Reader question:
So, what’s accident forgiveness?
Dorothy
Great question.
Car insurance companies vary greatly on their accident forgiveness policies. Some are very hard line and don’t offer it at all, others give it out like candy on Halloween, while still others fall somewhere in the middle and offer it to you only if you had a clean driving record before. Some charge for it, others give it to you for free if you meet their requirements. Ask your car insurance company to find out which one of the above categories they fit into.
First of all, if you get into your first at fault accident and accident forgiveness is something that your car insurance company offers as part of the coverage, you can ask about it, but in the end it’s up to them to decide, and you’ll probably only get it if before that you had a good record with no accidents or tickets. If they do decide to forgive you, it’ll probably be like this:
- Forgiven totally. Your car insurance premium won’t increase at all because your rating won’t be affected.
- Forgiven partially. In this case, your star rating will drop about one star instead of down to zero. You’ll see yourself with a slightly higher premium, but not as high as if the accident had affected you all the way.
Either way, you’re saving money. You should remember, though, that accident forgiveness may keep your premium from rising, but the accident still stays on your record, so you could lose discounts like the good driving discount. Then, if you buy the add on for accident forgiveness from a company that happens in this manner, this is how you can usually get it:
- Forgiven totally. Same as above. No effect on your premium.
- Forgiven totally and discounts kept. This goes a little farther than any of the forgivenesses already mentioned. If you have discounts for good driving or for being accident free, you get to keep these.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.