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No fault insurance question
Being relatively new to Florida I know nothing about No Fault Insurance. Today my wife got rear ended in a turnabout, police ticketed the offender. I called Travelers and they told me I could file a claim with them and pay my deductible or I could call the offenders company, Geico, and deal with then directly and pay no deductible.. I have insurance for rental reimbursement, if he does not have that coverage, how does this all work??? thanks for any input.
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That is a pretty unimpressive interaction with Traveler's. They don't really seem to care or be very helpful.
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I would call my agent.
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Your agent should be making those phone calls. Have at no fault for over 40 years in different states,never had to contact another insurance.
You pay your deductible if you were at fault, if you were not you pay nothing, and your insurance acquire the deductible. |
What does your agent get paid for? I have never been asked to deal with the other persons insurance.
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You file a claim with your insurance company, Pay the deductible, then your insurance company goes to the other company for deductible and reimburses you. Or you can go to the other insurance company yourself,
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My experience is that I file the claim with my insurance company and they collected from the other for damage to the car. I don't remember if I paid the deductible. I think I did.
For medical expenses my insurance company paid and then I think they collected from the other insurance company. For pain and suffering I hired an attorney and sued and collected from both co's as I had underinsured insurance. Underinsured is different than uninsured. |
This being a holiday weekend I was only able to talk with someone at the claims phone number at Travelers. Hopefully I'll be able to get more info on Monday but then comes the holiday. This stuff never happens on a Monday or Tuesday of a normal week. The last time anyone ran into one of us was in 1989 and that was in the middle of a 12 car pileup so not experienced in filing claims. At least we can still drive it.
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Pay the deductible let your insurance handle everything and your deductible will be returned to you once all is settled. No point in trying to deal with the other persons insurance.
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agreeeeeeeeeeeeee |
Thank you all, I'll call the sales agent Monday morning, it's through TV Insurance. Have a happy New Year all.
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Travelers just took care of me for a small claim and were fantastic. You probably got the third or fourth string in customer service because of the holiday. You will be taken care of better next week.
I used Car Guys for the repair. OEM parts. Easy to deal with and very communicative. 352-561-4029, the man's name was Jose. Travelers had me use Enterprise in LSL who made it even easier. Best of Luck. Sorry for your troubles. |
No fault also know as personal injury liability in Florida pays up to $10,000 of your medical, loss wages and loss of household expenses per accident. This means if you are injured in an accident regardless of fault, your own no fault pays 1st up to $10,000.
In your circumstances, the at fault party under their property damage liability coverage on their policy (minimum required in Florida is $10;000) would pay for the damage to your car and a rental car would be included. If you go ahead and rent a car you should be reinbursed if they have sufficient coverage. You also have the option to file under your own policy ( collision coverage, subject to your deductible) and your own rental car coverage which is normally for 30 days. Your company will then surrogate against at fault party and if they are able to collect will reimburse your deductible. Hope this helps. |
You always can go wherever you choose, however, if you use one of the contract collision companies the repairs are quaranteed for as long as you own car. Car Guys is contracted with most of the insurance companies
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Talked with Travelers today and they said the simplest way is to gall Geico, give them the other guys policy number and they'll take care of it including giving us a loaner while being repaired. They also suggested Car Guys for the repair. I will mention I want new parts only. thanks all.
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Florida statue
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I called Geico on 1/2 and again on 1/3. They told me I have to wait until they talk to their insured and they have yet to return their calls. Stated that they give them 8 to 10 days to reply. Doesn't matter what the police report says and that the driver received a ticker, they have to talk to their insured. Also found out that he wasn't driving his car, it belongs to someone else so now they have to talk to both of them and neither one has called them back. This tells me something about Geico as well as the driver and owner. Up north when someone hit my son, their at fault driver's insurance company called him within a few hours to set up an inspection.
