Filing a Car Insurance Claim and Keeping Your Rates Low

Experiencing a car accident is a difficult experience, especially when it involves injury or a more serious situation. When you’re in the moment of recovery from an accident, it’s not always easy to keep a clear head. Be sure to follow these critical steps. If you’re filing a claim with your New Jersey car insurance company, you want to make sure you handle everything according to proper procedure.

1. Call the police: You will need to call 911 to have the police come to the scene of the accident, even if it seems like a minor incident. A legal police report is vital when you deal with car insurance companies. If there are any injuries, immediately request an ambulance.
   
2. Record all information: If you feel comfortable with this, ask for the other driver’s contact information. If not, at least record the other driver’s vehicle description and license plate number, if possible. Also make detailed notes of what happened and include weather/road conditions, position of cars and traffic, any witnesses, etc. Take photos of vehicle damage.
   
3. Report it right away: The earliest moment you possibly can after an accident, you should call your New Jersey car insurance company. Keeping your car insurance company in the loop is important because they will need to help coordinate payments if you decide to file a claim, and they might be contacted by the other driver’s car insurance company regarding your accident (if applicable).
   
4. File a claim quickly: If you’ll be filing a claim with your New Jersey car insurance company, you should submit it quickly so that your car insurance company can begin working on your claim. You’ll also coordinate with your car insurance company to get your car fixed.
   
5. Hold on to all records: Keep everything you receive from the police or the other driver(s) at the scene of the accident, as well as all detailed notes and photos you took. Also, hold on to the accident-related bills that you might have like medical, body shop, etc. Your car insurance company might need to review some of the materials to help process your claim.

Accidents can happen to anyone. After an accident has passed, you may wonder about how it might affect your car insurance rates. Some car insurance companies will offer accident forgiveness, which means that they won’t apply a surcharge to your policy if you have an accident. Better yet, some car insurance companies won’t raise your rates if you have been accident and violation-free for a certain number of years on your policy (other criteria may apply).

You can also complete a Defensive Driving course approved by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) to help lower your rates. Plus, if you incurred a violation on your MVC driving record, you can use the course to subtract 2 points once every five years.

If you are interested in getting rates on New Jersey car insurance, call High Point Auto Insurance at 1-800-516-9242 for a free quote -- you might be surprised how low rates can be.

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