Ok, I wrecked my car 2.14.05 (88 5.0) and i had AAA at the time, i didnt destroy public property and no one was involved in it but myself and i didnt get hurt at all, so now i have mercury car insurance and i got a letter today stating that i need to inform them about this previous accident...i dont get why i need to since it happened under AAA and i didnt make a claim or report at all through AAA or CHP/Fairfield PD....so um...why do they need to know? the letter says:

Dear Mr. --------

Mercury Casualty Company is requesting that you provide the details of the 2/14/05 accident in Fairfield. This information needs to be provided by Septermber 16, 2005. Please remember that all accidents need to be reported to the insurance company.

like i said...the accident was like 2 months BEFORE i got mercury insurance and i never made a claim/statement from AAA or any law enforcement...just took my car and sold it as a non-op to a friend :(

Becuase it still shows up on your record, and they want to see what happened so they know if you are a risk or not. Basically they want you to tell them it was your fault, so they can charge you more a month. They aren't going to make a claim and take money though if that is what you are worried about.

How did they find out if you never reported it?

How did they find out if you never reported it?



good point, i just read it again. Ya if you didn't report it, and there wasn't a police report.... How did they find out that th accident happened?

No police report, and no insurance claim = no accident ever happened.

well when a cop/chp usually comes to the scene he has to take some kind of info down...maybe they got that, however the cop did ask me if i wanted to make a report i declined since he said it would cost 10$ and do jack sh1t for me lol :p ...but i want to know how the hell they were able to obtain it since i wasnt with their insurance policy at the time until about 2-3 months later!

ps - yea i also bet its because they want to squeeze some more money out of me

Hmm, I wonder if it somehow it made it's way to your driving record anyway, thanks to the cop. Also, would insurance companies have access to bodyshop records if you had someone repair any damage? Or, if there was a bodyshop, would they have at least notified AAA that a claim might be coming, even if you eventually paid for it yourself?

i never made a claim with AAA for the car. I only had liability on the 5.0 and i totalled it in the rain, didnt hurt anyone or anything, i didnt get hurt or destroy any public property so the cop said i was perfectly fine and didnt have to report it if i didnt want to. i never took the 5.0 to a body shop or anything, i just put it up for sale and sold it as a parts car a few days later after the accident...i didnt get my RS until maybe 2 months later or about...so im going to call up my insurance company today and ask them wtf?

also im not sure if it did go on my record or not...i'll have to find out i guess...i gotta renew my license anyways :p

it sounds like they got the info off the police writeup. since the car is gone and no formal report was taken, couldn't you just come up with some story about how you were in a bit of a fender bender and decided to be done with the car and get something new?

i guess i could russ....ill contact them today and be like wtf mate? unfortunately for me, i have to stick with them for a bit longer for insurance since ive been driving for about 2yrs now...or will be in nov... oh well....but they shouldnt raise my rates to begin with since i didnt get into an accident under their policy and i didnt even make a claim with my previous company.

You may not have filed a report, but the police officer that responded to the scene did. The insurance company has access to anything that the officer put in his report. If you tell a different sotry than the officer and evidence at the scene you will probably get dropped by your insurance company. The fact that you had an at fault accident will cause your insurance to jump the same amount if you file an insurance claim it as it would if you do not...

I am just guessing that the accident was your fault since you were the only one involved. If there was some other reason that it happened and you can prove it you can fight your way out. The problem here is that you did not file a report of your own and now no longer have your word against that of the officer and his report so that is what will be considered fact at this point - unless you decide to hire a lawyer.

but they shouldnt raise my rates to begin with since i didnt get into an accident under their policy and i didnt even make a claim with my previous company.
That is not how it works. They do not care who you were insured by at the time of the accident, only that there is an accident on your driving record. This is going to cause your insurance company to raise your rates or drop you no matter how you look at it.

