How One At-fault Accident Can Make Your Auto Insurance Rise

By Author: Michael Scott
Total Articles: 46
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You can either be between 0% to 100% of being at-fault in a motor accident. Fault can be shared, and is ascribed to a driver in which the circumstances most closely depicts the accident. But in case the accident does not fit any of the scenarios, fault is judged with reference to the rules of negligence law. Any driver who gets a fault rating of more than 0% automatically earns an at-fault accident on his or her insurance record. This makes one a likely candidate for an auto insurance premium hike.

As a standard procedure, if you are the only person figuring in the collision, your auto insurance company automatically classifies you as at-fault if you make a claim with them. For instance, if your car skids on an ice patch and hits the embankment - you are at-fault. If you made a sudden move to your right ending you on the ditch, so you could avoid a dog that suddenly crossed, you are at-fault in the eyes of your insurance company. What about lending your car to someone where you were neither driving nor a passenger of the vehicle when the accident happened? When you lend your car to someone, you're also lending him ...
... or her your insurance. Such that, if the person who is using your car has an at-fault accident, the accident will be on your insurance record. And it could also hike your insurance premium.

Each party's insurance company may come in the picture to arrive at a settlement based on the degree of responsibility attributed to each person. Even in the absence of police charges, insurance companies investigating the circumstances of the accident will come up with their own assessment of the fault responsibility of one or more of the drivers involved in the incident. And even if the police say that neither of the drivers was at fault, the law enforcers' decision is to be understood only within the context of laying of charges, and not in relation to auto insurance claims.

Auto insurance estimates show that a dummy quote where one at-fault accident is added to an otherwise clean driving record of a fictitious 35-year old's quote details can inflate the auto insurance quote from 20 to a whooping 200 per cent!

To be in an at-fault accident means having it on your record for up to 10 years. During the course of these years, you'll be paying for that accident over and over until it is off your record through high auto insurance premiums.

But fret not. Some auto insurance companies are more forgiving. Either they keep your driving record clean, if it's a first-time fault, or they maintain your premium. Otherwise, you will then need six years to steer clear from accidents for your record to be back on a clean slate. But if you disagree with the at-fault assessment of your auto insurance company, you may want to ask for an explanation.
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