Unfortunately, sometimes when you get into an accident, especially an at-fault accident, your auto insurance company will raise your rates. If you’ve just gotten in a car accident, you may be wondering how to avoid insurance increases after an accident.
This concern will be especially relevant if you live in California, which sees the highest average insurance premium raises after accidents out of any state in the nation. The average rate increase after a car accident in California is 101 percent – New Jersey sees the next highest average increase in car insurance premiums after accidents, an 82 percent increase.
If you’d like to avoid seeing your auto insurance premiums rise after an accident, you’ll want to keep in mind the following tips:
1. Avoid Accident Liability
Liability is important when it comes to determining if you will see a car insurance premium increase after getting in an accident in California. There are laws in California against auto insurance companies raising rates after accidents where you’re not principally at fault, so you shouldn’t expect an auto insurance premium increase after an accident you weren’t at fault for.
However, California law has a concept known as comparative negligence, where multiple parties in an accident can be assigned a percentage of fault for the accident. So, if you’re found to be partially liable for an accident, your cheap car insurance may no longer be so cheap, as you could see your insurance rates go up, and the higher your percentage of fault is determined to be, the larger increase in your auto insurance rate you can expect.
If you’ve been injured in an accident, it might be a good idea to hire a personal injury lawyer like the lawyers at our firm. One thing injury lawyers do for accident victims is fight to eliminate or reduce the percentage of fault attributed to their clients. So, by hiring a lawyer after an accident, you can prevent being found at fault for an accident, or minimize the percentage of fault assigned to you, thereby eliminating or minimizing any increases to your car insurance rates, making sure you still have the cheapest car insurance possible. Personal injury lawyers like our attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, so they won’t charge you until and unless they recover financial compensation for you.
2. Always Inform Your Insurer
Consider the following scenario: you’ve been in an accident that you were at fault for, but it was a minor accident, or you weren’t at fault regarding the crash and nobody got hurt. You might be tempted to fail to report this accident to your car insurance company. After all, they can’t raise your rates if they don’t know about it, right? Wrong.
If another party involved in the accident makes the sudden decision to file a lawsuit against you, even if an agreement at the accident scene took place against this, if you failed to immediately report to your insurance after an accident, your insurer will not honor your policy.
The end result would be you being forced to pay every bill involved by yourself. This will probably cost you way more than you would have been charged by simply seeing your rates go up.
If your insurance company did make the decision to honor your insurance policy, it would take away your time, lowering the odds to have to win your accident case. If your insurance company needs to pay your claim, they will probably raise the cost of your car insurance policy.
3. Look for a New Policy
You may wish to try to find cheap car insurance after getting in an accident. If you aren’t satisfied with your renewal rate, you should shop around for a new policy. Each company has differences in terms of pricing, so it’s important for you to shop around, looking at prices. Make sure to obtain a minimum of three price quotes. You can also make phone calls to companies or look up pricing on the net. Your state insurance website may also provide comparisons.
You receive financial protection and peace of mind with insurance, so it’s important to choose an auto insurance policy with a company that is financially stable. You can inspect the financial health of various insurance companies at A.M. Best, who provide ratings. You can also look up information like this at Standard & Poor.
It’s important to not lie about things like your driving record when searching for new insurers, as any potential new insurer will be able to see any tickets and accidents of yours by looking at their database.
Don’t just shop based on price – ask friends and family for insurance recommendations, and get in touch with your state’s insurance department and ask them if they provide info regarding consumer complaints about insurance companies.
Be sure to find an insurance agent who will answer any questions you have.
Once you get a new policy, there are ways to lower your rates. You can lower your rates by canceling comprehensive coverage, for example.
4. Enroll in a Driving Course
Another way to lower your insurance rates is by taking a defensive driving course. Many insurers will give discounts to those who complete a course like this.
A course like this will instruct you on how to drive safely. It’s typically a four hour long course which you can complete in a classroom or online. Drivers who complete these courses are awarded completion certificates. You can often obtain a discount on your insurance by submitting this certificate to an insurance company.
5. Purchase Accident Forgiveness
Some insurance companies provide what is known as accident forgiveness. This benefit might prevent your insurance rates from going up after at-fault accidents. This benefit may be purchased and added to policies, or is sometimes awarded to drivers with good records. This benefit might let drivers save on premiums and retain discounts for good driving.
While having accident forgiveness on your policy may make your premium more expensive, it can prevent your rates from going up after accidents. The specifics regarding accident forgiveness will vary from provider to provider.
6. Increase Your Deductible
A deductible is how much money your car insurance will deduct from claim checks. When you purchase car insurance, you choose the size of your deductible. Deductibles are usually found in the $250-2000 range, and the most common size for a deductible is $500.
Lower deductibles will lead to higher insurance rates, because if your deductible is lower, this means your insurer will need to pay out more money when you make claims. Conversely, higher deductibles will lead to lower insurance rates, since your insurer won’t need to pay out as much money when you make claims.
FAQs
How Long Does an Accident Stay on Your Insurance?
Accidents in California usually stay on driving records for three years after the accident date. During this period of time, accidents are considered public record, so insurance companies, law enforcement agencies and potential employers can access them. California law prevents insurance companies from increasing your rates due to accidents that happened over three years ago.
Will My Insurance Increase if I’m Not at Fault?
California law prevents insurance companies from increasing your rates for accidents where you are not considered principally at fault.
How Much Does Insurance Increase After an Accident?
In California, on average, your rate will go up 101 percent after an accident. However, the amount that your accident will go up will depend on numerous factors, including liability. If you are found only partially responsible for an accident, you probably won’t see as big of an increase in your rates as you would if you were found 100 percent at fault for your accident.
Contacting a Lawyer After an Accident
If you or a loved one was injured or killed in a car accident such as a rental car accident, call us today for a free consultation, text us from this page or fill out the free case evaluation form found on this page. In addition to helping you recover financial compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering and more, we can help lower or eliminate your liability in an accident, preventing or minimizing any increase in your insurance rates.
We are contingency fee accident lawyers, so we don’t charge any upfront or out-of-pocket fees. We only charge a percentage of any recovery we obtain for our clients, and we don’t charge any fee if we don’t obtain a recovery.
We get accident victims who can’t afford treatment for their injuries to doctors who will treat them without charging them until their case is over. Our long track record of success is why doctors do this for our clients.
We’ve been helping accident victims minimize their liability and recover compensation for their damages since 1990, having recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients.
Call us today for a free consultation.
Jeffrey Nadrich
Jeffrey Nadrich is a nationally-recognized California plaintiff’s personal injury attorney. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Hastings College of the Law. He has successfully represented thousands of injury clients over the last 40 years.
