When you file an insurance claim, you’re making a formal request to your insurance company to receive money to assist you in paying for repairs and other expenses caused by a policy event that is covered by your insurance. A policy event is an event that is covered on your insurance policy like a car accident or a burglary. 

It’s important to understand when you should file an insurance claim, and what insurance companies will cover when a claim is submitted. 

• When the cost exceeds your deductible.  Your deductible is the amount that you pay before your insurance coverage kicks in. take for example that your damage on your car amounts up to $1,500 for repairs and your deductible is $500, you would be eligible for $1,000 from your auto insurance claim. 
• When an injury happened during the accident. It is in your best interest to always file an insurance claim when someone has been injured, even if the injury seems minor at the time of the accident. It is not uncommon for injuries to become more severe the days following a car accident. When you file an insurance claim, your insurance will pick up any bodily injury costs up to a certain limit outlined in your insurance policy.
• When you’ve damaged someone else’s property. If you have damaged anyone else’s property, it is important to file an insurance claim to ensure you are protecting yourself. Even if the accident is minor, the best way to protect yourself from fees or a lawsuit is to file a claim as soon as possible. 
• When you’re not sure who is to blame. Sometimes it can be unclear who is at fault for an accident. When this is the case, it’s best to notify local police so that they can determine what happened and file a report. Once the police have filed their report of the incident, the insurance companies for both parties will be able to determine who was at fault for the accident.   

How to file a claim

As a local independent agency, we take pride in being able to provide our customers with top-quality service for their needs. However, we do understand that accidents can happen on the weekend or over the holidays when we aren’t in the office. 

If this is the case, you have a few options for filing your claim:

1. You can wait for us to return to the office to assist you in filing the claim. This is not ideal because it may leave you without a rental vehicle until we are back in the office. 
2. The second option is to file your claim online which is the preferred method. 

Many insurance providers now allow you to file your claims online. In order to do this, you will need to navigate to your insurance company’s homepage and log in. We’ve put together a directory of companies for your convenience. 

See directory

Once you are logged in, you will need to report the following information: 

• The name and address of the other party involved
• The other party’s insurance information, and details of the claim. Make sure you do not discuss details of the claim with anyone but the investigating officer.
• If there is a police report available, you will need to get that to your insurance company as well.
• Make no admissions or offer payments. 

Once you’ve submitted your claim, a representative from your insurance company will contact you and walk you through the rest of the process. 

It’s always best practice to call our offices and notify us of your accident as well. That way, if you have communication issues or a problem with your claim, we can work with the company to sort it out for you.

Report a claim and manage your policy today.