Ya they don't care who you where insured by, because an accident means you are at higher risks. On that note, if you never made a claim they shouldn't raise your rates. Tell they what happened, tell them that it was an accident, where no damage was done, and the damage that was done was to myself and no claim was ever made. They should ignore it, because you never made the claim...

Either way, that cop definately did turn in the report, and it is now on your driving record. So basically no matter what insurance company you goto that accident is going to be on your record and they will all question is. Tell them what really happened, and see if they won't raise your rates.

If you spent less than $500 to repair the car, you maybe able to get away with it for some insurance companies. If it goes over that threshold, you maybe in for a point.

I am just guessing that the accident was your fault since you were the only one involved.
yea it was my fault i guess....i was going down an overpass, going around a 45 degree turn, my transmission kicked (thats why i replaced it since it was broken to begin with) causing the rear tires to fish tail a little and natural instinct kicked in and i tried to correct myself but i over compensated and ended up actually rolling the car into a ditch. it was also raining heavily that night as well

well, if it happened in the rain, just print up this picture and send it to the insurance company...

http://neurosybir.net/sybir/re92%2520poster.jpg

[QUOTE=RussB]well, if it happened in the rain, just print up this picture and send it to the insurance company...

hehe nice lol....i do recognize the accident as being my fault with little expierence in how to properly control an out of control car, im not disputing that...but for sh1ts sake like no one ever had an accident or almost has in the rain

The real culprit is the definition of an "at fault" accident. I was driving on I-5, when a car in front of me swerved into another lane, and I ran over an 18- wheeler wheel and tire laying in the road. Destroyed two rims on my girlfriend's Lexus. There was no way I could have seen it with the car in front of me (that swerved at the last minute), and yet I was surcharged for an "at-fault" accident.

To top it off, there I am, waiting on the side of the road for a tow-truck, and this other idiot who stopped comes up and asks me if it was my wheel/tire in the road. I told him, "Yeah, I rolled my fenders up to the roofline to accomodate that size tire on an ES-300."

[QUOTE=RussB]well, if it happened in the rain, just print up this picture and send it to the insurance company...

hehe nice lol....i do recognize the accident as being my fault with little expierence in how to properly control an out of control car, im not disputing that...but for sh1ts sake like no one ever had an accident or almost has in the rain

lol, sorry. i wasn't implying that you couldn't drive, i was just making the old re92 joke.

lol, sorry. i wasn't implying that you couldn't drive, i was just making the old re92 joke.
thats ok i realized the joke and didnt take offense :D

i called up the insurance people today and they said they wouldnt know until the company comes to a decision if my rate would go up..i dont see why it would...im going to see if i can get back onto my parent's policy since its cheaper anyways....

It will probably go up. Claim or not, there is a record of an accident that you will be fouund at fault for. However, if your rates are decent now, they probably won't be too much horribly higher when you renew.

you should send them a letter with the question "What do you want to know about it?"

at very minimal it delayes the game they are playing with you.

i called them up and said what happened....i really dont see why they need to know, no one got hurt, i didnt make a claim, i walked away clean....i realize that i got into an accident, but i dont think i should be penalized for having an accident in the rain really.

i realize that i got into an accident, but i dont think i should be penalized for having an accident in the rain really.

ummm... yeah you should. You wrecked. Maybe you weren't doing anything stupid, but it's still an accident.

eh its like u being in an accident and getting rear-ended and it wasnt ur fault and still getting blamed for it...thats how it is in CA at least and is incredibly stupid

looks like i probably will be going back to AAA anyways, they are $388 cheaper than mercury insurance for myself. I would be under my parent's policy which isnt a big deal.

eh its like u being in an accident and getting rear-ended and it wasnt ur fault and still getting blamed for it...thats how it is in CA at least and is incredibly stupid
no it's not.

A: in your example, the driver who rear-ended you would be at fault unless you made a very irresponsible move and caused the other driver to hit you.
B: You caused the accident, thus you are at fault, thus your insurance company will consider you a higher liability.

no it's not.

