Should I claim this on my insurance?

Good morning, TW.

I've found myself in a quandary which I could use some advice with.

Yesterday I hit a patch of black ice and slid off of a rural road into the ditch. Here are some pictures of the incident:






There was no cell phone service at the location, but a gentleman with a 3/4 ton Chevy stopped and I was able to hook my winch line to him and pull myself out. I then went to the local PD who wrote up a police report on the incident.

I've checked every inch of the truck, and all of the damage appears to be cosmetic, besides the alignment being a little out. Here are some pictures of the damage:

Dented rear bumper.




Dented/scraped passenger side rear door and bed.








Slightly pushed in/out front driver's side fender.






My question is, what would be the best way to proceed from here? I have Geico insurance with a $100 deductible. From what I can tell I have three options;

1. Claim it through Geico, take it to a professional body shop and have them repair it.

2. Claim it through Geico, take it to a professional body shop, get a quote, have insurance write me a check (How does that work anyways? First experience with this.), buy sliders and a rear bumper to hopefully prevent this from happening again, and fix the door, bed and fender myself (I feel very confident that I can repair it).

3. Don't claim it, fix it myself, be done with it.

What would you guys do? I realize I would be at fault which would most likely make my insurance rates increase, which is a definite downside. Just looking for some different opinions before I proceed.

 

If it was my truck I would just claim it and get it fixed, since it would bother me - even it the dents are small.
Different insurance companies have different rules, so my experience might be different from what you will get. But, assume Geico will write you a check and let you fix it, as you say you can, then that will probably be a viable option. Some insurance companies won't do it though - will only write the check to the body shop because they want the repair to be warrantied, so it does not come back and bite them later. It seems like more and more companies however are changing to the option where they will give you a check. It might be cheaper to them in the long run, because body shops will usually go back to them and claim additional damage that could not be seen before the vehicle was taken apart; if they give you a check, you do not typically have that option.
Before claiming it through Geico, maybe go to a body shop first to get an estimate - they might see some more underlaying damage that you do not see.

Also, Some insurance companies have accident forgiveness, so your rate might not be going up if this is your first claim in a long time.

 

Wow that was a deep ditch!

Looks to me like the cause of the single vehicle accident was a combination of the worn tires and going too fast for conditions so if you get cash out of the deal spend it on suitable tires instead of more mods.

 

Report it and get it fixed. That's why we have insurance, after all. From personal experience, usually they won't hike your rate when there's a mitigating factor like bad weather, unless you've made a lot of claims or been in a lot of accidents.


Edit- What road is that? It looks REALLY familiar and it's going to bug me now.

 

I would file a claim with your insurance. It cost nothing to have a claims adjuster come out and inspect the damage. Let them explain your options to you and then pull the trigger if you want.

I've both filed claims and accepted them and filed claims and not accepted them.

Be advised if you do follow through with a claim and don't have accident forgiveness you will be a "liability" to your insurance. Which means depending upon your record and claims you could be dropped on your renewal date.

My personal opinion is; if it's just cosmetic, fix what you can yourself. If it's functionally damaged, which you may not know, follow through with a claim. But at a minimum report to your insurance and get at least a estimate.

 

Like others have said, report it and get it inspected for possible unseen damage. Make your decision once you know the full extent of the damage, the cost of the repairs and the effect it will have on your policy.

 

File the claim and have a shop look at it. You're probably paying a decent amount in premiums just to have a $100 collision deductible, and this is why you pay for your insurance every month. As you're aware, it will be at-fault. I can't speak for GEICO underwriters, but if you haven't had any recent at-fault accidents, I wouldn't really worry all that much about a hardcore premium increase, as there isn't any gross negligence in an accident like this. Key word: ACCIDENT.

- Your friendly neighborhood ex-auto claims adjuster

 

Maybe my pictures aren't clear, but my tires are far from worn. My KO2's have 20k on them.

Also, the conditions were simply wet pavement until I came across a single patch of melting ice. My speed was appropriate for the conditions.

Thanks for your input.

 

I would report it. I was in the service and had Geico at my first duty location. A tornado started to form, and huge golfball size hail came down and dented the crap out of my car. I called Geico, and they sent out an adjustor to look at everything. They gave me the quote based on the charts that they had, and a list of the approved auto collision places they would write a check to. Took it to the body shop, they gave me a rental, and the rest was handled through them and through Geico.

I was 20 at the time, and my rates didn't increase at all. My situation was a bit different though due to storm damage, but I would think this would be in the same ballpark. It doesn't hurt to call them.

 

Is that all the snow you got up there? I have put maybe 25 miles on my sled this year (Fryeburg area) 450 last year. Sorry about your truck not a lot you can do when there's black ice except stay home.

 

It was on the Lily Bay Road north of Greenvile.

 

That is a completely different situation. Hail falls under your comprehensive coverage, where there is no negligence (fault) by anyone. This would fall under collision coverage, where someone (or multiple parties in a multiple vehicle accident) has to be deemed responsible for the negligence resulting in the accident.

 

if you whacked something hard enough to knock the alignment out when you went into the ditch, I'd have it checked out by a shop for sure.

 

I'd claim it & fix it for sure. That's why we pay premiums. It was truly an accident.

 

You may know this already but I'm an auto claim adjuster.

Some good advise in this thread already. Yes, I would report it. It is a single car loss and you would be considered at fault. But if you decide not to accept any payment from them given the dmgs appears to be minor based on their estimate, and you decide to pay out of pocket, they cannot surcharge you for the loss if they don't pay you (assuming your State is the same as most States in that regard).

And yes, you may have Accident Forgiveness with GEICO and if you do, they won't surcharge you for this claim but then you would use up that forgiveness and the next claim would be considered for a surcharge. Do you want to use up that one-time Forgiveness if the damages are minor ? Personal decision.

 

I'm having it realigned and having the front end checked out right now. Hopefully I'll have an answer about that soon.

 

Some good advice for sure.

I've never had to deal with repairing my own vehicle with insurance before, so this is new to me.

 

I'm the opposite. I consider it a battle scar. Now your truck has character and you can claim that you use it like Toyota intended it to be. Leave it be as long as the alignment comes true.

The fact you had balls to post the pics tells me a lot. Don't lose any more sleep.

 

Haha, I had considered that as well! It's already covered in scratches and dings, it's no beauty queen. I use it in the woods quite a lot.

 

I'd get insurance to fix the damage, then pay out of pocket for the sliders and bumper.