PubKicks

If you are wondering what the answer to the question, ‘will car accident affect insurance rates?’ is. Then you must understand that after an accident several things will happen that will have an impact on your insurance rates. The good news is that having an accident does not necessarily mean that the effects will always be negative. Nevertheless, if the insurance company considers the accident to be a chargeable one, then your premium rates are bound to shoot up and you also risk not having your policy renewed by your insurance company.

Some of the factors that will be taken into consideration after an accident include determining whether or not the accident was caused by the policyholder. In case the accident did not occur on account of the policyholder’s mistake then the rates may be left unchanged; however, if it is determined that the accident occurred because of the policyholder’s fault then rates will change - though the increase in rates will depend on the insurance company’s guidelines.

Another aspect to determining the effect of an accident on policy rates is whether any injuries were caused, and in case there were injuries involved, this fact too is bound to have a detrimental effect on insurance rates.

Next, the insurance company will start looking into the accident to see if the accident involved a collision with an emergency vehicle. In case the policyholder collided his vehicle with an emergency vehicle, then their case could be treated as no-fault. This is on account of the fact that emergency vehicles such as police cars and ambulances generally break traffic rules in order to address an emergency situation. In such cases, your insurance rates may not be impacted negatively.

If you were the driver of the vehicle that met with an accident and it is determined that you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs, then your case would be considered a major violation, and this will definitely result in negative impact on your premium rates.

Next, if the damage caused by you does not amount to more than seven hundred and fifty dollars worth of damages, then the accident can be dismissed as non-chargeable. In the case that the damage caused was insignificant and no injuries were involved then there will not be any negative impact on your insurance rates.

In case you are the driver of the vehicle that was involved in the accident and you are given a citation then you will be considered as the guilty party that broke traffic law. This could mean that you end up with hiked premiums.

The bottom line is that if your insurance company raises your insurance rates then don’t worry because you can easily buy insurance from a different insurance provider. In this way you may get around having to pay higher insurance rates.