A: in your example, the driver who rear-ended you would be at fault unless you made a very irresponsible move and caused the other driver to hit you.
B: You caused the accident, thus you are at fault, thus your insurance company will consider you a higher liability.
hmm maybe i heard it wrong from a person then...thanks for the insight :)

no it's not.

A: in your example, the driver who rear-ended you would be at fault unless you made a very irresponsible move and caused the other driver to hit you.
B: You caused the accident, thus you are at fault, thus your insurance company will consider you a higher liability.


I think in Ca It doesn't matter what the person in front of you did, if you hit him it's your fault, I know this isnt right but that's the way ins companies and cops think.. They say you should have kept the 3 sec rule and drove safely. This happend to my sister just not that long ago and she agrued until red in the face.
Although she was alone and there was 3 in the car that cut her off so 3 against 1 worked in their favor.


GL on keeping the rates down I drive like a grandma these days. I've had my fair share of $300 a month ins for 3 cars

wow well i called AAA to see how much it was under my parents... 3458/yr...and i cant go under them anyways since the financing group (carmax) doesnt re-fi anyways, so i cant put his name on the registration to get AAA under them...but i also asked AAA how much it would be for JUST MYSELF for comprehensive/collision and its 2780!!! jesus christ its MUCH cheaper than my parents! and theyve had AAA for 28yrs w\no tickets or stuff in like forever lol

wow well i called AAA to see how much it was under my parents... 3458/yr...and i cant go under them anyways since the financing group (carmax) doesnt re-fi anyways, so i cant put his name on the registration to get AAA under them...but i also asked AAA how much it would be for JUST MYSELF for comprehensive/collision and its 2780!!! jesus christ its MUCH cheaper than my parents! and theyve had AAA for 28yrs w\no tickets or stuff in like forever lol
My guess is that the reason it is cheaper for just you on your own is that you do not have to carry higher coverage levels to protect yourself from having your house sued out from under you if something happens.

AAA really dislikes insuring young drivers or drivers with anything on their record. You can do much better with someone like Mercury or 21st Century.

AAA really dislikes insuring young drivers or drivers with anything on their record. You can do much better with someone like Mercury or 21st Century.
yea i know that with AAA most of the time, but on my 01 RS its 2641/yr for complete comprehensive/collision compared to mercury which was 3900/yr for me...so um...screw mercury for now lol, i cancelled mercury and got AAA this afternoon, pretty painless doing it over the phone

Wait til AAA finds out about the accident though.

Wait til AAA finds out about the accident though.
i already told them, and she ran a report on me anyways she said while we talked...i told her about the accident and she said it wont raise my policy since i didnt make a claim

yea i know that with AAA most of the time, but on my 01 RS its 2641/yr for complete comprehensive/collision compared to mercury which was 3900/yr for me...so um...screw mercury for now lol, i cancelled mercury and got AAA this afternoon, pretty painless doing it over the phone


Wow how many tickets for it to be that High, $2600 a year for one car?

im 19 about to be 20 next month and only 2yrs worth of driving expierence...for someone like me at my age/expierence thats cheap :p

i already told them, and she ran a report on me anyways she said while we talked...i told her about the accident and she said it wont raise my policy since i didnt make a claim

That's pretty cool. The kid who totalled my RS had AAA, they took care of me pretty well. They offered to handle the claim directly, but since I had already started with my own insurance they just asked how much my deductible was. They had the check in the mail the next day.

yea its generally fairly easy to work with AAA, most of the time if i had to add a car or change my policy somehow i could do it over the phone pretty easy

well i got AAA back again...tripple checked it with the girl...i was seriously surprised!!! lol total for a year is $2641...i was shocked beyond belief....so i went the other day and dropped mercury immediately...and just have to wait till they send me back my prorated amount of cash...then throw that to AAA to pay them a little :D :D