
As we just mentioned, it really goes on a case-by-case basis. Some car insurance companies have gotten a bad rap for not approving claims filed by their customers. But they always go above and beyond to investigate claims before deciding whether to approve or deny them.
They also always go above and beyond when deciding whether to increase a person’s auto insurance premium due to a claim. They aren’t ever just going to arbitrarily increase your premium without a reason. If they’re increasing your premium, it’s often because you’ve shown to be a risky driver in one way or another.
Your Driving Record Will Have a Big Impact on Your Auto Insurance Premium
From the second that you start driving, you’re going to put together a driving record for yourself. This driving record is going to give car insurance companies a much better indication as to what kind of driver you are.
Your driving record will reveal:
- How long you’ve been driving for
- How many tickets you’ve received while driving
- How many accidents you’ve been involved in while driving
By doing so, your driving record will suggest how likely you are to get a ticket or get into an accident. Your car insurance company relies heavily on it when coming up with your initial auto insurance premium.
They’ll also lean on your driving record when it comes time to decide if they should increase your auto insurance premium after you file a claim. If your driving record seems to show that you could be a risky driver, it’ll typically lead to an increase in your premium.
But if you’ve only ever been in one accident over the last decade, that might show your car insurance company that this was only a one-time thing. They’ll be more likely to let you slide without seeing an auto insurance premium increase.
The Severity of Your Auto Insurance Claim Will Play a Big Part, Too
Not all auto insurance claims are created equal. The severity of your specific claim will be another thing that will factor into whether or not your auto insurance premium goes up.
Let’s say that you were involved in a very minor fender-bender that didn’t result in much damage to your car or the other car that was in an accident with you. In this case, your car insurance company might not have to pay much money to make repairs or to cover medical costs, so they won’t send your auto insurance premium skyrocketing.
But now, let’s say that you were involved in a serious car crash that led to a fatality in another vehicle. That could be a much different story. Your car insurance could be on the hook for some pretty hefty auto repair bills and medical costs. It could put them in a position where they have no choice but to increase their auto insurance premium.
As you can see, it’s all going to be based on how serious your car accident was. When a crash is super serious, an auto insurance premium goes up in most cases.
Your Auto Insurance Company Will Also Affect Your Premium Going Up
There are nearly 6,000 car insurance companies operating throughout the country at this time. This is yet another reason why it can be challenging to definitively say whether or not your auto insurance premium will go up after a claim.
Every car insurance company that’s out there takes a different approach to dealing with claims. Some will increase auto insurance premiums without question, while others will offer more leniency to those involved in auto accidents.
If you can, you should try to see which approach a car insurance company takes prior to agreeing to buy a policy from them in the first place. You might be able to avoid having to worry about rate increases in the future if they’re the kind of company that takes mercy on drivers involved in accidents.
Your Auto Insurance Premium Could Go Up a Little—Or It Could Go Up a Lot
If your auto insurance premium does go up after you file a claim, there is really no telling just how much it might go up. Each car insurance company has a cap on how much they’ll increase rates for their customers.
Certain car insurance companies will increase your auto insurance premium but won’t do it dramatically. You might only see a slight bump in how much you’ll have to pay for auto insurance each year even after your claim.
But other car insurance companies won’t resist the urge to jack up your auto insurance premium. They’ll respond to your claim by adding at least several hundred dollars to your premium.
It’s important for you to work with an auto insurance agency that will avoid doing this at all costs. They should provide you with affordable car insurance rates even if you’ve filed a claim through them.
You Can Work to Bring Your Auto Insurance Premium Back Down to Earth
Here’s the thing about auto insurance premiums: They aren’t ever set in stone! So even if you see your premium go up after a claim, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to have to pay that much money forever.
There are tons of ways in which you can work to bring your auto insurance premium back down to earth. You should try to do as much as you can to decrease your car insurance costs.
Some of the things you can do to lower your auto insurance premium are:
- Shop around for a new auto insurance premium if you aren’t happy with your current one
- Sign yourself up for a defensive driving course
- Avoid putting yourself into situations where you might get into an accident
- Be careful about where you park your car when you aren’t driving it
- Stick your car into a garage to provide it with extra protection if possible
You might not be able to make your auto insurance premium go down overnight. But if you make a conscious effort to steer clear of accidents and turn yourself into a safer driver in the process, it could make a big impact on the price you pay for auto insurance.
You Can Also Avoid Future Auto Insurance Premium Increases
You might be 100% satisfied with your current auto insurance premium. You might love how affordable it is and appreciate how low it is compared to the premiums that your family members, friends, etc. pay.
But you’re always just one car insurance claim away from having your auto insurance premium go up exponentially. You should keep that in the back of your mind each and every time that you get behind the wheel of your car.
Your goal should be to avoid future auto insurance premium increases. You can do that by steering clear of anything that could put you in a position where you might have to file a claim.
In some cases, that will mean perfecting your defensive driving skills and putting them to good use when you’re out on the road. In others, it’ll mean parking a little further back in a parking lot to prevent an errant shopping cart from denting your car and forcing you to file an insurance claim.
There is, of course, no foolproof way to eliminate the risks associated with owning a car altogether. But by bringing the chances of you filing a claim down even a little bit, you should be able to avoid any huge auto insurance premium increases.
You Shouldn’t Avoid Filing an Auto Insurance Claim to Keep Your Premium Low
If you’re very worried about your auto insurance premium increasing due to a claim, you might kick around the idea of not filing a claim in the first place. This is the approach that some people will take in an effort to keep their insurance costs low.
If you were considering filing a claim for, say, a small dent in your car door caused by that pesky shopping cart we mentioned earlier, you might want to think twice after filing that kind of claim. But you should file almost any other claim that you can think of right now.
If you get into the habit of getting into accidents and not filing claims and your insurance company finds out, that could end up being worse for you than filing a claim. Your insurance company isn’t going to feel like they can trust you to keep them in the loop as far as your driving history is concerned.
In some instances, your car insurance company might even drop you as a customer for not filing a claim. It’s why you shouldn’t ever put off filing a claim just because you’re scared of an auto insurance premium increase.
You’re going to be much better off telling your car insurance company about an accident and filing a claim for it than you would be ignoring the opportunity to file a claim.
You Don’t Have to Let a High Auto Insurance Premium Bring You Down
Some people think that an increase in their auto insurance premium after a claim is going to be the end of the world. But more often than not, you’ll see a small increase if you see any increase at all.
And even if your car insurance company does decide to increase your auto insurance premium substantially, you’ll have a chance to take care of it. With a little bit of hard work on your part, you can decrease your auto insurance premium again and make your car insurance payments more manageable.
Read more informative car insurance-related articles by browsing through the rest of our blog.
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