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:bigbow::bigbow:
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There is a lot of missing information
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The good news. The other driver was ticketed. You should get a copy of the police report. When, you car is rear ended it is always the fault of the person who hit you. I assume you have contact information on the other driver. If, not it will be on the ticket and the accident report that the police officer surely filled out. You may choose to contact the other driver and ask if they are or have reported the accident. If, the dollar value of the accident is low. IF, YOUR WIFE WAS NOT INJURED. IF, THEY CHOOSE TO DO SO. You may choose to accept a letter that they are guilty, you accept no responsibility AND THEY PAY YOUR DAMAGES IN CASH OR CERTIFIED CHECK. Even though you are completely innocent, if they or you report the accident YOUR INSURANCE RATES WILL GO UP. MY PERSONAL VIEW-you are probably better off, wiser, filing an accident report with your insurance company and letting them fight it out with Geico. Too often the other guilty party will not accept responsibility will claim, invent, so excuse why it is your fault sue you for?????? That will get messy if you choose not to report the accident. You can expect, it will take over a year to get back your deductible. My experience with GEICO similar case where my car was parked and was hit by one of their customers about 30 years ago. |
Read my post #24 on this thread
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As I read this post something is fishy. The car driver is not the owner. I'm not an atty but far as I know even if the car is stolen the person who owns the car is still liable for any damages caused by that car. BEWARE-that 7-8 day stall by GEICO. You only have ????? seven days after the accident to see a doctor for possible medical injuries. As to inspection and what they will allow. You may be wise to take your car to a body shop and get a written estimate-it may cost you a couple of bucks. There is the right way to repair your car and there is the CHEAP WAY. Obviously, GEICO will offer you the CHEAP WAY and then likely send you to their repair shop. THEY HAVE NO REASON TO SEND YOU TO THE BEST-JUST THE CHEAPEST. |
There were police on the scene and a report was made along with a ticket for the driver of that car. I don't understand why you would say that our rates would go up since the other driver was at fault. The car is drivable and the damage is not going to have a high dollar figure, it needs a new bumper at a minimum, if anything behind the bumper is damaged that too would need to be repaired or replaced. The car was not stolen as the police spent well over 30 minutes on the computer checking everything before they printed out the information sheet. The patrolman stated that vehicle number one on the information sheet is always understood to be the one at fault and the police report number is on the sheet. I called Wildwood and asked when I could get a copy of the report and they still have not returned my car. I am upset with Geico for the sole reason that they are giving the driver this much time to return their phone calls. I also understood that you have two years to file a medical injury claim. I was also told by Geico that they would send out an inspector/estimator to look at our car. I'm going to let this play out a little longer so I can see what happens and how honest everyone is in regards to the insurance companies and I don't particularly want to wait up to a year to get back $500.00 The driver will not be calling them back based on his attitude. I think I noted earlier that a witness came forward that saw him crash the stop sign and tailgate my wife and when she went over to speak with my wife the driver stated "This has nothing to do with you and to leave" very hostile statement and I'm sure he knows all of the stall tactics. The witness chose to stay until the police arrived however they told her a statement was not required as they knew who was at fault.
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Okay, just got of the phone with Julie in Claims at TV Insurance. She said that it is standard to give them 8 to 10 days for a reply from their insured. If their insured states that they don't want to admit fault, even with a ticket and police report, that Geico will not cover it and I would have to file a claim with my insurance. She further stated that I am doing it correctly and if Geico DOES take care of it there will be no future problem with rates. However if I file it through Travelers we would have a "no Fault" claim on our file and it could impact future rates. This seems to be pretty much BS down here.
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I don't think your insurance company cares whose fault it is. If you file a claim and they pay, it can affect your rates. The best thing to do is to try to convince the other guy's insurance to pay. If they won't, it may not be worth filing a claim to collect $500.
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It is a fact that The Villages Insurance is Compartmentalized. Your agent sold you the policy. That person is done with you until next year when you have to challenge their rate increase. The Claim Department I used was at Travelers not The Villages Ins.
Your call should be to your own insurance company. Let them worry about what could be a tangled web. Get names along your telephone journey and keep notes about your call, make them take their time with you, make sure you feel comfortable with the info you are given at each step. Whatever you do IMHO don't go in your pocket for one Red Cent. Travelers were wonderful with a minor Accident I had a couple of months back. Even if they are a little $$ MORE $$ next time I'm going to stick with them. A professional no Monkey Business Operation. Good Luck. |
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Update: After the 10 day period of trying to get the insured to confirm it was there fault to no avail, I sent Geico a copy of the police report (they said it would take them 30 days to get a copy from Wildwod) stating that their insured was at fault due to careless operation. Within an hour they acknowledged responsibility, one of their approved lifetime guarantee body shops is Car Guys which I would have chosen so that's good, I drop the car off on 1/23, there will be and adjuster there as well as a rental car. One stop shop. It appears to have worked out well, didn't have to put up the deductible and still having Car Guys do the work. 18 days since the accident and all is well, at lear at this point. If I have any problems I'll reply again but hopefully this is the last post. Thanks for all of the advice.
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Did you ask if replacement parts will be OEM?
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I did and the answer was "the adjuster will go over that with you at your estimate appointment" that is when I'll ask. If it is as it looks, only the plastic bumper cover which is cheap even if made by Honda, I really don't care who made it as long as it looks good and has a lifetime guarantee. If it's more than just the cover I'll see what they say when I get there. I was given the option to go anywhere I choose for the repair but would not get the lifetime guarantee unless it was one of their approved shops. I'll take the guarantee, less of a gamble for future problems.
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One more thing, someone stated you have 7 days to see a doctor for injuries. Geico called on that and stated we have 4 years to file an injury claim and all tests and procedures would be covered by them if they were found to be caused by the accident.
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