So my daughter caused a tiny fender bender. She's in college and still on my policy. Insurance info was exchanged as expected. The other party immediately contacted their insurance company. Within half an hour, their insurance company contacted mine. My insurance company has contacted my daughter asking questions. I had hoped we'd be able to not have a claim in order to keep this from impacting future premiums. Once the other party's insurance company contacted mine, my insurance company opened up a claim. Estimate the other party provided us is roughly $1100. I could pay that out of pocket. But at this point, why should I? Isn't this going to be seen as an incident on my daughter's driving/claim history anyway for insurance purposes even if I pay for the repair?

What say you, resident wise arse geniuses of the tine board? At this point….. Pay for repair out of pocket or let my insurance company pay for it?

Probably not the answer you are looking for, but as an agent myself, my advice would be to let the insurance move forward with the claim. It is a different world than it was when we were able to pay claims out of pocket. But now, unless you know the person and can trust them, that initial $1100 estimate could end up being $5k once they start taking parts off and find sensors that have been severed or some other electronic crap, and not knowing the person, I wouldn't trust that the other party isn't going to come back after you in 6 months and say they've developed a permanent disability from the jarring impact and expect you to pay for that as well. The days of being able to just swap out a steel bumper and everyone go their own ways happy passed years ago.

But if you do ultimately decide to pay out of pocket, just be sure you communicate with your insurance company, and they can have a claim listed with a $0 amount paid and it won't hit you from a loss standpoint, but keeping them informed and involved can give you the opportunity to pass it on to them if that $1100 does become $5k and/or they develop that injury.

So if the claim is closed out with $0 paid by insurance, it won't affect my premiums later? That's my main concern. My daughter already had a minor incident almost exactly like this last year. Claim cost my insurance company $1400. My next 6 month premium increased $800 after that claim. Trying to avoid another increase like that.

Correct, they look at the losses as a dollar value spent on claims vs a dollar amount collected in premium

While it's not the same industry. It is the sam process. I completely agree with the agent here. I claim everything from rock chips to tree limbs denting doors to hitting animals on the back roads. Even if you go through this with a shop directly, there is just too much hidden stuff to have a guaranteed repair price. The wife hit a pig on the way home and the initial estimate was 1100, but it was about 2,000 by the time it was done, yes, the shop bumped up some stuff because it's an insurance claim but there was also wiring harness damage not seen before disassembly.

On top of this, I have specified OEM parts and my body shop makes it work. I don't care what it costs because I pay the same price. I just want it fixed right.

I'd let your carrier handle it. This is what you pay them for.

I guess my concern is more about future premiums. Will these 2 very small claims make my daughter be considered very high risk and have corresponding premiums? That's my bigger and longer term concern. I've probably done a poor job of conveying that. I can absorb the higher premiums for now. I'm trying not to saddle her with extra expense when she starts her post college life, which will be a year from now. No student loans for her either. And yes a big part of the current conversation I'm having with her is about being more conscious of choices she is making about her driving and parking. Both of these claims occurred in parking lots.

From what I remember hearing a while back, accidents roll off your "record" after 3 years. Is that still true?

Regardless, I'd expect that 2 accident claims in 2 years will definitely cause her rates to be higher when she goes out on her own.